Bill's Workshop -- Unoffical 3Dfx Banshee Troubleshooting and Game Guide

Creative Labs 3D Blaster Banshee driver 1.06 (11/19/98)

Comments from Bill about the new CL drivers:
This release appears to be RC-4 based. However, unlike other RC-4-based drivers, the Creative release fixes the Win95 retail/Win95a D3D problem (as did CL's 11/03 release) and the non-MMX Cyrix CPU incompatibility. Also, it fixes the mouse pointer issues present with all previous CL version drivers. The prior fix to the black browser JPEG seems to still be intact. Speed seems unaffected, at least in 3D mode, according to game benchmarks. Installation instructions are improved. So, this looks like a good driver release.

A word of caution: The acceleration slider in the Blaster Control panel appears to work "properly" now when set at values above 115. Strangely, it only boosts the memory clock, while leaving the graphics clock at the default 100MHz. However, it will provide very noticeable acceleration. But BE CAREFUL! If you push the slider a bit too far you could end up with a completely non-functioning Windows desktop. If you have the full Blaster Control panel installed from the installation CD (not just the Banshee extension from the current drivers), you can reboot to Safe Mode and run the Creative Blaster Control default reset from the Start, Programs, Creative, Blaster Control menu item. This did not restore the desktop for me. The only other recovery from this appears to be to boot into Safe Mode, remove the Banshee display adapter listing from Device Manager, reboot and reinstall the drivers. Relatively "safe" acceleration can be achieved by keeping the value at or below 110. You may experience some lockups, but complete corruption of the Windows desktop should not occur. Powerstrip from Entech still affects both graphics and memory clock.

For Quake-engine, miniGL-based games (QuakeGL, Quake II, Hexen II, Sin) to work properly with this driver release, you must use the original version 1.1 mini-GL file from the CL CD (or as posted on CL's driver site a week ago). If you use one of the modified (unofficial) mini-GL updates, such as available on Brett "3-Finger's" Jacobs' Banshee page, these games will misidentify the Banshee as a Rush card and only work at a maximum resolution of 800x600. You can use the mini-GL version 1.4 if you change the GLide files to those from RC-2 (same as in the CL 11/03 driver release pack). This is a 10% faster configuration.

The new driver pack includes a new BIOS flash, but as the readme, quoted below, says, use it only if you are having "system incompatibilities". I do not know which system incompatibilities this flash addresses. The Cyrix issues are addressed in the drivers. Avoid the flash unless you have a clear reason to use it.

The installation instructions now clearly say to run setup.exe, thank you. There is mention of "manual" installation using the inf file, but this is not defined. Use setup.exe, but for academic purposes, I will describe several manual methods.

If you have not previously installed drivers, after you insert the card, Windows will detect the new card on arriving at the desktop screen and will ask for the drivers. You would direct it to the folder where you have unzipped the drivers, and it will find the inf file and install the drivers using its instructions.
If you go into Device Manager, Display adapter, Properties, Drivers tab, Update button, you can direct Windows to the driver folder where it will find the inf file and load the drivers.
If you go into Control Panel and select the Display applet or right click on the desktop background and pick Properties from the flag menu, you will open the Display control panel. From there, select Settings (and in Win98, Advanced) then Display adapter, Change and direct Windows to the driver folder where it will find the inf file and load the drivers.

Note that if you install the new drivers without having the Blaster Control panel still in your system (from the original CD), you will not have some of the Blaster Control utility modules. In that case, install ONLY the Blaster Control panel from the CD when the Install program gives you the choice of which modules to install. Do not install the drivers from the CD.

_____________________

3D Blaster Banshee Readme
===========================

This readme file contains the following sections:

A. For Windows 95/98 users
B. GlideSwitcher Utility
C. BIOS Upgrade

____________________________________________________________

A. For Windows 95/98 users
===========================

Please read through all the sections before you proceed with
the installation.

1. Installation
2. Release Notes
3. Games Compatibility Issue
4. Known Problems
5. General Notes

1. Installation

After running the self-extracting file, run the
setup.exe program. This will install the Windows 95/98
display driver and the GlideSwitcher utility.

