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Black vertical lines while using mouse

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First post, by jams775

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I've been searching around for a while about this but I can't seem to find anyone with a similar issue (maybe I've been searching poorly).

I'll try to cut to the chase here, Every time I load up a game in DOS (from Windows 98 shortcut that reboots into dos for gaming); if it has mouse control, when I move the mouse around on the screen it leaves vertical bars evenly across the screen. It seems to happen in the spots that maybe don't get redrawn? Like in parts of the HUD of System Shock but not in the main view port. If I increase the resolution in System Shock to 640x480 the bars get smaller than 320x200.

Edit: I forgot to mention that when I moved the mouse I noticed the music slowed a bit. I think it did it while moving in general but I don't remember for sure. I don't know if that is related or not though.

I was thinking maybe it has something to do with mouse drivers or loading them in the wrong order? This doesn't happen while in Windows at all, just DOS. I can try to provide an image if need be. The Autoexec.bat and Config.sys are pretty much default save for loading the CD, Mouse, and Sound.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Update:
I've narrowed the problem down to either the graphics card or the AGP slot. Since I don't have another AGP card to test it against I won't be able to confirm. Does anybody have any experience with an ATI 8500dv in dos? It seems to work perfectly in windows but I get that weird artifacting in dos games.

clgbDdom.jpg?1

So my options are keep the 8500dv and deal with the lines.
Put in a
PCI Geforce MX4000 64MB card
or
ATI 7000 64MB card

neither showed lines while testing system shock, but I'm not confident they can run a game like Half-Life (which I just tested on the 8500dv and it ran fine).

So what should I do?

System Specs:
Dell Dimension XPS T500 (My PC from my teen years)
Intel Pentium III 500Mhz
128 MB RAM
Yamaha DS-XG 724 OnBoard Sound
ATI Raedon All-In-Wonder 8500dv

Reply 1 of 4, by clueless1

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I know the problem goes away when you switch graphics cards, but, just to rule the mouse out--

Have you tried remming out your mouse driver and playing System Shock with keyboard only? Have you tried a different mouse driver?

Do you have an idea if this happens in just a few DOS games or in all?

Are there AGP settings in your BIOS that you can experiment with? If so, try turning some settings down (aperture grill, speed, timings, etc).

Do you have a way to boot into pure DOS to see if it happens there too?

Have you tried stressing your graphics subsystem in Windows to see if you can get the artifacts to appear there?

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 2 of 4, by jams775

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clueless1 wrote:
I know the problem goes away when you switch graphics cards, but, just to rule the mouse out-- […]
Show full quote

I know the problem goes away when you switch graphics cards, but, just to rule the mouse out--

Have you tried remming out your mouse driver and playing System Shock with keyboard only? Have you tried a different mouse driver?

Do you have an idea if this happens in just a few DOS games or in all?

Are there AGP settings in your BIOS that you can experiment with? If so, try turning some settings down (aperture grill, speed, timings, etc).

Do you have a way to boot into pure DOS to see if it happens there too?

Have you tried stressing your graphics subsystem in Windows to see if you can get the artifacts to appear there?

I've tried 3 different mouse drivers with same results. I didn't try without the mouse driver because that would get rid of the problem of the mouse drawing those lines on screen. I also tried a PS/2 tackball mouse as opposed to the main Microsoft Optical USB (with PS/2 support) mouse. No difference there.

Happens in all dos games with a mouse. In pure dos mode and in a shell.

No real AGP settings to mess with in the bios.

I haven't really stressed the card in windows other than run Half-Life for a bit to see if it did anything wonky (it didn't). It ran fine in D3D.

Reply 3 of 4, by clueless1

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So does this also happen if you move the mouse cursor around in, say, Defrag or MSD? These are in a different graphic mode than your typical game. In System Shock, have you tried different video modes? Does it happen only in 640x480, or in all resolutions?

Do you have a joystick? If so, some games will allow you to move the mouse cursor with the joystick. Try that and see if the corruption still occurs.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 4 of 4, by jams775

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clueless1 wrote:

So does this also happen if you move the mouse cursor around in, say, Defrag or MSD? These are in a different graphic mode than your typical game. In System Shock, have you tried different video modes? Does it happen only in 640x480, or in all resolutions?

Do you have a joystick? If so, some games will allow you to move the mouse cursor with the joystick. Try that and see if the corruption still occurs.

I tried it in multiple resolutions and what I noticed was that in 320x200, the black lines where larger and in 640x480 they were smaller. I have a Sidewinder gamepad but it doesn't work in dos so I haven't been able to test that. I've been using the Geforce MX4000 PCI and everything has worked flawlessly so far though. I'm considering trying to buy another AGP card at some point and see if it's just the 8500dv or the AGP slot.

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