Graphics Blaster Readme ========================== This file contains the following sections: 1. Release notes 2a. Installing the latest set of Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers in Windows 95 2b. Installing the latest set of Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers in Windows 98 3. Games Compatibility Issue 4. Known Problems 5. General Notes 6. BIOS upgrade utility _________________________________________________________________________ 1. Release notes a. Supports new DX6's Flexiable Vertex Format (FVF). b. The 'Advanced Properties' control is now integrated into the main BlasterControl. c. Fixed a number of popular game bugs. 2a. INSTALLING THE LATEST SET OF GRAPHICS BLASTER EXXTREME DRIVERS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IN WINDOWS 95 ----------------------- If you are using Windows 95, you need to know which version of Windows 95 you are using before you proceed. To find out the version of Windows 95 you are using: 1. On the Windows desktop, right-click the My Computer icon. 2. On the menu that appears, click Properties. The System Properties dialog box appears with the General tabbed page displayed. 3. Look at the entry under System. If it states: Microsoft Windows 95 4.00.950 B then you have the OSR2 version of Windows 95. Retail versions of Windows 95 will have either '4.00.950' or '4.00.950 A'. Now, proceed to one of the following sections: I. To install the drivers in Windows 95 (Retail version) II. To install the drivers in Windows 95 (OSR2 and later) I. To install the drivers in Windows 95 (Retail version): 1. Create a new directory on your hard disk (for example, C:\NEWDRV). 2. Copy the new set of Graphics Blaster Riva TNT drivers to this directory. 3. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 4. In the Control Panel window, double-click the Display icon. 5. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab. 6. Click the Change Display Type button. In the Change Display Type dialog box, the entry Graphics Blaster Exxtreme is displayed in the Adapter Type box. 7. Click the Change button next to this entry. 8. In the Select Device dialog box, click the Have Disk button. 9. In the Install From Disk dialog box, type the path where the new Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers are found (for example, C:\NEWDRV) and click the OK button. 10. In the new Select Device dialog box, make sure that the device Graphics Blaster Exxtreme is selected. 11. Click the OK button. The new Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers are copied to your system. 12. In the Change Display Type dialog box, click the Close button. 13. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Close button. 14. When prompted to restart the system, click the Yes button. After your system restarts, the new Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Windows 95 drivers will take effect. II.To install the drivers in In Windows 95 (OSR2 version and later): 1. Create a new directory on your hard disk (for example, C:\NEWDRV). 2. Copy the new set of Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers to this directory. 3. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 4. In the Control Panel window, double-click the Display icon. 5. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab. 6. Click the Advanced Properties button. In the Advanced Display Properties dialog box, the entry Graphics Blaster Exxtreme is displayed in the Adapter Type box. 7. Click the Change button next to this entry. 8. In the Select Device dialog box, click the Have Disk button. 9. In the Install From Disk dialog box, type the path where the new Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers are found (for example, C:\NEWDRV) and click the OK button. 10. In the new Select Device dialog box, make sure that the device Graphics Blaster Exxtreme is selected. 11. Click the OK button. The new Graphics Blaster Exxtreme drivers are copied to your system. 12. In the Advanced Display Properties dialog box, click the Close button. 13. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Close button. 14. When prompted to restart the system, click the Yes button. After your system restarts, the new Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Windows 95 drivers will take effect. 2b. INSTALLING THE LATEST SET OF GRAPHICS BLASTER EXXTREME DRIVERS -------------------------------------------------------------------- IN WINDOWS 98 ----------------------- To install the drivers in Windows 98: 1. Unzip the zip file containing the new drivers into a temporary directory (for example, C:\NEWDRV) on your hard disk. 2. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 3. In the Control Panel window, double-click the Display icon. 4. