AGP 8x/4x settings not saving.

Ok, I set my AGP bandwidth to 4x in the BIOS but when I boot into windows it still goes back to 8x. I tried changing it to 4x with coolbits in the Nvidia control panel but when I hit apply it applies the settings without rebooting and I just get a black screen/no input signal and I can't do anything but forcefully reboot.

I managed to change it with Rivatuner so the settings are applied on the next boot, but all reboots/hibernations after that make my video card return to 8x again! I did select the Apply settings at Windows startup, but it only works once.

What can I do to make my AGP bandwidth static? It's already set to 4x in the BIOS but Windows does whatever it pleases. I am using a Nvidia 7600GT, and I'm using 4x as it is solving some graphical glitches in Half Life-2 based games for me.

I know I could try Powerstrip, but do I really have to or is there an alternative? I just don't want anything else running in the background(PS does force you to run in the background for AGP settings to be applied yes?). Plus I hear powerstrip can interfere negatively with some Steam games?

Thanks for any help.

do you know what your mother board is? the exact name?

EDIT: i did some research... there's a chance that your Registry could be doing this.

However, i recommend you take a look at this thread. the user: HeeRoMaKi has the same problem as you. ctrl+f and paste HeeRoMaKi into the search bar and read his posts.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...1029-1100.html

don't forget to upgrade your drivers... also make sure your AGP Voltage (in bios) is set correctly.

I have the latest drivers for both my motherboard and graphics card, and it's a perfect clean install as I just formatted recently.

Btw I'm not having the same problem, mine just automatically resets to 8x every time I reboot or go into hibernation. I do have rivatuner disabled from starting up with windows to save resources, so maybe my settings are only saved for one boot when I change it, all other boots after it reset it probably because the app isn't running in the background... but why the hell should I need something eating my resources just to keep it at 4x? :frown:

What registry problem do you think it is? Rivatuner does let you change registry settings that deal with the video card, there is one entry called Bandwidth, the value is 4, but CPU-Z(cpu and mainboard diagnostic app) tells me it's at 8x.

I think CPU z could be wrong though, gonna try hl2 to see if I get the glitches, if I don't then it's at 4x and I'm fine. :)

Edit: Ok, so rivatuner is crap, I uninstalled it and got Powerstrip and it's loading my AGP setting correctly at boot time. Fortunately it's only a 600kb program. :D Unfortunately, whenever I go into hibernation, the AGP setting returns to 8x, and the "read-only" setting becomes active again. Pretty annoying. :/ Anyone know of a setting I should tweak so video settings are not reset when I go into hibernation?

Fortunately with PS I can change my AGP setting in realtime without a reboot, while the Nvidia control panel just cuts my signal to the monitor and just hangs there forcing me to reboot manually, but I'd still like to know how to make it keep my settings from before going on standby as I have my PC on standby at night to wake me up in the morning with some loud evil music. :wacko:

Bump for luck! This problem is beyond me, and possibly polo. I would assume there was a hardware failure (voltage issue probably) if you were having issues staying in 4x.

Thanks, did u read my edit? I have it in 4x permanently now thanks to powerstrip. It's still not resolving the glitches in Hl2, guess I'll have to experiment more with settings, thanks for the help.

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Originally Posted by Soeru

Thanks, did u read my edit? I have it in 4x permanently now thanks to powerstrip. It's still not resolving the glitches in Hl2, guess I'll have to experiment more with settings, thanks for the help.

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Oh I thought you were still having it reset in hibernation. Hmm, tried the beta drivers?

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

The 8XXX and 7XXX series both are recommended to use them.

I'm using 94.24 which are the most stable. I tried the beta drivers as well as others back before I did a format and I still had the same graphical issues in HL2 so they won't solve the problem. I sent the developers a error report/question, hopefully they'll get back to me.

does it by chance look like this?

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/9156/d1_eli_10001.jpg

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/9021/d1_town_050002.jpg

Have you tried reinstalling steam + the game? This is normally the cure all for steam games.

