HP Kayak XU 04xx User manual

Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide for the HP Kayak XW Series 0480 PC Workstation
HP VISUALIZE fx6

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Testing Your Audio Setup
If You Are Running Windo
Solving Problems with Sound
Connecting Audio Devices to

Contents
English 3
How to use this online guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Notice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Additional Information & Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Important Safety Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Updating the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The About panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Driver Basic Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Options panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
The Settings panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Driver Advanced Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Options panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
The Administrator panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
The Gamma Correction panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Creating Custom Driver Configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Save As Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Delete Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Stereo Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Upgrading your HP VISUALIZE fx6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4English
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Troubleshooting Video Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Diagnostics Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Troubleshooting Performance Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board
Configuration and
Troubleshooting Guide
for the HP Kayak XW Series 0480 PC Workstation
This manual is for anyone who wants to:
•Configure the HP VISUALIZE fx6.
•Update the HP VISUALIZE fx6 driver.
•Know more about the texture module accessory.
•Troubleshoot hardware/performance problems on the HP
VISUALIZE fx6 graphics board.
NOTE The information contained in this document applies to the HP
VISUALIZE fx6 used on HP Kayak XW Series 0480 PC Workstations.
It is not relevant to the HP VISUALIZE fx6 used on HP UNIX
Workstations

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Notice
6English
Notice
The information contained in this document is subject to change
without notice.
Hewlett-Packard makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this
material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Hewlett-
Packard shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for
incidental or consequential damages in connection with the
furnishing, performance, or use of this material.
This document contains proprietary information that is protected by
copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be
photocopied, reproduced, or translated to another language without
the prior written consent of Hewlett-Packard Company.
Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS, Windows and Windows NT are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and/or other countries.
Hewlett-Packard France
38053 Grenoble Cedex 9
France
1998 Hewlett-Packard Company

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HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Additional Information & Help
Additional Information & Help
For more information on your graphics board and the accessories
available with this product, you can visit the following pages on HP’s
Web site:
HP Kayak PC Workstation product specifications
•http://www.hp.com/go/kayak
HP Kayak PC Workstations and HP VISUALIZE fx6 white papers
•http://www.hp.com/go/kayaklibrary
Latest drivers, FAQs, and support information
•http://www.hp.com/go/kayaksupport
Important Safety Instructions
Please read the following safety information first.
CAUTION Static electricity can damage electronic components.
Use an electrostatic bracelet if you have one.
Turn all equipment OFF. Don’t let your clothes touch the accessory.
Handle the accessory as little as possible and with care.
WARNING For your safety, never remove the PC Workstation’s cover without
first removing the power cord from the power outlet, and any
connection to a telecommunications network. Always replace the
cover on the PC Workstation before switching it on again.
Before handling the VISUALIZE fx6 graphics board, first wait
until the board has cooled down completely. The graphics board
can become very hot during use.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Overview
8English
Overview
The HP VISUALIZE fx6 is a high-end OpenGL graphics board that
features the latest high-performance 3D graphics technology.
This OpenGL graphics board accelerates your 3D graphic design
and visualization, and improves the quality of your graphics.
The HP VISUALIZE fx6 graphics subsystem occupies two accessory
slots in your PC Workstation (one PCI and one AGP). It brings you:
•A world-class geometry engine, using dedicated floating-point
processors based on PA-RISC technology
•18 MB SGRAM video memory
•Full OpenGL 1.1 hardware features and extensions support
•HP Color Recovery dithering
•HP DirectModel acceleration with occlusion culling
•Stereo vision support
•Optional hardware texture accelerator module with 32 MB
SDRAM of dedicated texture memory

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HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
The HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
The HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
A driver for the HP VISUALIZE fx6 is preloaded on your PC
Workstation.
Should you need to reinstall or update the driver, the latest version
is provided on the HP Web site. For more information refer to the
next section, “Updating the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver”
If you cannot access the Internet, you can find a backup copy of the
HP VISUALIZE fx6 driver on the HP CD-ROM provided with your
PC Workstation. The version number of this driver may be different
from the one preloaded on your PC Workstation. However, HP
recommends that you obtain the latest version from the Web site, if
possible.
Updating the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
HP frequently updates the HP VISUALIZE fx6 driver to incorporate
feature and performance enhancements, or to fix problems found
when running specific applications.
You can download the latest version of the HP VISUALIZE fx6
driver from HP’s Web site at:
http://www.hp.com/go/kayaksupport
After accessing the HP Kayak Support Web site, select the HP
Kayak XW Series 0480 PC Workstation, and then go to the OpenGL
section.
If the list contains a driver for your application, download that
driver. For example, if you are using a Unigraphics application,
select the “Unigraphics certified” driver. If a driver for your
application is not listed, select the “DEFAULT version”.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Updating the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
10 English
NOTE A README file is supplied with the new driver. Please read it
carefully as it provides instructions to install the driver. Moreover,
the information contained in the README file supersedes any
information contained in this manual.
To update the driver, follow these instructions.
1Download the driver from HP’s Web site to a temporary folder on
your hard disk. (For example, C:\TEMP\fx6DRV\)
2Run the executable file to decompress the contained files. You
can do this by double-clicking on the file.
3Follow the instructions provided in the README file that comes
with the driver.

