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**Pertti** · 27 September 2000, 21:49

cjyo~

Do you have a BX motherboard somewhere that you could try ?

I have tried the CUSL2 with RT2K, and in the end I went back to my old trusty P2B-S.

Here you can find how my system was configured: http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002174.html

and here's how I set W98SE up on that rig: http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum2/HTML/004750.html

[This message has been edited by Pertti (edited 28 September 2000).]

**cjyo~** · 28 September 2000, 07:54

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I will try this tonight after work. I just got the new CUSL2/P3-800 specifically for the RT2000 (since it's on the Matrox recommended list), but I do have my old Abit BH6 / Celeron 300a(@450) that I can pop back in to test.

If it works, should I use a slot convertor for the P3-800 or can you recommend another new Motherboard?

**Dr Mordrid** · 28 September 2000, 08:12

An excellent slot converter that I use with my Asus P3B-F is the Gigabyte GA-6R7Pro/6R7+. It's jumperless, which means it automatically configures itself.

As for the mainboard I'd say the Asus P3B-F is one of the most stable boards I've ever used. The key to getting it to work with the PIII/800 though is to flash the BIOS with version 1006 to get CuMine 800 compatability.

Once the BIOS is updated getting it to work with the RT-2000 is a piece of cake. Just set the AGP apature to 256 and your ready ro rock & roll.

Dr. Mordrid

**Pertti** · 28 September 2000, 08:18

If it works on the Abit, I'd stick with it (although most of the users having problems when RT2K was released, were using Abit boards).

The situation with new motherboards has still not improved, the CUSL2 may become a serious player after several bios updates, but so far if you want to do some serious computing, you should be using a mobo with a BX chipset, one board that you could consider, is the Asus CUBX.

The AMD route is tempting, but unfortunately the chipsets for AMD based systems are not up to the task yet.

Try first to configure your system and OS similar to how mine was (without ACPI), and if it doesn't work, change the Abit in.

**cjyo~** · 28 September 2000, 09:11

Thanks for the advice, I am leaning towards a new mobo, but just to keep you up to date:

Well, since I already took all the cards out before, leaving just the RT2000 and G400 in, with no change, I've decided to move around the existing cards (MX300 soundcard and D-Link NIC) and concentrate on BIOS settings.

I already had all the Power Management stuff disabled in the BIOS and in Win98. I haven't been able to get rid of the abundance of ACPI IRQ holders at all. I have now also disnabled all USB, LPT and Com ports in the BIOS (and disabled in Windows, as before). I have also juggled around the forced IRQs, to get the best result possible (see below).

No combination, including the current best case setting made any difference in the Premiere 2 second playback problem. I have had a few suggestions that the CUSL2 is a bad choice of mobo. I am beginning to lean in this direction. Even if it is "Matrox Recommended," I have the feeling any other Motherboard would be less of a bear to get working.

Tonight, I am going to re-install my old ABIT BH6/Celeron 300a(@450) and re-install Windows from scratch and see if the RT2000 likes that better. If so, I will return the CUSL2, and find a better P3 mobo.

A side note, I mentioned before that the Premiere DV and analog mpeg2 capture does seem to work fine, I just have a playback problem. I further confirmed this by exporting a DV capture, in DVD IBP format, then hex editing the header/footer off, so I could play the file in a DVD player - and the clip played back perfectly on a software player.

Anyway, heres my latest IRQs, if they might shed any light:

Note: I tried to force the RT2000 into IRQ7, but it wouldn't go. Why do the ACPI Holders stick to all my cards (even when Power Management is disabled)???

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
3 Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
3 Vortex AU8830 Multifunction PCI Platform
3 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
4 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 Matrox RT2000
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 (free)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 D-Link DFE-530TX PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
9 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 Matrox Millennium G400 (Flex 3D Edition) - English
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
12 WheelMouse1 (PS/2)
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B

**Pertti** · 28 September 2000, 10:04

The ACPI is just another useless feature that the big companies came up with to annoy the users.

Unfortunately the only way to get rid of it, is to make a fresh installation of Windows with "Setup /p i" (typed exactly as I wrote, including the spaces)
The ACPI alone, is enough to make one strugle for weeks.

Pertti

**Dr Mordrid** · 28 September 2000, 11:18

No kidding!

