Matrox Millennium G200 or G400Max w/RR on ABit BP6 -> No TV?

[Tlaloc]

In my IWill XA100Plus K6-2 300MHz my G200 and Rainbow Runner G-series works perfectly and PowerDesk recognizes the following items:

Matrox Rainbow Runner G-series (add-on)
Motion-JPEG Codec (add-on)
TV Tuner (add-on)

but when I try the exact same setup in an ABit BP6, PowerDesk recognizes the above but also finds a 'Video input (built-in)' and this results in an error message (51 I think) and the TV tuner does not work...

I've tried a load of different drivers (4.11, 4.26, 4.33c, 4.33m, 4.51, 5.13, 5.15 & 5.21) but none works. With some of the drivers the PowerDesk even finds a 'Digital Flat panel connector' which I definately do not have... Sometimes this is the only item that's detected.

I've now bought a G400Max and it has the same problem!

Please help!

[David]

Hi,

This is a fairly common problem with Abit boards. There was a huge thread about it a couple of months ago if you want to read the details. From memory it was called something like "Rainbow Runner G-Series TV Tuner and audio problems".

We didn't really come to any conclusions as to why it happens, but the cause is the RR-G, the Abit board and the power supply you have.

Yes - the RR-G works fine with every other board, so this could point to the Abit having some sort of fault. Then again - every other card I've ever put in my Abit works perfectly, so this could point to an RR-G fault. Who knows.

The solution, believe it or not, is to change your power supply. It worked for me (and many others). My original power supply was a Macase 250 Watt that met all required specifications - yet the RR-G didn't work (exact same problem as you). I changed my power supply to a crappy no-name one that I got from work and all my problems went away.

Basically you have to experiement with different power supplies until you get one that works. Obviously it depends on your job and how many computer owning friends you have as to how easy this task will be.

Good luck.

...David <optic@iname.com>

[Tlaloc]

Hi David,

Thanks for replying, I've tried to find help in the newsgroups but didn't get any responses of any value, so I was beginning to think that my experience was an isolated incident.

Just finished reading through the thread you mentioned (took about an hour :-) ), so it seems I should be trying a different PSU. I've tried to put in an AOpen 300W PSU but that didn't help, so I guess I'll have to try some more. Any brands you can recommend?

I sell computers for a living so I should be able to get my hands on a couple of different PSUs to try them out.

Once again thanks for replying.

[canyonfish]

Since you build computers... I wonder if you've tried other Abit boards? I have an Abit BH6 and if you're an Abit user/builder like I am... you know that they are constantly upgrading the bios for their boards. The PS issue is an interesting one, and I've found that ATX v.2.01 compliant PS's are the way to go. My own system has a A-PRO 801-CX mid-tower w/2 extra fans (best case I ever used). I don't build them for a living... but I've built a dozen Abit systems in the past year. Jinco (http://st3.yahoo.com/jinco/index.html) has these cases and a nice variety of power supplies too. Hope you solve the problem.

[David]

Tlaloc,

No problem. I felt the same way (that I was the only one having the problem) until I participated in that thread.

My RR-G has not skipped a beat since I changed the power supply. It's been several months now.

I can't really recommend a PSU brand for you. I work at a computer shop as well and just took a PSU out of one of our cheap cases and took it home. It worked. It's just a generic no-name PSU, nothing special.

You have the perfect job to be able to fix the problem. Having easy access to different PSU's without having to go out and buy them is a big help!

Canyonfish - I have a BH6 v1.1 revision with the latest BIOS and I had the exact same problem as Tlaloc. In fact I tried three different Abit BH6 boards and had the problem with all three of them.

Seeya,

...David <optic@iname.com>

[Tlaloc]

No, I haven't tried any other Abit boards, the company I work for has only just switched to Abit (from mainly IWill) and since the RRG isn't a big seller here in Denmark our test department didn't bother to test with those...

I've just tried with an old PSU, one that we've stopped selling because about 25-40% of them died after about a month ;-) It's basically a no nome PSU but it's labelled Seventeam ST-235GL. It gives out 2.0A on +5Vsb and finally my G400Max and RRG works in my BP6, even with the 5.25 drivers and 1.50beta VT. YES!!!

Thank you David, you saved my day.

BTW: My co-workers laughed and made fun of me when I told them that my problems could be because of the PSU. I can't wait to tell them what happened :-)

[David]

Tlaloc,

Excellent! I am glad that it worked. It's a very strange problem. As soon as someone posts a problem with an RR-G and they have an Abit motherboard, alarm bells start going off in my head.

My co-workers laughed at me as well when I told them I was going to change my PSU. In fact I didn't really think it would fix it. I was fairly amazed when it did.

Happy video editing.

...David <optic@iname.com>