FireGL 8800 and max 5.1

[Ls3D]

First, backup your .ini files under 3dsmax,... this way if you try a display mode that totally crashes you can just restore your .ini settings by overwriting the bad file. You can also edit in a text editor if you know what and where..

Second, well I don't really have a second suggestion except to tell us what display mode your are having trouble with. Maybe you want to return that card?

Good Luck,

-Shea
www.Ls3D.com

:airguitar

[SpaceRabbit]

I'm having trouble with all hardware accelerated display modes. The only display mode that is ok is software z-buffer which again leads me to believe there is a driver problem with the card. Unfortunately I've had the card far too long to return it. I was using it for maya for about a year flawlessly before I switched to using max for my work.

[snowMAN723]

I have had the exact same problem. I get a hard lock when i go to rotate a mesh. I have been looking for answers for a long time. All i know is that I use Zbuffer now and it works which is not as good at all but it doesnt crash.

[SpaceRabbit]

Well, at least I know now that I'm not the only one. If I find any solutions, I'll be sure to get them to you. I've tried my darndest. I guess I will try bios settings tonight, see if they help in any way, but I really think it's driver related.

[SpaceRabbit]

DirectX ended up being the solution on my end. I just switched to using it for my display mode, and set the config in the display driver properties to max 5/direct x and that worked. Hope this helps everyone else too.

Indy

[snowMAN723]

thanks so much for the fix. ill try it tonight

[bibi5000]

You probably have an AMD processor, right? I was having the same problem until I wrote a thousand e-mails to the hardware store where I bought it and they gave me the phone number of the programmers at ATI at Starnberg (former Diamond, the makers of the old FireGL cards). They told me that the driver was not "optimized" for AMD systems and that they had problems with the hardware of the FireGL8800, because it was not designed to support dual screens. A few days later, they had a bunch of AMD people at their place to overwork the driver. The result was driver version 3036 (I think) which worked fine, except some occasional lockups. It was then certified for use with discreet products, although it never really worked. I tried to look it up, but it seems that the discreet driver was removed from the list:

Here's (http://www.ati.com/support/products/workstation/firegl8800/winxp/firegl8800winxpcertifieddrivers.html) the list of certified drivers at ATI.

Drivers for FireGl cards always seem to be buggy for the first one or two years. A old version of the FireGL 3 driver used to crash when I opened ACDSee or Quicktime :shrug:
But then I heard recently that old FireGL cards are the most stable CAD cards you can get. :curious:

A few weeks ago I installed the new driver and it locked up every 5 min or so. I traded my FireGl 8800 for a PNY Quadro XGL 750 and everything works fine now. The Quadro is a lot slower if you have a lot of geometry, but I had no lockup since I installed it!

Here's the homepage of my hardware dealer. You might send him a nice e-mail describing your problems, maybe he will help you, because he sold lots of FireGL 8800s.

http://www.schneider-digital.de/index.html

Good luck

yours truly
fab

[SpaceRabbit]

Actually, I'm running a P4 2.4 Northwood, so it wasn' the AMD factor that was causing me troubles. Apparently it's ATI's openGL implmentation or something of that nature since the DirectX drivers seem to be working just fine.

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