Creative 3D Blaster, 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS User Manual

User’s Guide

3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS

Information in this docu ment is subject to change wit hout notice an d does not repr es ent a commitment on the part of Cr e ative Technology Lt d. No part of t his manual may be reproduced or trans mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ ing photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the writte n permis sio n of Crea tive Technology Ltd. The software de sc ribed in this docu me nt is furnishe d und er a licens e agreement and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement. It is against th e law to copy the software on any other medium except as specifically allowed i n the license agree m ent. The licensee may make one copy of the software for backup purposes.

May 20 0 0 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS is a tradema rk of Creative Technol ogy Ltd.

Graphics Blaster, 3D Blaster and BlasterControl are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. NVIDIA and GeForce2 GTS are trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation. Microsoft, MS-DOS, and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other pro ducts are trademarks or register ed trademarks of t heir respective owners.

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and its subsidiaries (“Creative”).

Creative

Version 2 .3, Januar y 2000

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The Contractor/Manufacturer for the Software is:

Creative Technology Ltd

31, International Business Park Creative Resource Singapor e 609921

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This Agreement is binding on you as w e ll as your employees, empl oyers, contractors and agents, and on any successors and assignees. Neither the Software nor any information derived therefrom may be expo rte d exce pt in ac corda nce wi th t he l aws of the U.S. or other applicable provisions. This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California (except to the extent federal law governs copyrights and federally registered trademar ks ) . This Agreemen t i s the entire agr eement between us and supersedes any other understandings or agreemen ts, inc ludin g , but not limit ed to, advertising, with respect to the Software. If any provision of this Agr eeme n t is deem ed invalid or

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IMPORTANT: By using the Microsoft software

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The Microsoft Software is provided for the sole purpose of replacing the corresponding files provid ed w ith a previ ous ly licensed copy of the Microsoft software product identified above (“ORIGINAL PRODUCT”). Upon installation, the Microsoft Software files become part of the ORIGINAL PRODUCT and are subject to the same warrant y and license terms and conditions as the ORIGINAL PRODUCT. If you do not have a valid license to use the ORIGINAL PRODUCT , you may not use the Mi crosoft Softw are. An y other us e of the Microsof t Software is prohibited.

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DECOMPILATION

You agree not f or any purp os e to t r a n s mit the Software or display the Software’s object code on any computer s c r een or to make any hard copy memory dumps of the Soft ware ’s o bject co de. If you believe you require information related to the interoperability of the Software with other programs, you s hall not decompile or disassemble the Software to obtain suc h infor mation, and you agree to request such information from Creative at the address listed earlier. Upon recei ving such a request, Creative shall determine whether you require such information for a legitimate pur pose and, if so, Creative will provide such information to you within a reasonable time and on reasonable conditions.

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Safety Inf orm a tion

The following sections contain notices

for various countries:

CAUTION: This device is intended to be installed by the user in a CSA/TUV/UL cert ified/li s ted IBM AT or compatible pers ona l com pute rs in the manufacturer’s defined operato r access area. Check the equipment ope ra tin g/ in sta llatio n manua l and/ or with the equipment manufacturer to verify/confirm if your equi pment is suitabl e f or user-installed applicat ion cards.

Modifications

Any chang e s or modifications not expressly approv ed by the gra ntee of th is de vice c ould vo id the user’s authority to operate the device.

Compliance

This product conf orms to th e following Counc il Directive:

Directive 89/336/EEC, 92/31/EEC (EMC)

❑

Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1

Preliminary step for Windows 95 users.......................................................................3

Step 1: Installing Your Graphics Card......................................................................... 4

Step 2: Installing Software .......................................................................................... 6

Step 3: Changing the Display Settings......................................................................11

Step 4 : Changing p er f o rm a nc e s et t in g s....... .. .......... .......... ................. .......... ......... ....12

About E-Color Colorific/3Deep................................................................................ 12

Getting More Information .........................................................................................14

Technical Specifications ............................................................................................16

Troubleshooting.........................................................................................................21

Technical Support.................................. .................... ............................... .................27

Introduction

The 3D Blaster™ GeForce2 GTS™ is a quality 2D /3D video accelerator that uses NVIDIA™’s latest GeForce 2GTS archit ecture combines 2

Nvidia Shad ing Ras teri ze r (NSR) that ena bles per -pi xe l sh ading, e spec ially dual-t e xtu ring (tw o textures per-pixel at full speed).

NVIDIA’ s GeForce 2 GTS graphi cs control ler del iv e rs stunnin g visua l quali ty a nd performanc e with its 256-bit graphics engine. W ith GeForce2 GTS, developers can creat e special effec ts such as multi-texture, bump mappi ng to s im ulate rough surfaces , an d environmental mapping that gives objects reflect ive propert ies. Developers ca n take advantage of high quality texture filtering modes (including 8-tap anisotropic f iltering) with hardware anti-aliasi ng to create realistic images that rival more expensive graphics works tations.

The 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS provides outstanding 2D and video acceleration as well. It supports motion co mpensation for MPEG-2 decoding . It guarantees a high level of 2D performance, while programmable gamma table s optimize image qualit y for both text- and image-based ap plications.

