cross-hair cursors in PSpice4 and VIA 4in1 hardware drivers

[legg]

Recent system hardware repair involved installing a new
motherboard.(ECS KM400-M2).

When everything was back up and running, I discovered that LTSpice
schematic entry no longer displayed a cross-hair cursor, when 'drawing
wires', when the W98 2Ed OS is used.

Wires can be placed; you simply have to guess where the starting point
is, any time you begin a connection. There is no telling what other
bugs are present running this and other programs.

Other cross-hair cursors, used in other programs, can be seen (ie
ACAD12R4)

The same hardware displays this cursor running the same rev of LTSpice
in W2K SP4 OS. The old hardware had no trouble with this SW in either
OS. Changing colours and settings has no effect - default settings
will show the fault.

The new hardware has an on-board VGA adapter chip set (also known as
the KM400) that uses different drivers for W98 2Ed and W2K. These are
the VIA 4in1 drivers that have been hanging around in different
revisions since 1999. The two revs tried here were

a) ECSv451 DriverVer=12/23/2003, 4.14.10.0039 from the motherboard
installation CD rev 2.7. ECS website 'latest' drivers for this MB do
not include W98 drivers - they incorrectly label the W2K drivers as
W98, though they will not function in this OS. W98 and 'Millenium'
used the same drivers. NT, W2K and XP use the 'same' drivers. ECS is
not interested.

b) KM400-WinME-16012004-Rotation Driver Ver=04/07/2004, 4.14.10.0045
from the VIA website - last driver rev applied to W98 - OS now
unsupported. VIA is not reachable, although you can post notices in
their seldom-visited forums.

Does anyone out there run LTSpice GUIs problem-free in a W98 2Ed OS
with VIA 4in1 drivers? If so, can you please quote the revision ident
dates used?

The LTSpice SW package ( ~PSpiceR4 ) is available as SWCADIII or
SwitcherCad III from the Linear Technology website. This downloads and
installs simply.

To invoke the bug;

a) From the file menu, select 'new schematic'.
b) From the edit menu, select 'draw wire'.

Your cursor will become invisible only inside the schematic window.
The normal cursors will be visible in toolbars and elsewhere on the
'desktop', outside of the schematic window.

http://www.linear-tech.com/company/software.jsp

RL

 

[Mike Engelhardt]

This is problem is due to the video card driver.

--Mike

"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:5b9c81hinblhpt02b37o3kluhu3e4dlgp0@4ax.com...

Recent system hardware repair involved installing a new
motherboard.(ECS KM400-M2).

When everything was back up and running, I discovered that LTSpice
schematic entry no longer displayed a cross-hair cursor, when 'drawing
wires', when the W98 2Ed OS is used.

Wires can be placed; you simply have to guess where the starting point
is, any time you begin a connection. There is no telling what other
bugs are present running this and other programs.

Other cross-hair cursors, used in other programs, can be seen (ie
ACAD12R4)

The same hardware displays this cursor running the same rev of LTSpice
in W2K SP4 OS. The old hardware had no trouble with this SW in either
OS. Changing colours and settings has no effect - default settings
will show the fault.

The new hardware has an on-board VGA adapter chip set (also known as
the KM400) that uses different drivers for W98 2Ed and W2K. These are
the VIA 4in1 drivers that have been hanging around in different
revisions since 1999. The two revs tried here were

a) ECSv451 DriverVer=12/23/2003, 4.14.10.0039 from the motherboard
installation CD rev 2.7. ECS website 'latest' drivers for this MB do
not include W98 drivers - they incorrectly label the W2K drivers as
W98, though they will not function in this OS. W98 and 'Millenium'
used the same drivers. NT, W2K and XP use the 'same' drivers. ECS is
not interested.

b) KM400-WinME-16012004-Rotation Driver Ver=04/07/2004, 4.14.10.0045
from the VIA website - last driver rev applied to W98 - OS now
unsupported. VIA is not reachable, although you can post notices in
their seldom-visited forums.

