Fix for problems with VIA chipset - works for nVidia, not sure about ATI

[JAshton83]

Okay, this is a bit round about but it seems to work well and other people have confirmed it.

 

Go into device manager and open the System Devices tab. Dbl click on VIA CPU to AGP bridge (or equivalent depending upon your driver version). In the Driver tab, click update driver. Don't let Windows update connect to look online, and say you want to install a specific driver from a list or location. Remove the "show compatible hardware" check box, and look for the FIRST (Very Very Important - you won't bugger anything up, but the fix won't work otherwise) entry regarding VIA CPU to AGP bridge. Select it and install the driver, ignoring the useless Microsoft compatibility warning (it's actually one of their versions of the driver). Restart.

 

Fixes problems with Nvogl and most D3D games, not sure about the FMV bug. It's odd to have to go back to a prior version of the VIA AGP driver like this, but the current one is beyond useless and utterly bug ridden. It just doesn't like the new nVidia cards at all...

 

As I mentioned, no idea if this will resolve any problems on a VIA chipset running an ATI card, but worth a try don't you think - there seems to be a fundamental flaw in the VIA hyperion drivers and I think it's infinitely more likely that a bug in Hyperion is responsible for lots of these VIA errors than untold numbers of defective cards.

 

Hope this helps, and let me know how it works for you.

 

I haven't had a crash in three days....

[stingerhs]

this also seems to work well if you have an nForce chipset on your motherboard (like i do). nvidia also has an interesting IDE bus controller for the nforce2/3/4 chipsets that really speeds up some processes (like startup) that comes with the nforce drivers. and, like updating the VIA chipsets, updating your nforce drivers will make your entire machine more stable.

 

links to the nForce drivers can be found here:

windows xp: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_winxp_5.10

windows 2000: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_win2k_4.27

windows 98/ME: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_win2k_4.27

 

links to the VIA chipset drivers can be found here:

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just select your operating system and then select "Chipset or Platform Driver" in the next menu.

 

just a note: not every pc has either a VIA or an nForce chipset. most of the major computer makes (dell, gateway, emachines, etc) will use either VIA or nForce, but there's no guarentee.

 

Edit: due to some misunderstanding on my part, i've posted the wrong information: updating your nForce chipsets will not hurt your computer. the above links will actually help your machine run better, no matter what kind of GPU you're using. sorry about any confusion.

[JAshton83]

Oh God NO - sorry, but you've gotten entirely the wrong impression from my post. It's the new VIA drivers that cause a lot of the problems with VIA chipsets - whatever you do - don't install a new version of Hyperion 4 in 1 'till they've sorted out the (many & serious) problems! That's the whole point of "updating" the driver with an older Microsoft version that works better!

 

Sorry if I sounded a bit cranky at the start there, a little tired!

[stingerhs]

ahh, gotcha. i guess this leads to this question: why doesn't VIA offer back-versions of their drivers???

[JAshton83]

They do, you can download old versions but they don't actually overwrite newer ones if you try to install them. Actually uninstalling the VIA drivers can destroy your file system, hence the MacGuyvering here.... Bloody Useless VIA, next time I'm buying nForce!