FastVid v1.10 - Freeware - FAQ.TXT



See FASTVID.TXT for more info!

This FAQ was compiled by Eric van Ballegoie.
THX to John Hinkley for providing most of this info.

NOTES:
- References to Pentium Pro CPUs include also all Pentium II, III + IV CPUs.
- References to Windows 95 include also all Windows 98 + ME editions.
- References to Windows NT4 include also all Windows 2000, XP + 2003 editions.


Q: How can I find out which LFB address my video card uses?
A: A: When you run VSPEED (USE THE ONE HERE, NOT AN OLDER VERSION !!!) it will
   report some possible LFB addresses.
   If FASTVID can't automatically detect the LFB address, you can determine
   its location from Windows 95/98/ME Device Manager. Select Start, Settings,
   Control Panel, System, Device Manager, Display Adaptors, your graphics
   card, Resources. Scroll to the bottom of the Resource Settings box and you
   will see a line (or a few lines) that read(s): "Memory Range
   XXXXXXXX - YYYYYYYY". The first value should be the location of the linear
   frame buffer. Take note of the address and input it into FASTVID when
   asked. If there are several address try each of them. Ignore the following
   memory regions: A0000-AFFFF, B0000-BFFFF, C0000-CFFFF.
   If all of this doesn't work out, try UNIVBE 5.2/5.3 When you run UNIVBE it
   will report "ENABLING LINEAR FRAME BUFFER AT XXXXX Mb" where XXXXX is a
   decimal value. Now, search the HEX equivalent for this number. This can be
   done with LFB_CONV.EXE (also on my site). Enter the decimal LFB address
   when prompted, and it will calculate the HEX equivalent. If none if these
   methods work your card might not support LFB modes.

Q: In VSPEED my screen turns black on the second 5 second test, how come?
A: Make sure you have the right LFB address (see above). If you're sure you
   have the right address, it might be that your video card requires VESA
   extentions to be loaded (S3 868/969 for example). You can simply do this by
   loading UNIVBE 5.2/5.3 before running FastVid.

Q: Eventhough all FastVid's settings are enabled, I still get bad VSPEED
   Results, how come?
A: Your video card might need VESA extiontion to be loaded first, see above.

Q: I have an ASUS P/I P6NP5 Mainboard, and I've heard that you wouldn't need
   FastVid at all on this mainboard, is that true?
A: For as far as I know, it depends on the video card you use with the P6NP5.
   With the Matrox Millennium you might not need FastVid, just check it by
   typing "fastvid xxx". If all settings are enabled already, you don't need
   FastVid. With most cards however, you'll still need FastVid.

Q: When I set the bios option for "Video Mem Cache Mode" to "USWC", the screen
   screen of Windows' safe mode (or any other 640x480x8 mode) is corrupted.
   Is there a workaround for this?
A: You might want to put the bios setting to "UC" and let FastVid enable this
   setting (It's FastVid's "VGA Write Combining" function). If you start
   Windows in safe mode, your autoexec.bat will not be executed and FastVid
   will not load so you can work in safe mode without the problem.

Q: I have a 82450 (ORION) mainboard. How can it be that my system hangs from
   time to time after running FastVid?
A: Enabeling FastVid's "Write Posting" function causes this problem, simply
   disable it. See FASTVID.TXT for more info.

Q: Evenyhough I have enabeled FastVid's LFB setting, I can't get any
   improvement on the LINEAR mode, how come?
A: Make sure that you are not running any many memory managers like EMM386,
   QEMM or 386MAX . They interfere with FastVid's LFB function. Remove these
   memory managers from your startup files and run your programs from within
   Windows 95 whenever possible.

Q: When I run FastVid from Windows 95 I get a DOS4GW error and a register
   dump. How can I avoid this problem?
A: You should always run FastVid from real mode DOS, not from the Windows 95
   DOS prompt. You you can do so by pressing "F8" when the message "Starting
   Windows 95" appears on your sceen. From the menu, choose "Command prompt
   only".

Q: On my Number Nine Imagine 128 II I get real bad performance with VSPEED.
   Is this a hardware problem?
A: Partly, the Imagine 128 II VESA mode performance varies greatly with the
   BIOS version. On older Imagine 2 boards with a 3.01.0x BIOS, VGA (& VBE)
   support is provided by a separate (very slow), dos processor (Cirrus Logic
   CL5424). On boards with a 3.02.0x BIOS, the Imagine 2 engine always handles
   VBE applications. VBE 2.0 and linear frame buffer support are available as
   of the 3.02.03 BIOS version. If you have an older BIOS version, you should
   get a newer bios which lets the Imagine 2 engine handle VBE modes.

