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  • VERY unpleasant problem

    My Matrox Marvel G-200 doesn't work reliably if I use a CPU (Celeron-800) with 100 MHz bus clock. I get all sorts of blocky artefacts in PowerDVD, Media Player and Photoshop. I use VT 1.52/Pdesk 5.52 under Win98SE.

    This behaviour is reproducible in several motherboards with Intel (BX) and Via chipsets. As soon as I manually jumper the boards to 66 MHz bus clock everything works fine, but of course the CPU only runs at 533 MHz. I tried a clean install of Windows and Matrox drivers on a new, empty hard disk, but the symptoms remain! I am really at a loss now.

    Some things I tried/verified: The AGP port is not overclocked (66 MHz, regardless of CPU clock). The memory is PC-100 SDRAM, operated at CL3, so that's not overclocked either. All applications run rock stable, so I don't believe the memory is faulty. The power supply is 300W and the fan runs at full speed. Nothing gets hot. I even attached a small CPU-fan on top of the MGA chip. No change. Setting AGP speed to 1x doesn't help either. The motherboard has a "voodoo" jumper that will alledgedly solve some AGP voltage problems. No change either.

    I am now truly close to throwing it out of the window. Not only does this #!!?&%$ Marvel G-200 force me to stick with Windows 98, but with a slow CPU also ????

    Resistance is futile - Microborg will assimilate you.

  • #2
    Hi,

    I am not sure whether or not this is going to help. At one point in time, I used the Matrox Tweak utility to set my G400-TV to a lower AGP speed. This cleared up some problems I was having with the beta Win2K drivers.

    My only other suggestion has to do with the VIA mb. Use the 4.31 or 4.32 drivers. I had issues with other versions of the drivers.

    Comment


    • #3
      Well, I've got a G200 Marvel in an Asus P3B-f/CeleronII800/100mhz/256 meg system so it can work.

      If you are using a VIA mainboard then that's a likely source of problems. They do have reduced memory, PCI and AGP throughput which sure won't help the situation.

      What mainboard/drivers are you using?

      Dr. Mordrid



      [This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 27 June 2001).]

      Comment


      • #4
        He said:
        <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">
        This behaviour is reproducible in several motherboards with Intel (BX) and Via chipsets. </font>
        And, or ?
        I mean, ONLY with the VIA?

        Fred H


        [This message has been edited by Fred H (edited 27 June 2001).]
        It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings...
        ------------------------------------------------

        Comment


        • #5
          The error occurs in both kinds of motherboards (Intel BX and Via 694x) if the cpu bus is clocked at 100 MHz. I tried a Gigabyte BXC, 6BA and 6VX board.

          AGP 1x or 2x (set using the *.REG tweak) doesn't make a difference either. I can verify that the AGP bus is indeed in 1x mode after applying the tweak, but the corruption still occurs. Simply jumpering the motherboards to 66 MHz makes the problem go away! All applications run rock stable both at 66 and 100 MHz, so the CPU and RAM must be ok, don't they? Just to be sure, I'll insert a different graphics adapter tomorrow.


          Resistance is futile - Microborg will assimilate you.

          Comment


          • #6
            Weird, but remember that most apps don't require much in the way of bus/ram throughput. Only video & audio typically hit the system hard enough to bring about problems.

            Dr. Mordrid


            [This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 27 June 2001).]

            Comment


            • #7
              You could try and download the latest Bios for one of the 'boards....

              Gigabyte seems to make Motherboards with pecuilar behaivor whatever chipsets are used.

              I'd have had pure hell with one of theirs today, 6VX7-4X, would only recognise ATAPI CD-ROM devices if they had a disc loaded

              And earlier Bords with BX, LX, I8x has also had their personal quirks..
              If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

              Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

              Comment


              • #8
                Hmmm.....

                Time to go ASUS

                Dr. Mordrid

                Comment


                • #9
                  @Technoid:

                  That's one of the boards I tested. Same problem here. The CDROM issue is caused by the UDMA-66 cable, if you replace it with a "normal" IDE cable it will recognize the CDROM. If you can still bring the board back, I'd recommend you do so, because it isn't very suitable for the Marvel. A SB-16 (ISA) makes chopping sound upon playback, and the on-board "legacy" sound (if yours has that option) distorts terribly if the cpu clock isn't clocked at the same speed as the DIMMS. Capturing Huffyuv or Picvideo puts a high load on the PCI bus.
                  So the on-board sound chip distorts and a SB-16 doesn't work properly ; I sure as hell got rid of the board...

