3D Rage IIC AGP can only display 800x600 properly Puppy 4.2.

[Oakems]

Hi all, this is quite puzzling to me. I changed my graphics card from a Nvidia GeForce2 mx 400, to an ATI 3D Rage IIC AGP and now I can't get a higher resolution than 800x600. If I do go any higher than that,say the next one up 1024x768, things become a bit drunken and I start seeing double. If I use 1280x1024 the resolution I normally have things get even drunker and I start seeing triple and things seem altogether blurry. So the only stable picture I can get is with 800x600 (which isn't very good).

The thing that puzzles me, is when I first booted with the ATI card I was presented with the blue screen to configure X's settings. I thought this might happen or that I'd be left at the command line so that was okay but, when I got to the bit to choose the resolution and colour depth, now this is the weird bit because, normally with the Nvidia card it tells me that 1280x1024x24 might not work for my card but it does perfectly. With the ATI card it tells me all should be fine but it isn't?

I've looked in my xorg.conf and here's what it tells me;

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "probe_sparse" # [<bool>]
#Option "accel" # [<bool>]
#Option "crt_display" # [<bool>]
#Option "composite_sync" # [<bool>]
#Option "hw_cursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "force_pci_mode" # [<bool>]
#Option "dma_mode" # <str>
#Option "agp_mode" # <i>
#Option "agp_size" # <i>
#Option "local_textures" # [<bool>]
#Option "buffer_size" # <i>
#Option "tv_out" # [<bool>]
#Option "tv_standard" # <str>
#Option "mmio_cache" # [<bool>]
#Option "test_mmio_cache" # [<bool>]
#Option "panel_display" # [<bool>]
#Option "reference_clock" # <freq>
#Option "shadow_fb" # [<bool>]
#Option "sw_cursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "AccelMethod" # <str>
#Option "RenderAccel" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "ati" #card0driver
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "3D Rage IIC AGP"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

it also has at the bottom this; #PuppyHardwareProfile=ATI_MACH64381996. I'm not using a mac, I've got a PIII with 547MB of ram, so the graphics shouldn't have any problems at that resolution (I was using this same version of Puppy on a PII with 64MB of ram and it was fine).

I've looked for Linux drivers for this particular card but I've come up short. The only site I found was an AMD site that looks like its affiliated with Ati (have they teamed up together? Same company??), not sure what going on there, but they didn't have my card listed in the unsupported section (or the currently supported section).

I don't know whether its because the card is cwappy, I thought because Puppy suggested that it was "okay for card" that it would be better than the Nvidia?

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome.

[Béèm]

Does your Display (monitor) match the ATI rage video card at all resolutions?

[techtype]

See if this helps: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... ost2214167

[Oakems]

Does your Display (monitor) match the ATI rage video card at all resolutions?

Thanks for you reply, yes I get the right resolution on the monitor, but at 1024x768 the picture's all fuzzy and doubled. With the next one up 1280x1024, the picture remains fuzzy but now its tripled. Strange!

Do you think the fact that Puppy thinks this Ati card is good for all the settings, that it is actually better than the Nvidia? Which Puppy said at the 1280x1024x24 it might not be okay? I would do some tests but I need the cards to have the same settings for them to be affective.

@ techtype; I'm not getting any errors as such, just major distortion with any resolution higher than 800x600, and my xorg.conf looks okay.

I'm thinking this could be a driver problem, this card is quite old maybe I need some sort of legacy driver? Where could I get one of these?

[mikeb]

I run the same card with various puppies including 4.12 and all resolutions are fine. Does 3d ok too.
Has the card worked ok with other operating systems?
Have you tried auto adjust on the monitor?
The monitor may not be happy with the frame rate.

mike

[Béèm]

At first sight your video card only support 66.0Hz If your display/monitor doesn't exactly support this, you are in trouble.
Other then that, I have no idea to solve this.

[steevieb]

This may not be relevant, but it is probably a PCI card, not AGP.
Have a look in /var/log/Xorg0.log and see if there are any warnings or errors.
I have this in my /var/log/Xorg0.log (the Rage IIC is built-in but disabled - I use a Radeon 9250)


(II) ATI: ATI driver wrapper (version 6.7.195) for chipsets: mach64, rage128, radeon
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 00:04:0

(--) PCI:*(0:4:0) ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] rev 1, Mem @ 0xb8000000/27, 0xb0800000/16, I/O @ 0x3400/8
(--) PCI: (1:6:0) ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage IIC 215IIC [Mach64 GT IIC] rev 122, Mem @ 0xb1000000/24, 0xb0600000/12, I/O @ 0x1800/8

[mikeb]

Another thought..how much ram does this particular card have?

mike

[Oakems]

At first sight your video card only support 66.0Hz If your display/monitor doesn't exactly support this, you are in trouble.
Other then that, I have no idea to solve this.

Ah, it might be this then, I"ll need to put the card back in to test it out but I"ve just checked my monitors frequency with the Nvidia card and its 78.9 horizontal and 74 vertical. Overkill for the Ati card then.

This may not be relevant, but it is probably a PCI card, not AGP.

Its AGP, and its got these numbers on the chip "215R2QUA13" and Puppy mentions ATI_MACH64381996, that looks similar to your setup.

Another thought..how much ram does this particular card have?

I'm having real problems trying to find any information on it, I don't remember hardInfo telling me anything at all, I tried that first. The info on the card is;
"FCC ID: ICUVGA-GW806" from that I've gathered it might have 8MB, but it also has a removeable chip "cardexpert vga bios" which I'm not too sure about. The info on the main chip is;
Ati3D Rage IIC AGP
215R2QUA13
B5A12
9845SS

I'm going to pop it back in and check the monitor's frequency, and see what Hardnfo, has to say.

Edit: So the fact that this Nvidia card will work at higher frequencies, does this mean it will be better than the Ati? Only one way to find out I suppose.

[Oakems]

I think the card's knackered, I just plugged it in and turned on the PC and was met by bios beeps and nothing on the screen. I'm pretty sure If I were to look-up these beeps, they would mean my card is knackered.

Thanks for the help anyway.

[mikeb]

Hmm sounds dubious...but try reseating once more...agp cards in particular can be awkward to fit in the slot properly...otherwise send to silicon heaven

mike

[Béèm]

psst Oakems, just between us.
If you use the [quote=] don't forget to place double quotes at the start of the name and at the end. [quote="xxxx"]

[Oakems]

D'oh!