Evolution Driver Installer Didn't Work

[Eck]

Hello,

Oops!  I entered this as a new topic instead of replying to the Evolution driver now available post.  Anyway, I hope he'll find it here:

I tried to register on your forum at the Evolution site to discuss this, but I must have entered something wrong and couldn't understand the error message, as it wasn't in English!

No matter.  I've got it installed, but wound up running the 3dfx tools install first (thinking it might also install the driver), then updated the driver from the Standard PCI Graphics Adapter in Device Manager by pointing it to the folder your installer made with the drivers.

Anytime I tried running the installer, the first time automatically by your program setup, I got a BSOD at VSMON.VXD.  That's a ZoneAlarm file, but I had exited ZoneAlarm and everything else.  The other problem was when I clicked the internet link to your website, an error box popped up saying Windows had a problem accessing the file.  Well, I know where your site is so that's okay, I guess.  I just wish I understood other languages so I could figure out what I did wrong when registering!

Since the automatic driver installation couldn't run, am I missing anything?  The tools seem to be complete, and all the normal driver files are installed to the correct places and eveything seems to be working fine.  But I did notice a new exe in your folder.  Something like glide.exe.  (I'm browsing now from my XP partition and don't remember exactly.)  Is that some kind of extra glide controller?  All the normal stuff is there in 3dfx tools, with a lot of newer settings available like you said you made active.  I just want to know if I'm missing something your installer would have provided.

Also, I set the tools to the balanced settings for Amigamerlin 2.9.  Did you already optimize the defaults or did I do right by changing them to most of the Amigamerlin settings?  Some weren't there that were on his so I just skipped over them.

Apparently ZoneAlarm somehow interferes with your driver setup exe (not the program installer), even when it's turned off.  As for the website link, I can't figure that out, since I don't have problems accessing any other files.

[Raziel64]

Mmmmh... I s a very, very strange error...
Please, let me check it and I'll tell you what to do...

Thx for the report.

[Eck]

Okay.  And I want to add thanks to you, Raziel64, as well as Amigamerlin and all the folks who are continuing to contribute their talents to making the 3dfx hardware compatible as time marches on.

It seems like a Windows file system error.  I would blame the whole thing on the latest versions of ZoneAlarm, as the whole 5.0 series has caused several issues with users system's that did not occur with versions up to 4.5.590.  (I think that was the number.)  However the weblink not working either causes me to wonder.

As I mentioned, I think your driver is installed correctly if all it needs is what Windows finds in your inf file.  3dfx tools are working, and device manager shows the correct driver files.  I was just wondering whether your installer would have added anything, or made tweaks to the driver that are not done when manually installing it.  Also, whether the Amigamerlin suggestions for best settings are appropriate for your driver.

What happened to me with your setup installer might happen to anyone using the newer ZoneAlarm versions.  Perhaps it is necessary to set ZoneAlarm not to load at startup.  I would test that myself, but I'd rather not until the next time I need to install the 3dfx driver.  If things are working, I'd rather not mess with it!

Thanks again for the support and the drivers.

Dennis

[Raziel64]

Wow... thank you very much for your effort and really good explanation.
Just one question, what version of Evo drivers are you using?. Check here for the Raziel64 Evolution Driver Expert Edition V1.00.09
http://www.falconfly.de/vsa100.htm

Regards.

[Eck]

It's the latest version, as I just downloaded it a couple of days ago.  You know, I just ran System File Checker and noticed that it found glide2x.dll to be a deleted file.  (I had the Amigamerlin 2.9 installed previously.)  Sure enough, I checked Windows/System, and although glide3x.dll is there (your version), glide2x.dll is not there!  I checked your installation folder, and the file is there with the rest of your stuff.  I'm sure you intended that to be installed with the driver, right?

I'm gonna uninstall everything, including ZoneAlarm, then try to run your installer to see if I can get it installed properly.

I'll let you know in a bit if it works.

Dennis

[Eck]

Okay.  This time the installer did install the drivers.  I was right about ZoneAlarm.  After I finished installing the video stuff I installed ZoneAlarm 4.5.594.  That's the last version that doesn't mess things up.  I'll still use the latest one on XP as I haven't noticed the issues that used to happen on XP as well.  On 98, the version 5 and up of ZoneAlarm still has issues.

Your installer still didn't install 3dfx tools, or even pop up a message after installing the driver to reboot the computer.  I rebooted, saw that the driver worked (even the glide2x.dll was there), and ran the tools setup from your folder.  After reboot, I set the settings to the Balenced Amigamerlin 2.9 recommendations (although some of them aren't in this edition of the tools).

Isn't your installer supposed to prompt for reboots and install the tools?  I would assume so, since the readme only instructs the user to run your setup.  All that did was pop up the box showing Windows copying the driver files to Windows\System.  I then checked the device manager and saw your driver was installed, rebooted, and ran the tools installer.

The installer doesn't seem to do all it's supposed to do.  I think your driver is completely installed, but the way things are I still can't be certain.

Dennis

[nSomniac]

Hey what's up i keep getting a fk'd up error 2, i have win98se and every time i try to install the tools it says file system error, newdev.dll not found, and i have gotten the drivers from 2 diff places so its not like they are only corruptcomin from som'where but i will try the one i just got from falconfly if they dont work i will let u know, thx
matt