Greggy

Providing you can dual boot to Windoze 95/8 its not a problem. Just download the latest bios to say C:\BIOS directory. Restart PC, choose Windows 95/8, press F8, and choose safe mode command prompt only as the start option. From the C: prompt CD to your BIOS directory and FLASH to your hearts content... I have always used that method with 100% success rate on my second PC (Abit BP6 with dual Celerons 366's at 550/100, Win 98/2000) Otherwise get a mate to lend you a floppy drive and a DOS boot disk.

I don't know about the rest of you, but overall D3D runs better than OpenGL on my PIII 733/CL GeForce SDR rig. Yes, in some maps OpenGL is faster, but in others it gets 'bent-over' by D3D (in particular the Beach Assault map). I love OpenGL (Q3A, HL, CS, SOF etc), but the programmers for UT have already told us that D3D is their primary API, so don't fight a losing battle - switch to D3D and enjoy it for a change.

Soldier of fortune runs perfectly! CuMine 550E @ 733/133, Abit BF6, 256Mb PC133, CL GeForce SDR (5.22 Det's), Win 2000 Pro etc etc

Get a new motherboard.

Verify your CPU(s), RAM and display card(s) etc by installing them on a PC that you KNOW is good (perhaps one of your friends has a PC you could borrow) and make sure they run perfectly. From what you guys have said I'd have a guess that its the motherboard. I don't like VIA boards.... never did..... never will. CuMine 550E @ 733/133, Abit BF6, 256Mb PC133, CL GeForce SDR (5.22 Det's), WD 13Gb IDE, Intel PRO 100 NIC, Win 2000 Pro etc

ha ha ha... this forum really makes me laugh... But fret not little worried ones. I'm sure that once M$ officially release SR1 for Windoze 2000 it will be on the cover (CD-ROM) of every computer magazine worth reading, probably for about 5 bucks! Greggy PIII 550E @ 733(133), Abit BF6, 256Mb RAM, CL GeForce SDR (5.16 Dets), MX300, WD 13Gb IDE, Intel 10/100 NIC, Win 2000 Pro with all Pre SP1's installed... AND IT GOES LIKE A F'ING GOD!!!!

I installed the nvidia 5.13 beta drivers, and at first I thought all my GeForce driver prayers had been answered. So many features to play with - just like the 98 drivers... BUT I WAS WRONG! I noticed the folowing about using 5.13 (none of which hapened with 3.81) Image quality in Q3A is much worse than 3.81 (look up at the sky etc in high quality mode- YUK!) FSAA... why bother... I don't want to play at 5-10fps Changing the colour depth in Q3A instantly reboots the PC! Changing back from 5.13 to 3.81 caused Q3A program errors which prevented me from playing Q3A. Uninstalling 5.13 was a major pain: even deleting all the nvidia DLL files from the system32 directory and re-installing the 3.81 drivers did NOT fix any of the problems. I had to install the standard VGA driver, then delete ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to do with nvidia from the registry (I mean EVERYTHING!!!!), reboot, then installed 3.81 again. Thankfully everything was back to normal as if 5.13 had never been there at all... Q3A and all games worked fine again! So in my opinion, the 5.13 drivers SUCK ASS BIG TIME Greggy CuMine 550E @ 733MHz (default voltage), Soltek converter, Abit BF6, 256Mb SDRAM, CL GeForce 256 SDR, 13Gb 7200rpm WD IDE hard disk, MX300, Intel PRO+ 10/100 NIC, Windows 2000 Pro etc etc

I have to agree with SHS... Save money on the K7 & new motherboard and instead buy a Coppermine 600E (or faster!) CPU and then sell the Celeron 300A. Since you seem comfortable with overclocking, your BH6 should get you to 112FSB which will give you a healthy speed boost. The Intel 440BX chipset is still a VERY capable chipset, and at higher than standard bus speeds it is hard to beat. Greggy CuMine 550E @ 733MHz (default voltage), Soltek converter card, Abit BF6, 256Mb SDRAM, CL GeForce 256 SDR, MX300, 13Gb WD 7200rpm IDE hard disk, Intel 10/100 PRO+ NIC, Windows 2000 Pro

Your likely to find that if you install a new NIC in your Win2000 box things will clear up. I am using Windows 2000 Pro with an Intel EtherExpress PRO+ 10/100 and the networking has been faultless with other Win 9x/NT4/2000 and UNIX boxes.

If your using Windows 9x, then yes: your OS can fall back on DOS compatabilty mode and still boot up. You can then load on the correct drivers and away you go. However, if you want to setup RAID with two or more drives you will need to create the partition using the Promises BIOS utils... and a complete rebuild will be on the menu. If your using NT4 or 2000 then no: your OS will NOT recognise the new controller (and the hard disk drive) automatically, you'll get a BSOD Stop Error: Inaccessible Boot Device. You can install the new Promise ATA66 IDE controller card and install the correct driver whilst still operating off the HPT366, then attempt to see if it boots up once you've swapped the hard disk over to the Promise ATA66... But I have no experience doing this, and I don't think it will work. And even if it does, I'd bet you'll want to RAID it anyway, and then your back to rebuilding from scratch anyway (see above).

One of my Win2K systems uses IRQ 11 for VGA, Network, PCI sound and USB. Only the "ACPI-Compliant System" uses IRQ 9. Everything works ok, even with PnP OS Enabled in the BIOS. See if you can get a BIOS update or comment from ASUS. Try loading the BIOS/setup defults and/or re-flashing your BIOS. Abit BF6, unlocked PII 333 @ 350 (2.5x140FSB for testing of high FSB speeds), CL GeForce SDR, 256Mb SDRAM, MX300, Intel 10/100 NIC, WD 13Gb 7200rmp IDE, Pioneer DVD, Windows 2000 Pro... 550 CuMine at 733+ here I come!