Q: With FastVid enabled on my 4Mb ET6000 video card, the Windows 95 fonts get
   messed up, What can I do about it?
A: There is a work around for this problem: Specify FastVid to use 2MB for the
   LFB instead of the default 4.

Q: On my S3 based video card. I get real bad results on the BANKED mode of
   VSPEED, what can I do about it?
A: Load UNIVBE 5.3 before running FastVid. If that doesn't help, use the
   S3SPDUP package and see the text files.

Q: I get real bad results with one, or both of the tests from VSPEED, is it a
   bug?
A: I'm not sure. Try SciTech's profile instead. It comes with UNIVBE. You can
   also load it from my site. "Profile 101" will test the banked mode,
   "Profile 4101" will test the LFB.

Q: In the VSPEED benchmark table I see another system with the same
   configuration I have, but giving higher results, how come?
A: Your system is not optimally configured, try altering the performance
   related settings in your bios such as the DRAM timings, or the PCI
   settings. Also be sure that you use the latest bios and drivers for your
   mainboard and you video card.

Q: I have a Voodoo graphics based add-on 3D card. Can I run fastVid on that
   card instead on on my normal 2D card?
A: It might be possible, but it's useless. 3DFX has already enabled write
   combining in the VXD so fastVid has no use. 3DFX recomends not to enable
   FastVid.

Q: I have a Pentium II system, will I need FastVid?
A: With the Mainboards avialable right now (05/26/97) the Pentium II needs
   FastVid just as much as the PPro needs it. In other words:
   YES YOU NEED IT.

Q: How do I install FastVid on my Hercules Stingray 128 3D card ?
A: This solution came from a Stingray user, an official Hercules statement
   will come later:
1) Load new S128/3D-drivers (v. 1.01) from Hercules. Old drivers do not work
   with FastVid in WinGlide-games.
2) Check your LFB-address, mine is e6000000. You can check your addresses in
   Windows 95 from Control Panel => System. Check FastVid install guide.
3) Fastvid works OK in my machine with settings: FASTVID 111 2 e6000000.
   My S128/3D does NOT work with FASTVID 111 4 e6000000.
4) Before you try VSPEED you must disable EMM386 to get good results. Allways
   use NEWEST VSPEED version, old one does not work correctly. With new VSPEED
   you must use command "VSPEED ADDRESS", for example "VSPEED e6000000".

Q: On my #9 Imagine 128 Series 2 (4 Mb) I get good VSPEED scores with the
   latest BIOS, but DirectX programs don't run better, what can I do?
A: This is a specific case, it might differ from machine to machine, solution
   from John Hinkley: It turns out that the Imagine 128 was using different
   LFB addresses for the two modes: FF000000 for DOS, FF400000 for Windows 95.
   FASTVID would work for either region but he had to choose between DOS and
   Windows 95 performance. Since these two 4MB regions were right next to each
   other, I suggested he try using the lower address and tell FASTVID that he
   had 8MB -- enough to cover both regions. This solution worked and he was
   able to have fast graphics under both DOS and Windows 95!

Q: What can I do about the runtime errors I get from S3VBE20 and S3SPDUP on my
   PII 266 or faster?
A: The runtime errors are due to a bug in older versions. This only happens on
   very fast machines. Make sur you have:
   - S3VBE20 version 3.17 or newer.
   - S3SPDUP version 3.11 or newer.

Q: When I run DXSpeed I get results which are way worse than my VSPEED
   results!
A: To get the best out of DXSpeed you should have drivers installed which are
   100% DirectDraw compatible. Some drivers made by your board manufacturer
   will cause drasticly lower performance.

Q: I have a Pentium II machine with the 440LX chipset and an AGP videocard.
   Do I still need FastVid?
A: The answer is simple: Yes, you still need FastVid.

Q: I have an Intel P5 (Pentium or Pentium MMX) and I wonder why there are
   utilities for almost all leading CPUs except for the Pentium, why is this?
A: At this moment there are no Pentium performance enhancing utilities, and I
   don't know whether there are possibilities to make them.

Q: On my 400FX (or later) boards FastVid says "Write Posting Unknown" what's
   it mean?
A: On board with 440FX or higher chipsets FastVid cannot determine the status
   of this function. You can either find an option for it in your BIOS, or it
   will be enabled by it.

Q: I've installed FastVid, but Quake II doesn't seem to run any faster. What
   do I need to do?
A: Quake II is a game which runs under Windows 95 with either software
   rendering or OpenGL. In both cases you will NOT get any performance
   increase.