Hidden Frature in AIW Radeon

F

far_star

New member
I discovered a hidden feature in my AIW Radeon. It's called "auto-blackout". It works like this : ATI knows you work hard trying to get your card to function properly so they decide to give you a break by blanking out the screen at random times whenever you are watching TV ina window.

Now you have time to do some anger managment excercises and maybe forget that your card is altogether very unstable.

Anyone else out there blessed with this special feature ?

Dan
My System
P3 775
Win ME
Tyan Trinity Mobo (via Apollo Pro 133a)
SBLive
128MB Ram
 
Hail,

I do not have any Radeon card yet( but I will be getting one of the line). I just had to say nice sarcasim bud. I enjoyed your post, though I wish I could help....

Very nice :)

*bows*
 
LOL! Nice feature, mine came fully equipped with it too :) Try the 3063 drivers if you havent already, those seemed to fix it although I cant be sure.

Mike
 
Thanks guys.

I haven't tried the newest beta drivers yet. I have emailed ATI about another problem (see my sound when recording thread). I'm afraid that if they contact me they'll tell me they cant help because I am using beta drivers now (even though the problem existed with the reg. drivers).

I don't know. Should I actually not change drivers because I am expecting a reply from ATI ? ... Ok you can stop laughing now.


Thanks, and I'll probably try the beta drivers. Also I am thinking about changing my motherboard (presently have a Via board housing my PIII) Any suggestions ?

Dan
 
Sorry, wasnt laughing at you, just the situation in general because I thought something may have been wrong w/ my card. Personally id try the new drivers.

Mike
 
Far_star,

I tried some recording and capturing last night in the mpeg2 format and it worked great. Both video and sound were good. My Specs:

Asus K7V-T Motherboard (Via KX133)
Tbird 750 w/ 900 core overclocked to 1Ghz
AIW Radeon w/ 3063 drivers
Windows ME
Sound Blaster Value w/ the new WindowsME LiveWare drivers
Promise ATA100 controller card
Linksys Nic 100TX Rev.4
 
I'm not experiencing the "auto-blackout" feature, but I am experiencing
the "add random static to audio in captures" on my AIW Radeon.

I had that fixed at one point, but haven't figured out how to reliably
repeat it.

Wait, I take that back... I had a similar problem when I first installed
the AIWR, where the screen would go blank and stay that way for some
reason I was not able to fully figure out. A driver reinstall seemed
to have cleared it up; but I also noticed recently that a little bit
of looseness in the coax cable for the Tuner caused it to skip channels
that otherwise seemed to have a valid (not good, but valid) signal.
 
cquinn,

I'm sorry to hear about your static problem. I too seem to have "hyperStatic" permanently
enabled on my card .

To the person who gave me his specs and a report of no trouble I say "thank you"
Posts like that will help me decide if I will
upgrade my mobo. But I alse heard that real-time mpeg2 capture works only on a pentium. Is that true ?

Peace and chicken grease,
Dan

[This message has been edited by far_star (edited 10-19-2000).]
 
Nope.

I'm running a Duron 600@900 with a VIVO 64MB DDR Radeon, and vid captures work perfectly. Unless it's a AIW thing, but I highly doubt it.

I also don't get audio static or random screen blanks. For the record:

Duron 600@900
Asus A7V
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO
128MB Infineon PC133
Adaptec 3940AUW SCSI
9.1gb IBM DCHS 7200rpm
4.5gb Seagate Hawn 5400rpm
Plextor 12/20 CD-ROM
Plextor 4/12 CD-R
Soundblaster Live! Platinum
Linksys LNE100TX
Win2K

The only difficulties I've had with this system are the crappy SB Live! drivers for Win2K. About once every week or two I have to reinstall the drivers. If I don't, sound still works but no creative labs applications will start (well, they start then pin the processor until I kill them), and I don't get 4 speaker sound, only the front 2.

James
 
The random blackout while watching TV wouldn't happen to have anything to do with your monitor being set to go to powersave mode after a while would it?

Does everything crash and you have to restart? or can you just hit a key or move the mouse and have it come back on?
 
No, actually the blackout (i like to call it hyperBlackout) happens when I am using the computer, but thats a good guess though.


Right now I am looking for a new mobo (and perhaps CPU is I'm forced to go AMD). I will be starting a thread soon looking for suggestions if I can't get this to work.

Dan
 
Wow, so many anandtech guys here (I think?). I have an AIW at home with WinME, no black out feature tacked onto mine I don't think, but I only use video desktop, and not the real full screen. And I think I am using the 3063 drivers, on a BX board.
 
Hi Hawk,

Thanks for the info on the BX board. I have a question. Is your system overclocked ? I would get a BX board as they are so stable and fast, except for that nasty AGP divider issue when overclocking. I'm not sure how the Radeons handle an out of spec AGP speed.

BTW, it's nice to see you here. Thanks again for the deal. The other board is going in my friends BX based system. Lets hope his is stable like yours because I'm the one who talked him into buying it :)


Dan
 
I don't run a BX board (see above), but I remember reading somewhere in my travels recently that the Radeon is by far the most AGP-out-of-spec friendly board out there. I seem to remember (wherever it was I read it) the guy tested a bunch of cards and the Radeon went like 15 or 20 MHz higher than anything else.

Don't quote me tho :)... Just some 2nd hand info.
 
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