                  One more issue: you must enable the "Southbridge subsystem ID" feature in the BIOS or the VIA 4-in-1 drivers won't install the AGP port properly...


                  Resistance is futile - Microborg will assimilate you.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    @technoid: I'll try that with the bios. If it doesn't work, it's time for a Matrodectomy...
                    Resistance is futile - Microborg will assimilate you.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      The MGA bios update didn't work-same errors. A different graphics adapter (ATI), however, produces the same errors!!! Since I have replaced every part of the computer (except the power supply and the memory), it can only be the new CPU or the memory that runs unreliably at 100 MHz. I really don't think it's the memory: If it were, my applications would crash all over me all day.
                      I really hadn't expected this, because all applications run rock stable! Only direct-X and MMX applications seem to be affected, and only so if I clock the CPU at 100 Mhz bus speed. This is the first bad experience I've ever had with Intel...

                      Resistance is futile - Microborg will assimilate you.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        FD

                        Power supplies CAN cause grave problems. I had one which radiated from the chopper right into the computer case. Guess which board picked it all up? The AGP, which was nearest to the PSU. All sorts of interference on the image. I'm not saying this is your problem, but it is not inconceivable that radiation could be picked up by the PCI bus and harmonics could cause beat effects at certain frequencies.

                        ------------------
                        Brian (the terrible)
                        Brian (the devil incarnate)

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Flying dutchman:
                          @Technoid:

                          That's one of the boards I tested. Same problem here. The CDROM issue is caused by the UDMA-66 cable, if you replace it with a "normal" IDE cable it will recognize the CDROM. If you can still bring the board back, I'd recommend you do so, because it isn't very suitable for the Marvel. A SB-16 (ISA) makes chopping sound upon playback, and the on-board "legacy" sound (if yours has that option) distorts terribly if the cpu clock isn't clocked at the same speed as the DIMMS. Capturing Huffyuv or Picvideo puts a high load on the PCI bus.
                          So the on-board sound chip distorts and a SB-16 doesn't work properly ; I sure as hell got rid of the board...

                          One more issue: you must enable the "Southbridge subsystem ID" feature in the BIOS or the VIA 4-in-1 drivers won't install the AGP port properly...

                          </font>

                          It's not near any of my Comnputers

                          It's in a SIEMENS-FUJITSU SCALEO computer I was repairing at work..

                          And it was an ordinary IDE (40 pin) cable...

                          It doesent matter any more since the client is happy abd havemt called back.

                          His main problem was his HP Deskjet930c USB.

                          That problem was because of the flaky dvd and HP's inability to write working install programs (this one had a seriouse problem with it's "IF" "AND" "OR"...)
                          If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

                          Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Got to agree with Brian, I've seen all manner of weird "shouldn't be possible" failure modes when power supplies partially or intermittently fail.

                            I always keep a spare on hand and its the first thing I swap when weird problems develop. Its easy to change and requires no software changes or updates!

                            --wally.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Hi

                              Talking theory for a moment, when you change the fsb speed, the main components effected are the cpu & memory (yeah, I know that's oversimplifying )

                              Have you tried playing around there, including different modules, slots etc...?

                              RE: power supplies, there's an Australian engineer I think who's the only one I've ever seen post about the variable voltages some (usually cheaper supplies) output, and what it can cause -- perhaps someone else has come across this and can supply links that I can't find at the moment.

                              Finally, and this is a bit of a stretch, I assume you're upping the cpu (& possibly memory) voltage when you increase the fsb speed. If some components require addt'l voltage with fsb at 100, perhaps they're somehow taking away from what the g200 needs -- maybe upping the voltages just a bit more to the cpu for example might be worth a shot.

                              At any rate, I'll save this thread & talk to someone far more experienced then I in this area -- maybe he'll come up with something.

                              mikie

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