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Integrated Trident Blade3D Issues...

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First post, by PowerPie5000

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Hi all,

Any help is appreciated with a problem I'm having with a Patriot PBK450/1 Book PC with the following specs:

* Proprietary ECS/Amptron BKMVP4 motherboard with BIOS version 1.47P (VIA Apollo MVP4 chipset).

* AMD K6-2 450MHz Processor.

* 128MB Micron PC133 SDRAM (single stick running at 100MHz).

* Integrated CMI8738AM audio.

* Integrated Trident Blade3D graphics with shared memory (upto 8MB).

* 40GB Maxtor Diamond max Plus 8 IDE HDD.
* LG IDE CD/DVD-ROM Drive.

* Proprietary 100W PSU (recently replaced with a new old stock unit).

* Windows 98SE installed and updated using official 2004 update CD..

Everything works perfectly fine until I install the display driver for the integrated Trident Blade3D graphics chip, then I start getting issues every time I use the mouse or keyboard which causes the display to intermittently go blank!

I've tried following so far:

* Checked for any hardware conflicts and there is none. The only shared IRQ is between the USB controller and Davicom LAN which is IRQ 4.

* Checked the board for any bulging or leaking caps and they all look perfectly fine, although that's no guarantee that the caps are good.

* Tried various versions of Trident Blade 3D drivers from VIA and Trident including KLE and BKMVP4 versions.

* Tried a couple of different monitors and VGA cables and also tried different refresh rates and colour depth.

* Installed various versions of the VIA 4in1 chipset drivers up to version 4.43.

* Tried changing memory timings in the BIOS as the display uses shared RAM (CL2, CL3 and options for 8ns, 10ns, Normal, Fast and Turbo etc..).

* Resetting BIOS to setup defaults and also BIOS defaults.

* Added more RAM and installed Windows XP and it had the same issue as soon as the display drivers were installed with the screen going blank and coming back every time the mouse or keyboard were used (tried both USB & PS/2 keyboard and mouse).

This system has also had a new PSU installed. It's an original "new old stock" proprietary unit as the old PSU had a very loud fan and and just didn't sound too good overall. The new PSU seems fine and voltages also appear to be good.

I'm stumped! Does anyone else have any suggestions? I've clean installed Windows 98SE a few times now using different drivers each time too... It's getting a bit boring now 😒.

Cheers!

Reply 1 of 3, by PowerPie5000

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Well this is odd as it appears this PC is a bit selective on which monitor it uses. Something is making the screen "trip" and causing it to flash on and off when clicking on icons or opening up new windows etc, but only with my old Eizo E2333W LCD and Philips Brilliance P-line 19P4QYEB LCD screens for some reason?

I decided to hook it up to an old 15" MAG Innovision DX15F CRT screen and it was perfect! I then tested it on a little Samsung LE15E31S LCD TV with VGA input that I use with retro consoles and again it was also perfect! It also had no issues with my Dell 2007FPB monitor either... So the Eizo and Philips monitors must have some power feature or difference that causes them to flip out? Even though they work fine with everything else... Or maybe something to do with the PCs BIOS settings or Trident IGP drivers, signal timing etc..? I don't know as I've never come across this issue.

Anyone have any ideas?

Reply 3 of 3, by PowerPie5000

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rasz_pl wrote on 2026-04-24, 19:48:

refresh rate too high?

Tried different refresh rates from 60Hz to 85Hz across a few different screens via the VGA port.

I spoke too soon as i've also now noticed that any form of hardware acceleration causes the image to become slightly unstable when opening and closing windows, loading up stuff such as dxdiag and control panel etc. A couple of monitors would flash on and off when this happens, but other monitors will show a bit of wobbling/interference along the edges of icons and open windows instead whenever the PC is loading something or something new appears on the screen. This only happens when the Trident or VIA display drivers are installed and it goes away if I turn off all windows display acceleration.

I'm starting to think either bad caps or maybe the new PSU still isn't good enough. These book PCs came with pretty weak weak PSU's to begin with, but the new one has slightly higher output on the rails and should technically be a bit better than the old one.

I think I'll call it a day with this one as I don't have the time/can't be bothered to be replacing the caps and I already have a load of other hardware to sort through. I've tried different drivers, different monitors, different cables, different mobo BIOS versions, different RAM, new PSU and even reseated and repasted the CPU too! Knowing my luck it's probably something simple that I'm overlooking.

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