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Number Nine Revolution IV Video Cards | Support Main | Number Nine Main |

Contents

Product Info -

Professional Video Card, combination of 2D and 3D performance and MPEG Video acceleration, True 128-bit Graphics, 16MB or 32MB SDRAM, Integrated RAMDAC, True Color to 1920 x 1200 @ 77 Hz, Direct3Dtm and OpenGL, also optimize the performance of Windows NT, Windows 98

Drivers - 

Available by email ( click contact us link on the top left corner of the page)

Support -

Revolution IV FAQ -

General FAQs

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GENERAL QUESTIONS

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DOES THE Revolution IV™SUPPORT DUAL MONITORS?

Dual monitor support for Windows NT 4.0 is currently under development. The driver will be posted on

the Internet (WWW and FTP) at nine.com. Support for dual monitors under Windows 98 is possible

when using the Revolution IVä in conjunction with one of the PCI boards on the Microsoft hardware

compatibility list for dual monitor support. For maximum performance, the motherboard BIOS must

recognize the AGP expansion slot as the first slot in the machine. Some systems allow the AGP slot to be

set as primary through the system BIOS. Check with your motherboard manufacturer.

There is no support for dual monitors under Windows 95.

IS THE Revolution IV™ VESA 2.0 COMPLIANT?

The Revolution IV™ supports VESA 2.0 in its BIOS. No additional software is required.

WHAT ARE THE VIDEO CAPABILITIES OF THE Revolution IV™?

The Revolution IV™ supports:

· 30 fps (frames per second), full-screen MPEG-II playback

· Front-End Color Space Conversion

· Real Time Single Pass Video Scaling in X & Y directions

These features provide smooth video playback for most of your viewing needs.

WHAT VERSION OF THE AGP STANDARD DOES MY CARD SUPPORT?

The Revolution IVä support 2X AGP transfers at up to 533MB/s, system memory texture cache and

accelerates system BLTs. AGP support is only available under Windows 98. The Revolution IV does not

support non-local video memory under Windows 95.

WHAT 3D FEATURES DOES THE CARD HAVE?

· 3D Display Buffers

· Double and Triple Display Buffering

· 24 –bit true color professional 3D rendering with 8-bit Alpha Blending

· 16-bit high color 3D rendering for games

· 32-./24-/16-bit precision Z-buffering

· 10 LOD MIP Mapping in hardware

· Full-Scene Anti-aliasing

· 3D Texture Processing

· Perspective Correction Texture mapping

· Tri-linear and Bi-linear Filtering

· 8KB on chip Texture Cache

· Palletized Textures: 8, 4, 2, 1bpt

· Non palletized: 32, 16, 8 bpt

· Decal, Modulate, Replace, Blend Texture modes

· 3D Atmospheric Effects

· Per Pixel Specular Lighting effects

· Per Pixel Interpolated Fogging

· Per Pixel Alpha Blending and Compare

· Source and Destination

· Table Fogging

· Gouraud Shading for 3D triangles and lines

· Chip & drivers optimized for Direct3D v 5.0/6.0 and OpenGL

· Direct3D Transformed and Lit vertices accepted without modification

· OpenGL specific support including:

· ICD & MCD OpenGL drivers

· Advanced 3D chip features exposed

· Texture Filter modes

· Alpha Blending modes

HOW DO I CHECK WHAT VERSION OF THE HAWKEYE® IV UTILITY AND WINDOWS

DISPLAY DRIVER I AM CURRENTLY RUNNING?

Open the Number Nine Control Panel and click on the ‘Status’ tab, then expand the Driver Information

tree. The version number is the Windows DISK version (NOT the Windows DRIVER version).

WHAT OPERATING SYSTEMS DO THE Revolution IV™ SUPPORT?

The Revolution IV™ has support for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0. Windows NT

3.51, Windows 3.1x, and OS/2 are not supported by Number Nine.

 

WINDOWS NT

Question 1 : I cannot get the display drivers for the Number Nine - Revolution IV AGP video adapter to initialize under Windows NT Workstation 4.0.  Why?

Question 2 : Where do I get Service Pack 4 (or Service Pack 3) for Windows NT 4.0?

Question 3 : How do I verify that Service Pack 3 or Service Pack 4 is installed?

Question 4 : I cannot get the display drivers for the Number Nine Revolution IV AGP video adapter to initialize in a Multi-Processor (MPS) system under Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Service Pack 3.