Does anyone out there run LTSpice GUIs problem-free in a W98 2Ed OS
with VIA 4in1 drivers? If so, can you please quote the revision ident
dates used?

The LTSpice SW package ( ~PSpiceR4 ) is available as SWCADIII or
SwitcherCad III from the Linear Technology website. This downloads and
installs simply.

To invoke the bug;

a) From the file menu, select 'new schematic'.
b) From the edit menu, select 'draw wire'.

Your cursor will become invisible only inside the schematic window.
The normal cursors will be visible in toolbars and elsewhere on the
'desktop', outside of the schematic window.

http://www.linear-tech.com/company/software.jsp

RL

 

[legg]

On Sat, 14 May 2005 21:31:00 GMT, "Mike Engelhardt" <nospam@spam.org>
wrote:

This is problem is due to the video card driver.

--Mike

The VIA 4in1 drivers are intended to handle the VIA KM400 Northbridge,
which serves as the onboard VGA for the ECS KM400-M2 motherboard.

On this motherboard, they also cover IDE, LAN, USB, sound, modems and
anything else you'd care to shake a stick at. Most of the
older-revision 4in1 drivers have been subsequently built into recent
OSs like WinXP.

VIA does make VGA cards, and this MB does allow for an add-on graphics
card, but neither are relevant here.

One suggested solution to the problem, elsewhere, has been to add a
VGA card. This is a can of worms that I choose not to open
immediately.

RL

"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:5b9c81hinblhpt02b37o3kluhu3e4dlgp0@4ax.com...
Recent system hardware repair involved installing a new
motherboard.(ECS KM400-M2).

When everything was back up and running, I discovered that LTSpice
schematic entry no longer displayed a cross-hair cursor, when 'drawing
wires', when the W98 2Ed OS is used.

Wires can be placed; you simply have to guess where the starting point
is, any time you begin a connection. There is no telling what other
bugs are present running this and other programs.

Other cross-hair cursors, used in other programs, can be seen (ie
ACAD12R4)

The same hardware displays this cursor running the same rev of LTSpice
in W2K SP4 OS. The old hardware had no trouble with this SW in either
OS. Changing colours and settings has no effect - default settings
will show the fault.

The new hardware has an on-board VGA adapter chip set (also known as
the KM400) that uses different drivers for W98 2Ed and W2K. These are
the VIA 4in1 drivers that have been hanging around in different
revisions since 1999. The two revs tried here were

a) ECSv451 DriverVer=12/23/2003, 4.14.10.0039 from the motherboard
installation CD rev 2.7. ECS website 'latest' drivers for this MB do
not include W98 drivers - they incorrectly label the W2K drivers as
W98, though they will not function in this OS. W98 and 'Millenium'
used the same drivers. NT, W2K and XP use the 'same' drivers. ECS is
not interested.

b) KM400-WinME-16012004-Rotation Driver Ver=04/07/2004, 4.14.10.0045
from the VIA website - last driver rev applied to W98 - OS now
unsupported. VIA is not reachable, although you can post notices in
their seldom-visited forums.

Does anyone out there run LTSpice GUIs problem-free in a W98 2Ed OS
with VIA 4in1 drivers? If so, can you please quote the revision ident
dates used?

The LTSpice SW package ( ~PSpiceR4 ) is available as SWCADIII or
SwitcherCad III from the Linear Technology website. This downloads and
installs simply.

To invoke the bug;

a) From the file menu, select 'new schematic'.
b) From the edit menu, select 'draw wire'.

Your cursor will become invisible only inside the schematic window.
The normal cursors will be visible in toolbars and elsewhere on the
'desktop', outside of the schematic window.

http://www.linear-tech.com/company/software.jsp

RL

 

[Mike Engelhardt]

RL,

Well, the obvious is if you can't get your hardware supplier
to support you with a corrected driver, you might need to
change hardware and/or suppliers.