And I'd still recommend giving the latest beta drivers a go, I never had issues with them. You could also try these:

http://www.tweaksrus.com/index.php?o...=67&Itemid=41/

Just grab the appropriate ones and give them a try. xtreme-g drivers are the only 3rd parties drivers I'd ever recommend :minkoff:

Yeah I did the cache integrity check as well as redownloading all the game content again and it did nothing, it's a video card problem most certainly.

No the glitches are nothing like that, those types of artifacts only occur with overheating(which is not my case as my gpu is always within a safe temp plus I ran it with an open case and a fan on high blowing into it bringing the temp down a good 20 C, but the glitches still appeared, so it's not an overheating issue.

I don't get these glitches in any other game at all, just HL2 based games, and only with this video card not my old Radeon 9000.

Like I said I already tried the beta drivers on one occasion, they did not help me, 94.24 is stable and many people at the steam forum have confirmed this. Don't wanna try any 3rd party stuff, firstly because I doubt it's a driver issue, secondly because I don't want any traces of old drivers left if I have to uninstall it and go back to 94.24(which won't be possible since even after uninstalling some traces are always left, and Drivercleaner Pro doesn't detect 3rd party drivers, just common official ones.)

The glitches are like missing bits of texture/models, these holes are possible to see through and are such as parts of character model's faces or bodies and most characters and objects(including most of the weapons you're holding) have bizarre chunks of stretched texture protruding from characters or that appear like they're caught up in a spider web of garbage textures.

I got it to run without glitches once or twice but they returned after a while(as well as after a loading screen I believe, happened when the game changed maps in Hl2DM, and I changed NO settings at all, now it happens indefinitely, I haven't gotten the game to work without glitches again). Sometimes they only appear on certain characters or objects, progressively it just gets worse.

I tried the "flush" command and that didn't help. Tried adjusting dozens of cvars and nothing helps the problem, I've got the latest OS updates, mobo drivers and DX of course and anything else I haven't mentioned I probably have it already.

Have you tried completely uninstalling steam and deleting ALL the content from the steam folder afterwards? (it still leaves the engines there, and it may be that the engine is corrupt) Be sure "C:\Program Files\Steam" is completely gone (or was "C:\Program Files\Valve"... I can't remember, make sure both are gone :P )

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Originally Posted by Soeru

No the glitches are nothing like that, those types of artifacts only occur with overheating(which is not my case as my gpu is always within a safe temp plus I ran it with an open case and a fan on high blowing into it bringing the temp down a good 20 C, but the glitches still appeared, so it's not an overheating issue.

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Actually, those are software graphical glitches. Artifacts are typically irregular shapes that just pop up in random frames. It looks kind of cool sometimes :wacko:

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Originally Posted by Soeru

I don't get these glitches in any other game at all, just HL2 based games, and only with this video card not my old Radeon 9000.

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This is what's making it difficult to troubleshoot, its normally the other way around.

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Originally Posted by Soeru

Like I said I already tried the beta drivers on one occasion, they did not help me, 94.24 is stable and many people at the steam forum have confirmed this. Don't wanna try any 3rd party stuff, firstly because I doubt it's a driver issue, secondly because I don't want any traces of old drivers left if I have to uninstall it and go back to 94.24(which won't be possible since even after uninstalling some traces are always left, and Drivercleaner Pro doesn't detect 3rd party drivers, just common official ones.)

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I've never had an issue swapping back and forth to be honest. But if your uncomfortable, then you'll need to ban crusher.

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Originally Posted by Soeru

The glitches are like missing bits of texture/models, these holes are possible to see through and are such as parts of character model's faces or bodies and most characters and objects(including most of the weapons you're holding) have bizarre chunks of stretched texture protruding from characters or that appear like they're caught up in a spider web of garbage textures.

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That doesn't sound like a rendering issue on the gpu end, and it would be having issues with most of your games if it was. Can you post a screen shot?

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Originally Posted by Soeru

I got it to run without glitches once or twice but they returned after a while(as well as after a loading screen I believe, happened when the game changed maps in Hl2DM, and I changed NO settings at all, now it happens indefinitely, I haven't gotten the game to work without glitches again). Sometimes they only appear on certain characters or objects, progressively it just gets worse.

