WarFlail's Archives - August 1999

Go to WarFlail's Archives - September 1999

I knew this was going to happen one day: we're being evicted. :-( Our landlords want us to vacate the unit my wife Scully and I have been renting for the past 3 years, and (since we haven't done anything wrong) we've been given the requisite 60 days to pack our stuff and move out. That's not enough time to give us a chance to find a house to buy, so we're going to have to look for another rental place to move into for awhile... I hate renting. :-(

Okay, so I might have been a little slack lately putting any updates to this site. :-) Rest assured, though, that I've been busy combing through my recently-acquired copy of N. Robin Crossby's HârnMaster Gold Player Edition, to determine whether to migrate across to this new system instead of staying with Columbia Games' HârnMaster Second Edition rules. Actually, there isn't all that much separating the rules of the two systems, but there are some fairly fundamental differences (especially in combat) that can impact gameplay in a big way. And since I am an incurable House Rules developer, expect to see some HMG House Rules in the near future! Hmm... GunMaster Gold, anyone? :-)

While waiting for Matrox's Tech Support team to get back to me with a solution to the lockup problems I've been experiencing with my new G400 graphics card, I have been trawling the Matrox newsgroups and user forums to see if any other users have had the same problems and what workarounds they are using. One suggestion that seems to work with no apparent impact on gameplay is to force the G400 to operate in AGP 1X mode (instead of the default 2X). In the system registry, the setting change I made was:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display\0000\Settings\CPU]
"AGPFlags"="0"

This is by no means an acceptable permanent fix, but it seems sufficient for now. Later on, when Matrox puts out a new driver that officially corrects the problem, I will set the AGPFlags setting back to the default "1". Until then, if this lets me play 3D games without lockups, then I'll stick with this setting.

Finally, finally after placing my order for three copies of N. Robin Crossby's HârnMaster Gold Player Edition on 31st May, I received them today. They took almost three months to arrive and I had paid for them to be sent via air mail! Outrageous and unforgivable. :( All I can say is that this set of rules had better be worth the wait.

Today we placed my father's ashes in his grave at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park (Hillarys, Western Australia). It was just a small gathering, with only my mother, my wife and I attending. It was a perfect morning for the placement: cool, sunny, no wind - great golfing weather (Dad was a keen golfer).

Today was one of the days of the Bon Festival in Japan (13-16 August). In old times, ancestral spirits and departed souls were believed to return to their families during this period. O-Bon is a festival for welcoming them home, making offerings to them and making memorial services. Since my mother is Japanese and I was born and brought up in Japan (if only for half a dozen years), it seemed somehow appropriate to bury Dad's ashes today. Perhaps he was standing with us in spirit, watching.

Today was also my mother-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday, Pam! :-)

Hmm, I am still experiencing random screen freezes in 3D games. :-( Looks like the problem has not been solved yet. I sent off an e-mail message to Matrox's tech support so I hope they will have a solution for me.

For the past several days I have been getting very frustrated with the Matrox G400 graphics card. Although it works beautifully in 2D applications (I am currently running at 1280x1024 32-bit resolution with a vertical refresh rate of 85Hz!), for some reason in OpenGL and Direct3D applications (such as Quake II and Unreal), either the game simply locks up or it locks up and the screen accumulates masses of horizontal lines or warped blocks! Convinced that this is a software rather than a hardware problem, I have tried a mind-numbing combination of installing different versions of the graphics drivers and BIOS, adjusting the Graphics Aperture Size of my motherboard's BIOS, uninstalling and reinstalling my Sound Blaster Live! and DirectX drivers, etc. Finally, I think I have found a combination that works: setting the Graphics Aperture Size to 256MB; setting the Video Memory Cache Mode to USWC (uncacheable, speculative write combining); installing the latest BIOS for the G400 (version 1.5-22); installing (and reinstalling) the new version of PowerDesk (version 5.13.020); and enabling 32-bit Z-buffering. So far, so good - I managed to successfully run the Timedemos for Quake II's demo1.dm2 (45-48fps in 1024x768 resolution) and massive1.dm2 (35-38fps). But that is not to say that my system is truly stable: for me to come to that conclusion, I would have to run a 3D application over an extended period without lockup.

I finally decided to roll up my sleeves and attempt to overclock my Celeron 333 MHz. Actually, I should clarify that I attempted to overclock the motherboard's BUS Clock rather than the CPU's BUS Ratio. The result: successful and (so far) stable overclocking to 83.3 MHz, which means the CPU speed is now 83.3 (BUS Clock) x 5.0 (BUS Ratio for a Celeron 333) = 416 MHz! Excellent! Kudos to the Sharky Extreme Celeron Overclocking Guide!

My PC hardware setup now looks like this:

* Intel Celeron 333 MHz, overclocked to 416 MHz
* AOpen LX45 ATX mid-tower case
* Asus P2B Motherboard
* Hitachi 128 MB PC-100 SDRAM
* Matrox Millennium G400 32 MB 2D/3D Graphics Card
* Quantum Fireball 6.4 GB & 4.3 GB IDE Hard Drives
* Kenwood 42x TrueX CD-ROM Drive
* Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value Sound Card
* CTX PR711 17" Monitor, 0.25 dot pitch
* Generic 56Kflex Internal Modem
* Generic PCI Ethernet Card
* CH Flightstick Pro
* Microsoft USB Intellimouse
* Microsoft Natural Keyboard
* Sony MDR-CD770 Headphones
* Generic Speakers
* Liebert PowerSure ProActive 350VA UPS
* Epson Stylus Color 740 Printer
* Canon FB620P Scanner
* Connectix QuickCam VC Camera

I have returned from my international business trip. I was so busy at work last month that I had very little time to post any updates to this website - for that I apologise. Anyway, while I was travelling, I couldn't resist buying a couple of nice little items for my PC at home: a Kenwood 42X TrueX CD-ROM drive for US$79 from Fry's Electronics in Los Angeles and a Matrox Millennium G400 32MB graphics card for HK$1,350 from a shop in the Mongkok Computer Centre, Hong Kong. Sweet! :-)

Go to WarFlail's Archives - July 1999

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