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab. 5. On the Settings tabbed page, click the Advanced button. 6. In the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Properties dialog box, click the Adapter tab. 7. Click the Change button. 8. In the Update Device Driver Wizard dialog box, click the Next button. 9. Select the option "Display a list of all the drivers in a specific location, so you can select the driver you want". 10. Click the Next button. 11. Click the Have Disk button. 12. In the Install From Disk dialog box, browse to the directory which contains the files you unzipped earlier. 13. In the Open dialog box, select "exxtreme.inf" and click the OK button. 14. In the Install From Disk dialog box, click the OK button. 15. In the Select Device dialog box, make sure that the device Graphics Blaster Exxtreme is selected and click the OK button. The new drivers are copied to your system. 16. Click the Finish button. 17. Click the Close button to close the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Properties dialog box. 18. Click the OK button to close the Display Properties dialog box. 19. Restart your system. 3. GAMES COMPATIBILITY ISSUE Shiny's MDK ----------- For better visual effects, turn on Exxtreme's flat alpha blending option: 1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. 2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the System icon. 3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Device Manager tab. 4. Double-click the entry Display Adapters, followed by Graphics Blaster Exxtreme. 5. In the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Properties dialog box, click the Performance tab. 6. In the DirectDraw/Direct3D group box, select the "Use Flat Alpha For Gouraud Alpha Blending" check box. 7. Set the game option "Texture upload fail on "on "Error only". ID's GLQuake and Raven's GLHexen II ----------------------------------- Some versions of GLQuake and GLHexen II may show textures as white blocks of color on the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme. To remedy this, try the running the games with the following commands: (a) On GLQuake glquake.exe -lm_4 (b) On GLHexen II glh2.exe -lm_4 GLQuake and GLHexen II comes with a file, OPENGL32.DLL, that is not meant for the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme. To run GLQuake or GLHexen II on the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme, rename or delete this file in the game directory . Wing Commander 4 ---------------- While running the WC4 on Graphics Blaster Exxtreme, there is a problem which causes the system to lock up in DOS. Please obtain the patch from the ftp address: ftp.ea.com/pub/origin/patches/wc4/wc4win95.zip. Acclaim's Turok --------------- If the option in the Video Performance for "Render Overlap" is enabled, you may experience problems (system lockup) with this game. If this happens, you should disable this option. 4. KNOWN PROBLEMS General ------- If you encounter a blank screen after soft reboot (Ctl-Alt-Del), try inserting the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme into another PCI slot. Windows 95 ---------- With the Virtual Desktop feature in BlasterControl turned on, running a full screen application may exhibit clipped effect. To avoid this problem, turn off Virtual Desktop feature. Current VGA BIOS of Graphics Blaster Exxtreme fails the SciTech UniVBE test. Watch out for the updated SciTech UniVBE driver at our Web site. The updated driver will support additional VESA modes. 5. GENERAL NOTES a. DMPS Certain motherboards lock up the system when going into the low-power standby mode. To avoid this problem, disable the DPMS feature in the motherboard's BIOS. b. EXXDEMON.EXE The demon program (background process) is a Video Overlay Emulator which supports overlay feature in DirectDraw/DirectShow. It gets loaded every time the system starts up. c. AGP version (The following is applicable to Graphics Blaster Exxtreme AGP version only.) i. Windows 95 OSR 2.1 Only OSR 2.1 version (with USB supplement) of Windows 95 has the system files that support AGP features. To verify if your Windows 95 version is OSR 2.1, do the following: 1. Click the Start button, followed by Run. 2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit. 3. In the Registry Editor window, browse to this registry key: My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ 4. Look for the VersionNumber in the right pane of the Registry Editor window. If it is 4.03.1212 and later, this means your Windows version is OSR 2.1 or later. Otherwise, proceed to the following steps to install the USB supplement. ii. AGP Aperture The motherboard's BIOS setting for AGP Aperture should be 8 MB and above. Otherwise the DirectDraw/Direct3D will fail to use hardware acceleration (HAL). iii. GART Vxd The installation disk contains GART (Graphics Address Remap Table) Vxd for Intel chipset (LX440) only. For motherboards with other chipset type, please check the availability of a similar Vxd with your motherboard/chipset manufacturer. For VIA motherboard, make sure you are using VIAGART.VXD version 2.0 and later. This Vxd can be obtained from the motherboard manufacturer. 