Help: "graphics driver issue" (T30, but maybe othe

[Marc_G]

Hi folks-

I've got a new-ish problem with the last two generations of the video driver. I'm running a T30 that has the ATI Radeon 7500 16 MB graphics system.

The problem crops up with a piece of proprietary software I use for work that models in 3D simulation the motions of my company's scientific equipment.

The simulator has worked fine in every computer starting with my 4 mb graphics 770x, 8 mb T20, and more recently the 16 mb T30 for two years, until the graphics driver version dated September (I think) 2004. That one, and the recent release (12-15-2005), give horrible performance (<2 frames per second). The previous drivers gave >30 frames per second.

Bah! Even the generic MS GDI driver gives 15 fps. So, something is screwed up with the recent versions of the ATI driver.

The problem is perfectly reproducible. I can fix it by backdating the driver, and recreate it by installing the new one again. Others with the same computer see the same problem; it's not just me. I tried the most recent Omega drivers, and got the same problem.

If I switch video resolution momentarily, or drop the color depth briefly (just flashing back and forth for a couple seconds), the problem goes away until next logoff/logon.

If I go into the Advanced menu, Troubleshooting, and back down from full accelleration by one tick, which disables some cursor and bitmap accellerations, the problem goes away. I'm not sure in a practical sense what bad effect this may have on anything else, but that's the way I'm running at the moment.

I tried reporting this to IBM but didn't get much response.

Any thoughts? This is weird. I can't explain why I get the symptoms.

I'd love to hear thoughts from those with more experience than I.

Thanks in advance.

Marc

[Marc_G]

Sigh. I guess my application trips a rare bug in the recent drivers. I'm surprised nobody else has noticed problems with other applications. How bizarre!

[MadeInJapan]

Sorry I'm late posting here about the video driver. I also have a T30 and recently have noticed very sketchy movement of the mouse...I move it and it seems to hang, and then skip to where I'm going with it....it's several hiccups along a dragging path. I noticed too that video playback...both with files on the computer and with DVD are jumpy...sometimes hanging for split seconds. So....I was thinking that it isn't the mouse and it isn't the DVD driver or files on my HDD, but rather a graphics driver problem....in other words, my mouse isn't jerky...it's the video response, showing it on my screen that's jerky (sort of like the default refresh rate of my display is not in synch with my graphic drivers)....if that makes sense. So, today I decided I would try to find a solution and started a search here and came accross this thread. I'll try rolling back my graphic drivers and see what happens (like you suggested). I also have another issue...sometimes my WiFi (Pci-Combo card) has a yellow exclamation mark next to it and I've been having to uninstall it and reinstall it for it to work properly. This is especially true after going somewhere and connecting to a Wifi that isn't mine and then coming home and trying to connect to my own. Any solutions with this issue would be appreciateed too.

[Marc_G]

Hi MadeInJapan-

Thanks for the response. I bet our video problems are related.

Does your situation improve if you back off on the accelleration by one tick? That disables some cursor accellerations that may be dodgy.

Marc

[MadeInJapan]

I've been dealing with this most of the night....what I've found is that when my Wireless connection (or drivers) are disabled, there is no issue with the video. I even downloaded the Omega ATI files and that whole package is very nice, giving the graphics card much more flexibility but the problem persists if the wireless card is enabled....now I'm having trouble getting the wireless card to install correctly. Seems that my drivers are all screwed up for it.

[MadeInJapan]

I figured out that my wireless card was trying to connect or the software was trying to access the drivers of the card causing my graphics to go bizerk....finally after uninstalling, rolling back, re-installing, etc. etc, my software, and drivers, somehow everything works now and my mouse isn't going crazy. Don't know exactly what I did...but I'm not touching anything now.

[Marc_G]

OK, I'll give it a whirl. Meaning, I'll try setting the graphics to full accelleration, eject my wireless card (it's a PC card Cisco Aironet 350), and reboot. Then, retest my application and see if the graphics is still screwey.
Interestingly, I've noticed (since getting the T30) that my cursor will sometimes drift to the left when the wireless card is pushing significant data through. Since the accelleration of cursor graphics seems to be involved in the problems I've seen (backing these off eliminates the problem), maybe this is all wrapped up into a messy ball.

Marc

[Marc_G]

Well, I tested removing the wireless connection (removing the PC card) and rebooting, with the accelleration cranked up to full.

No joy. The graphics on my OpenGL application were still cruddy. Choppy, slow.

So, in my case at least, I don't have a smoking gun pointing to a bad interaction between wireless connectivity and the slow graphics.

Marc