Video Cards

[Conflow]

I have been following all the numerous posts about version 5 since it was released. Initially the demo's all worked reasonably well with only slight 'jerkiness' I concluded that my graphics card was not up to running the new effects - my old card was an NVIDEA GEFORCE 5200. So I purchased a new card which was recommended as suitable, i.e. NVIDEA GEFORCE 6600GT. With this new card I expected perfection with the pan and zooms but nothing has changed, in fact, I get an even more pronounced 'jerkiness' now that I had before.

Someone suggested that this is because I might have too much running in the background. Is this so and if it it, how can I stop thinga from running in the background in order to check again?

Another thing that I have noticed since the new card has been installed, is that the mouse cursor now moves erratically across the screen whereas before it was perfectly smooth.

Seems that I might be waiting for Version 5 to get better before I try to use it.

Ron

Jerky PTE.5.0 Beta ~ A Solution

Ronnnie,

The "Trick" here is to remove everything you don't need from the PC.Start Menu into a "Shorts Folder" in the 'Program Folder' and place a shortcut to that on to the Desktop ~ do you remember I advised you of that before ?

The reason behind this is very simple ~ Everything on the 'Start Menu' is constantly scanned and refreshed and kept alive whether it's in use or not ~ This "burns up" valuable Processor Scanning Resources and naturally slows down the IDE Communications Buss on the PC.Motherboard.

A finite 'speed-limit' in Buss Scanning is very easily reached compared to the actual Processor Speed itself.

In a heavily loaded PC the 'Buss Scan Rate' can easily drop to a 'tenth' of the Processor Speed and of course your 'Hi-Speed Graphics Card' simply can't reproduce what it ain't getting from the Buss !!!

So just remove the 'Loads' from the Start Menu and make access to your Programs from a simple 'Shortcuts Folder'. You will find in practice that 10~15 Programs on the 'Start Menu' is quite enough for anybody quite apart from the 'Invisible +18 Running Processes' demanded by the PC. for self-operation.

Hope this helps....

Brian.Conflow.

[JPD]

Bonjour Igor,

Thank you Igor for explanations about graphics cards. I suppose your work was very difficult and you had many difficults choices to do.

I am working on objects to see if it's possible to do the same (or better) than before. I have some tests to finish, but I have found all I had before and more, and it"s a good idea to have this relation parent-child between the objects : very good idea.

I have one important request to do :

Would it be possible to add in the animation windows other transitions, it would be very interesting, especially curling of page. These transitions would work as Pan/Zoom/Rotate only on the object (and it children) on which it is.

Note : it seems there is a little problem with ogg format, it doesn't work everywhere.

[Igor]

Ron,

I believe we'll solve this problem!

We're still working on improvements.

How my "PteShow" demo example works on your new video card?

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/show/PteShow.zip

I just wrote you email with request. Please reply me.

[alrobin]

...how can I stop thinga from running in the background in order to check again?

Ronnie,

A friend told me about a small utility called "EndItAll", which is available HERE.

It was designed for Win 98, ME, and NT, but I find it works well with XP. It will close down all non-essential programs without having to go "Ctrl-Alt-Del" and then try to decide which programs you can safely close. Everything is reinstated by re-booting.

[nickles]

Hello Anyone,

Is anyone aware of a utility that might indicate how much video memory is being used?

ken

[Ken Cox]

KEN N

not what you are looking for

but a wealth of info here

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/AGP.htm

KEN C

[jevans]

The "Trick" here is to remove everything you don't need from the PC.Start Menu into a "Shorts Folder" in the 'Program Folder' and place a shortcut to that on to the Desktop ~ do you remember I advised you of that before ?

So just remove the 'Loads' from the Start Menu and make access to your Programs from a simple 'Shortcuts Folder'. You will find in practice that 10~15 Programs on the 'Start Menu' is quite enough for anybody quite apart from the 'Invisible +18 Running Processes' demanded by the PC. for self-operation.

Hope this helps....

Brian.Conflow.

[Ronniebootwest]

To Alrobin,

Thanks for the link to 'Enditall' - I have downloaded it and had a look but am very nervous about using it at the moment. It seems all to easy to delete all the folders/processes from the computer and thereby 'crashing' everything to a standstill. Perhaps you could provide us with a brief outline of just how to use this thing. Ctrl+Alt+delete, that opens up the System Configuration Utility in XP, is just as daunting! Just what processes does one delete? Now that is the question!.

