[Solved] TC 16bit and riva128 or TNT driver in 3.11 = errors

[white]

2dallasl

I forgot to mention, thanks for testing!

Ghisler obviously has no intention to look on the matter

I don't think that is true. Just be patient and persistent.


I have tested TC 6.58 16-bit on my Windows XP system on a FAT-32 drive. Did a couple of hundreds CRC and MD5 checks on copies of TCMND16.EXE. No errors were detected.

[ghisler(Author)]

I have already replied that it's probably a bad RAM chip. It may also be a bad UDMA cable, that was quite a common problem before SATA was becoming common.

[dallasl]

Sadly none of those possibilities apply in my case.
The hardware is fine on both pcs.
Especially on the pentium one that I make the most testing/usage I have explained I dual boot win98SE and DOS. I think that if I had some bad ram or cables then 98SE would be a crashfest and it isn't. The same pc runs 32bit TC on 98SE and has no problems whatsoever. Not a single failure, never had a corrupted file or archive. A bad cable/ram would also have caused the hundreds of crc tests I have made to also fail.

ghisler have you tested tc16bit with an actual (real hardware) win3.11 pc?
Just because noone complained before it doesn't mean there is no problem. How many ppl are still running 3.11? and how many of them bother to upgrade their older versions?
The fact that you provide a 16bit version is pure awesomeness but there could be a possibility that said 16bit version runs fine on 9x/xp and just has some memory problem in real 3.11 (pure assumption here)

[dallasl]

So I made another test just now:

TC 7.56a/Win98SE : 100 md5 tests on program directory = all fine

the test has been made on the same pentium system (same ram/ide cable) the only thing that changed was the boot HDD with the one containing 98SE.

[Flint]

dallasl
What if you run TC 16-bit in the same Win98SE? Does it work well there or produce the same problems?

[dallasl]

Flint

just installed 6.58 in 98SE and did 100 md5 tests in it's directory: all fine, no errors - no tc exe error

[Flint]

dallasl
Then the only explanation that remains, I think, is that the drivers used in Win3.1 are not good enough and work unreliably under some specific conditions which TC 6.58 triggers but 6.03 does not (maybe, it's just a specific combination or sequence of disk operations, the operations themselves, however, being completely valid). Did you use official distribution of Win3.1 from MS or some third-party bundle? Did you install specific drivers for your hardware? I would try to repeat the experiment with the clean distribution and using the default Microsoft drivers only.

[dallasl]

Flint
all 6.x versions fail for me, the 5x ones are OK
I am using a normal retail version of 3.11 that came in 8 floppies and the only driver I have loaded is the nvidia Riva128 for w3.11 ... I have tried to locate an older version of the driver but I found nothing at all.
I will test with a cirus logic pci card and see what results I will get, with the stock VGA driver everything is so slow, even crc check takes 3-4 times longer to complete

[dallasl]

I have been running 6.58 all morning with the cirus vga/driver and so far I got no check fails or md5 errors (did not made 100 tests but about ~40 from time to time and left several tc instances running, if there was a problem then they would display the virus message)
Nice thinking Flint! it could be that the riva128 driver does something to mess with tc...

Ghisler, is there anything to be done as a workaround to that? Can I provide more info on this?

[sztihamer]

As far as I know there are two types of RIVA 128 cards out there. One is a PCI and one AGP model. Can I ask what driver are you using? If you are using the old driver that came with the graphics card, then most likely it's an old version. If you got from a third party site, it can be also a problem, because those kinds of drivers are also outdated.

I recommend that you download the latest driver from the NVIDIA website, from the Legacy section of the driver downloads. It doesn't matter if you choose the PCI or the AGP one the driver is the same. Just choose Windows 95 from the list, because it will give you the driver for Windows 3.11 anyway. Then download the following.

