ATI Problems

[Toby]

I'm breaking in my new laptop and recently noticed a slight problem. When using solids if I turn the shading off prior to saving, it saves the file normally. Now if I leave the shading active and try to save the file it completely bombs out and closes M/C.

Is there anything I could try othere than new drivers(already installed), turning acceleration down, or buying a much better card?

[Bullines]

Which ATI chipset is on the card?

[Toby]

It's the Mobility M4 or M4 AGP4X.

[ 09-10-2001: Message edited by: toby ]

[Bullines]

I'm uncertain why exactly Mastercam crashes, but I can tell you that ATI is notorious for horrible OpenGL support (I think the Radeons are their only cards that do a decent job with OpenGL). I would imagine that the M4 is no exception. Now keep in mind that Mastercam uses OpenGL for shading routines. Check out the M4's product page on ATI's web site...there's no mention of OpenGL at all!

http://www.ati.com/na/pages/technology/har...obility_m4.html

[Toby]

I know that this card is a complete turd. That's the very reason we need a Cad Manager/ representative that could blue print a real computer for cad use. Instead all we have is a M.I.S. dept that independantly goes out and buys the latest hot deal thinking it should perform like a hot rod. This problem is affecting more than just M/C in fact one of our g-code editors was completely bombing, shutting down the system.

Take this as a warning to all, beware of ATI cards!!!

[gcode]

Toby,

I have a Dell laptop that has an ATI card.

The following intructions from an earlier post cured them

Delete OPENGL32.DLL and GLU32.DLL from the MCAM8 directory and you will be fine. These .DLL are only installed on WIN9X systems and they seem to confict with ATI's drivers

[Toby]

Those files are long gone. I still have problems. Are you running full tilt on acceleration? Did you change any other settings? Whats the specs on your Dell?

My computer works fine doing 2-1/2d stuff but as soon as I try more complex cad intensive routines look out.

[Finecut]

Toby,

If the computer is new, take it back to the dealer or store and replace it with one that doesnt have a ATI card !

And dont take NO for a answer. See the manager if you have to.

Finecut

[Toby]

We have an extensive business relation with Dell so I'm hoping they will fix us up soon. Dell does offer better, non-ATI, cards that can hopefully be switched in to our systems.

[cadcam]

Toby they do offer a G-Force2 card that is a Nvidia ask for that it comes in 32mb.

[Bullines]

A lot of the systems in Dell's Inspiron 8100 line have the nVidia GeForce2 Go. I'd look into that one

[Toby]

I'm pushing for it.