Ron

[alrobin]

Ronnie,

That is indeed the question. And it's one which I don't have an answer to. Ideally, the programs that you can close are the ones you have your ID associated with (see "User Name" in the Task Manager.) However you can run into problems if you close explorer.exe. Which is why "Enditall" protects it.

I believe the utility is safe, as it basically uses the same process to close programs as the Task Manager, but gives you the opportunity as well to protect the programs you don't feel comfortable about ending. It's just a faster one-button way to close the ones not required instead of going through one at a time in the Task Manager.

Other than that, I can't tell you much about the program other than it was originally recommended by PC Magazine, but that was some time ago, and it no longer shows up on their list of recommended downloads. I use it, and it seems to work fine for me.

[Ken Cox]

blackviper has pulled his site but this fella has resurected the bulk of it.

blackviper was/is the original xp hacker/tweaker.

http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP%20Services.htm

what this site explains is what is normal and what can be taken out of the start up /op system

Do not use msconfig to disable services

Type in the Run box

"services.msc"

instead!

what one must do is document before and after rdgs if you are messing about and know what is normal-- you also must become familiar with shortforms -- one does a lot of googling:).

when xp initally came out it was a pig for running things that the ordinary person did not require,especially machines that had the bare minimum resources thus BlackViper determined what was needed and what was not and made a chart. MS was doing the proverbial CTA as well as yours:)

In my case originally i could barelly run xp and i need all the tweaks available - thus no zone alarms types of software - bought a router instead on the recommendation of an IT man from one of the local companies

-and if you are not on line and the downloads were scanned why do you need a virus checker doing scans in the background

enditall was initally published by pc magazine

EndItAll, Version 1.0

Copyright © 1999 Ziff-Davis, Inc.

First Published on the PC Magazine Extra Web site, August 1, 1999

http://www.zdnet.com/pcmextra/utils/current.htm

_______________________________________________________________

PLATFORMS:

Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0

DESCRIPTION:

EndItAll lets you terminate all non-essential programs for the purpose of

installing new software, running finicky games, or writing to CD-Rs that need a

big buffer. The essential system programs Explorer and Systray cannot be

terminated. EndItAll's main window presents a list of running processes. You can

protect any process in the list from termination.

REVISION HISTORY:

Initial release.

INSTALLATION:

Extract the files in enditall.zip to a subdirectory on your hard disk, and

launch install.exe to install the program. To uninstall EndItAll, use the

Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel. For usage details, refer to the

program's online help file.

SUPPORT:

Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine Extra can be obtained

electronically in the Utilities discussion area of PC Magazine's Web site

(http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/utilities/support.html). You also can access the

Utilities discussion area from the utility's download page. The authors of

current utilities generally monitor the discussion area every day. You may find

an answer to your question simply by reading the messages previously posted. If

the author is not available and you have a question that the sysops can't

answer, the editor of the PC Magazine Extra Utilities will contact the author

for you.

LICENSE INFORMATION:

PC Magazine Extra programs are copyrighted and cannot be distributed. Use is

subject to the terms and conditions of the license agreement distributed with

the programs.

----

Neil J. Rubenking, author of EndItAll, is Contributing Technical Editor of PC

Magazine. Sheryl Canter is the editor of the PC Magazine Extra Utilities, and a

Contributing Editor of PC Magazine.

Mike Lin makes another startup manager

Startup Control Panel

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

it will also show you what is running and you want to block from starting

the thead is starting to drift from Ken's original "video cards"

ken

[nickles]

Hello Igor,

I'm curious, is there a way to use gray scale images and reduce the memory requirements of a video card?

Probably a mute point. I don't think I would make very many B&W slideshows....but maybe from old B&W photos.

Ken

[LumenLux]

I have been following all the numerous posts about version 5 since it was released. Initially the demo's all worked reasonably well with only slight 'jerkiness' I concluded that my graphics card was not up to running the new effects - my old card was an NVIDEA GEFORCE 5200. So I purchased a new card which was recommended as suitable, i.e. NVIDEA GEFORCE 6600GT. With this new card I expected perfection with the pan and zooms but nothing has changed, in fact, I get an even more pronounced 'jerkiness' now that I had before.

Someone suggested that this is because I might have too much running in the background. Is this so and if it it, how can I stop thinga from running in the background in order to check again?

Another thing that I have noticed since the new card has been installed, is that the mouse cursor now moves erratically across the screen whereas before it was perfectly smooth.