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HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
You can configure the HP VISUALIZE fx6 driver using the Display
Properties dialog box.
To display the Display Properties dialog box, click Start, point
to Settings, and then click Control Panel. In Control Panel
double-click Display.
When the HP VISUALIZE fx6 driver is installed, the Display
Properties dialog box contains four extra panels:
About
Administrator
Gamma Correction
Options
For Help About
the Options
Click at the top of the dialog box, and then click the item you
want information about.
To close the pop-up window, click inside it.
The About panel
The About panel displays useful information, including the version
of the driver, OpenGL version and extensions, and the presence and
size of the texture memory module.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
12 English
The figure above shows the About panel for an HP VISUALIZE fx6 with driver version FX.00.01.06
and no texture memory module installed.

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HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
Driver Basic Configuration
The Options panel
Configure the driver for the application you are using by selecting
the application name in the Application group box.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
14 English
If your application is not listed, select *Compatibility Mode.
You do not need to change any of the options in the Settings group
box. When you select an application, options in the Settings group
box are automatically configured for the selected application.
The Settings panel
Use the Settings panel to change the screen resolution, number of
colors and refresh rate. Click List All Modes to view all
combinations of colors, desktop area, and refresh frequency
supported by the HP VISUALIZE fx6. If you select a mode, click
Test to see if your choice is compatible with your monitor.
You can display screen resolutions up to 1280x1024 in True Color,
double-buffered mode.
Using a resolution of 1600x1200, you can obtain True Color in
single-buffered mode only. However, if the Color Recovery setting
is enabled in the Options panel, the 1600x1200 resolution is
obtained as 12-bit color, double-buffered mode. The HP Color
Recovery gives near true color appearance.

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HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
Driver Advanced Configuration
The Options panel
Application group box
NOTE Settings preceded with the ‘*’ character, cannot be deleted by
anyone, including the administrator.
Setting group box
Option Description
Max Compatibility The “*Max Compatibility” setting provides maximum compatibility for
those applications that mix OpenGL and Windows GDI rendering in
double-buffered windows, contrary to Microsoft requirements. If your
application is not listed, choose this option.
Max Performance The “*Max Performance” setting will provide the maximum graphics
throughput. However, many applications may exhibit visual anomalies.
Custom The “*Custom” setting becomes active when the user manually modifies
one or more settings. For more information refer to “Creating Custom
Driver Configurations” below.
Application name Select the application software you are using (e.g. SoftImage,
Solidworks).
Option Description
No Tearing “No tearing” prevents the tearing effect seen when rendering in the
middle of a vertical refresh. When this option is enabled, performance
may be reduced because rendering waits for a vertical refresh to finish.
This is especially true for large windows.
Fast Buffer Swaps “Fast buffer swaps” takes advantage of HP's multi buffer hardware. The
hardware has a physical front and back buffer that can be swapped very
quickly. For compatibility with some applications, this option can be
turned off, and the back buffer copied to the front buffer instead.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
16 English
The Administrator panel
The Administrator panel is only available if the user has
administrator privileges. From this panel the administrator can
enable the user to access the Gamma Correction and Options panels
and allow the user to change and save the HP VISUALIZE fx6
Custom configuration.
Multi Buffer GDI This option causes GDI (NT Graphics Device Interface) to draw to both
the physical front and back buffers. This is useful for applications which
use GDI to draw in an OpenGL window.
This option MUST be disabled for 2D benchmarking purposes.
Quad Strips to Tri Strips Applications which fail to conform to the OpenGL standard, by creating
non planar quad strips, may render incorrectly with this driver. This
option causes quad strips to be converted to triangle strips, so that the
geometry will render correctly.
Color Recovery Color recovery uses patented HP technology and is unique to VISUALIZE
boards. It generates near true color quality images from 8-bit or 12-bit
source in OpenGL contexts, without the grainy or patterned effect of 8-
bit dithering.
Stereo Sync Enabled When this option is set, stereo timing is enabled on the video output port
and stereo pixel formats are made available to applications. Note that
stereo timing is only supported in True Color screen formats less than
1600x1200 in resolution. Additionally, the stereo effect is greatly
enhanced at higher refresh rates, for example, 120 Hz. Finally, note that
the stereo effect will only be visible when using appropriate
stereographic glasses or headsets.
NOOP Texture Mapping When this option is set, texture mapping becomes NOOP (NO OPeration).
All texture commands sent by an application are ignored.
If the texture module is not installed, setting this option can be useful to
simulate the board performance with the texture module installed.
However, visual results are poor, and actual hardware acceleration with
the texture module will be slightly slower than this simulated
performance.
Option Description