6. BIOS UPGRADE UTILITY GENERAL INFO ------------ BIOS version : 1.44.2 BIOS date : 03/03/98 The Graphics Blaster Exxtreme BIOS Upgrade utility consists of the following files: * EU1442F.EXE - BIOS upgrade program * AUTOEXEC.BAT - AUTOEXEC batch file * RESET.COM - RESET program WHAT'S NEW? ------------ Features added since v1.35.5 : 1) Fixed wrong color palette problem in DukeNukem 3D. 2) Fixed split-screen problem in Blood. 3) Fixed moni.exe problem that hangs the system when enabling or disabling the video. 4) Improved occasional "Green screen" problem during mode switch. 5) Fixed AMI-system BIOS start-up screen which runs at 30 Hz on AGP boards. 6) Fixed corrupted Win95 animated bootup logo on AGP board. KNOWN ISSUES ------------ 1) Screen lockup during video sequence in Wing Commander 4. - Use SVGA 8-bit instead of SVGA 16-bit in the screen-setup. or - Currently, a new patch made available from Origin solves the issue. This patch allows WC4 to be run from Win95. You can obtain the patch from the following ftp address. ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/origin/patches/wc4/wc4win95.zip EU1442F.EXE USAGE ----------------- EU1442F.EXE can be executed from the MS-DOS prompt using the following syntax: usage: EU1442F.EXE [/M:<4/8>] where [] indicates optional switches. /M:4 for 4 MB Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Board :8 for 8 MB Graphics Blaster Exxtreme Board TO UPGRADE YOUR SYSTEM'S VIDEO BIOS ------------------------------------ 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. IMPORTANT: a. As a precaution, it is recommended that you prepare a Recovery Disk before flashing your BIOS. You can do this by copying the following files to a *bootable* floppy disk: * AUTOEXEC.BAT * EU1442F.EXE * RESET.COM b. Before flashing, make sure you set the CMOS settings of your system to allow booting from a floppy disk. 2. Boot to native DOS, and run the BIOS upgrade program EU1442F.EXE. Note: 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". Note: 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 program displays the message, "BIOS successfully flashed", this means that the VGA BIOS on your Graphics Blaster Exxtreme is upgraded. 3. After the new BIOS is successfully flashed, reboot your system. The system should now boot up with the updated Graphics Blaster Exxtreme BIOS (verified by the new version number displayed during bootup). TROUBLESHOOTING ---------------- Sympton 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". Sympton B: BIOS upgrade program displays error message: "Creative GB Exxtreme card not present" Solution: You are trying to use this program on a video card that is not a Creative GB Exxtreme card. If you are certain that you have a Exxtreme card, your BIOS is probably being flashed with a non-Exxtreme image. Contact Creative technical support for further assistance. Sympton 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-Exxtreme VGA as primary display card. Insert a second (not Exxtreme) PCI VGA card into the 1st PCI slot and the GB Exxtreme into the 2nd PCI slot. Connect the non-Exxtreme 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 GB Exxtreme until you can bootup with the non-Exxtreme VGA as primary display card. 2) Re-program Exxtreme. When the system boots up successfully with the VGA card, you can then program the GB Exxtreme BIOS as described above, beginning from step 1a. After the program is executed, you can remove the non-Exxtreme card and bootup with your GB Exxtreme 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 your system to native DOS mode: Method 1 - Using a bootable diskette 1. Insert an unused diskette into your floppy disk drive A. 2. At the command prompt, type "FORMAT A: /S" to create a bootable diskette. 3. Leave the diskette in the drive and reboot your system. This boots your system to native DOS mode. Method 2 - Using the key 1. Reboot your system, paying attention to the on-screen initialisation messages. 2. When you see the text "Starting Windows 95...", press the key within 5 seconds. A menu appears. 3. On the menu, select the option "Command prompt only" to reboot the system to native DOS mode. ====End of Readme File====