Seems that I might be waiting for Version 5 to get better before I try to use it.

Ron

Today I bought (with assurance I can return it if necessary) a GeForce 6600OC. I expect the specs are very similar to your 6600GT. I have a "business" pc here that has Athlon 1.2 ghz processor and a graphics card with only 8 mb of memory! When I tried to play my own "Spirits in the Sky" on this machine, the picture would never appear. Tonight I installed the new 6600 OC and the show runs smooooooth. Perfect.

Two things you might consider on your setup (if you have not allready returned the 6600.

1. The quick install instructions emphasized to remove the drivers of the old card before installing the new card. So before physically removing the old card, I un-installed the drivers of the old card. This left my monitor showing some very basic (400x800?) windows screen. I then turned off the power, removed the old card. I inserted the new card into the AGP slot, attached pc powersupply cable to the card (for the fan on the card?). I booted up the PC, cancelled the Windows XP offer to install the new hardware, and then inserted the Ge6600 CD and installed the drivers. I then started with my show's easiest (smallest) version and played up to the original 109 mb version. All were perfectly smooth.

2. My GeForce 6600 has a tray icon for Nvidea Settings. This opens to offer choices to set the card image for emphasizing between "Quality" and "Performance". I found even the highest "quality" setting still handled my most demanding show version with silky perfection. Also, the viewable quality of the photos themselves is definitely better than with my previous "spreadsheet/word processor" card. But I had allways thought the photo quality was just fine. Just for comparison and curiosity, the card I bought today was from CompUSA's ad, price $120 after rebate of $30. The shelf price was $180. How does this compare with prices in your region?

[nickles]

Today I bought (with assurance I can return it if necessary) a GeForce 6600OC. I expect the specs are very similar to your 6600GT. I have a "business" pc here that has Athlon 1.2 ghz processor and a graphics card with only 8 mb of memory! When I tried to play my own "Spirits in the Sky" on this machine, the picture would never appear. Tonight I installed the new 6600 OC and the show runs smooooooth. Perfect.

Hello Lumenlux,

Hey, I'm interested in your card. I assume it is this one:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_in...6328&pfp=SEARCH

I gather that it has 256mb of memory. I notice it also supports both DVI and VGA monitors.

The system I'm considering it for is an older HP Pavilion 9880 1.5ghz with W2k. It has a Video Card slot that is specified as 4x AGP. Does the info that you got with the card say anything abot compatibility with 2x/4x/8x AGP bus speeds?

I also have a neighbor that is interested.

Evidently CompUSA's sale is over the 13th....so if you have anymore results the next couple of days...you might post. Your 1.2ghz system is probably XP? How much memory?

KEN

[LumenLux]

Yes Ken, that is the card. It does have 256 meg memory, and requires slot of at least AGP 2.0. The pins on the card are different configuration than the 8 mb card that was in my pc, but it fits and works. Two employees at CompUSA confirmed it can be returned within 21 days even if has been in my PC. The subject PC is running XP SP2 with 384 mb ram. The card box states compataibility with Windows 98, W2K, ME, with 128 mb ram.

I'm not sure I need it but it seems to do the job if I decide that machine needs the PTE power. I have another 750mhz pc that I still use a lot but it has only PCI slot, so this card would not do there. But I noticed cards for about half the price (on same shelf) for PCI with 128 & I think 256 mb.

[JohnFeg]

Jerky PTE.5.0 Beta ~ A Solution

Ronnnie,

The "Trick" here is to remove everything you don't need from the PC.Start Menu into a "Shorts Folder" in the 'Program Folder' and place a shortcut to that on to the Desktop

Brian,

I'm sorry to appear a bit thick! but this sounds to be an important point and I, for one, don't fully understand haw to implement what you are suggesting.

Would you be so kind as to explain a little more fully?

Regards

John

[Igor]

Ken,

No difference between grayscale and color images. Video card always stores images in color (RGB).

Performance/Quality option in NVIDIA drivers doesn't affect on quality of PTE 5.00 slide-shows.

[nickles]

Yes Ken, that is the card. It does have 256 meg memory, and requires slot of at least AGP 2.0. The pins on the card are different configuration than the 8 mb card that was in my pc, but it fits and works. Two employees at CompUSA confirmed it can be returned within 21 days even if has been in my PC. The subject PC is running XP SP2 with 384 mb ram. The card box states compataibility with Windows 98, W2K, ME, with 128 mb ram.