BTW, I haven't heard trepidation about disabling
the motherboard video and installing a video card
before.

Regards,

--Mike

"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:t5gd815h4tfmvrl4tjrghjll1998d2o22k@4ax.com...

On Sat, 14 May 2005 21:31:00 GMT, "Mike Engelhardt" <nospam@spam.org
wrote:

This is problem is due to the video card driver.

--Mike

The VIA 4in1 drivers are intended to handle the VIA KM400 Northbridge,
which serves as the onboard VGA for the ECS KM400-M2 motherboard.

On this motherboard, they also cover IDE, LAN, USB, sound, modems and
anything else you'd care to shake a stick at. Most of the
older-revision 4in1 drivers have been subsequently built into recent
OSs like WinXP.

VIA does make VGA cards, and this MB does allow for an add-on graphics
card, but neither are relevant here.

One suggested solution to the problem, elsewhere, has been to add a
VGA card. This is a can of worms that I choose not to open
immediately.

RL


"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:5b9c81hinblhpt02b37o3kluhu3e4dlgp0@4ax.com...
Recent system hardware repair involved installing a new
motherboard.(ECS KM400-M2).

When everything was back up and running, I discovered that LTSpice
schematic entry no longer displayed a cross-hair cursor, when 'drawing
wires', when the W98 2Ed OS is used.

Wires can be placed; you simply have to guess where the starting point
is, any time you begin a connection. There is no telling what other
bugs are present running this and other programs.

Other cross-hair cursors, used in other programs, can be seen (ie
ACAD12R4)

The same hardware displays this cursor running the same rev of LTSpice
in W2K SP4 OS. The old hardware had no trouble with this SW in either
OS. Changing colours and settings has no effect - default settings
will show the fault.

The new hardware has an on-board VGA adapter chip set (also known as
the KM400) that uses different drivers for W98 2Ed and W2K. These are
the VIA 4in1 drivers that have been hanging around in different
revisions since 1999. The two revs tried here were

a) ECSv451 DriverVer=12/23/2003, 4.14.10.0039 from the motherboard
installation CD rev 2.7. ECS website 'latest' drivers for this MB do
not include W98 drivers - they incorrectly label the W2K drivers as
W98, though they will not function in this OS. W98 and 'Millenium'
used the same drivers. NT, W2K and XP use the 'same' drivers. ECS is
not interested.

b) KM400-WinME-16012004-Rotation Driver Ver=04/07/2004, 4.14.10.0045
from the VIA website - last driver rev applied to W98 - OS now
unsupported. VIA is not reachable, although you can post notices in
their seldom-visited forums.

Does anyone out there run LTSpice GUIs problem-free in a W98 2Ed OS
with VIA 4in1 drivers? If so, can you please quote the revision ident
dates used?

The LTSpice SW package ( ~PSpiceR4 ) is available as SWCADIII or
SwitcherCad III from the Linear Technology website. This downloads and
installs simply.

To invoke the bug;

a) From the file menu, select 'new schematic'.
b) From the edit menu, select 'draw wire'.

Your cursor will become invisible only inside the schematic window.
The normal cursors will be visible in toolbars and elsewhere on the
'desktop', outside of the schematic window.

http://www.linear-tech.com/company/software.jsp

RL

 

[legg]

On Sun, 15 May 2005 17:18:07 GMT, "Mike Engelhardt" <nospam@spam.org>
wrote:

RL,

Well, the obvious is if you can't get your hardware supplier
to support you with a corrected driver, you might need to
change hardware and/or suppliers.

BTW, I haven't heard trepidation about disabling
the motherboard video and installing a video card
before.

Regards,

--Mike

You won't come across any examples Googling for 'trepidation', either.

My basic concerns would be:

a) added cost.
b) added windoze p+p issues.
c) added power consumption.
d) added layer of vendor deniability for any other bug.
e) added steps to get the basic hardware running reliably (before
adding other sources of trouble).