Question 5 : Applying Windows NT Service Packs 3 & 4 fails to properly initialize the Revolution IV video display driver.

Question 6 : Why do I get a split-screen when I switch to a full screen DOS prompt with my Revolution IV and SGI 1600SW Flat Panel monitor?

Answers to FAQs

Question 1 : I cannot get the display drivers for the Number Nine - Revolution IV AGP video adapter to initialize under Windows NT Workstation 4.0.  Why?

Windows NT 4.0 requires a minimum of Service Pack 3 to correctly support the Number Nine Revolution IV.  If you do not have Service Pack 3 installed, you may download it from Microsoft's web site (see next question for more info).

Question 2 : Where do I get Service Pack 3 (or Service Pack 4) for Windows NT 4.0?

If your system has Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, but does not have Service Pack 4 installed, download Service Pack 4 from following Microsoft links:

    http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/all/downloads.asp
    http://www.microsoft.com/support/winnt/default.htm

Question  3: How do I verify that Service Pack 3 or Service Pack 4 is installed?

There are a few ways to verify your system has been updated with Service Pack 3 or Service Pack 4.

    Upon boot-up, the Windows NT boot up "splash screen" will display "Build 1381: Service Pack 3" or "Build 1381: Service Pack 4".

    Or you can verify within Windows that a particular service pack is installed by clicking Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Windows NT Diagnostics. Then click the Version tab and verify that the version displayed is: 4.00.1381 Service Pack 3.

Question 4 : I cannot get the display drivers for the Number Nine Revolution IV AGP video adapter to initialize in a Multi-Processor (MPS) system under Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Service Pack 3.

Multi Processor Capable Systems (MPS) require Service Pack 3 w/Hotfix (Q182540) or Service Pack 4 which addresses some hardware abstraction layer (HAL) issues that may prevent the Revolution IV AGP & Revolution 3D AGP from loading correctly.

See the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article ID: Q182540 for more information.

Question 5:  Applying Windows NT Service Packs 3 & 4 fails to properly initialize the Revolution IV video display driver.

This information applies to: Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version4.0, Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition version 4.0

Symptoms: Under certain circumstances, Windows NT may fail to properly assign system pages

Cause: The Microsoft NT operating system sets up a number of pages needed for the operating system and support drivers. It builds the number of pages based upon several factors, of which one is the amount of system memory. At the time it sets up these pages it has no idea how much space will be needed for each device/resource

Resolution:  This problem can be worked around by changing a registry value. Specifically the key that needs to change is
    Registry Setting to be edited:
    Run: regedit
    Search for: SystemPages:
    Enter: 8000 for the DWORD value

\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
SessionManager\MemoryManagement\SystemPages

This value needs to change to something larger. If a value of 0 is entered than the operating system will calculate some optimal value. Any other value and the operating system uses what is in there. The value that #9 chose was 0x8000, which allows for 32768 pages * 4K per page = 128 megs of mappable system ram.

Note: There is one danger with setting this value by hand. There is no way for us to either read the original value in the registry nor to add our value to the value that is already in the registry

Question 6 : Why do I get a split-screen when I switch to a full screen DOS prompt with my Revolution IV and SGI 1600SW Flat Panel monitor?

The split screen DOS window problem is referenced in the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article listed below : 

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article ID: Q197538

Full-screen DOS Window Is Split with Some Number 9 Video Cards

This information applies to: Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0l

Symptoms:
Starting a full-screen command prompt on some Number Nine video adapters may result in a split-screen doubling of the full screen

Cause:
VGA.SYS needs to set the character cell height for the MS-DOS mode. Character cell height is held in the lower 5 bits of the VGA register CR9. However, Vga.sys destroys the upper 3 bits of CR9 when writing the character cell height into the lower 5 bits of the register. The state of one of those upper three bits is required by the flat-panel MS-DOS mode

Resolution:
A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you obtain the latest Windows NT 4.0 service pack that contains this fix. This fix was introduced in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.

Status:
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.

If obtaining the service pack at this time is not a viable alternative, you can contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/default.asp

 

 

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TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE -

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COMMON Revolution IV™ INSTALLATION PROBLEMS

PROBLEM:

You are attempting to install Windows 95 for the first time or on a clean hard drive (with the Revolution IV in the system) but the Revolution IV™ drivers do not appear to be working properly - you are stuck in Safe-Mode / VGA.

