ArcadeVGA Install Issues and Resolutions

[CrazySwede]

This is my first build and my first post so please bear with me.  I have been lurking through these forums for a while and gained tons of insight, so thanks to all of you who have posted before me.  That said, I wanted to share my experience in getting my Ultimarc ArcadeVGA2 card up and running.  I ran into a number of issues, some of which have been addressed in these forums, and some elsewhere.  This post is just meant to document what I did so someone can make use of it if they encounter the same problems.
 
First the rig:
* Ultimarc ArcadeVGA2 PCIe
* Intel D925XCV motherboard (P4 LGA775 1 GB RAM)
* Billabs BL19C90T monitor (CGA-EGA-VGA Autosync)
* Windows XP (32 bit, SP2)
(I was building this rig from the ground up.  IE, fresh install of XP and go from there...)
 
There were three key issues that were encountered:
 
* First, in order to install the ArcadeVGA drivers, I had to install Windows XP with a different video card installed in conjunction with a run-of-the-mill LCD computer monitor.  For this, I purchased a cheap ($13) nVidia 7300LE card off eBay.  (My motherboard does not have on-board video.)  I went with an nVidia card as any ATI video drivers need to be removed prior to installing the ArcadeVGA card drivers and I did not want to deal with that hassle.  (I tried to install XP with the ArcadeVGA card in the machine, and while XP installed fine, I was unable to get the ArcadeVGA drivers to install.  I also used a computer monitor as its higher resolution made it much easier.)  (This is a known issue well documented in the forums and in the install instructions.)
 
* I was unable to get the ATI Catalyst Control Center (CCC) to run.  It would display in the system tray but disappear when I hovered the mouse over it.  Additionally, it would display an error stating "The Catalyst Control Panel has encountered a problem and needs to close..." whenever I tried to open it.  This was due to the fact that I did not have Microsoft .Net installed.  After trying various versions, it seemed that only .net 2.0 worked.  (I installed .net 2.0 SP1 and that worked fine.)  Version 3.5 did not work nor did 1.1.
 
* I was unable to get the the ATI Catalyst Control Center to rotate the display - something I needed as I was building an cocktail cabinet (ArcadeDepot - very nice kit by the way) and I needed to rotate the display.  Whenever I tried to rotate the image in the Catalyst Control Center, it would pretend to accept it but it would never actually rotate the image.  This was caused because I upgraded XP to SP3.  Apparently, the version of the ATI Catalyst Control Center used with the ArcadeVGA will not function with SP3.  It works fine with SP2.  (This seems to be a known issue with the ATI Catalyst Control Center.)

 
Once I figured out those three issues, everything went fine.  Here are the install steps that I went through - starting from a freshly formatted drive.  There is probably more detail here than needed but I thought I should err on the side of detail.
 
1. Put the nVidia 7300LE video card into the motherboard and plug it into a computer monitor.
2. Fresh install of XP SP2.
3. Install the Intel Chipset drivers (reboot).
4. Install the Intel LAN drivers (reboot).
5. (Optional) Assign a user password and allow remote access.  (This was to allow me to do the rest of the work remotely.)
6. Install Intel Audio drivers. (reboot)
7. Run through the automatic Windows Updates but DO NOT upgrade to SP3.  When Windows tries to install this, say no and switch to 'Custom' update instead of 'Express' and install the rest of the updates for SP2.  I had over 100 to install.
8. Install MS .net 2.0 SP1.
9. Shutdown, remove the nVidia video card and install the ArcadeVGA.  Plug it into the Billabs BL19C90T using the standard VGA cable provided with the monitor (d-sub 15?).  Start the computer.
10.  I had to cancel two "New Hardware Found" dialogs (one was for the video card and the other, I think, was for the audio component of the video card.)
11. Run the ArcadeVGA setup on the CD and install the PCIe version of the drivers.  (Reboot)
12. Upon start-up, the system prompted me with "New Hardware Found..."  This time I let it try to find the appropriate drivers.  It was trying to install the ATI Audio drivers which I assume is part of the ArcadeVGA card.  (Reboot)
13. Install the ATI Catalyst Control Center (CCC) from the ArcadeVGA CD.  (Note that I do not think you can download the latest drivers as those do not support the ArcadeVGA card.  (Set the resolution to 640x480 to allow the UI to display correctly.)
14. Install the Tri-sync utility provided by Ultimarc to support the tri-sync feature of the monitor.
15. DONE!  Everything seemed to work fine.  Good image, etc....
 
Now for the disclaimer... this is just what I did.  I am sure there are other ways to do this - some may be easier/better. I just wanted to post this because it took me the better part of two weeks to figure this out (5 days of which was waiting on shipping of the nVidia card).  Also, if I ever have to do this again, and I am sure I will, I can now come back here and follow my own instructions.  Cheers....

[northerngames]

weird for most of us there just like installing any other card 

[AcademyDL]

Mine has been hell to deal with.

IM using a Ultimarc ArcadeVGA3000 PCIe

Still wont work. I have SP3 so perhaps that is the problem

Im using XP and did just as you have, but I havent tried reverting to SP2.

I cant believe the time I have spent on this thing. I almost threw it in the garbage several times.

The  plug in, install drivers, and play hasnt been close to realistic.

I too started with a fresh install of XP and clean slate. but the video card still wont work.

