I'll give it a go.


> >
> I saw on the box that the video card is supposed to be a Direct X 8
> video card, but 3D Mark 2001 SE, still with the game test,
> "Game 4-Nature", prohibits me from displaying the game and displays
message in red, "No Hardware Support-Skipping test...".

The card is never a DX8 card, it sure works with DX8 or later, but never
support all features on hardware level.

> The message apperently means they tricked me and it's technically, even
when > GTAIII will still run good, a
> DirectX
>  7 video card.

They wouldn't tricked you (if they do, they can be sued for false
advertising), if you read the "word", it is possible that they say the card
works with DX8, however, it doesn't mean anything (all cards do).

> But, here's the bigger problems I need to talk about:
>
> With 3D Mark 2001 SE's Point Sprites test, which don't require a DirectX 8
> hardware video card, (even my GeForce 2 MX 200 renders the horse OK), I'm,
with the Point Sprites test getting corrupted gfx elements: The dark spots
(points) on the horse not rendering and instead getting holes, just like
Swiss cheese on the horse! Why? BTW, still happens with the latest ATI
driver set, Catalyst 3.0.
>

There are many possibilities, even so, it sounds like something wrong at
software level, you can not rule out of hardware failur either. so you
should try:

complete remove ATi driver (and nVidia driver files), try reinstall latest
Cat 3 driver as fresh as possible, also reinstall DX 9, just in case your DX
files got corrupted.  Just let you know that CAT 3 driver is supposed to
work with DX9 (many reported problems with DX8, but solved when installed
DX9), if you are still using DX8, this could be problem.

If you couldn't solve the problem at software level, try the card in another
known good machine.

there are some good places you can try: for all ATi cards and driver -
www.rage3d.com and www.guru3d.com should be your best bet.

> Also, I noticed funky things with this video card:
>
> A immediate lock up crash with black screen if attempting to access my
> CD drive with my second hard disk drive attached.

How did your hard drive attached?

>
> My voltage readings have changed with this video card, like it's trying
> to tell my Chaintech CT-7AJA2E motherboard how to regulate voltages.
>
> With my GeForce 2 MX200:
>
> 3.3V- 3.30V
>
> 5V- 5.13V
>
> 12V- 12.07V
>
> ------------------------
> --
>
>
> With my Radeon VE 64 MB DDR
>
> 3.3V- 3.37
>
> 5V- 5.13V
>
> 12V- 11.94V
>

This is perfect normal.

Jun Qian

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