VOGONS


Reply 40 of 46, by Snookeroo

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You guys won't believe my poor luck...

So you know how I got that MX400 with the bad caps on it? I contacted the guy I bought it from and he said he had another MX400 I could swap for, so I did. It looks like it's in great condition (pics attached) so I installed it and at first figured everything was good to go. But then I noticed something...

Ever since installing the new MX400 I get this strange rendering error. I get vertical lines of discoloured pixels, and also the same wacko pixels around the edge of moving objects. I know that it's nothing wrong with my monitor, because it shows up in screenshots (attached). I swapped around my nVidia drivers between a few different versions but the problem persisted each time. I swapped back to my old TNT2 M64 and the problem went away, so I must assume that it's the new MX400.

Off I go to eBay to find my third MX400 I suppose...

P.S. Switching to nVidia driver 7.76 bumped up my 3DMark 99Max score by about ~170 points on the MX400. Thanks for the tip!

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Reply 41 of 46, by RandomStranger

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You probably should have kept the first one and recap it. This seems to be a more serious problem. If you are lucky it's something as trivial as broken solder joint which is generally an easy fix, but it could be damaged memory too.

sreq.png retrogamer-s.png

Reply 42 of 46, by Snookeroo

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Unfortunately I don't have any of the gear or time to learn how to replace the caps. The cards are only $30, so I reckon I'll just buy another one. Thanks for the tips though 😀

Reply 43 of 46, by Katmai500

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Since it sounds like you could use a bit more performance than a GF2 MX400 offers for a couple games you want to play, check out that big auction site for “04n857”. That’s the Dell part number for a nice passively cooled GF3 Ti 200 with VGA and DVI outputs. They sell for pretty reasonable prices ($25) and generally have good caps. Just check that the three along the right edge aren’t bulging.

Reply 44 of 46, by luk1999

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I would try to lower VRAM clock by 10 or 15 MHz first (you can use RivaTuner for that). Maybe it will help...
Back then in 2002 I had 2MX 400 with V-Data memory and raising their clock by just 5 MHz caused artifacts...

Pentium 4 2.4C, ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe, 2 GB RAM, GF FX5700 128 MB AGP, SB Audigy, Chieftec GPS-400AA-101A, Win XP SP2
Athlon XP 2000+, MSI KT2 Combo, 512 MB RAM, GF FX5600 128 MB AGP, FM801, FSP 400-60PFN, Win 98SE

Reply 45 of 46, by Gmlb256

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luk1999 wrote on 2021-08-22, 16:57:

I would try to lower VRAM clock by 10 or 15 MHz first (you can use RivaTuner for that). Maybe it will help...
Back then in 2002 I had 2MX 400 with V-Data memory and raising their clock by just 5 MHz caused artifacts...

This reminds of an issue I had with text mode on a GF4 MX440 card which occasionally glitched unless I downclocked the memory clock. It has a higher memory clock by default which is not typical for that card.

VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.2A @ 1.46 GHz | ASUS P2-99 | 256 MB PC133 SDRAM | GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB | Voodoo2 12 MB | SBLive! | AWE64 | SBPro2 | GUS