RESOLUTION:

The retail release of Windows 95 has an anomaly that could cause a failure in the Revolution IV™ setup program. The failure exhibits itself as an inability to get out of Windows 95 Safe-Mode after having performed a "clean" installation of Windows 95 on a freshly formatted hard drive with the Revolution IV card installed.

The problem is caused by the Windows 95 AutoDetection code during the installation of Windows 95.

The AutoDetection code may incorrectly install two display nodes in the Device Manager. These two nodes will then conflict with each other causing the HawkEye® driver to be disabled and Safe-Mode to be forced on. (When Safe-Mode is enabled, the system uses neither of the two installed Display nodes).

Since the Windows 95 Setup program causes the problem, there is nothing that Number Nine can do to prevent the problem. The solution however is relatively simple.

The conflict occurs because the setup program installs an "OTHER DEVICES" display device in the Device Manager. The solution is to remove this and restart the system.

To remove the second display node, Open the Windows 95 Device Manager as follows:

PROBLEM:

You have run the Number Nine drivers SETUP procedure but the additional software (i.e. DirectX, Internet Explorer, etc.) is not installed.

RESOLUTION:

The Revolution IV™ CD-ROM will automatically launch the InstallShield utility after installing the Windows 95/98 driver from the CD-ROM. To manually launch InstallShield, you can run AUTOPLAY.EXE from the root directory of the CD-ROM.

InstallShield will allow you to select which additional software you want to install, and will only restart the system once when installation is complete.

You could also browse to the DirectX, Internet and other directories on the Revolution™ IV CD-ROM and run the installation programs separately.

Running the installation programs separately may force a system restart after each software component is installed.

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH VIDEO QUALITY

PROBLEM:

After changing resolution or color depth using Windows 95/98 ‘Desktop Area’ or ‘Color Palette’ your monitor exhibits slight color separation (especially visible around text) and vertical lines seem to shimmer.

RESOLUTION:

Use Monitor Adjustment found in the HawkEye IV® Control Panel to change the refresh rate slightly. 

*NOTE* It is important to select the correct monitor model in Windows 95/98 Display Properties. If you do not see your monitor listed you can select one of the Standard Monitor types that most closely fits the specifications of your monitor.

PROBLEM:

After changing to 1600x1200 @ 16.7M colors on a Revolution IV™, the display has some flashing distortion or only the top half of the desktop is visible.

RESOLUTION:

The refresh rate has been forced higher than the Revolution IV™ hardware can support at 1600x1200 @16.7M colors. Use Monitor Adjustment found in the HawkEye IV® Control Panel to reduce the refresh rate. (Launch HawkEye IV, choose the Monitor Adjustment tab, and lower the refresh rate to a setting where the flashing no longer occurs).

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH HAWKEYE IV® FOR WINDOWS 95/98

PROBLEM:

After shutting down HawkEye IV® you can not locate it or reopen it.

RESOLUTION:

Double click on the Number Nine Icon found in the lower right hand corner on your taskbar (over by your system clock) to reopen HawkEye IV®. The HawkEye IV® Control Panel can also be launched from the HawkEye IV® Programs Group on the Windows 95/98 Start Menu.

PROBLEM:

You have selected 32K colors (15bpp) using Resolution Exchange but Windows 95/98 Display Properties Settings indicates that you are at 65K colors (16bpp).

RESOLUTION:

Windows 95/98 does not provide a 15bpp color depth option and will indicate 16bpp (32K colors) or 16bpp (65K colors) have been selected. You can use Resolution Exchange to distinguish between 15bpp and 16bpp depth settings.

PROBLEM

You press your Zoom Hawk Key™ and no zoom occurs or when you open the Zoom property page, no zoom levels are available.

RESOLUTION:

  1. Change to a different resolution. In general, more Zoom levels will be available at higher resolutions and color depths.
  2. Additional Zoom levels may become available at higher refresh rates. Use Monitor Adjust to select a higher custom refresh rate, and additional zoom levels may be available.

PROBLEM:

After Zooming, Resolution Exchange will no longer accept new changes to color depth, monitor resolution or virtual resolution selections.

RESOLUTION:

Using the Zoom Hawk Key™ with the Resolution Exchange page visible temporarily disables user input to the page. Changing to another HawkEye IV® page, then back to Resolution Exchange will re-activate the page.

