Let’s see, where do I start?

OK, first off, VIA 4-in-1 drivers suck dick. 😡 I’ve been trying 4.34, 4.33, 4.28, 4.25, 4.19 (and not to mention individual AGP GARTS 4.03, 4.05, and 4.05c), but what it always comes down to is me going back to the original Abit supplied 4.20 (with AGP GART 4.00). I’m never getting another 4-in-1 as long as I have my VT6X4. Geez…I had to format my drive twice to finally get things straight with this new GeForce2 Ultra.

Here are a couple tips for GF2 users on VIA chipsets:
If you see about a billion artifacts on the screen and can’t get past the standard resolution of 640x480x2, then there’s a problem with your GART. If you can’t even load Windows and it just sits at a black screen with a blinking cursor, then the drivers are at fault (such as the new Detonator 4’s don’t support 4xAGP on the Apollo Pro, but you’ve got it set to that).

The GF2u is alright, but is gonna require a bit more tweaking til I get it where I want. So far, I have a High Polygon mark of 18225 KTriangles/s. That friggin score beats systems with 1Ghz Processors! What? Don’t believe me? Well, take a look at this MadOnion.com comparison:

I bet you wanna know how I did that shit. 8) Well, maybe later I’ll let you fellow VIA Apollo Pro users know on my Abit VT6X4 Tweak Guide. I wanna finish up that column soon, because I don’t even have the Viper II in anymore and don’t wanna forget all the shit I did to get that motha to owning GF2s in UTBench. Loogie is still getting like half my score on 3DMark 2000 with that GF2 GTS, so I dunno what his problem is. 😛

That’s about it, really. Hmm…Thought there was more, but I guess not. I’m just really in the process of tweaking and getting shit straight so there’s more content to write about when I actually have time to do it. Ug…I hate English class. I’m pretty sure that I can write fluently. There’s no “im l337, n00b. i r0x0rz yur a$$” at S&L.

Oh, and as you’ll see from the screenshot above, I have 256MB of RAM, now. Micron’s Crucial.com is the only solution as far as I’m concerned for my memory upgrades.

I’ll keep it short. I made my own “Cyber RS”-like Windows Cursors. They’re a phatty blue/purple/red and look really swooby with the legendary (at least as Loog and I see it) Cyber RS Windows system icon motif.

I’ve made a self-installing archive. It’ll extract the cursors to the appropriate directory and then merge the settings into the registry. You can either restart the computer or manually pick the cursor scheme in the mouse properties for the cursors to take effect. It’s called Snake‘s RS. Download here. 8)

Maybe later this week, you’ll get to use an entire Snake‘s RS theme, complete with my latest Serpent wallpaper. Look at this stuff…you can’t tell me it ain’t badass. My desktop kicks your desktop’s ass; yes, even you shell changing fags (LiteStep is poo). 😉

Got my 2CoolTek order yesterday. It took only 4 days since I sent the Money Order and everything was satisfactory; especially the Arctic Silver II. I have now managed to obtain the coveted maximum Front-Side Bus clock for my VT6X4, 150Mhz. 8) Since the Pentium III’s multiplier is locked, as far as I can go is a mediocore 750Mhz (5×150). I seriously think that I could make it to 825Mhz (5.5×150), though. Anyways, Arctic Silver kicked my “GheTTo 3M tape strung across the HSF’s” ass. The thermal tape probably wasn’t a good idea in the first place, cause it seems to trap little air pockets. So don’t even try it.

Loog’s all freaking out about shit, so I tested his Geforce2 GTS today and have determined that there is nothing wrong with it. I’ve been tweaking it a little bit, but haven’t got around to enabling 4X or Side-Banding (AGP Driving Value needs to be changed). I got it clocked to around 215/264 (default is 200/333) but after that there were artifacts all over. Again, the Driving Value should help that a little. Overall, my current Viper2 is only marginally slower than Loog’s GF2 GTS. In 3DMark 99 Max (my favorite video benchmark), the Viper2 is untouchable on the Race at 72.8fps and that was with a 140Mhz FSB and default clocks. The only reason to get a GeForce over a Viper2 is the stability. I had faith in S3 and Diamond, but nobody else did.

Formatting is a good thing, people. As long as you have taken the time to go through your entire drive and backup important files, formatting the primary drive should clear up a lot of registry problems and other general crap-ups that occur over time. So, have fun with your format, Loog. 😛

The review for the Aliens vs. Predator 2 demo is up. Check it out. here.

I swear, sooner or later, I WILL review the Roque Spear demo. But, just know that it ownz joo and gets a score of 10 from Snake.

I’ve been saving this entry for about a week. Many badass things have happened lately. I’ll break it down:

• I got a WebCam! An IBM PC Camera, for $60 (little high, don’t buy from ur friends 😮 ). I set it up atop my monitor, connected via USB. I had some problems w/ the drivers @ first, but now it works perfectly. This supports 3 reses, picks up sound, and can either take snapshot pics or motion avis. Here’s a few pics from it:
  
• I got a new Blue Orb fan from The Card Cooler (pictured above). It took about an hour to remove my old heatsink/fan and paste this on w/ Arctic Silver II paste. I hooked it to a MB fan header w/out a sensor, so I can’t test the RPM of it… anyway, this will make my GeForce2 reasonably cooler.
• The GhetTO Driver Catastrophe: First, I noticed that my USB ports didn’t detect new devices anymore (I noticed this when I hooked my WebCam up). So Snake suggested I go to viahardware.com and get the latest 4-in-1 drivers (v4.33, w/ newest AGP GART). I did, and shortly after (this was about the same time I put my newly-fanned GeForce in), it kept locking: in IE, CS, anything. So I reinstalled it once, then got some older drivers, still locked. Got just new AGP GART, still locked. I even tried doubling my AGP Aperture size in BIOS. Just a couple hours ago, I got the original AGP GARTs that came w/ our systems, and it works fine. I still have the newest 4-in-1. Anyway, what this solved was not only my USB (I think), but my IRQ collision problem.
  

  VIA PCI IRQ Miniport Driver is to be installed under Windows 98 only, it willfixed PCI IRQ routing sequence.

• Ever since the first S&L Surge failed LAN party, I lost my net protocols cause of network installions 😕 . So, I got my Windows 98 CD back from Snake, and reinstalled them. Now I can connect automatically to the net again.
• I e-mailed my uncle Bruce about the upcoming S&L Computers company. By December, we should definitely have this up & running. If u have an old computer, or not one @ all, ask us to sell u one: less travel distance, tweaked to ur liking, total installation, extra options (like painting).
• What else… um, I got those MODs Snake was talkin bout… all the MODs on the newest 3 Top10s are great. And… my computer is still quite hot (88° avg.), so I will probably change my CPU-HS contact from tape to paste. I will Overclock my GeForce once it’s cooler.
• Life is good… is it for u?

Ok, I spent some time today to upload the csv1113.exe upgrade patch for the mod version (non-retail). It’s about 33MBs and you can get it here: csv1113.exe.

I know that it’s been long enough that the major servers have sped up some, but this has no wait time whatsoever and you don’t have to worry about slow DL speed at all.