Problems with Tyan S1598/K6III 450/G400MAX

[Rob G]

System:
Tyan S1598 (2mb) mobo
AMD K6III 450
Matrox G400MAX (bios vers. 1.5)
Soundblaster 16 PCI
US Robotics V90 modem (ISA)
Tosh 40x CD
HP 8100i CD-RW

Win98 with 2nd Edtion Updates applied.
No overclocking.

My new Tyan S1598 mobo arrived today and I've now got the system up and running. All seemed OK until after I installed the PD5.30 driver for the Matrox G400MAX.

I now get occasional glitches on the display. Once or twice I've had complete garbage all over the screen but it's usually just small areas that don't referesh correctly or display weird effects. I'm getting Windows lock-ups too although I can't seem to replicate these with any certainty. I can usually reboot the machine with CTRL-ALT-DELETE.

I have the GART.vxd 3.59 patch applied and the Busmaster 2.1.44 as recommended by Tyan. I don't seem to be getting any IRQ conflicts.

Obviously there's a lot of possiblities, but any help would be great.

Thanks
Rob G.

[Rags]

Hi Rob G,

Go into your BIOS and disable "Read around write", it should be found under chipset features setup.

Rags

[Rob G]

Err.. that option isn't there Rags.

There is an option called 'Cache Rd+CPU Wt Pipeline' - is that it or will it be called something else? My knowledge of bios settings is limited at best.

[RAB]

Rob,
Your K6III 450 should be fine with the cache read + cpu write enabled. Most newer bioses don't have read around write anymore since the bioses now recognize the K6 III's properly.

The display glitches sound like the 5.30 driver problem in 3dMark 2000. Why not try the 5.41 drivers and see how they work. I have a K6III 450 and an Epox VIA chipset board and have had no problems at all with the 5.41's.

If the new drivers don't solve it, come on back. Just remember that when you upgrade the drivers, you must first use the Matrox uninstaller to get rid of the old 5.30 drivers completely. The uninstaller is available from Matrox or here at MURC. But please read the uninstall directions and follow them closely.

RAB

[Alfie]

Agree with RAB on that,try the new drivers.
Should cure your ills.
RAB,
Did you get your other system up and running?
If so,what was the problem?

[Rags]

Hi RAB,

Read around write is not a feature exclusive to the K63, it is something that has been included on every K6 from the beginning. It was a way for the K6 to use write combining in it's own way, which was fine if you weren't using an AGP card, but with AGP cards, the flakey bus design caused a lot of problems. It was a feature that gained 2-6 % performance if it was used, so it is no biggie to disable it. The texture problem you are describing is a 3D texturing problem, not a normal windows problem, and I don't think that the new drivers will help him on this. From what I read in his posts, he gets garbled screens from doing normal windows stuff, not games. I have seen this several dozen times with various SS7/AGP card combos, and disabling read around write (or 'Cache Rd+CPU Wt Pipeline' ) fixes it for me every time if I have the drivers installed in the proper order. So, Rob try what I suggested, and if it still gives you problems, then post back, and we will get it figured.

Rags

[RAB]

Disabling it is certainly worth a try. From what I understand, every K6 since the K6-2 400 has not needed this disabled. The XCT core it introduced was supposed it fix this "problem". All K6III's have the newer core and that's why I didn't think it would help. But anyway Rob, try both and see if either works. Certainly the bios setting is the easiest and the video driver update is the most difficult.

The only time I have seen this video problem is when I overclocked my G400 too much. Backing off a bit solved that problem, but it doesn't sound like the same thing here.

RAB

[Rags]

Hi RAB,

Later K6-2's came with the cxt core, and had true write combining features, but it still has read around write capability.

Rags

[Rob G]

OK thanks so far. I haven't even got as far as trying any games yet.

I had the same setup on an FIC-PA2013 (1mb) mobo until last night and it worked fine with PD5.30. The reason the board got replaced was due to a faulty onboard cache which resulted in me having to disable it.

PD5.41 has problems with S7 boards. It worked fine on my previous system except with QuakeIII which just produced a white flickering screen as soon as the program launched. With 5.30, it was fine.

I'll try disabling the cache item you mention later today and get back.

[Rob G]

Oh - btw, when you say about installing the drivers in the correct sequence - could you expand on that please?

This is how I've setup the system so far:
Format
Win98
CD-RW drivers
Soundblaster drivers
Printer drivers
Scanner drivers
2nd Edition Updates
DirectX 7
Then the graphics card.

I deliberately left the graphics card as the last item to install because I knew from setting it up on my previous board that it may have a few problems.

After the graphics card...
Busmaster 2.1.44 (don't know if really need this, didn't on my last board)
GART.vxd patch 3.59 (latest from VIA)

Interestingly (and off on a tangent a little), on the FIA board, applying the .vxd patch was required to get anything but a completely blank display as soon as the graphics card drivers were installed. On the Tyan, the display is fine, but a Fatal Exception error occurs on shutdown. The .vxd patch cures this, but it's weird how the different boards react.

[Rob G]

Turning off 'Cache Rd+CPU Wt Pipeline' made no difference. Still get a few glitches and lockups. Star Wars Rogue Squadron crumbles into a complete mess on the intro screen then locks up.

[Rags]

Hi Rob,

Here is the exact installation sequence you should follow, note that you should also have your IRQ's squared away, too. This is just assuming you have everything else setup properly:

Download the 5.30 drivers (which you have already =) ), download the 4in1 driver pack from Via, download the uninstall utility from Matrox, run the uninstall utility, reboot switch to standard Vga adapter and reboot, install the 4in1 driver pack in normal mode reboot and go into your bios and disable "read around write"(or similar) save settings and exit, boot into windows and run the setup for PD 5.30, reboot and you should be up to speed.

Rags

[Rob G]

Hi Rags,
VIA specifically state that the 4in1 driver is not needed for Windows98 Second Edition. In fact I tried it on my previous system and it screwed things up nicely. According to VIA all I need is the .vxd patch and possibly the Busmaster patch.

I'll try it however and come back.

[Rob G]

Right, tried it exactly as you listed and no difference. Still display glitches, still lock ups.

I've now removed the 4in1 drivers and PD5.30 and gone back to the Standard Display Adapter.

Jeez, I bought the Tyan believing it would be more reliable than the FIC. Perhaps the recommendations were misplaced?

btw - I've got the Bios set to automatic assignment of IRQs. When installed, the G400 sits on IRQ11.

[This message has been edited by Rob G (edited 11 January 2000).]

[RAB]

Rob,
The Star Wars problem is one that I had when I first set up my G400 with the install disk that came with it. The setup disk included 5.13 drivers, if I remember correctly. This makes me suspect that perhaps you too might have originally used the Matrox setup disk and then installed the 5.30 drivers without first uninstalling the 5.13's. If you did not uninstall the 5.13's with the Matrox Uninstaller, they are still there and the 5.30's are not completely installed.

Have you used the Uninstaller to get rid of all old Matrox drivers?

If not, print out the readme file it unpacks and follow the instructions meticulously. Only then can you install any new drivers followed by the AGP/gart file.

RAB