ACPI = one BIG P.I.A.

Dr. Mordrid

**wkulecz** · 28 September 2000, 19:02

For Win98 ACPI is indeed a PITA.

I was suspicious of it when windows 2000 first came out and installed with ACPI turned off in the BIOS. ACPI did byte me big time when I did a warrenty MB replacement for a defective serial port and the replacement had an "updated" BIOS that wouldn't disable ACPI -- swap seemed to go smoothly but the system self-destructed soon after from a PnP screw-up. PnP under w2k finally seems to be working for me not against me, but on W2k when PnP screws-up it appears reformat is your only fix :-(

I've had zero problems (other than the ATI AIW-Pro capture driver blue screening) since the reformat and reinstall. With w2k and ACPI IRQ conflicts does seem to be a thing of the past so I'm not as down on ACPI as I was a few months ago.

But I agree disable it in the BIOS if possible before installing w98.

Will the RT2000 ever support w2k?

--wally.

**Dr Mordrid** · 28 September 2000, 22:32

Direct Matrox quote from the official RT-2000 forum;

"We are also committed to support Windows 2000, but this will be in the next release after (Matrox Video Tools) 2.0 because there are quite a huge number of changes to do in our code in order to support Windows 2000...."

MVT 2.0 is well along in its testing so take it from there.

Dr. Mordrid

**cjyo~** · 29 September 2000, 02:39

Well, Pertti, I followed your instructions to the letter. The "setup /p i" actually did get rid of all the ACPI IRQ hogs. Unfortunately, even with those gone and no other cards in the system (and everything disabled in the device manager), I had exactly the same problem. I even followed some extra advice from Matrox support regarding slot order on the CUSL2.

Anyway, I hope I can exchange or get a refund for the CUSL2, because I have no use for it. 4 days down the drain with no sleep - and no work done...

I put in my trusty Abit BH6/Celeron 300a(@450) and it works well, after an hour or card swapping to make the IRQs happy. Device control and everything...

What is a good mobo with ATA100 and 133mhz support for my 800mhz chip? I have an unopened Fasttrack100 and two new IBM 45gb drives, but I would also like my system drive and "old" DiamondMax Plus 40 to run faster - you should have seen the HD Benchmark take a nose dive on the ATA33 BH6 EIDE Controller.

Now all I need is the IBP MPEG2 unwrapper...

'nite all

**Pertti** · 29 September 2000, 05:45

cjyo~

Glad to hear, that you got it working with the Abit.

The P2B-F which the good ol' Doc recommended is still the king of all motherboards, but I hear the CUBX is not bad either.

The CUSL2 is sitting at the moment in my MarvelG400 system, where it works just fine (allthough benches slower than the P2B-S on certain areas), and once Asus gets enough Bios updates out, I will give it another chance on the RT2K rig.

When the BX chipset came out, the first P2B boards did have similar problems, and it took Asus about half a year to come up with decent Bioses.
I would estimate, it takes at least until christmas before we can see what the CUSL2 is really about.

**Dr Mordrid** · 29 September 2000, 06:44

Actually I recommended the Asus P3B-F

It's such a good board I have 4 systems based on 'em in the lab now and those are consistantly the fastest of the 9 systems.

I agree with Pertti about the timetable for Asus getting the CUSL2 sorted out. That's actually the good thing about Asus boards: once they get the BIOS sorted out their boards are bloody fast and rock solid.

Dr. Mordrid

**wkulecz** · 29 September 2000, 10:53

ASUS's track record of eventually sorting out the issues and getting things fixed with downloadable BIOS updates is the main reason they are the motherboard brand I always recommend.

About the only time I'll use a non-ASUS motherboard is on a Linux box. Linux only needs the BIOS to work well enough to load the boot sector.

--wally.

**Dr Mordrid** · 29 September 2000, 11:23

Yup. That about sums it up. And they'll keep plugging away at it until it's right.

I remember when the P2B first came out. It was quite buggy and it took almost 100 updates to get it right. What was amazing was that those updates all came out at machine-gun speed. After that cycle it became one of the best boards ever (and still) made. If memory servers it only took about 4-6 months.

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 29 September 2000).]

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RT2000 first-time installation disaster - Please Help!

RT2000 first-time installation disaster - Please Help!

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