I need you guys to help me chase an SMP bug in my Windows 2000 box (dual 366 Celerys @ 550, 256Mb, CL GeForce SDR, Epox KP6-BS/Abit BP6 with MSI slot converters). I am currently using Windows 2000 nvidia drivers ver 3.69 (the best so far in my opinion) Running single CPU mode (MPS Uniprocessor PC) everything is perfect at all CPU speeds with either CPU on both the Epox and Abit boards. But...if I switch to MPS Multiprocessor PC (dual CPUs) anything related to D3D (eg UT or a D3D screensaver) will usually crash as soon as the 3D rendering begins. The only thing I'm left with is an hourglass and a hung Windows 2000 box. This occurs on both motherboards, with the CPUs at 366 or 550, regardless of what I do. I've also tried two BRAND NEW 466 Clerons on different slot converters with the same results. Rebuild after rebuild and things are the same. OpenGL seems to be fine (I can play SMP Quake 3 or Half-Life for hours with no problems at all) Also, Windows NT4 SP6 is perfect as well, but no D3D of course! Now, someones gotta have noticed something like this.... please help! I'm hoping its a video driver bug, but if others have a similar SMP combo and D3D is perfect it looks like I'm in trouble.

Unfortunately 3.76 did not help my SMP box either... still getting an occasional crash when initialising D3D. Its funny, if D3D inits ok the game will run forever. But If you quit, start the D3D game again, sometimes it will fail when it attempts to switch to full screen D3D. 3.76 are fine with one just one CPU (both CPUs re-tested to make sure each one is still ok - which they both are). I hope nividia start testing their drivers on SMP machines soon and address the issue.

and 3.76 have still not fixed the SMP issue...

I have to agree with most of what I have read on this topic so far. Both the nvidia and 3DFx cards have pros and cons depending on what games you want to run. A good point brought up is image quality... I don't care that my GeForce SDR card is not as fast as a Voodoo3 playing UT or whatever. What I do care about is that my GeForce SDR plays UT very well and the image quality is excellent. I cannot believe it when I hear some 3DFx users say they cannot see any visual difference when using a TNT2/GeForce compared to Voodoo3 etc. I mean, you people must be blind! So my advice is go with the GeForce until something better comes out.

I agree. All the nvidia (beta) Windows 2000 drivers I have tried so far have their good and bad points when used on an SMP system. I have found that 3.75 are the best so far, but I still get the odd lockup when running a D3D game or screensaver. However, 3.75 are perfect with D3D when in 'uni-processor' mode. So it looks like us SMP users still have to wait a little longer...

I have the KP6-BS with the 2Mb BIOS chip (the later revision board). Epox do seem to favour releasing BIOS updates for the 2Mb board over the 1Mb version, the latest being 3-Dec-1999. As far as I know they are only manufacturing the 2Mb bords now, so a new purchase should be safe.

I have had total reliability and excellent performance with the KP6-BS dual slot 1 i440BX motherboard from Epox www.epox.com/products/mboard/kp6-bs_1.html Features include 1x AGP 5x PCI 2x ISA 4x DIMMs with FSB speeds (100,103,112 and 133) controlled in the BIOS - yep, no jumpers! And as an added bonus its usually cheaper (and in my opinion better) than the ASUS P2B-D motherboard. My system: Dual Celeron 366 @ 550MHz, Epox KP6-BS dual i440BX mobo, 256Mb PC100 SDRAM, CL GeForce SDR @ 120/183 , Diamond MX300, Intel 10/100 NIC, 13Gb 7200rpm WD IDE hard disk, ADI 17", Windows 2000 (2195).

Guys like you make me laugh... ALL the nvidia TNT family drivers are still BETA! That means they are still in development, and if version X works better for you than version Y for (insert favourite 3D API here) then use whatever worked best. You will find that there is no one driver that will work with every game you want to play. I am currently using Detonator Windows 2000 drivers ver 3.75 on my GeForce 256 SDR. Am I happy with them? yes, they are ok. Are they the answer to all my 3D prayers.... defintely not!

A tough pill to swallow for some... I would advise all users who want Windows 2000 and a nvidia based display card to ditch their non-Intel motherboards and buy one with the real i440BX or newer Intel chipset. If you hate Intel or your too in love with your VIA or ALI chipset, then sell your nvidia card and buy a Voodoo 3. You'll be thanking me if you do, and fighting a losing battle if you don't. I don't love Intel or hate VIA/ALI, but thats just the way it looks like being for the immediate future.

Unfortunately 3.75 did not fix the problem.

Firstly, thanx to all who have replied. I have a few questions: slkh, where do I get the Windows 2000 nvidia drivers ver 3.68 that 'work' with Windows 2000 SMP? Can you e-mail them to me at gsimpson@bigpond.com.au so I can try them out. How do I disable the RC5 distributed net client? I cannot find it anywhere, so maybe I'm not even using it. Comments? Also, I know you will hate to hear it, but I'm glad you guys are having similar problems... I was beginning to wonder if some of my hardware was faulty.

I'm going to assume you have an IRQ assigned to your TNT display card in the BIOS...

Its a peice of piss! Install the 2nd CPU Boot into Windows 2000 Go to Device Manager select Computer select MPS Uniprocessor PC (or whatever you have) RH click and select Properties select Driver, click the Update Driver button click Next Choose to display a list of known drivers to choose specific click Next click Show All Hardware select MPS Multiprocessor PC Follow the prompts Reboot Done! I frequently change from 1 to 2 CPUs (366 Celerons at 550MHz) to test display driver stabilty under SMP.

Nor have I... 3.69 & Win2K 2195 are the best combo I've used yet.