™

chipset. GeForce 2GTS is the ultimate 3D processor. Its innovative

Generation Tr ansform and Lighting (T&L) tec hnology with the

Serial and Model Numbers

Your card’s serial an d model numbers can be found at the back of the card . We recommend that you record the serial and model number below. This information will be useful in the event that you need to contact our Technical Support staff for troubleshooting or your dealer for warranty service.

Table 1: Serial numbers and model numbers.

Hardware Product Codes Numbers

3D Blast er GeF o rc e2 GT S

Serial Number

Model Number

Before You Begin

Minimum System Requirements

Updating Drivers

2 3D Blaster GeF orce2 GTS Installation Guide

The README file on the CD-ROM contains information no t available at the time of printing. Read the file before you continue.

❑ IBM ❑ Pen tium ❑ 64 MB RAM ❑ 50 MB available hard disk space (for full installation) ❑ An AGP 2.0 compliant slot or better ❑ CD-ROM drive installed ❑ Windows 95, Windows 98, Wi ndows NT 4.0 (with Service Pa ck 5),

❑ Standard VGA monitor or multi-frequency VGA monitor

T o do wnload the latest dri v ers for 3D Blaster GeForc e2 GTS, visit Creative’ s Web site (refer to the

PC 100% compatible

II, Pentium III, AMD-K6® class processors or compatible

or Windo ws 2000

Technical Support

leaflet for details).

Preliminary step for Windows 95 users

Check the ap propr iate box so th at you can refer to the Windows’ version number quickly during the softw ar e in stallati o n process .

Since Windows automa tically detects new hard ware and starts the software installation procedure upon startu p, you should verify your W indows version num ber before installing the graphics card.

To verify your Windows 95 version number

1. Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel.

2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the System icon. Your Windows 95 versi on number is displayed in the General tabbed page of the System Properties dialog box.

3. Note the version number. The following are the possible Windows 95 version numbers:

❑ 4.00.950 (Retail versio n) ❑ 4.00.950A (Retail version) ❑ 4.00.950B (OSR version 2 and 2.1) ❑ 4.00.950C (OSR version 2.5)

3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS Installation Guide 3

Step 1: Installing Your Graphics Card

This section shows you the connectors on the 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS card.

Video Expansion connectors

Connect to a video expansion daughterboard.

VGA Out connector

Connects to your monitor via a monitor cable.

Figure 1: The 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS card.

AGP bus connector

To install the graphics card

1. Switch off your computer and all peripheral devices.

2. Touch an y met allic surface on your comput er to discharge any s tatic electricit y.

3. Disconnect the power cord from the wall outlet.

4. Remove the computer cover.

4 3D Blaster GeF orce2 GTS Installation Guide

Note:

If you are replacing an existing V G A card with a 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS, please

remember to remove the existing VGA card.

5. Locate a free AGP expansion slot.

Figure 2: Types of expa ns ion slots.

An AGP slot

A PCI slot

An ISA slot

Figure 2 shows the various types of expansion slots.

6. Remove the metal plate from the free AGP slot. Keep the screw and metal plat e for future use.

7. Align the bus conn ector of th e graphi cs car d wit h th e expansion slot.

8. Press the card’ s bu s conne ctor f ir mly and ev en ly i nto the slot, making sure tha t the bus connecto r com es into full contact with the slot. Then, secure the card to the compu ter casin g with a screw. See Figur e 3 below.

ii.Secure the card to the slot

with a screw.

Figure 3: Securing t he graphics card to the slot.

i. Press the card into the slot. Ensure that the bus connector has been pressed in as far as it will go and is sitting firmly inside the expansion slot. Warning: However do not force the graphics card into place. If it does not fit properly, remove it and try again.

3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS Installation Guide 5

9. Connect the monitor cable to the VGA Out conn ector of the graphics card, as shown in Figure 4.

If you are using a multifrequenc y monit or , you may ne ed a special 15-pin DIN VGA c able. If your mul ti-freque ncy monitor allow s you to switch between ‘TTL’ and ‘analog’ operation modes, set the switch to ‘analog’. For details, re fer to your monitor’s manual.

Step 2: Installing Software

VGA Monitor cable

VGA Out connector

VGA monitor

Figure 4: Connecting your VGA monitor to the graphics card.

3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS

10.Replace the computer cover and plug the power cord back into the wall outlet.

After installing the graphics ca rd, you can install the software. The 3D Blaster GeF orce2 GTS CD contains the following:

❑ Drivers for Windo ws 95 and Windows 98 (common to both) ❑ Drivers for Windo ws NT 4.0 and Windows 2000

™

❑ Creative Enhanced BlasterControl

for Windo ws 95 and Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and

Window s 20 00

❑ E-Color Colorific ❑ Creative Lava!

/3Deep™ for Windo ws 95 and Windows 98

™

Player for Windows 95 and Windows 98

❑ Game Launcher This section is organized as follows:

❑ To instal l in Win d ows 95 (R et ai l version ) ❑ To install in Windows 95 (OSR version 2.0 and later) ❑ To instal l in Win d ows 98

6 3D Blaster GeF orce2 GTS Installation Guide

+ 25 hidden pages