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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Nick on December 26, 2002, 02:42:41 PM
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Hello
My BVision is going through a stage of being weird again. This weirdness is strange! It did this a
few months ago, and has gone through stages of doing this since I got it, or at least not long after
I got it. Well this is hard to explain.
I get a load of vertical lines. Not on the whole display, unless it gets really bad, which isn`t all
the time. It most commonly infests places where a redraw has happened. Places like where a window
was moved from. Sometimes another redraw in that place can make it better or worse. Also on scrolly
sections the sections of lines act basically the same. When you scroll you may wipe them out, or
make new ones. They are mostly fixed to the scrolly section, and move with it. Also it doesn`t
always infect all screen the same. Some aren`t effected straight away at all.
Hmm does that make sense? Anyway its annoying th hell out of me as it won`t go away! resetting and
turning it off doesn`t work. So I`m stuck with it 99% of the time.
Thanks
Nick
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OK so nobody has had this problem. DOH!!!!!!
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I would guess its probably the connection between the Bvision and BPPC being a bit faulty, or the connection between the VGA cable and the socket on the BPPC. I get strange artifacts on my Bvision when its cold, I have to wait a few minutes for the connector to warm up so it makes a good contact, I sometimes get strange dots on screen on some boots, I think thats also related to the connector. However im not prepared to fiddle with it, It works in a fashion so thats okay for me :-)
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Hmm that the sort of thing I thought too. I will have to turn it off and let it cool down first, before I start fiddling with it.
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I've got the same problem with my BVision. AFAIK it's a problem of the
graphics memory. It only occurs if the tooltype bitmapcache is set.
Sadly this is needed for Warp3D but you can turn it off when you are
using other applications. (You need to reboot after changing the
option). Just take a look at sys:Prefs/CyberGraphX.
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Check also that you dont have any remaining AGA patches in the system, that may have lingured since you upgraded to bvision.
Also, it sounds like an effect that can accur with the ever so buggy mui :)
Make sure refresh is set to Simple as Apposed to Smart and see if that helps clear it up abit.
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I have fiddled with my BVision and it now works. I was thinking before posting on here that it could
be a bad connection. Thats the only thing which could explain this. The fact that it goes through
periods of doing this here and there. Also when its doing it, it keeps doing it. Thing is it has
been over a year since it last did it, and I couldn`t remember what I did.
@Mad-Matt
Hehe, My OS has absolutely nothing in common with my old AGA OS. I haven`t had an AGA only computer
for a few years now. Yuk! :-) Thanks anyway.
Thanks people
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I had the same probs. So here is the
temp. solution until you fix the problem:
Go to DEVS:monitors & select icon info
for BVisionPPC monitor. Then there you should
have following tooltypes:
BITMAPCACHE=YES
BOOTLOGO=YES
PACKED24=NO
SCROLLMASK=YES
PASSTHROUGH=NO
VLAYER=DESTRUCTIVE
If you set BITMAPCACHE to NO - there will be
no vertical lines. Or you can chose 16bit
screen.
If you have some more probs, email me.
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I would have thought VERTICALLINES=NO solving the problem would have been more amusing. Akin to nosmoke.exe.
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Hehe
Problem is I`ve solved the problem. Lose connection. Well so it would seem. I fiddled with it then turned it on. Hey presto, Robert`s your father`s brother. Fixed.
Thanks
PS do you have a cure for Cockney? I seem to have gained some from somewhere. :-)
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I do got the problem you hade.
But I have fiddled with it for a will and I'm comm
ing nowere.
Help?
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Have you followed the advice from the other guys?
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Yup
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Hmm. Maybe theres something wrong with your BVision->PPC connector. If its exactly the same as mine, then it seemed that all it was was a bad connection. Maybe yours is just worse.
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I don't think it's the connection.
The lines is visible on screenshots and the blanker is recating at them (can't realy explain that one).
Ans I have sent it back ones to the retailer and he had no problems with it.
So I do think it's a software problem.
The only thing I can come up with after dissabling everpatch and program except setpatch appart from os3.9 itself is BB2 update.
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I don't think it's the connection.
The lines is visible on screenshots and the blanker is recating at them (can't realy explain that one).
Ans I have sent it back ones to the retailer and he had no problems with it.
So I do think it's a software problem.
The only thing I can come up with after dissabling everpatch and program except setpatch appart from os3.9 itself is BB2 update.
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Hmm you`ve got me. It could be your PPC or motherboard. Maybe. Thats just a shot in the dark though. Something hard to test too. Have you tested both PPC + BVision on another A1200?
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I have had this very same problem since I first got my BVisionPPC card in 2001! I've fiddled with the connection, tried every setting combination there is and it wouldn't go away.
Since then I have ascertained that in my case 2MB of the SGRAM (the 5th and 6th from the base) is faulty in some way - data written to that address range gets garbled up.
I have tested this by writing a small & dirty C program that directly accesses the BVision gfx memory and does a simple write/read/compare loop (which trashes the display even more than the vertical lines :)
For those of you that get this problem during scrolling/window sizing/moving etc, the problem is caused by the the allocation temporary surfaces in the affected area during blitter accelerated operations. This is especially true if you use smart refresh which saves and restores 'about-to-be-temporarily-overdrawn' areas using blits.
So, what can be done?
In my case, nothing fixes the problem. However, I have a work around that effectively eliminates 99% of the time.
Note - you may have a different address range causing problems so experiment with these values.
1) Open a large WB screen (actual area size, not resolution) sufficient to fill the lower unnafected area. In my case that's 4MB - 1600x1280x16bit is just right.
2) Open a second screen sufficient to fill the affected region. In my case thats 2MB, so 1024*1024*16 is just right. MUI's Public Screen Inspector is pretty handy for this job.
3) Change the WB screen back to your favourite size.
Afterwards, the second screen sits in the affected region and wont move (unless you open several large screens and it gets paged out). This means no more temporary bitmaps are allocated in the affected region and your other screens stay clean.
Before anyone worries that this sounds too much work, the above can be put into a little AmigaDOS script and dropped into your startup draw.
You'll need *something* like this
; Fill the lower unnaffected region with huge wb screen
screenmode >nil: sys:prefs/presets/fillitup.prefs use
; Open our screen in the duff gfxmem area
mui:psi >nil: dudscreen open
; restore wb screen
screenmode >nil: envarc:sys/screenmode.prefs use
...where fillitup.prefs was created using screenmode and dudscreen defined in PSI
NOTE - Im not sure if the above is totally correct - Im at work and nowhere near my miggy!
Anyone needing more info can email me and I'll look it up properly :)
Make sure it has the highest priority above anything else in there.
I hope this helps you out.
Happy 2K3,
Karlos
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Hey Karlos, you describe my problem exactly! See my thread here:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56297
'Good' to see that there are more people with this issue. Although I congratulate you on your nice workaround, I would prefer to have it fixed on a hardware level.
So, to everyone that has posted in this thread, have you found a way to fix this problem? I know its been a long time.. :)