PROBLEM:

Chameleon Cursor does not function when using ‘3D Pointers’, ‘Windows Standard (extra large)’ and ‘Windows Standard (large)’ pointer schemes or Windows 95 mouse trails.

RESOLUTION:

These pointer schemes and mouse trails are all software cursors. Chameleon Cursor is for use on Hardware cursors only. To find your mouse cursor easily, we suggest either using the Mouse Trails or Chameleon Cursor.

PROBLEM:

After lowering the graphics acceleration to NONE, the HawkEye IV® Status page no longer displays the driver version.

RESOLUTION:

With the graphics acceleration set to NONE, the display driver version is not available to HawkEye IV®. You must increase the graphics acceleration and restart Windows for HawkEye IV® to be able to read the driver version.

PROBLEM:

After changing to a virtual resolution, sizable windows may be too wide and/or too tall.

RESOLUTION:

If you have not already done so, in the Number Nine HawkEye IV® Control Panel assign a Hawk Key™ to Place Windows™. For most windows, pressing the Place Windows™ Hawk Key™ once or twice will re-size the active window to fit your monitor.

PROBLEM:

After running HawkEye IV® at 640x480 and then switching to a higher display resolution, the OK, CANCEL, APPLY and HELP buttons are clipped.

RESOLUTION:

If you are using large fonts at 640x480 (or 1280x480 virtual) resolution the row of buttons along the bottom of the HawkEye IV® Control Panel will extend off the bottom of the screen and may be clipped after switching to a higher resolution. 

Slight clipping can also occur at these 480 pixel height modes if your taskbar is set to ‘Always on Top’. 

Both Resolution Exchange and the Windows Display Settings pages will force the system to use small fonts when entering 640x480 resolution. (This requires a Windows restart if you are currently using large fonts). If you switch to 640x480 using QuickRes or another utility, you may want to manually change your font size to prevent clipping.

If your HawkEye IV® buttons become clipped you can always restore the buttons by closing and restarting the HawkEye IV® Control Panel after changing to a higher resolution.

PROBLEM:

HawkEye IV® is installed but there is no Options page available.

RESOLUTION:

After removing and re-installing HawkEye IV® the Option page disappears. To restore the Options page

the display driver must be re-installed. To restore the Options page, right click on the desktop and select ‘Properties’. Choose the Settings tab, Advanced Properties (or Change Display Type) and Change the Display Adapter. The current selection should show Revolution IV®™ . Press OK and apply the change to re-install the driver and restore the Options page (A Windows 95/98 restart is required).

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH WINDOWS 95/98 APPLICATIONS

PROBLEM:

At 256 (8bpp) colors, desktop background colors may flash or shift noticeably behind an active window.

RESOLUTION:

With 256 colors, Windows 95/98 keeps the correct colors in the active window and allows the background colors to flash or shift. At higher color depths (15bpp, 16bpp, 32bpp), Windows 95/98 maintains all colors correctly.

PROBLEM:

Minor corruption is visible in a Windows 95/98 application.

RESOLUTION:

If you are experiencing a problem and wish to determine whether it is related to your Number Nine board, Windows 95/98 allows the user to incrementally decrease the video acceleration. In doing so you can determine whether or not it is your display driver that is causing the problem.

To lower acceleration:

If the problem still occurs in an unaccelerated mode, then the problem is most likely being caused by Windows 95/98 or other hardware/software and not by the HawkEye IV® for Windows 95/98 driver.

If the problem does not occur in an unaccelerated mode reset the video acceleration to full and try disabling the HawkEye IV® Caching Options. This can be done through the Options page. Graphics corruption may be resolved by removing the check boxes for Enable Device Bitmap Caching and/or Enable Font Caching on the Options page. Changing any of these settings requires a restart of Windows 95/98 before the new settings are activated. Disabling these settings will reduce graphics performance slightly, however not as significantly as the graphics performance slider.

PROBLEM:

If you need to lower the graphics acceleration to ‘None’ for troubleshooting, you must disable Adobe Type Manager first if it is running.

RESOLUTION:

PROBLEM:

After changing color depths, icons, images or application windows have incorrect colors or have turned black.

RESOLUTION:

Many applications do not remap colors correctly after changing color depths without restarting Windows 95/98. Since Resolution Exchange always changes color depth without restarting Windows 95/98 the applications that are running may have incorrect colors when the new color selection is invoked.