RIVA128 Driver for Windows 3.11
Version: 1.27
File Size: 665KB

File name should be: RIVA128-1.27dW311.ZIP
CRC32: 569003D5
MD5: 3F26983AF99A1CAD2E1E1A494F76678B
SHA-1: DF3BC9D9F54D446D086D0EFE87EFC0E2F9FE2FA8

Just install this one if you are running an older version of the driver, and see if this can fix your problem. The driver is from 1998, that's what I can determine from the time stamps of the archive. If you are not sure what version are you running, just update the driver anyway.

Then check if are still getting the same problem. If you do try looking for an older version of the driver, and check if that works. If the errors are gone, then good job! You fixed the problem. Enjoy using Total Commander on Windows 3.11 the way it should be!

[dallasl]

@ sztihamer:

I have been using the driver downloaded from the official nvidia site all this time, that's the same RIVA128-1.27dW311.ZIP you have posted here. It is suitable for both pci/agp cards and more specifically:

a. my pentium system has a creative labs agp riva128zx/8MB card
b. my 5x86 system has an elsa pci riva128/4MB card

both using the same driver as above and both have the same errors in md5/tc exe in 6x tc versions.
I don't have any of the original cd/floppies that came with the cards, only the driver nvidia is offering.

Haven't had any luck locating an older driver version though...
It's a shame if I can't get it working with the riva128 cards, they are brilliant in DOS applications and the most compatible fast vga I have ever tested (and I've tested a lot). I will make some test at my pentium system later with a TNT1 card that should be identical to riva128 for the 2D part, and it has a different 3.11 driver. Maybe it will be as simple as using this.

[sztihamer]

Hmm... This is interesting. If the most recent drivers fail then then try an older one. I didn't found one yet, but I found something interesting.

Here's a link to a even newer driver from 1999. It's a 3in1 driver, and it should support the RIVA128, TNT and TNT2 cards. It's version 1.55, so it's a bit more recent. Link to the site: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=274

Filename: RIVA_128-TNT-TNT2_AGP-PCI_v1.55_.zip
CRC32: F4AC43EB
MD5: 53C9EC87F8DFE2DE3063741C0D50DF40
SHA-1: C019415254390047E835954EE46EBABF2557435B

Maybe you should try this one instead. If this doesn't work also, I will look for a much older version of the driver that you need. This driver should work fine with the card you are using I guess. Try it and come back with the results for more help!

[dallasl]

I have seen the 1.55 driver too sztihamer (btw I am keropi on VOGONS) but in the .inf all I see is NVIDIA TNT mentions and it uses the nv4disp.drv (nv3 = r128 , nv4 = tnt) so I didn't try it...
maybe it's time to test it and see what happens

edit: I tested the new driver, win311 does not load with it, they just exit back to DOS... it's a tnt driver (maybe it's not even tnt2)

edit2: I just tested a TNT with 1.55 driver, I got a md5 error the first time I did the files check (following tests were OK)... so it's back to square one for me

[sztihamer]

Alright. It seems that there are no older drivers available. So other alternatives needs to be found. So lets get started.

I did a little bit of research for the ELSA card that you have, and after an hour I nearly gave up, but I found something interesting!

ELSA VICTORY Erazor, NVIDIA RIVA 128 Controller, PCI/AGP, 4 MB SGRAM

I guess this is the card you have. There's no Windows 3.11 driver available for this card other than the reference one that we already have. The 1.27 one. The bad news is that it's nearly impossible to get the drivers from the ELSA website. They don't provide drivers for their older cards. Also it's hard to get information for this graphics card. The good news is I found the official drivers that came with the card, but no Windows 3.11 ones. So you have to deal with the Windows 95, 98, NT3.5 and NT4.0.

Here are the files that I found! I recommend you to make a backup of these drivers immediately you download them. You never know when you need them in the future! They are rare to come by, and these mirrors might be down after a year!