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........ hmmm. Just to make sure, what power supply do you have? And did you build this or is it an OEM?

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Originally Posted by Soeru

I tried the "flush" command and that didn't help. Tried adjusting dozens of cvars and nothing helps the problem, I've got the latest OS updates, mobo drivers and DX of course and anything else I haven't mentioned I probably have it already.

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Speaking of which, what OS are you using?

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

Have you tried completely uninstalling steam and deleting ALL the content from the steam folder afterwards? (it still leaves the engines there, and it may be that the engine is corrupt) Be sure "C:\Program Files\Steam" is completely gone (or was "C:\Program Files\Valve"... I can't remember, make sure both are gone :P )

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Yes I did exactly that. It's fine, like I said, the same installation worked fine with my old Radeon NOT my new card.

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

Actually, those are software graphical glitches. Artifacts are typically irregular shapes that just pop up in random frames. It looks kind of cool sometimes :wacko:

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I've seen the very same glitches(in fact I think they were the very same pictures) posted at the Steam forum and the problem was resolved by running a fan on high into the open PC case, so it proved to be an overheating issue. :?:

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

I've never had an issue swapping back and forth to be honest. But if your uncomfortable, then you'll need to ban crusher.

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Wtf...? :wacko:

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

That doesn't sound like a rendering issue on the gpu end, and it would be having issues with most of your games if it was. Can you post a screen shot?

........ hmmm. Just to make sure, what power supply do you have? And did you build this or is it an OEM?

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I bought a new 600W PSU together with the card so it's not a PSU problem. My PC is OEM, save for the minor upgrades I've done to it(RAM, gfx card, dvd-rw and hard disk), which I've had in my PC for way before this so they're not the problem. I'm using XP SP2.

Here are some screenies. Keep in mind some of the glitches get much worse than this! Most of the character models look like they're entangled in stray textures, and are missing lots of bits here and there.

If it was only transparency in the gasoline barrels I wouldn't mind, it would always be fun to see where you're going when carrying one of those with the gravity gun and throwing it at people. :wacko:

Edit: Btw I'm not getting any crashes or anything, and the barrel problem rarely to never happens now, just much worse character model jamblings.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... Its only happening in HL2, which is what is making this so damn hard to pinpoint. I've helped people with this problem on radeon's and driver updates fixed it.......... Maybe polobunny knows something as the only thing I would know to do at this point is RMA the card, and I don't think its a hardware problem.

Oh btw this is the 2nd Nvidia 7600GT I've gotten, I returned the first one thinking it was a hardware issue. The store won't give me cash back they'll just give me a store coupon for the same amount if I want to return, and they have no other AGP cards. :S

I looked back over those 2 images I posted, and I was wrong, the second one threw me off but the first one definitely was artifacting :wacko: Just felt that it was necessary to say that.

Anyways, I'm still out of ideas, but if you wanted to go to the extremes, you could try formatting/reinstalling windows :wacko:

Also, one thing, what are you using to monitor the temps on your card? 20C just doesn't sound right, even under those conditions. I doubt its over heating but you never know.

EDIT - I HAS AN IDEA! Go to the nvidia control panel and find the game profiles. Find Half Life 2 and turn everything off or to application controlled. I can give you details later but I'm at work :wacko:

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

Anyways, I'm still out of ideas, but if you wanted to go to the extremes, you could try formatting/reinstalling windows :wacko:

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I did this last week because of this very same reason. :wacko: Enjoying the faster performance but this problem still persists.

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

Also, one thing, what are you using to monitor the temps on your card? 20C just doesn't sound right, even under those conditions. I doubt its over heating but you never know.

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Nvidia control panel. No the temp isn't 20C, I said I brought it down BY 20 C with the fan, it was at 70 when in game and I brought it down to 50 C with the fan.

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Originally Posted by Panda Man

EDIT - I HAS AN IDEA! Go to the nvidia control panel and find the game profiles. Find Half Life 2 and turn everything off or to application controlled. I can give you details later but I'm at work :wacko:

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I already tried that. :S