Shuttle MV25N fuzzy video

Video, SCSI, modem, CDROM/CDR/CDRW, etc.
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nickbrown
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Help !

We have bought 250 PCs with the Shuttle MV25N board, from Tulip, and they can't seem to find a solution to this problem.

The display is rather "fuzzy". Each character seems to have a "shadow" to its right. This happens identically on every machine in the series, so we don't think it's a component tolerance issue.

It happens with resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. At all refresh rates. On 8 different monitors including CRT and LCD.

We can reproduce the problem on Windows NT 4.0 SP6 (sgiulnt.sys version 3114 or 3220), or with "vanilla" Windows XP (all drivers from the XP CD).

We have 150 other PCs from Tulip with (I think) the MV20N, exactly the same video chipset, and a perfectly sharp display.

My users want to kill me ! I took away their old slow PCs, but all they see is out-of-focus characters !
soupy
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All 250? What a nightmare.

1. Is the display clear during POST?
2. Do you have the latest BIOS?
3. Do you have the latest video drivers?
4. Is there a BIOS setup option for amount of onboard memory used? For refresh rate? What are these set to?
5. Have you cleared CMOS and loaded setup defaults?

http://www.spacewalker.com/english/main ... number=158

http://www.spacewalker.com/english/download.htm

http://www.tridentmicro.com/drivers/drivers.html
Flash your BIOS at your own risk.
NickS
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nickbrown wrote:Help !

We have bought 250 PCs with the Shuttle MV25N board, from Tulip, and they can't seem to find a solution to this problem.

The display is rather "fuzzy". Each character seems to have a "shadow" to its right. This happens identically on every machine in the series, so we don't think it's a component tolerance issue.

It happens with resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. At all refresh rates. On 8 different monitors including CRT and LCD.

We can reproduce the problem on Windows NT 4.0 SP6 (sgiulnt.sys version 3114 or 3220), or with "vanilla" Windows XP (all drivers from the XP CD).

We have 150 other PCs from Tulip with (I think) the MV20N, exactly the same video chipset, and a perfectly sharp display.

My users want to kill me ! I took away their old slow PCs, but all they see is out-of-focus characters !
It sounds more like a hardware problem, either a bad batch of components or poor design. Either way I would leave the problem with Tulip, and if they have no ideas just return the lot as "unfit for purpose". I've been through that 10 years ago with another manufacturer - they sent an engineer to site for 2 months fixing them all in place.
Tested patched BIOSes. Untested patched BIOSes.
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nickbrown
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[quote="soupy"]All 250? What a nightmare.

>1. Is the display clear during POST?
I can't tell ! The problem is most visible with small black characters on a white background, as in Windoze.

>2. Do you have the latest BIOS?
Yes

>3. Do you have the latest video drivers?
Yes, three versions for NT, two versions for XP

>4. Is there a BIOS setup option for amount of onboard memory used? >For refresh rate? What are these set to?
Memory, yes, 2 or 4 or 8MB, same problem in all cases.
For refresh rate, no, but all rates I try in the Windows drivers give the same problem

>5. Have you cleared CMOS and loaded setup defaults?
Yes
nickbrown
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NickS wrote: It sounds more like a hardware problem, either a bad batch of components or poor design. Either way I would leave the problem with Tulip, and if they have no ideas just return the lot as "unfit for purpose". I've been through that 10 years ago with another manufacturer - they sent an engineer to site for 2 months fixing them all in place.
Returning them is easier said than done... it's a bit like the old story that if you owe the bank $10,000 then you have a problem, but if you owe the bank $ 10 million then the bank has a problem. Additionally, it's hard to say they are genuinely "unfit for purpose" - the display is just "not very good", at least for my eyes.

I'm sure most people's eyes will be compensating for the problem after a few days, but we have a lot of hypochondriacs. Four people have already complained that the new PCs are "very noisy", but they aren't - they are much quieter than the old ones, but the noise is at a different frequency. After a couple of days their ears just filter it out. For some reason people are more prepared to believe this about their ears than their eyes.
soupy
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Heh, who has the problem depends on if you paid up front. I'd threaten Tulip with returning them, and then suggest they provide 250 free (or at least heavily discounted) video cards as a compromise.
Flash your BIOS at your own risk.
nickbrown
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It looks like I can get them to provide a SiS 6236 PCI card for each PC. At least, the salesperson wants to do this. She has to persuade her boss, but at about $20 per card plus a couple of days for a technician to install them, I don't think it's much to pay to get the invoice signed :)

Of course, it's not a great chip, but neither is the VIA 8601...
soupy
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As long as you don't have to pay, it's gravy. Does that video card have native support in whatever OS you're running? It'd be nice not to have to install SiS vid drivers.
Flash your BIOS at your own risk.
nickbrown
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There is native support in XP, and a driver for NT, so we should be OK.
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