Celestia Forums

Until recently, Celestia 1.2.5pre7 was running pretty well (15 fps at 1024x768x32, med-res textures) on my system, with Detonator 30.82 drivers.
I own a AMD K6-2-475MHz, nVidia Vanta 8Mb, 128 Mb RAM, WinMe.
I decided to install version 40.72 of nVidia drivers, and things began going bad: Celestia now only works acceptably at low-res textures into small windows (640x480 or so). When I try to re-scale the window, it apparently freezes beyond certain size. Well, it's not really frozen, it's got a frame rate of 0.1 fps (1 frame every 10 seconds). If I make the window smaller, the thing goes smooth again.
Besides, I was able to work with planet textures of 1024x1024 in every resolution, and now these show as a white ball.
I've tried with new 41.09 drivers, reinstalled 30.82, and even older, but none ot them solves the issue. Seems like something has changed in a lower level, perhaps AGP parameters or something.
Any idea?

Well it would help to know what version of Windows you are using.
To get started I would do a full uninstall of all NVidia drivers. This also means going through the registry and finding as many of the driver entries as posible. Then go back and reinstall the drivers that worked for you in the past. Just because NVidia releases newer drivers doesn't mean they will work right for everone and on every computer setup. If worst comes to worst try a dirty install if you are using Win98,98SE,or ME. That is an install on top of your present install or what is called an upgrade install. It might do the trick and clear out the reg entries for the drivers and let you install the versions that worked for you. If you happen to be using Windows ME you could try the system restore program and select a rollback point before you installed the new drivers. If you are using Windows 2000 you could try to use the the feature in the boot menu called Last Good Known Configuration or it says something similar. If you happen to be lucky enough to be using Windows XP ( I can here Rassilon screaming just about now ) you can use the system restore program in it as well. I find that its one of the best features of XP. I oftem upgrade drivers and if I don't like what they are doing its easier to just roll the system back versus trying to uninstall a driver installation. One warning on doing a roll back and this for everyone reading this. Make sure you back up any new work you have done in any programs and any Celestia files as sometimes I repeat sometimes the roll back will literally set the system back to a previous level and that means that any new work could be lost. It has happened to me a few times but not all the time. I haven't quite figured out why this happens but its always a good idea to back up important data on CDR or an old good working hard drive.
Now for the worst case senario you might just have to do a complete new install by formating your drive. I know its extreme but sometimes drivers can play havoc with Windows and sometimes Windows just won't let go of drivers and this can be the last option.
Just remember that just because NVidia releases newer drivers doesn't mean you should jump the gun and use them right away and definetly when older hardware is at issue. Always check around the web and see if anyone is having problems with the drivers and wirgh your options. There could also be an issue with the newer drivers and your SuperSocket7 motherboard chipset. NVidia has had problems in the past with Super7 boards and its very posible the problems are back. Good luck on your system.

I am using Windows ME, but unfortunately I didn't set any restoration point prior to install latest nVidia drivers. Thought it was useless
I'll try your driver cleanup suggestions. Thanx a lot.

PD: I've tried Celestia 1.2.4 in another partition of my system, under XP, and it explodes just after launching, saying it has a problem with nvopengl.dll

I think my PC is begging me to upgrade or retire it.

Thats unfortunate about your ME install. Unnder XP everytime you install a new driver it creates a new restore point.
Now I think we may have the crux of the problem. Its the OpenGL IDC giving you a problem. Sometimes when you install a driver pak Windows will not alow the installer to remove a file because it was in use recently and is still loaded into high memory. So what I think is happening is that all the other components of the driver install were upgraded eccept for that .dll file. It being of a diferent build it won't play right with the newer versions of the other files hence you are seeing a crash or lockup. Now I need to know what version of the drivers you have installed at this time.
If you went and installed the older drivers then what I would do is find the flolder that the NVidia installer made and locate the nvopengl.dll and copy it into your Windows\System folder and over-write the version in there and reboot. Now try launching Celestia again. If you get another message that there is another files having a problem then try the same thing on this file and so on. The other thing you can do is to reboot into SAFE Mode and run the installer again and see if this might help. The last thing I can think of is that it could be the main OpenGL drive called opengl32.dll. This might or might not sound familliar from the Quake GL days. Look in the NVidia drivers folder and see if you see a copy of it in there. If you do than right click it and copy and then past it to your windows\system folder and reboot. Now try Celestia again. If it works than you just fixed the problem if it doesn't than you are looking looking at something quite a bit more involved than than I can into here. Good luck and I will check back for an update on your progress.