To all those using a Trident 3D Blade T64/XP

[StLouisRod]

I'm very happy with the Trident Blade T64 AGP video cards I've been using in my various Mame cabinets, but one thing still bothers me .

I use the special BLADE15 driver downloaded from ultimarc.com to get Windows to display 640x480 on my standard res arcade monitor.  Unfortunately there is always a flickery line one pixel thick across the bottom of the monitor image when running Windows or a windows program.  For example, if I watch a widescreen DVD (with bars on top and bottom) the line is even higher on the screen (the last line of the movie image) and very distracting.  I theorize that the tiny pixel that the driver puts on the desktop at the upper left corner is causing this visual discrepancy.  I think the pixel is used to enable/disable the driver, but it never does anything for me.  Has anyone else noticed this anomaly, and if so, do you know of a solution?  Or can someone tell me the name of the person who developed the driver, so I can ask him to remove the pixel?  

Keep in mind, when running AdvanceMame or other DOS emu that uses it's own drivers to set the video mode (even 640x480), there is no flickery line.  So it's not my monitor.  Plus, this has occurred on different Mame PC's in different cabinets with different monitors .

Thanks for any help!

[tom61]

Windows isn't full 640x480, its actually 640x475, it doesn't use the last 5 lines on the screen. I forget the reason for this (something about making sure you can see the Start menu on an edge-to-edge monitor), but may be causing the problem with the monitor. (probably gets worse with widescreen DVDs, becuase even more lines aren't getting used, and the driver tries to fill them in)

I have no idea if this is what's really the cause (i don't have my monitor interfaced yet), but the little white line you mentioned reminded me of the gap at the bottom. There was a utility that used this extra space for a launch bar, and maybe some other things.

The driver writer's name is Saka, but he's abandoned the project. I think this is his page: http://members.tripod.com/suzuki2go/index_old.html