The problem can usually be resolved by saving the current document, then closing and re-launching the application at the new color setting. If the colors are still incorrect you will need to shut down and restart Windows 95/98 at the new color depth.

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH DIRECTDRAW AND DIRECT3D (DirectX)

There is a DirectX™ directory on the Revolution IV™ CD-ROM in which you will find the files necessary to install the latest version of DirectDraw™ on your system.

PROBLEM:

Direct3D™ applications are displaying incorrect colors.

RESOLUTION:

Most Direct3D™ games run in high color display modes and will use the last high color setting that was chosen in Resolution Exchange (either 32,768 or 65,536 colors). Even if your desktop is running at 256 or 16.7M colors, most Direct3D™ applications will automatically switch to high color. Some applications expect either 32K or 65K colors and may show incorrect colors if the high color setting does not match the application’s expectation.

If the Direct3D™ application is showing incorrect colors, try changing the colors setting in Resolution Exchange to either 32K or 65K before running the application. One of these settings should work properly. After changing the desktop to 256 or 16.7M colors the application will remain correct until another high color desktop setting is chosen in Resolution Exchange.

PROBLEM:

Direct3D™ applications are reporting ‘Out of Memory, Unable to Create Surface’ or similar type error messages.

RESOLUTION:

Full-screen Direct3D™ resolutions are limited based on the amount of memory installed on the Revolution™ IV board. If the Direct3D™ application runs in a window on the desktop, the Window 95/98 desktop may need to be set to the supported resolution before launching the application.

PROBLEM:

After exiting from a full screen DirectDraw™ (Windows 95/98) game, the Windows display is set to 640x480 resolution.

RESOLUTION:

If you are using a Number Nine virtual resolution for your Windows display, DirectDraw™ applications may not be able to properly restore your display mode on exit. The DirectDraw™ game will always reset your Windows display to 640x480 resolution. To maintain your correct display resolution on exit, use the HawkEye® Resolution Exchange to change your display to a non-virtual mode before running the game.

PROBLEM:

After pressing the Place Windows™ Hawk Key™ while running a windowed DirectDraw™ game, the game display is distorted.

RESOLUTION:

The Place Windows™ Hawk Key™ will expand your current active application window to a centered full screen display. Some DirectDraw™ game windows are set to a specific display size and are not meant to be expanded. Using the Place Windows™ Hawk Key™ may force the window to resize and corrupt the game display.

RECOMMENDED DISPLAY SETTINGS FOR DIRECT3D GAMES

The visual quality of Direct3D games and applications can be greatly affected by properly configuring

Revolution IV settings.

Direct3D games are affected by:

For most Direct3D games, the desktop should be set to 65,536 colors in Resolution Exchange before running the game.

The default settings of the HawkEye Options page Direct3D switches will provide maximum display quality for all Direct3D applications.

Default settings for Direct3D Performance Options:

To improve Direct3D performance, the settings of these Options should be reversed. Most Direct3D games will run faster with these switches toggled, and will show no visible corruption.

If the Direct3D game that you are using shows any flashing, tearing, distorted/fuzzy textures, or other graphics corruption, you may have to revert to the default settings for the Direct3D performance switches.

Problems with flashing or tearing are usually related to Wait for Vertical Blank. Problems with distorted/fuzzy textures in the distance are usually related to the MIP Map optimizations.

REMOVING HAWKEYE™ FOR WINDOWS 95

HawkEye® IV includes an uninstall program that is available through the Windows 95/98 Control Panel Add/Remove Programs utility.

To remove HawkEye® IV from your system:

IF you do not have the Uninstall Program

Re-boot your computer and press F8 when you see the ‘Starting Windows 95 . . . ‘ appears (or before the Windows 98 startup screen). Choose Command Prompt Only.

From the root directory (C:/) type "del Number9" and hit enter. This will remove the Number Nine configuration file.

Type WIN to start Windows 95/98. Once in Windows 95/98:

OTHER PROBLEMS

Software sometimes does not perform consistently across all resolutions and color depths. If you experience a persistent problem for which you can not determine a cause or resolution, try switching to a different resolution and/or color depth with Resolution Exchange.

If the problem is consistent across resolutions, please consult the application documentation. Most applications are distributed with a READ_ME file that will contain important information regarding potential application problems.

INTERNET (WWW) (FTP)

Number Nine FTP site is not available

 

 

 

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