I'm not sure I need it but it seems to do the job if I decide that machine needs the PTE power. I have another 750mhz pc that I still use a lot but it has only PCI slot, so this card would not do there. But I noticed cards for about half the price (on same shelf) for PCI with 128 & I think 256 mb.

As a data point:

Installed the Geforce 6600 OC card on my neighbors Sony Vaio Desktop PCV-RXA842 , integrated video w/ 32mb shared memory. Prior to installation it would not run a single PTE 5 without all kinds of jerkiness. Your original Spirit in the Sky only yielded a black screen. After installation, every PTE 5 show ran smooth as silk. The install was pretty simple. When the card was installed in the availble 4x AGP, the power supply connected and the system powered up the onboard integrated vga was automatically disabled. After installing the driver from the supplied CD and rebooting it worked like a charm.

So far, of all the PTE test shows I've ran...I think your original 109mb Spirit in the Sky is the ultimate test of a graphics card...and it ran very, very nicely.

ken

[Mike Reed]

Well V5 will not run on my Matrox Millenium G400 AGP video card. Can somebody recommend a dual head card I can use to replace the existing?

[Conflow]

As a data point:

Installed the Geforce 6600 OC card on my neighbors Sony Vaio Desktop PCV-RXA842 , integrated video w/ 32mb shared memory. Prior to installation it would not run a single PTE 5 without all kinds of jerkiness. Your original Spirit in the Sky only yielded a black screen. After installation, every PTE 5 show ran smooth as silk. The install was pretty simple. When the card was installed in the availble 4x AGP, the power supply connected and the system powered up the onboard integrated vga was automatically disabled. After installing the driver from the supplied CD and rebooting it worked like a charm.

So far, of all the PTE test shows I've ran...I think your original 109mb Spirit in the Sky is the ultimate test of a graphics card...and it ran very, very nicely.

ken

Ken,

You certainly done your Homework, the 'GeForce 6600 VGA.Card' is an excellent Product and is used here at

'Trend Logic Image Studio' (Professional Web Designers) and it returns superb results.

But again one must read the 'Manufacturers Instruction' as the Card is not suitable for all Microprocessors.

So any (intending) Buyers would need to do their homework also, particularily with Sony Vaio Desktops which

are one of the most "fussy" Desktops ever made.

But it's nice to hear a success story now and then....

Brian.Conflow.

[nickles]

Ken,

You certainly done your Homework, the 'GeForce 6600 VGA.Card' is an excellent Product and is used here at

'Trend Logic Image Studio' (Professional Web Designers) and it returns superb results.

But again one must read the 'Manufacturers Instruction' as the Card is not suitable for all Microprocessors.

So any (intending) Buyers would need to do their homework also, particularily with Sony Vaio Desktops which

are one of the most "fussy" Desktops ever made.

But it's nice to hear a success story now and then....

Brian.Conflow.

Hello Brian,

I recently installed this card in an older HP Pavilion, 1.5ghz, 640mb, W2k system. It works smooth as silk, so far, at every PTE 5 demo slideshow that I've thrown at it. That system is my old "bread & butter" photo editor, DVD creator and PTE creator system. Had to upgrade the power supply to 500w because of the cards power requirements. It does require at least a 4x AGP video card slot. Cost about $225(US) for card and power supply...maybe it's worth it..at least for another year or two. Although I have a laptop with XP...W2k has always been so stable for me that I'm reluctant to give it up.

Ken

[Conflow]

Hello Brian,

I recently installed this card in an older HP Pavilion, 1.5ghz, 640mb, W2k system. It works smooth as silk, so far, at every PTE 5 demo slideshow that I've thrown at it. That system is my old "bread & butter" photo editor, DVD creator and PTE creator system. Had to upgrade the power supply to 500w because of the cards power requirements. It does require at least a 4x AGP video card slot. Cost about $225(US) for card and power supply...maybe it's worth it..at least for another year or two. Although I have a laptop with XP...W2k has always been so stable for me that I'm reluctant to give it up.

Ken

Ken,

I'm also an ardent W2K User...Everything in our Workshop's is W2K. Indeed we also have some XP's BUT when the "going gets rough"' its ALWAYS the W2K's that come out on top, unscathed ! So like you I'm sticking to the 'old workhorses' and lets see what Vista brings ??

Again it great to know that the GeForce6600 runs with W2K ~ many thanks for that.

Brian.Conflow.