Missing cursors are not the only issue on the mb swap-over agenda.

I have a VGA card installed on a 60MHz Intel 'Premiere' motherboard,
because there woint no on-board VGA in 1994. No-one is surprised that
this draws cross-hair cursors in the LTSpice GUI without problems: the
bug on this card was the notorious PCTech RZ-1000 on-board IDE
controller: the 'fix' was involuntary disabling of this controller in
all available bios revs, killing the second IDE and encouraging me to
become familiar with SCSI peripherals.

Am I worried?

I think I'm just trying to get some work done, using the toy-quality
hardware and software currently available. I've expressed my
appreciation for the excellent performance of LTSpice in previous
communications.

RL

"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:t5gd815h4tfmvrl4tjrghjll1998d2o22k@4ax.com...
On Sat, 14 May 2005 21:31:00 GMT, "Mike Engelhardt" <nospam@spam.org
wrote:

This is problem is due to the video card driver.

--Mike

The VIA 4in1 drivers are intended to handle the VIA KM400 Northbridge,
which serves as the onboard VGA for the ECS KM400-M2 motherboard.

On this motherboard, they also cover IDE, LAN, USB, sound, modems and
anything else you'd care to shake a stick at. Most of the
older-revision 4in1 drivers have been subsequently built into recent
OSs like WinXP.

VIA does make VGA cards, and this MB does allow for an add-on graphics
card, but neither are relevant here.

One suggested solution to the problem, elsewhere, has been to add a
VGA card. This is a can of worms that I choose not to open
immediately.

RL


"legg" <legg@nospam.magma.ca> wrote in message
news:5b9c81hinblhpt02b37o3kluhu3e4dlgp0@4ax.com...
Recent system hardware repair involved installing a new
motherboard.(ECS KM400-M2).

When everything was back up and running, I discovered that LTSpice
schematic entry no longer displayed a cross-hair cursor, when 'drawing
wires', when the W98 2Ed OS is used.

Wires can be placed; you simply have to guess where the starting point
is, any time you begin a connection. There is no telling what other
bugs are present running this and other programs.

Other cross-hair cursors, used in other programs, can be seen (ie
ACAD12R4)

The same hardware displays this cursor running the same rev of LTSpice
in W2K SP4 OS. The old hardware had no trouble with this SW in either
OS. Changing colours and settings has no effect - default settings
will show the fault.

The new hardware has an on-board VGA adapter chip set (also known as
the KM400) that uses different drivers for W98 2Ed and W2K. These are
the VIA 4in1 drivers that have been hanging around in different
revisions since 1999. The two revs tried here were

a) ECSv451 DriverVer=12/23/2003, 4.14.10.0039 from the motherboard
installation CD rev 2.7. ECS website 'latest' drivers for this MB do
not include W98 drivers - they incorrectly label the W2K drivers as
W98, though they will not function in this OS. W98 and 'Millenium'
used the same drivers. NT, W2K and XP use the 'same' drivers. ECS is
not interested.

b) KM400-WinME-16012004-Rotation Driver Ver=04/07/2004, 4.14.10.0045
from the VIA website - last driver rev applied to W98 - OS now
unsupported. VIA is not reachable, although you can post notices in
their seldom-visited forums.

Does anyone out there run LTSpice GUIs problem-free in a W98 2Ed OS
with VIA 4in1 drivers? If so, can you please quote the revision ident
dates used?

The LTSpice SW package ( ~PSpiceR4 ) is available as SWCADIII or
SwitcherCad III from the Linear Technology website. This downloads and
installs simply.

To invoke the bug;

a) From the file menu, select 'new schematic'.
b) From the edit menu, select 'draw wire'.

Your cursor will become invisible only inside the schematic window.
The normal cursors will be visible in toolbars and elsewhere on the
'desktop', outside of the schematic window.

http://www.linear-tech.com/company/software.jsp

RL