AVGA3000 Win7 Issue

[8BitMonk]

I've recently upgraded my AVGA card and am having problems installing the drivers. Note: The issue isn't the Win7 Directdraw issue, that shouldn't affect me as I have a multi-sync monitor. I've also been in contact with Andy though he can't seem to recreate the issue on his end so I'd like to see if anyone else had a similar issue and worked through it.

My issue is with the driver install itself. If I don't install the drivers in Vista compatibility mode it says it's missing an INF file and the drivers don't install. If I do install in compatibility mode the drivers install though I get a MOM.Implementation or CLI.Implementation error on restart and can't switch resolutions with the quickres utility, it'll say 'Mode Change Failed'. Googling those errors I've found reports that they're caused by missing .NET Frameworks though I've tried installing all of them in combination, 1.1, 2.0 and so on along with their service packs.

It should be mentioned that I've tried the drivers on the CD as well as directly off the site and also used the Ultimarc utility to wipe any old ATI components before each trial.

Anyone else have issues with the AVGA3000 and Win7 32bit? I'm about to just reinstall Win7 and see if a fresh install helps and if that fails go back to XP but before I go through the hassle I'd like to verify there isn't some other fix I'm missing. Appreciate any help or suggestions.

[Draco1962]

I am not familiar with the video card and I am assuming you are using an Arcade monitor. Have you tried installing in XP compatibility mode instead of Vista? have heard of some having better luck that way.

[8BitMonk]

I am not familiar with the video card and I am assuming you are using an Arcade monitor. Have you tried installing in XP compatibility mode instead of Vista? have heard of some having better luck that way.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had already tried in XP compatibility mode as well with similar results as Vista compatibility mode.

[Draco1962]

Anything else you can tell us about your system? Thus far we have Win 7 32-bit and the Arcade VGA3000 card. What kind of monitor, RAM, etc.? Does your motherboard have a "built-in" or "onboard" video adapter? If so, has it been disabled in BIOS and the video drivers for it uninstalled?

[8BitMonk]

Anything else you can tell us about yoru system? Thus far we have Win 7 32-bit and the Arcade VGA3000 card. What kind of monitor, RAM, etc.? Does your motherboard have a "built-in" or "onboard" video adapter? If so, has it been disabled in BIOS and the video drivers for it uninstalled?

Dell Inspiron Desktop 531 Mini-tower: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ (2.10GHZ) 3GB Ram

It has onboard video though no place in the bios that I could see to disable it. It doesn't show under Displays in Device Manager

The monitor is a Betson Imperial IMP-44-4070-RT Tri-sync arcade monitor

Windows 7 Professional

I was running an Ultimarc AVGA2 card previously previously with no problems.

[Draco1962]

It seems that there have been many reports of mixed results from my searches. It still sounds like it is not playing nice with the ointegrated graphics adapter. Also, with the Dell 530/531 PCs the installation of the PCI video card is supposed to disable the integrated video but it doesn't always do so. I would have another look at the device manager and see if you can locate it adn disable it. That being said, you may still have problems and may not be able to overcome any compatibility issues.

[8BitMonk]

It seems that there have been many reports of mixed results from my searches. It still sounds like it is not playing nice with the ointegrated graphics adapter. Also, with the Dell 530/531 PCs the installation of the PCI video card is supposed to disable the integrated video but it doesn't always do so. I would have another look at the device manager and see if you can locate it adn disable it. That being said, you may still have problems and may not be able to overcome any compatibility issues.

Thanks for the feedback and info. I'll investigate disabling the integrated graphics further. It must be something specific to my machine like that.

[jombee]

I've recently upgraded my AVGA card and am having problems installing the drivers. Note: The issue isn't the Win7 Directdraw issue, that shouldn't affect me as I have a multi-sync monitor. I've also been in contact with Andy though he can't seem to recreate the issue on his end so I'd like to see if anyone else had a similar issue and worked through it.

My issue is with the driver install itself. If I don't install the drivers in Vista compatibility mode it says it's missing an INF file and the drivers don't install. If I do install in compatibility mode the drivers install though I get a MOM.Implementation or CLI.Implementation error on restart and can't switch resolutions with the quickres utility, it'll say 'Mode Change Failed'. Googling those errors I've found reports that they're caused by missing .NET Frameworks though I've tried installing all of them in combination, 1.1, 2.0 and so on along with their service packs.

It should be mentioned that I've tried the drivers on the CD as well as directly off the site and also used the Ultimarc utility to wipe any old ATI components before each trial.

Anyone else have issues with the AVGA3000 and Win7 32bit? I'm about to just reinstall Win7 and see if a fresh install helps and if that fails go back to XP but before I go through the hassle I'd like to verify there isn't some other fix I'm missing. Appreciate any help or suggestions.

I have the same card and had no problems installing the drivers in a fresh install of Win 7 64 bit. Quickres also works fine with my setup (ArcadeVGA 3000 & the same Betson Trisync monitor). I have had trouble with various emulators, make sure you download and install the most recent version of directx9 and directx10 in addition to updating DX11, net framework, Visual Basic/Studio, etc.

[8BitMonk]

I have the same card and had no problems installing the drivers in a fresh install of Win 7 64 bit. Quickres also works fine with my setup (ArcadeVGA 3000 & the same Betson Trisync monitor). I have had trouble with various emulators, make sure you download and install the most recent version of directx9 and directx10 in addition to updating DX11, net framework, Visual Basic/Studio, etc.