[gazz292]

i had problems installing the avga card,

my MB has onboard gfx, ati unfortunately, but it was no hassle to use the ati driver removal utility listed on the ultimarc site in the instructions of the avga card.

it took 3 or 4 tries before i got it to load the drivers fully, then i found a problem that when ever i tried changing resolutions...or colour depth or anything really, my monitor would shut off complaining of 'input not supported'

i was using an analouge tft monitor, plugged into the dvi output of the card with an adaptor (which is how your supposed to do it)

i eventually found that this was an issue, and there is a driver specificaly for that problem... but it's for when your using an analouge lcd monitor only, no digital one and no arcade monitor connected,
that wasnt what i wanted, i was using the lcd monitor to set the system up on my desk, before i put it in the cab, but also when it's in the cab, the arcade monitor vga out will be feeding the arcade monitor, and the dvi out will be feeding the active marquee screen, which may well be an analouge monitor as i'm getting the cheapest 24 inch widescreen monitor i can find.

anyway, i tried the other driver offered on the 'hidden' drivers download page on the ultimarc site, and all was well,
tho i havent tried it on the arcade monitor yet,

for those wondering, http://www.ultimarc.com/avgadrivers.html is the drivers page on the ultimarc site.

i have notices the CCC dosent work, i'm running sp3, so i guess that's why, but i think i can live without it, as i'm not using rotation or owt.

[CrazySwede]

AcademyDL, can I ask what what specific issues you were having with the install?  Even though I was using the older version of the card, I may have some thoughts for you.  -Leif

[bitbytebit]

Mine was really weird acting to install correctly under Windows, was surprised at that.  So then I tested it with a flashed BIOS back to a normal Radeon HD2600 card and with Soft15KHz and it worked way nicer like that for me.  Not recommending to flash the bios unless you really know what your doing, but just an interesting thing to note.  You can't get bootup output of course to be 15Khz that way, but otherwise it's exactly the same thing yet seems to have way less oddities and restrictions with drivers etc.  A Radeon HD 4350  with Soft15Khz was basically to me the same thing but I could totally choose the modelines it used and since I have a trisync monitor could see windows boot up too and the bios output.  I'm not sure why these AVGA3000 cards have so many issues with the drivers because in all actuality they can do lower dotclocks anyways and really you'd think simply making the output 15Khz in console mode wouldn't be something so destructive of the cards compatibility with normal ATI drivers and general handling.  Maybe there's a lot  more done to the custom BIOS, but I can't see what difference it makes since output is the same (actually nicer on the normal ATI bios and Soft15Khz) as my HD 4350 with Soft15Khz.  Guessing it's because this is an OEM type setup he's got with those cards, has BIOS source access for an older version and drivers, and it isn't updated to the newest stuff because it probably costs quite a bit to upgrade your OEM API access to the BIOS source and drivers.

[AcademyDL]

AcademyDL, can I ask what what specific issues you were having with the install?  Even though I was using the older version of the card, I may have some thoughts for you.  -Leif

Yeah thank you for your offer!

Currently, I reformatted my PC with XP (clean slate) and this is a 2 year old computer that was brand new and originally had Vista. I removed Service Pack 3.

Im using a 2.2 dual processor intel. and the motherboard has an on board video card as well. it wasnt ATI so it didnt have any conflicting ATI drivers.

its the arcadgevga PCIe video card.
 It took me 3 attempts to get the drivers installed.
(The disc would boot up and then just stop for some unknown reason.)
Im currently connected to the DVI > to computer monitor trying to get this thing running.
When I boot up the computer it loads to the XP loading menu and then throws an error saying
that the monitor is out of range and the monitor goes blank.
(which doesnt make sense because the DVI out is supposed to work with a computer monitor)

I also tried to hook up to a j-pac and go the VGA out method to my arcade cab but the screen is out of sync and just scrolls super fast.
I tried adjusting the vertical sync and nothing would work.

I dont know what the arcadevga3000 video cards Default resolution is coming from the DVI > to monitor .
Could it be a resolution that my PC lcd cant produce?

[CrazySwede]

AcademyDL,

Sorry for the delay in response, I have been tied up on other things....

Specific to your issues, I am not sure I know the answer.  Correct that, I am sure I do not know the answer.      But I have some thoughts....

1. I assume you have tried to connect your monitor to the video output on your motherboard and that it works.  (Your post sounds like you might have done this already.)  Regardless, doing this may allow you to go into the ATI drivers and set the resolution to something you know your monitor will support.  You can then plug in your monitor to the ArcadeVGA card via the DVI or VGA.  I assume you have already tried this but just in case....

2. You ask if there are resolutions that may not be supported by the monitor.  This is possible because some of these older resolutions are not supported by newer monitors.  Long story short, my wife owns an ultrasound machine and she spent a long time trying to find a monitor that it would support.  It ran in CGA resolutions with perhaps an odd frequency.  We ended up taking the machine to Best Buy and testing it on all their monitors.  None of them worked.  We had to purchase an LCD monitor directly from IBM to get it working.  That said, the output resolution may be an odd one and being able to set the resolution (see step 1 above) may resolve this.

One final note, I would think that the card 'should' work without the ArcadeVGA specific drivers installed - however it may not work all that well.  Having it not working at all leads me to believe that there may be a bigger issue going on here - perhaps a hardware issue or some sort of conflict. 

Sorry I can can't help.  Good luck!

-Leif