BleepingComputer.com: Graphics Card Problems

hello sorry about the confusion im new to forums

this happens on a ferly average basis on my friends 98 SE (where i say ferly average maybe once or twice a month) it boots up in Safe Mode and a Display box reads:-
"There is a problem with your display settings. The adapter type is incorrect, or the current settings do not work with your hardware."
i then have to put it on i think it is 16 colours and save the settings this forces a restart and it doesn't shut down proper when it starts back up i can then get it to 600x800 and get it onto 32 bit true colour


it is an advent with a slot 1 pen 3 600mhz, graphics card ati rage 128 xpert, sound card is an aureal and 720 mb ram pc100 it also crashes alot blue screen etc and also fails to shut down properly also the clock runs out at first i put it on pc133 ram and i thought it might be that so i put it back on pc100 to match the fsb on the processor but the clock still runs out. when it was low on memory everest home edition said that the rage card was taking 64mb of ram it originally only came with 64mb so i had to sort that so i got it upto 720m but still have the above problem i thought it might be the graphics card on its way out but i am not sure would like some advise before i source a graphics card because when it is working the graphics are good. when it does say the adapter type is wrong when booting up it also says sound blaster disabled cant remember exact line that is on ms-dos just before the windows flag shows.
1 last thing everest says the graphics should be running at 66mhz but they are running at 70 odd cant remember exact figure cos i am at home writing this. Is this why the clock runs out? but it does that automatically because i have had to wipe the hard drive recently because something happened making explorer.exe crash everytime loading up in safe or normal and no icons or taskbar loaded so i had to wipe and completely reinstall everything from scratch but it still ran at 70 odd mhz sorry for the long winded type up just trying to give as much info as i can remember would appreciate any help thanks.

Sounds like a bit more than a graphics card problem.

Some questions:
What do you mean by "the clock runs out"?
Can you see the make and model of your motherboard in Everest?
Have you made any changes in the BIOS?
Are you overclocking anything?

Suggestions:
Reseat your graphics card and other cards.
Run a memory diagnostic -

There is a free RAM diagnostic called Memtest86 which you can download from here:
Memtest86

Use it to create a bootable floppy disk. When you reboot with that floppy in the drive it will automatically run a memory test. Let it run at least overnight and then examine the error count.

Let us know.

Some questions:
What do you mean by "the clock runs out"?
Can you see the make and model of your motherboard in Everest?
Have you made any changes in the BIOS?
Are you overclocking anything?

when i say the clock runs out i mean when you turn the computer on the time in the right hand corner is correct but it start to run out and sometimes it freezes

the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-6BXE chipset intel 82440BX

i havent changed anything in the bios but i dont know about the previous owner

i am not overclocking anything but as i say every time i reinstall the graphics card everest says in the sub menu Graphics Processor Properties GPU CLOCK 80mhz MEMORY CLOCK 60mhz but the ram in the machine is pc100mhz and so is the processor and the dip switches on the motherboard are set correct for the cpu size and at 100mhz any help would be aprecheated

You have a PIII 600Mhz processor? Specs I've seen said the board only supports "up to 550MHz" but I don't know how firm that is.

Double check your switch settings by comparing with the table here:
GA-6BXE review

Don't confuse AGP memory with system RAM, you said earlier you had to upgrade your RAM because the Rage AGP was "taking" 64MB. If it's a plug in card (and it is) it does not 'take' any RAM from your system, that's how much RAM is built into the Graphics card itself. It's when you have onboard graphics (built into the motherboard) that it takes RAM away from the total amount available to the system.

Sorry but I still don't get the clock statement. You say when the machine starts the clock is correct. Sometimes it stops and sometimes it runs out. You mean it displays a time which updates but it is no longer the correct time? If so that could indicate that Windows is very busy running lots of stuff in the background.

Have you scanned the system for viruses and spyware?

[quote name='Rimmer' date='Oct 21 2005, 02:18 AM' post='181738']
You have a PIII 600Mhz processor? Specs I've seen said the board only supports "up to 550MHz" but I don't know how firm that is.

the processor seems to run ok

Double check your switch settings by comparing with the table here:
GA-6BXE review

switch settings are all correct on 100mhz and x6.0

Don't confuse AGP memory with system RAM, you said earlier you had to upgrade your RAM because the Rage AGP was "taking" 64MB. If it's a plug in card (and it is) it does not 'take' any RAM from your system, that's how much RAM is built into the Graphics card itself. It's when you have onboard graphics (built into the motherboard) that it takes RAM away from the total amount available to the system.

i know but when i originally got this pc it said on home edition that the agp expenditure is more than half the system memory (at the time it was all of it) so it was using the hard drive alot the agp rage card has 32mb on it 4 single chips

Sorry but I still don't get the clock statement. You say when the machine starts the clock is correct. Sometimes it stops and sometimes it runs out. You mean it displays a time which updates but it is no longer the correct time? If so that could indicate that Windows is very busy running lots of stuff in the background.

yes the clock starts to show the incorrect time i have used autoruns to stop unnessessery start up items

Have you scanned the system for viruses and spyware?
constantly twice a week virus but near enuf everyday for spyware because on adaware if the are any of the negliable the media player will be jumpy or it will start acting like a dubbed film sound quicker than light the speck behind the mouth movements

i changed the graphics card for a nVIDIA RIVA tnt2 m64 32mb last night the gpu clock and gpu memory both now say 125mhz instead of 60 n 80mhz i do think it was that difference that was sending the clock out it seems alot better and more stable on this card i hope it was the ati rage 128xpert that was causing my problems im not sure thou please give any advise i will just have to see how it runs over the next fer days i explained to my friend to turn it off witht the memcheck bootable cdrom in n start the pc so i should be able to look at the log from that in a day or two thanks for your time and help anyway

Well it sounds like you are making some progress!

Let us know how it goes.