Tim S Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 It seems that Nvidia video cards default to 60Mhz in XP and perhaps Win2K as well. Mine certainly did, and as a consiquence I was forced to use the 60Mhz setting in CM, not the best by any means. This utility gives us a refresh rate fix, allowing at the very least a centralized CM at 75Mhz and beyond. Unfortunately it does nothing for the transparency issue but it's a step in the right direction for those who may need it. Here's the intro "blurb". Nvidia W2K/XP Refreshrate Fix 2.1.169 Description: Windows 2000/XP NVidia Refresh Rate Fix is a program which can be used to change the default 60Hz refresh rate under Windows XP and Windows 2000 with NVidia display adapters. You only need to run this program once after you have installed (or reinstalled) your display adapter drivers. No other procedures are necessary. Version: 2.1.169 Filesize: 468.91 Kb Added on: 19-Oct-2001 Downloads: 4779 Here's the link: http://www.warp2search.net/download.php?op=viewsdownload&sid=2 Just scroll down alphabetically for the program. I hope it helps. Tim S 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMotion Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 I haven't tried XP, but isn't this possible already using Windows2000 Diplay Properties? At least I can do this from Advanced/Monitor. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Elder Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 I believe thats going to affect the monitor's refresh rate, while the NVidia utility changes the refresh rate of the card...If I'm reading everything about this correctly, the cards stick at a refresh rate of 60 no matter what the monitor is set too, which would result in graphic wackiness, for lack of a better, more technical term (: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 Uh.. that doesn't make sense. The video card outputs the frequencies and the monitor reads them. The vertical refresh rate would strictly be what the video card is putting out (as long as the monitor can sync to it - otherwise it's garbled/scrolling). I'm guessing that this utility just changes the default refresh rate to something other (higher) than 60Hz (a registry tweak). I have no idea why the program is over a 468Kb in size though. I've tried one of these 'patches' in the past and it didn't do much for me personally since the adjustments were quite simple from the Display control panel > Settings tab > Monitor tab > Refresh rate drop down dialog. Often with NVidia's WHQL drivers the refresh rates of the highest resolutions are dropped (higher resolutions don't have the highest refresh rates that the card is capable of). You have to wait for the next release of 'unofficial beta' drivers to get the higher refresh rates back. These 'patches' don't change the available refresh rates that are programmed into the driver. Only an updated driver will affect what refresh rates are available. I don't know what to make of all the information bubbling on this board about particular refresh rates solving some display problems in Win2K and XP. I suspect that it is a temporary fix (that works for one session of CM or until reboot ?) that is involved with the way the drivers internally refresh 2D screen data. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Elder Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 heh, I guess my problem is I have a few old monitors that aren't multisync capable, so I have to match adapter refresh rate to the rate of the monitor itself with those. Then there's the new monitor that changes modes, but after switching rates, won't display anything, unless I turn it off then on again. Very annoying (: I'm curious if thats a result of it sitting on the geforce card, and that not switching properly...changing the adapters rate doesn't seem to alleviate this issue. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMotion Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 One of the things to check for people who haven't been able to make CMBO work, is your monitor. I'm not sure whether it has an effect, but in my case the Display Properties monitor used to be Plug&Play Monitor. Once I changed this to the real monitor I have, I think some things have worked differently. May not work for everybody, but that's how it is in my current configuration. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 I haven't had any problems that I can recognize under Win2K, but maybe XP is another sort of problem. I can definitely tell when I change refresh rates with a monitor at work - the 60Hz flicker is quite noticeable. I have yet to istall some NVidia cards on an XP installation, so maybe that's the issue where they aren't taking resolution/refresh rate changes properly. You'd think that such a problem would have been caught with the first series of Detonator 4's... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim S Posted November 18, 2001 Author Share Posted November 18, 2001 For those CMers who are not experiencing Nvidia problems, and I wish I was one of them, it's difficult to understand how a patch like this could be of any use. But without it I was unable to use any setup refresh rate other than 60Mhz. I could alway access other rates but the game would be off-centered on the screen as well as text and start up images would not show correctly. It seems that on Windows XP board posts all over the web that AMD, Nvidia and Via chipset combinations are the ones giving trouble of one kind or another. Of course that's exactly what I have! Tim S 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mud Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 60 MHz for a monitor? That's a *fast* refresh rate, and one that I'd expect to cause problems. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattias Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 The refresh rate fix certainly helped me with my problems. I bought a gaming magazine with two demo CD’s right after I installed XP and the demos would without exception, as I recall, run with 60 MHz refresh rate (or something similar). I installed the fix, which by the way is as big as it is because it has a very user friendly interface, help files etc, and the problems where solved. Now all resolutions run at the refresh rate I have assigned (mostly 85 MHz). M. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 Mattias - but did the Refresh Rate fix any of the 'white transparency' issues with XP or 2000 in CMBO ? I think that is the solution that some people here are looking for. There have been claims on the board that changing the refresh rate (to 60Hz I believe) fixed the white transparency issue for some users (only temporarily from what I can gather though). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattias Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 No, sorry about being unclear about it, it did not. Every time I start CM for the first time in a session the graphics are fine until the first time I actually enter the game or preview a map in the editor. After that I get the transparent white corruption. My point being that every Nvidia+XP owner should get and install the fix, it helps a lot with a lot of games. M. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMotion Posted November 21, 2001 Share Posted November 21, 2001 Does anybody know how to get all the normally allowed refresh rates back to Display Properties? I ran this Fix program and all other frequencies except the one I set just disappeared. Now I'm forced to use 85 Hz and all the bugs are back 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattias Posted November 23, 2001 Share Posted November 23, 2001 SlowM, Can’t you just run the program again and set the refresh rating to whatever you want? I’m using ”NVRefFix Version 2.1 build 169” and there is no apparent problem for me. If the program freezes the refresh rate (I didn’t realise that but I think you are right about it) and you want to run CM at 60 MHz but not the rest of your system, why not ”dedicate” a resolution for CM that you normally don’t use like 1152 x 867 or some such? Once the CM Prefs file is written the game will change to that resolution every time you start it, and along with it the refresh rate. All this I assume.. I may be way out of my depth. M. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted November 23, 2001 Share Posted November 23, 2001 I'm not sure how much of a step-down this may be in compatibility or speed, but for those of you who are running Windows 2000 or XP there are some new drivers out - 15.70. With FSAA Set to 2X these drivers don't exhibit the white transparency problem in either the 2D or 3D screens (but there is a small problem that intermittently pops up - the unit name is sometimes covered with a white block). I don't know if these drivers are any slower or lack the features of the 21.xx or 22.xx drivers that are out. These were just released yesterday (I think the NVidia development team that was doing the 14.xx series did this set). I got these drivers from Guru 3D, but they may be posted on several other sites too. [ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]</p> 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boff Posted November 23, 2001 Share Posted November 23, 2001 These 15.70 drivers have fixed my transparent white problems, the orange landmark titles are still 'fuzzy' but I can live with that, performance overall looks pretty similar to what it was under 21.83. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMotion Posted November 24, 2001 Share Posted November 24, 2001 I installed these 15.70 drivers as well and now things are working again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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