If you do not use the setup.exe from the self-extracting file,
you can use the 3dbb9x.inf file to install the Windows display
driver manually.

If you experience problems caused by system incompatibility,
follow the instructions in the section, "BIOS Upgrade" in this
readme file to install the BIOS.

2. Release Notes

a) Erratic mouse pointer

The erratic mouse pointer problem that occurred with the
previous driver has now been fixed.

b) Cyrix non-MMX chip

The driver now supports systems of Cyrix non-MMX chip.
Previously, the driver caused General Protection Fault (GPF)
during Windows' startup.

c) Direct3D Gamma Correction Control

A separate Gamma Correction Control for Direct3D games is
now possible with BlasterControl's Advanced module in the
Display Properties dialog box.

3. GAMES COMPATIBILITY ISSUE

a) Quake, Quake 2 and Hexen 2

Currently, the OGL driver is for full screen only.
Invoking the OGL games in non-full screen may cause
unexpected results.

Refer to the readme file in the Banshee Installation CD's
OpenGL directory for important information.

b) Need for Speed III

If you could not run the game, please download the latest
patch from the game developer's Web site.

4. KNOWN PROBLEMS

a) Mouse pointer trails do not work

The Pointer Trails option in the Mouse Properties dialog
box does not work with the current driver. Currently,
there is no workaround solution except to disable this
option.

b) Windows 98 Multi-monitor mode with multiple Banshee
boards

When you have more than one Banshee board installed in
your system, only the primary board will be enabled.
This problem will be solved in future driver releases.

c) Unable to load display driver

A machine with the retail version of Windows 95
displays the error message, "Unable to Load Display
Driver."

Windows 95 attaches a generic PCI VGA display adapter
driver to any card it does not immediately recognize.
When the Banshee driver is loaded into the system,
Windows 95 fails to detach the generic driver.

This problem is fixed with the OSR2 release of Windows 95.

To fix this problem in the retail version of Windows 95:

i. Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel.
ii. In the Control Panel window, double-click the
System icon.
iii. In the System Properties dialog box, click the
Device Manager tab.
iv. Double-click the Other Devices entry.
v. Select the device, PCI VGA-Compatible Display
Adapter, and then click the Remove button.
vi. Click the OK button and restart the system.
After the system has restarted, it will prompt you
to install the Banshee driver.
vii. Install the Banshee driver.
viii.Restart the system.
After the system has restarted, it will recognize
    the Banshee card.

5. GENERAL NOTES:

a) Direct3D in 16-bit color only

Hardware acceleration for Direct3D is only available in
16-bit color mode.

b) Virtual desktop and hardware overlay

When Banshee is in Virtual Desktop mode, the hardware
overlay will be disabled for video playback, and
software overlay will be used. If video is already
playing back in hardware overlay, the system will not
allow you to switch from normal desktop mode to virtual
desktop mode.

c) OGL driver

Currently, the OGL driver is for full screen only.
Invoking the OGL games in non-full screen may cause
unexpected results.

Refer to the readme file in the Banshee installation CD's
OGL directory for information.

____________________________________________________________

B. GlideSwitcher Utility

GlideSwitcher is a utility that allows you to support Glide
applications on different products that use 3Dfx chipsets
(Glide devices).

In normal situations, Glide applications reference a driver
called either GLIDE2X.DLL or GLIDE3X.DLL. Incidentally,
both the 3Dfx Voodoo2 chipset (used in Creative's 3D Blaster
Voodoo2) and the 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee chipset (used in
Creative's 3D Blaster Banshee) use drivers with the same
file names. So, if a user configures a system that contains
both cards, only one card will be capable of running Glide
applications.

To overcome this limitation, Creative Labs has developed the
GlideSwitcher utility. This utility consists of:

(a) an Archive module, which checks your system for changes
in 3Dfx driver installations and maintains the Glide
drivers for both cards, and

(b) a Control Panel, which allows you to select the card that
your Glide Application will run on.

