First post, by TheRealTommyGreen
Hello everyone!
I've been reading here for many years, but now I'm writing something myself for the first time. I hope this is the right sub, forgive me if not. This forum is really great! I currently have the following issue, and maybe someone can give me a tip. My well-maintained retro PC consists of:
- MSI KT3 Ultra 2
- AMD Athlon XP 2000+
- 2x Samsung 256MB DDR1 PC2100
- 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
- nVidia Geforce FX5200 PCI 128bit
- Creative SoundBlaster Live SB0060
- 2x Western Digital 40GB IDE
- Promise Fasttrak 100 PCI Raid + IDE Compact Flash to MicroSD Adapter with 128GB MicroSD
- Tagan TG400-U33 450W
- 17” CRT Monitor with up to 120hz
- Win98/WinXP Dual Boot
When booting Windows 98, the Voodoo 5 is active, and the Geforce is installed just as a standard PCI graphics adapter, deactivated in the device manager to avoid driver conflicts. Under Windows XP, it's the other way around, and everything works without problems. The system runs fine without any major issues.
However, now I got some Elsa Revelator shutter glasses that I want to use with the FX5200 under XP, but I've encountered critical issues with various Forceware drivers and their matching stereo addons (56.72 / 61.77 / 91.31).
Forceware 61.77 / 91.31:
The nVidia stereo panel is active, and all necessary settings can be enabled. But when trying to activate stereoscopic 3D in a game or through the test application and addressing the IR transmitter, the PC instantly shuts down and reboots without a BSoD or any error message. XP is telling me about a critical error after rebooting.
Forceware 56.72:
When trying to activate stereoscopic 3D in a game or the test application under this driver, there's a BSoD with an IRQ_less_or_equal error, referring to a USBPORT.SYS file.
I'm starting to despair. Could it be related to it being a PCI Geforce? The card reaches around 6700 points in 3DMark2000, which is expected. I haven't observed any IRQ conflicts or performance bottlenecks without the Revelator connected. Could the card be drawing more power with the IR transmitter connected than the PCI bus can provide? Is the card's power supply possibly showing signs of aging? Could it really be related to the USBPORT.SYS? Where should I start to find the error?
The only known weakness of the system are the USB ports of the board. I can't use any boot sticks through them without the entire system freezing right after accessing them. Under Windows, I experience constant reconnects with various USB devices on both operating systems. Could this indicate that the board's power supply is aging, affecting the PCI ports? I've always blamed onboard USB for being problematic back then, but now I'm not so sure. The capacitors on the board and Geforce seem normal and not bloated, as far as I can tell.
Sorry for the long text. I hope I haven't forgotten any important information. Maybe someone has an idea where I could start to get the Revelator working 😀
Thank you!