Abit bp6 / g400max / rrg

[Boul]

I have a BP6 with a RRG and live and G400. I experienced the same problems as you. Changed my power supply for an antec 300W (plenty powerful) No go. Rmaed both cards, still no go. I get no sound and video source is detected as secam (its really ntsc)

This RRG is the worst hardware I have ever owned. Even when it did work (after I take out the card and reseat it, after I unplug the power supply with the monitor on, I get a spark, then the tuner will work upon start up, the quakity in the low channels was very bad, and I had ripples on two of my favorite channels. A POS, I have all but given up. If you can get it to work on your systems (which seem identical to mine), please drop me a line...

[Boul]

I have a BP6 with a RRG and live and G400. I experienced the same problems as you. Changed my power supply for an antec 300W (plenty powerful) No go. Rmaed both cards, still no go. I get no sound and video source is detected as secam (its really ntsc)

This RRG is the worst hardware I have ever owned. Even when it did work (after I take out the card and reseat it, after I unplug the power supply with the monitor on, I get a spark, then the tuner will work upon start up, the quakity in the low channels was very bad, and I had ripples on two of my favorite channels. A POS, I have all but given up. If you can get it to work on your systems (which seem identical to mine), please drop me a line...

[Boul]

I have a BP6 with a RRG and live and G400. I experienced the same problems as you. Changed my power supply for an antec 300W (plenty powerful) No go. Rmaed both cards, still no go. I get no sound and video source is detected as secam (its really ntsc)

This RRG is the worst hardware I have ever owned. Even when it did work (after I take out the card and reseat it, after I unplug the power supply with the monitor on, I get a spark, then the tuner will work upon start up, the quakity in the low channels was very bad, and I had ripples on two of my favorite channels. A POS, I have all but given up. If you can get it to work on your systems (which seem identical to mine), please drop me a line...

[Boul]

I have a BP6 with a RRG and live and G400. I experienced the same problems as you. Changed my power supply for an antec 300W (plenty powerful) No go. Rmaed both cards, still no go. I get no sound and video source is detected as secam (its really ntsc)

This RRG is the worst hardware I have ever owned. Even when it did work (after I take out the card and reseat it, after I unplug the power supply with the monitor on, I get a spark, then the tuner will work upon start up, the quakity in the low channels was very bad, and I had ripples on two of my favorite channels. A POS, I have all but given up. If you can get it to work on your systems (which seem identical to mine), please drop me a line...

[Flying dutchman]

Boul, we got the point - please stop repeating!

[Boul]

Sorry for the absurd amount of posts, I tought the server was busy and it wasn't getting through.

[Dave D]

Boul Thanks for the numerous responses

Don't give up on the cards. It works great in the bx6 board (for a couple weeks now) and is apparently a bp6 issue. I am still researching power supplies and pesimisticly waiting for a response from abit. There is a difference in Power Supplies and when I find out what one works I will post here. It may be a week or 2.

Any way good luck and I will post here when I have an answer.

Dave D

A question, Has your g400 primary monitor ever looked a little darker at times then others? Mine does this from time to time and I think this is also power related.

[Boul]

yeah, but way to push up a thread...

Dave, not lucky enough to own two monitors.(Let alone a decent one) I have recently tried the powerdesk 5.55 and videotools 1.54. Same old crap. Information tab shows up fine, but I get no sound from my sbLive! (which I suspect is a factor) and the video is detected as secam.

[Walrus]

Just a quick note to all owners of BX-based Abit boards. Finally someone has tracked down the problems on these boards to a bad voltage regulator chip. At the following URL there is info on how to find out if in fact that is what is causing your RRG/stability problems and a way of soldering on a new chip (cheaply) to fix the problem: http://bp6.gamesquad.net/Q6fix.phtml
This should fix some of the RRG problems with Abit boards.
This isn't the first problem Abit has had with their boards, and only further convinces me NEVER to use their boards again. I spent so much time trying to get my BP6 stable with 2 Celeron 366s to 550 that it would have been more cost-effective to buy an Asus P2B-D with 2 PIII 550s. (also had problems with a friends' BE6) RRG is not a perfect piece of hardware, but in terms of problems, it pales in comparison to the BP6.