Thanks for the info. I'm reinstalling Windows 7 32bit now just to see if it works with a clean install. From what I've heard the problems with the other emulators is related to the 64 bit version of windows. I'm on the fence as to what to install. XP is probably the most foolproof and reliable (no chance of the AVGA DirectDraw error) though I really don't want an older OS moving forward when I have Windows 7. Deciding between 32 / 64 bit Windows 7 is tricky as well since I've heard that the 64bit version can give you up to a 20% speed boost in mame with certain games like the newest Gauntlet (making it playable) and this is primarily a mame machine. I have my console games on another computer hooked up to my tv anyway. What emulators gave you the most trouble and were you able to resolve the issues?

What versions of the .net framework do you have installed? I think that Windows 7 installs 2.0 service pack 2 by default but there's also 1.0, 1.1, 3, 3.5 and 4. The multiple versions of that and DirectX always throw me for a loop. You'd think you'd just need the newest version but that isn't always the case.

Thanks again for confirming it's working on a similar setup.

[jombee]

Thanks for the info. I'm reinstalling Windows 7 32bit now just to see if it works with a clean install. From what I've heard the problems with the other emulators is related to the 64 bit version of windows. I'm on the fence as to what to install. XP is probably the most foolproof and reliable (no chance of the AVGA DirectDraw error) though I really don't want an older OS moving forward when I have Windows 7. Deciding between 32 / 64 bit Windows 7 is tricky as well since I've heard that the 64bit version can give you up to a 20% speed boost in mame with certain games like the newest Gauntlet (making it playable) and this is primarily a mame machine. I have my console games on another computer hooked up to my tv anyway. What emulators gave you the most trouble and were you able to resolve the issues?

What versions of the .net framework do you have installed? I think that Windows 7 installs 2.0 service pack 2 by default but there's also 1.0, 1.1, 3, 3.5 and 4. The multiple versions of that and DirectX always throw me for a loop. You'd think you'd just need the newest version but that isn't always the case.

Thanks again for confirming it's working on a similar setup.

I used to use WinXp with the ArcadeVGA 2 card just like you did. I wanted to upgrade to Win7 to get a current OS, and figured I would take advantage of my Core2duo processor (8500) and go 64bit, and get the newest ArcadeVGA card. While most Emulators ran fine (I compiled my own version of MAME64), I did run into problems with the newest Model 2 emulator, Demul and a few other console emulators. I was able to correct all the problems eventually. I had to download and install directx9 and 10 and update them. Then I had to install Visual Studio 2010, Visual Basic and Visual C++, and update those. I did need to install all the additional net frameworks and service packs up to version 4 and its updates.

The speed increase in the Mame CHD games is pretty significant, Gauntlet Legends is playable (although not perfect). The only emulator that I still seem to have a problem with is Dolphin. Even though my processor is overclocked quite a bit, that emulator still runs like a dog with the ArcadeVGA 3000. From what I have read on other forums, the newer ATI drivers speed things up a lot, but since Ultimarc hasn't released any updated drivers, I guess this isn't an option. I do know the emulator runs full speed on my main comp, which has an Nvidia card.

Since I also like to play console games on my TV, what I did was run a DVI cable from my cab to my TV from the DVI connector on the ArcadeVGA 3000 card. I also ran some audio cables to the TV. That way I can switch between the TV or the cab for either Arcade games or Console games. I tried using wireless controllers, but could not find any that worked decently. So I got 2 USB Sega Saturn controllers and some long extension cables, and I use those for TV console gaming.

Hope some of this info helps, good luck to you!

[Draco1962]

8BitMonk - I have not had many problems running Win 7 64-bit with most emulators so don't count it out if you have a true x64 machine. I was running MAMEUI32 and much prefer the response I get from MAMEUI64 on some of the newer games.

[8BitMonk]

UPDATE: After reinstalling Windows 7 Pro 32bit I was able to install the AVGA drivers with no problems. I then went to change the resolution with Quickres it gave me the 'Mode Change Failed' again so i was a bit worried. I found that after changing the display to 800x600 once through the Displays control panel this went away though and I was able to change the resolutions with Quickres fine. I did the 32bit install more out of curiosity just to see if it would work. After your feedback I decided I wanted to run the 64bit version and I did a clean 64bit install. I figure this will give me some speed benefits as well as future proof me a bit for games that might come out. The 64bit driver install also worked fine so the problems I was having must've had to do with something that had been installed along the way, perhaps some old ATI components not being able to be purged.

So now that I have Win7 64 bit going I was wondering a couple things about games and emulators that may leverage the AVGA 3000 card. Jombee are you running Zinc, psxMame or ePSXe? Curious if you've tweaked your video setting for best performance. I thought I'd have better luck with certain games that were unplayable before like Tekken 3 in Zinc with teh AVGA3000 though after much experimentation with the setting I don't see much of an improvement over the AVGA2. I have psxMame running Tekken Tag on another computer with a beefier OS and card extremely well but still can't seem to find settings that run it well on my arcade cab with the AVGA. It's definitely playable but not fluid. Any suggestions for settings that you've had work well for emulators for 3D type games?

[Draco1962]

8BitMonk - Glad you got things going in the right direction! Hopefully Jombee and a few of others may be able to step in and help with the individual emulator settings to get things tweaked.