Trying to use MatroxG450 in conjunction with a Geforce3. Problems arise.

[CovertCliffy]

Problem(s):
I have two video cards, one a Geforce3 (AGP), and the other a Matrox G450 (PCI). I'm trying to setup a monitor on each card. The main problem is windows (2k, SP3) says there aren't enough resources to allocate to the Matrox G450. No resources, no functioning second monitor. The real problem is I seem to have no real way of freeing up these resources, I've tried disabling any hardware I don't need, like the COM ports and LPT ports.

Some secondary problems that have cropped up are these:

1) When booting the system, it halts after the RAM check and says 'Plug and Play Configuration Error'. This problem is basically just annoying as I can bypass it by pressing F1.

2) My Geforce3 seems to be stuck in PCI mode. I remember this happening before and the solution was setting the IRQ to 11 but windows won't let me. The box is grayed out and won't let me change any of the resource assignments.

Depending on what I select in the BIOS for vid card selection AGP or Auto, the computer uses the Matrox to display when in Auto mode then when it gets into win2k it switches to the Geforce3. The Geforce3 displays the whole time if I select AGP, and understandably so. I think if I could just give the matrox the resources it wants then all would be well(maybe).

By itself the Matrox card works just fine.

I've tried the card in every PCI slot in conjunction with the Geforce3 in the AGP slot.

From what I've gathered I think ACPI may the be the source of the problem.

I've tried disabling PNP OS from the BIOS, but there is no option for it. There is no option for disabling acpi either.

Here is some basic system information:
Dell Dimension 8100
Dell Motherboard and BIOS
Pentium 4 1.7 Ghz
256 RDRAM
Two 80 GB HDs
Two CD Drives
Geforce3 (AGP)
Matrox G450 (PCI)
Soundblaster Live Value (PCI)

OS: Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3

If you need any more information about the problem do not hesitate to ask. Also, if I happen to solve any of the problems myself(haha) I'll be sure to post the solution. Any help at all with this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[High_Jumbllama]

Is the G450 in the PCI slot immediately adjacent to the AGP Slot? THese slots share system resources. Take out or move whatever card is in this PCI slot. See if that works.

[CovertCliffy]

No, right now it is sitting in PCI Slot 4. No real reason for why its there, I just read somewhere that when two video cards are seated together like that they don't want to work.

[Pace]

Have you tried taking out the Live?

Also, I presume that machine uses the i850 chipset?

[CovertCliffy]

Yes, I have also tried just the Geforce and the Matrox in the motherboard, no luck. Yes, I believe its the Intel 850i chipset.

[Henri]

Hi, I have almost exactly the same problem. Only differences are a Dimension 8200, a Geforce 2MX, and Windows XP (Home).

I get the plug and play config error on startup too, and am pretty sure this must be the root of the problem. I've tried everything I can think of, including as you say, the G450 in every PCI slot with no other cards (other than the AGP of course) in the machine. Also tried resetting the BIOS and booting with only the 2 video cards in. Have updated the drivers on both cards to latest available versions from each manufacturer.

Without the Geforce card in, the G450 works ok. Examining the resources it's using suggests that one of the I/O ranges, and one of the Memory Ranges are the same as those used by the Gefoce and that's where the conflict lies. But, like the original poster, Windows doesn't let me manually change the resouce allocation (acpi problem?).

Not sure if that minor bit of extra info can assist anyone with coming up with further suggestions? I'd love to get these two cards working together, I had unbelievable trouble buying the G450 expressly so I could use 3 monitors, and it seems I wasted my time and money

H.