English 17
HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Configuring the HP VISUALIZE fx6 Driver
The Gamma Correction panel
Gamma correction is used to correct non-linearity in the phosphor
brightness of monitors. It can be used to improve the appearance of
antialiased lines, shaded graphic images, or scanned photographic
images that have not already been gamma corrected.
Creating Custom Driver Configurations
The Options panel allows you to create customized driver
configurations for the HP VISUALIZE fx6. These configurations
appear in the Application group box.
To create a customized profile
1Set the desired options in the Settings group box
This will select the “*Custom” setting in the Application group
box.
2Click the Save As button to save the current configuration. You
are prompted for a profile name.
3Type a Configuration name in the Save Configuration dialog box.
This name will appear in the Application group box.
Save As Button
Allows you to save the current “*Custom” configuration, as a
named, user-specific configuration.
Delete Button
Allows you to delete a custom configuration.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Stereo Vision
18 English
Stereo Vision
The stereo modes cause the display to alternate between the left
and right images in successive refresh cycles (thus a 120 Hz refresh
rate will display 60 left images and 60 right images per second).
Stereo modes can be enabled in the Stereo Sync Enabled check
box in the Options panel of Windows NT Display Properties.
To view the stereo image, a suitable device is required. This must
have a VESA 1.0P compatible Stereo connector.
This device is usually a pair of liquid crystal glasses. The lenses
alternate between left-lens-transparent/right-lens-opaque and left-
lens-opaque/right-lens-transparent, at the same rate as the screen
refresh rate, so that each image is only seen by the appropriate eye.
The result is realistic depth perception.

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HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Upgrading your HP VISUALIZE fx6
Upgrading your HP VISUALIZE fx6
You can upgrade your HP VISUALIZE fx6 graphics board with a 32
MB texture module accessory (part number D6795A).
Texture memory and acceleration is especially required for
rendering realistic 3-D images in visual simulation environments,
where texture mapping is widely used.
Texture mapping requires a large number of memory references
and computation, that often accounts for more than half the total
CPU time in the 3D pipeline.
This optional texture module provides accelerated texture mapping
support and 32 MB of Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) to buffer
texture maps. It brings you:
•Dual texture acceleration processors
•32 MB SDRAM dedicated texture memory, configured as dual
buffers of 16 MB
•Point-sampled, bilinear, and trilinear MIP mapping
•3D texture mapping
•Shadow texture mapping
In addition to these features, the texture memory can also be used
as offscreen memory to accelerate applications that must save and
restore portions of the frame buffer, or depth buffer, while
manipulating objects.

HP VISUALIZE fx6 Graphics Board Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
Troubleshooting
20 English
Troubleshooting
This section describes how to troubleshoot problems that may arise
with your graphics subsystem. It also provides some tips on how to
improve the graphics performance.
Troubleshooting Video Problems
At boot time, the
screen is blank and
there are no error
messages.
Solution Explanation
Check that the computer and display are turned
on. (The power light should be illuminated.)
Useful routine checks, especially if you have just
moved the computer.
Check the display’s contrast and brightness
settings.
Make sure that all cables and power cords are
plugged in.
Make sure the power outlet is working.
If possible, try another monitor and set of cables.
Check the LCD screen of your PC Workstation. If
the LCD screen reports ‘Error - No Video’, check
that the HP VISUALIZE fx6 board is correctly
inserted into the AGP and the PCI slots.
At boot time, the display’s signal is provided by
the VGA daughter board of your fx6. MaxiLife
can check if the VGA daughter board is running
properly.
If the LCD screen does not report any error, try
another graphics board, if available. Even if it is
not an HP VISUALIZE fx6, the boot sequence
should be displayed using the VGA standard
driver.
If the boot sequence is displayed correctly using a
replacement board, your HP VISUALIZE fx6 board
may be faulty.