[Axatax]

Walrus, those VTT/EC10 fixes will have no bearing on the RRG. The VRM is to regulate the CPU voltage. I have tried using the RRG on a "modded BP6" (see the Matrox Support forums, Video Editing, DaveD/RRG thread) to no avail.

My BP6 is one of the "good" ones. It has worked flawlessly since day one (aside from the RRG issues which I managed to solve, but still don't know what I did).

The gentleman I contacted at Abit has gone on leave and will be back on 28 of June. I will be calling him when he returns.

BTW: Just to throw something out into the air - the RRG uses the PCI slot for power _only_. There is no data transfer to the RRG over the PCI bus (hence a fluxuating VTT will have no effect). I have confirmed this by placing the RRG into a powered PCI backplane of another computer and it still functioned when connected to the G400.

SO - this is most _definitely_ a power issue, and I don't think that the P/S will fix this in the majority of cases.

DaveD, I'm going to mod another BP6 and share my results when they are complete. I suspect the same EC10-type fix on the PCI line will most likely correct this. If you are not comfortable with modding the board, the same mod _should_ also be able to be applied directly to the RRG. I will experiment with both avenues and provide results. The RRG mod will most likely involve adding two caps inline with the PCI edge connector (to the backside of the board) and will be more easily reversed than a mobo mod since the factory caps have inverted welds.

[Walrus]

Axatax: Fair enough. So the problems are with the + and - 5V lines going into the RRG. On the other hand, the 3.3 problem could be why my computer is so incredibly unstable under W2K. (either that or Microsoft

[Axatax]

Walrus, I can confirm that either the voltage regulator or EC10 fix will correct _many_ of the lockups under Win2K. After I built my BP6 system, my roommate and a guy down the hall wanted one too. They purchased basically the same components as I. My roommate was lucky, the other fellow was not and got a bum BP6.

When the voltage reg. fix came 'round, a trip down to RadioShack and 15 minutes of time solved the problem. His system is as stable as the other two now.

The same can also be accomplished by performing the EC10 fix. I don't know which is the "better" of the two fixes, but both seem to work equally. I will say, if you can find the correct voltage regulator for the original voltage reg. fix, this is the route to go. As stated, the caps are fastened using inverted welds and as such are very difficult to remove. The voltage reg. fix is simple and straight forward (and easily reversable).

The problem seems to arise from insufficient power over the PCI lines. If this is infact the case, the fix _should_ be fairly simple. When I have time this Friday, I'm going to dig-in and hopefully put an end to this.

[Boul]

Man, I can hardly believe I might actually get a working rr-g after all this...

On another note, have any of you with the combo from hell try replacing the hungry sblive with an isa sound card? I was also contemplating getting a vcr and plugging it into line in to bypass the rrg tuner. Anybody try this?

P.S. You know you are desperate when you contemplate buying additionnal hardware to get your old stuff to function...

[Dave D]

Hey Boul,

Is that new power supply version 2.01 compliant?

I just found out that my Enlight case does not have an Enlight power supply in it. I Have 3 cases 1 I bought a year or so ago and 2 I bought at the same time a few months back. The 2 most recent ones have a generic 300 watt supply and the older on has an Enlight 250.(That explains the deal I got) I am going to try to get to the local comp shop and pick up a 2.01 and try it this weekend.

[Boul]

Yes it is. What irritates me is that the PS thing fixed most people's RRG woes, but not mine. In fact, I think my previous aopen 300W power supply was 2.01 compliant, and so is my spankin new antec 300W (correct amperage at -5V and -12V, its even on the athlon recommended list for pete's sake) RRG still not working...