BIOS files

ELSA VICTORY Erazor, BIOS flash utility with binary v01.55.00

VERABIOS.ZIP
CRC32: 73D30740
MD5: CFC31DC4207EE4B878B859BA09C66021
SHA-1: EA711FFCDB5B91A4BC566EB9D0DD4DBF13B998B3

ELSA VICTORY Erazor, BIOS flash utility with binary v01.55.00, use only if BIOS is corrupted, see README.TXT

VERA_UPD.ZIP
CRC32: 19CC5465
MD5: 7BCC540064A3401540DE2D867B1C6221
SHA-1: 24EA9806E4CCCCF0968FDDC43D06C7F7869E6D75[/i]

Utilities for MS-DOS

ELSA VICTORY Erazor, TV mode switch utility

VERATV.ZIP
CRC32: A4043C6A
MD5: 585A73760FBDEEE21FC561D0FFE6C1E9
SHA-1: 02143FCFE26D88098509FB1632B2AA03B01783CD

Drivers for Windows 95 and Windows 98

ELSA Windows 95/98 Driver Disk, ver 4.10.01.0303-0004

VERAW9XO.ZIP
CRC32: 77378F06
MD5: D21FD35705E18C4132BA9FD4400E864A
SHA-1: 06690E5A06F8FBA107B25ABA1B8CF3BDD8302D9E

ELSA Windows 9x Driver Disk, ver 4.10.01.0401-0005

VERAW9X.EXE
CRC32: 65E03A7F
MD5: 18AB17452763C93EA768956D2275C7BD
SHA-1: AE6C174B7DEF779D99D7EF6AED82C0E1CE2F3398

Windows NT drivers

ELSA VICTORY Erazor, Windows NT 3.51 driver for i386 CPUs

VERANT35.ZIP
CRC32: 4AEFC576
MD5: 318C62C185FD4A4442BD7D9F996CE1E3
SHA-1: 2BC10D41843CEC8D436E23F61BA74C9BA70EEC6F

ELSA VICTORY Erazor, Windows NT 4.0 (built 1381.) driver for i386 CPUs

VERANT40.ZIP
CRC32: 62460EEB
MD5: 9E8DC5A8A30C1ED3766E85C804EB89C6
SHA-1: D1A8C204EDFD13CD705875972050BB1C7C4FAE99

I packed them up and uploaded them to Mediafire so you can get them if you are interested in them. Maybe these will fix the problem that you have with the reference driver. The link to get all these goodies is: http://www.mediafire.com/?5rz435q8p3sunfg

Filename: Elsa Victory Erazor - RIVA 128 Drivers.rar
CRC32: 9C1EB79A
MD5: 2E0CE4964DDA6AB721759D571793D437
SHA-1: 185EAB1C980D46A593ED20CF9843BDAA299CA3FE

The archive is signed, so it comes from me, you can check it in WinRAR under the Info button. Also it's a solid archive and has recovery record, and it's locked. You can scan it at VirusTotal if you don't trust the file.

As for the Creative Labs card I need more information. I need the model number like CTXXXX where the X is a number. Hope these helps to solve the problem under Windows 98. I will check back soon if you need drivers for the other card.

[dallasl]

that's awesome work there sztihamer, I really appreciate it and thank you for your time invested
I have already upgraded the BIOS to 1.55 since some years, had to look at some mirror ftp site IIRC too, ELSA just did not provide anything IIRC it was a fix for some VBE3 modes.
I will keep the archive for future use, it will come handy thanks again!

Also in win98 there are no problems with the riva cards or tc of whatever version. They all work happily with the nvidia reference drivers, no md5 errors or checks in both 16 and 32bit total commanders.
My problem is only with WFW3.11 , that's where nvidia riva128 and the newly tested TNT make tc-16bit to have these failures.

edit: forgot to mention the creative card, don't bother with finding stuff for it my friend, I already have some ancient archived win9x driver and there were no BIOS updates for it... it's a CT6730 btw , just a vga output without fancy stuff.