Strange graphic problems with new PC

[Khane]

I am playing CM from September 2000 and since then I have changed once my CPU , once my Graphic card and once my OS and never had any major graphic problem until a few days ago when I got my new machine with Windows XP as a OS

I got a new PCU ( 1.1 GHz AMD Athlon ) , 256 MB memory and my good old Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 MX card still installed.

With my previous computer I was not able to play huge maps scenarios because of too long loading time and the games running like a slide show so I went on to try one the huge battle with my new machine. Bye-bye slide show ! The game is running fast and smoothly BUT the there is something wrong with the graphics ...

1. The screen is too dark ( monitor set on maximum brightness ). So I have set the Display Properties ( Setting/Advanced/Twin view/Color Correction ) with a very bright setting saved specially for playing Combat Mission. Nothing changed, the screen is still as dark as before.

2. the little flags on the interface ( DeanCo Gunmetal interface installed ) looks bad ( for example black stripes instead white stripes in the US little flag )and some letters are partially gone.

3. When I quit the battle and go back to the main screen I get the same messed up fonts as Canuck

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=002362

I have to quit CM completely and then return a second time to get normal fonts but still get a too dark and invariable screen's brightness

4. I have set the bright screen setting as default but when quit CM and go back to Window's Desktop the monitor looks as dark as the CM screen . That does not happens while quitting other games or applications !

All that never happened with my previous machine ( in which I had the same GeForce2 MX card )

Since that is also my first time with Windows XP I decided to install the latest NVidia drivers v. 28.32 for XP as suggested by some players .The install is automatic so I believe the new drivers are in.I rebooted the machine as required and ran CM....The same as before. No change at all ...nada.Same graphics , same problems and still totally impossible for me to change the brightness of the screen in CM ( for other games no problem )

Then I checked the details of my Leadtek GeForce Drivers in the Windows Control panel and what I saw is that : Leadtek / Driver Date 09.14.2001/ Version 2.1.8.3 .It looks like the previous drivers are still installed. No trace of the newly installed Nvidia drivers v. 28.32 for XP .

One more thing , while installing the 28.32 NVidia drivers for XP ( I downloaded them from Nvidia web site ) there was a Windows warning :The software you are installing... blah blah blah.....has not passed Widows Logo...blah blah blah. I continued the installation.

Has anybody an idea what could be the problem and how to solve it

Thanks in advance

Khane

[ March 28, 2002, 06:53 AM: Message edited by: Khane ]

[rune]

go to www.guru3d.com, get the file that blows away the nvidia drivers, after that is done, you will come up in vga mode, ugly and a pain, then install the 28.32 drivers. Reboot, and you should be fine.

Rune

[Schrullenhaft]

For some reason I've often seen that the NVidia drivers won't install properly over a previous version. As rune pointed out, all of your problems stem from the driver version (21.83) you have currently installed.

The Detonator Destroyer program that rune mentioned may not work with WindowsXP however. If you used the NVidia setup program to install the drivers, then you could go to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs control panel and search (alphabetically) for the NVidia drivers. If you're lucky the 21.83 drivers will be listed and you'll need to uninstall those (the 28.32's may also be listed).

If that doesn't work then you'll need to go to Control Panel > System control panel > Hardware tab > Device Manager button > open up the Display item and double-clickt the NVidia display adapter > go to the Driver tab > click on the Uninstall button. After this go to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory in file manager and look for all files that start with NV (nv*.*). These should typically only be NVidia files, but there is a possibility that a non-NVidia file with start with this. Delete these files.

Since XP recognizes NVidia-based video cards, it may load a driver for it (based on 12.50 or something around there). This driver still has the 'transparent white' problem that you're seeing.

Hopefully reinstalling the 28.32 drivers should work now

[Khane]

Great !!!!

Thank you Rune and Schrullenhaft. It works like magic.

Khane