If you are removing one of the cards that has a 3Dfx chipset
from the system, it is essential to select the correct Glide
driver first. Use GlideSwitcher to switch to the Glide driver
for the other card before you remove the unwanted card.
Otherwise, you will not be able to switch to the correct Glide
driver after you remove the unwanted card. This is because the
GlideSwitcher can only be run when there is more than one
physical Glide device detected.

____________________________________________________________

C. BIOS Upgrade

BIOS version : 1.01.2

The 3D Blaster Banshee BIOS Upgrade utility consists of
the following file:

* BNF1012C.EXE - BIOS upgrade program

Note: You only need to flash this BIOS if your card has
system incompatibility issues.

BNF1012C.EXE can be run from the MS-DOS prompt using the
following syntax:

usage: BNF1012C.EXE

============
PROCEDURE
============

1. Determine if your video BIOS has the latest update by
looking at the version number displayed during system
bootup.
If your version is newer, you do not need to upgrade
your BIOS. Otherwise, proceed with the following steps.

2. Boot to native DOS, and run the BIOS upgrade program
BNF1012C.EXE.

Notes:
. Due to the nature of Windows environment, this program
has to be run in native DOS mode. If you do not know
how to boot up your system in native DOS mode, refer to
the section below on "BOOT TO NATIVE DOS MODE".

. The programming process takes about 10 seconds
(including verification time) to complete.

WARNING:
Do NOT interrupt this process. Interrupting this process
may result in unexpected (and undesirable) consequences.

When the VGA BIOS on your 3D Blaster Banshee is upgraded,
the program displays a message to inform you that the BIOS
is successfully flashed.

3. After the new BIOS is successfully flashed, reboot your
system.
The system should now boot up with the updated 3D Blaster
Banshee BIOS (verified by the new version number displayed
during bootup).

=================
TROUBLESHOOTING
=================

Symptom A:

BIOS upgrade program displays error message:

"This program cannot be executed in Windows-DOS box"

Solution:

You need to boot up to native DOS mode before running the
program. If you do not know how to boot up your system
in native DOS mode, refer to the section below on "BOOT TO
NATIVE DOS MODE".

Symptom B:

BIOS upgrade program displays error message:

"3D Blaster Banshee card not present"

Solution:

You are trying to use this program on a video card that
is not Creative 3D Blaster Banshee. If you are certain
that you have a Banshee card, your BIOS is probably
being flashed with a non-Creative Banshee image.
Contact Creative technical support for further assistance.

Symptom C:

If you do not see any display upon rebooting.

Solution:

    You can try to re-program the BIOS with the use of
another PCI VGA card:

1) Bootup with non-Creative Banshee VGA as primary
    display card.

Insert a second (not Banshee) PCI VGA card into
    the 1st PCI slot and the 3D Blaster Banshee into
    the 2nd PCI slot. Connect the non-Creative Banshee
    VGA card output to a monitor, boot up and check
if the monitor displays anything. If it doesn't,
    swap the slot positions of the VGA card and 3D
    Blaster Banshee until you can bootup with the
    non-Creative Banshee VGA as primary display card.

2) Re-program Banshee.

When the system boots up successfully with the
    VGA card, you can then program the 3D Blaster
    Banshee BIOS as described above, beginning from
    Procedure (C). After the program is executed,
    you can remove the non-Creative Banshee card and
    bootup with your 3D Blaster Banshee card. If you
    still do not see any display, contact Creative
    technical support for further assistance.

=========================
BOOT TO NATIVE DOS MODE
=========================

The following are two methods of booting to the native DOS mode.

Method 1 - Boot diskette

i. Insert an unused floppy diskette into your disk
drive A.
ii. Type "format a: /s" at the DOS prompt to create
a bootable diskette.
iii. Leave the diskette in the drive and reboot your
system. Your system will boot to the native DOS mode.

Method 2 - The <F8> key

i. Reboot your system, paying attention to the
onscreen initializing messages.
ii. When you see the text "Starting Windows 95..."
or "Starting Windows 98...", press <F8> within 5
seconds to display a menu.
iii. From the menu, select option 6 (Command prompt only)
to boot the system to native DOS mode.

====End of Readme File====

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