I've asked on several forums, and I've asked XFXForce, who made my GeForce4 MX440 video card and so far, nobody has any idea why this happens or how to fix it. I'm hoping you might have some idea why this happens.
I'm using Windows 98SE, so many DOS games run fine. The problem is that when I try to use 640x480, some parts of games cause a corrupted screen.
For example, I've been trying to get Blood working properly. The game itself works perfectly, but the movies are scrambled unless I set the game to the default 320x200. At that resolution, the movies play fine. If I set the game to anything higher, the movies just display a static, corrupted screen. If I press Alt-Enter to switch to windowed mode, the movies play fine. If I then switch back to full-screen by pressing Alt-Enter again, the movies play fine in full-screen. This is only a temporary fix though, the next time a movie plays, it will be corrupted again.
Here's where things get strange though; If I switch my desktop to 640x480x16, then I can launch the game in any resolution I want and the movies play perfectly. Of course, in their infinite stupidity, Microsoft made it so that switching to or from such a desktop mode requires that you restart windows. Not exactly ideal when I have tasks running in the background.
So, it works if launched from a 640x480x16 Desktop, it works in 320x200 and it works (temporarily) if I switch from full-screen to windowed and back again, but none of those are all that convenient.
I also experienced the same problem with the original Descent. The game would run fine, but once I started a game, switching to the map, or the main menu would show a frozen, corrupted screen. Switching to a window temporarily fixed it. The default mode of the original Tomb Raider also does this, but I was able to fix it by pressed F1 to switch modes.
Note that the games do not crash, only the graphics are corrupted. The fact that they work when launched from certain Desktop settings and that they work when switched to a window and back again, are proof that my video card can handle those displays, but it apparently doesn't know how to do it properly. I've tried older drivers and the very latest drivers and they all do the same thing.
One last thing to note is that the movies for Blood are in 320x200 Smacker format. Maybe it's a problem with going from a higher resolution to a lower one?
Awesoken at
I would suggest going here to search for your answer:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/