Graphics Card Issues

Try newer drivers, I'm running the latest (Not SolidWorks recomended) Nvidia drivers on an FX1400 with no issues. Update motherboard BIOS It could also be a power supply issue.

John Layne

I would first run a memory test to make sure the ram is OK. If there is no diagnostics software from the MB people, you could d/l memtest or similar software.

hi

thanks for the quick responses:

1. Memory test has been run, RAM is OK.
2. Latest drivers also tried, still the same problem.

ack!!

bill allemann wrote:

also, it's a brand new 650W power supply (Liberty brand...)

it's the latest BIOS as well...

bill allemann wrote:

You also might check your "4 in 1" driver to make sure its up to date.

Just an outside chance, but maybe. Do you have your OGL graphics card settings set for SolidWorks? You might also try running for a while with SW set to use software OGL to see if the problems change. Might be a clue.

WT

In addition to the other excellent advice,,,

Do you have the auxilliary power plug on the video card connected ??? It uses a standard 5-12V 4 pin plug just like the power plug on a drive. I think it's on the tail end of the video card.

The card may work without it, but it won't work right.

Mark

yup,

I've tried setting it for general use, as well as specifically for SW. I suspect that it may be another issue however, as I get the flash off/on in other programs, even when SW is not running.

What is a '4 in 1' driver for?

Wayne Tiffany wrote:

auxiliary power plug? hmmm... I don't think that the card has one...

It does have an 8-pin connector like the type used for mice/keyboards that can go to a component out device...

MM wrote:

WOW, I never thought of that until Mark mentioned it, but I would definitely check the power to the card. That killed me when I first bought my Quadro FX card until I finally figured out that it needed power beyond what it could get from the AGP pins.

Muggs

skym> auxiliary power plug? hmmm... I don't think that the card has one... >

double checked the website - aux power is not required for the 1500... no where to plug it in anyway!!

Great suggestions everyone - keep them coming - I'm sure one of them is bound to work!

Muggs wrote:

Might seem silly, but check the mouse driver and settings. The graphics card is processing mouse data almost constantly.

If you do a search on this group, you'll find quite a few threads about mouse setups.

You can quickly isolate the graphics card. Just run in software opengl. It is a setting in Tools/System/Performance.

Hmmm, the fact that issues are not isolated to the SolidWorks Application seems to point to a generic hardware or OS configuration issue.

As TOP mentioned you can try and isolate OpenGL in SW by disabling it. However you have mentioned that Word and IE both exhibit problems. So your issue most likely resides at a more system wide level. Most of these you have already eliminated.

Processor - check for overheating by downloading prime95. If you can survive an hour on prime95 you are good to go. Motherboard - not checked yet. but bios was checked. Memory - ran memtest (i assume you ran it at least 2 hours) Video card - replaced and multiple driver revisions were tested. Stress test it using freestone's video card tester. Power supply - you have a very high end unit - should be fine. Other components - check windowsupdate.com and make sure that you have the latest WHQL certified drivers from MS. For the longest time my keyboard hasn't been registering keystrokes properly and it was because of an outdated audio driver (go figure). You can also start disabling all onboard hardware that is non-essential + disconnecting non-essential hardware. So disable onboard audio, firewire ports, usb ports, ethernet ports, wireless cards, etc, etc until the only thing you have running is proc+mem+vid+hard drive. Check your task manager process tree to see if when lag strikes IE or Word if there is a process responsible.

Debugg> I recently bought a new system.

Oh yeah, also try control panel -> admin tools -> event viewer ->

applicati> I recently bought a new system.

LS,

We also have problems with Nvidea cards (FX1100, FX1300 and FX1400). Sometimes SWX crashes if you move a component. Furthermore sometimes the entire graphical display is messed up completely. We are using recommended drivers and use SWX2006 SP5.0. What we are trying is lower the hardware accelleration.

Kind regards,

JJ

Interesting

FX1400 PCI latest drivers, not the recomended ones and no issues - GL application set to SolidWorks

2Monitors 20" philips LCD + 19" Philip LCD AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ ASUS A8N SLI Premium Motherboard latest BIOS 2GB RAM 1 x 74GB Western Digital Raptor hard drive -- OS/ Programs /current data/ fixed swap file 1 x 250 Western Digital hard drive for storage /backup / location of PDMWorks Vault

MS Windows XP Pro SP2 all update patches applied NOD32 Antivirus -- SolidWorks files Excluded

SolidWorks 2006 SP5.1 (This is the most Stable version of SolidWorks I can remember, still quite a few bugs but hardly ever a CTD) SolidWorks addins that are constantly on:- PDMWorks Toolbox

3dControl (Spacemouse) Bluebeam Pushbutton Plus edrawings All other addins switched off unless needed.

3gb Switch not currently used (I only ever really needed it for PhotoWorks)

John Layne

The connector will be on the PCB of the video card inside of the case, not on the back panel.

The 4 in 1 driver is for your motherboard chipset. Its the chip that basically all information must flow through to get to the cpu ( graphics card, memory, ect ). You'll need to go directly to the MB mfgs website and grab the driver specifically for your mb and revision thereof.

Most people never need to update theirs. But ocassionally, a driver for it can fix tons of problems.