Problems with Tyan S1598/K6III 450/G400MAX

[Rob G]

The G400MAX came with PD5.25. I've downloaded the latest version of Uninstaller and used it every time I've changed drivers. I'm also aware of the patch required to run Rogue Squadron with Matrox cards and I have that installed.

I have noticed something unusual though. The Uninstaller does not remove all of the files it claims. If I run it, reboot and try and install an older version of PD (like I have done earlier today, going from 5.41 back to 5.30) the installer reports that one of the files is older than one that already exists on the system.

I've also noticed that whichever version of PD I install (using it's Setup.exe), after rebooting Windows prompts again for a driver for the card.

Could the problem lie somewhere other than with the G400 drivers? Could there be a basic incompatibilty with the Tyan mobo?

And... Uninstall doesn't unpack any Readme file. Just the Uninstal.exe, Setup16.dll and Setup32.dll

Thanks
Rob



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

[Rob G]

Aha! The plot thickens!

I've just removed the Matrox and installed my old G.Blaster Riva TNT card. It's PCI, but I thought it was worth a try anyway.

It took three attempts to load the driver, but eventually it accepted it and now Rogue Squadron runs fine. Ran through a whole level and not a single glitch or freeze-up. AND I left 'Cache Rd+CPU Wt Pipeline' ENABLED.

Now, the G400MAX ran just fine on the FIC mobo. What IS going on here?

[Rags]

Hi Rob,

earlier in this thread, I said this:

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.

You just said:

I've just removed the Matrox and installed my old G.Blaster Riva TNT card. It's PCI, but I thought it was worth a try anyway.

(emphasis mine)
Of course you won't have any problems running a PCI card, as I told you read around write generallly affects AGP cards.

Now, let's do some hardware trouble shooting. First, hit your windows key and break key at the same time and click on device manager, click on computer and select properties, copy and paste the IRQ list in it's entirety to your next post.
Second, boot into safe mode go into device manager again, and look for any duplicate entries, or out-of-date entries in there, and delete them, once you are sure you got everything out that is possible, reboot into normal mode, you may need your win 98 cd handy if windows detects any new hardware. Reinstall your drivers just like I posted before (you can just use the agp driver patch, if you don't want to do the 4in1).

Rags

[Rob G]

Sorry guys, but I've given up.

I tried Rags' instructions but the system spontaneously rebooted itself just after Windows loaded twice within the space of twenty minutes.

As a last ditch effort, I formatted C: and started to reinstall Windows from the beginning. During one of the many installation reboots, it rebooted itself again, then again a bit later.

At that point I gave up. Maybe I'm overreacting a bit, but the general impression was that the Tyan just isn't stable. Maybe it's faulty, maybe it just hates the Matrox, dunno. It's going back to the supplier. They offer a full 14-day refund with no questions asks, so it's money-back time I just don't want to waste any more of my time with it.

So, another format followed by a 4.5 hour system restore with HP Disaster Recovery has now put me back on the FIC board with everything working OK. No glitches, lock ups or anything nasty. Bliss

Thank you everyone who offered help. Appreciated.

Rob G.

[RAB]

Sorry we couldn't help. I'm just curious, but why did you change boards?

On my second system, I just changed out an FIC 503+ for a new Epox MVP3C2 and had lots of problems too. Mine turned out that the hard drive I am using (Samsung 4.3gig UDMA33) just would not work in DMA mode with the new board. So I leave DMA turned off. Now I have a new board, but no real improvement.

RAB

[Rob G]

Well the Tyan is packaged up ready to be returned. I'll get a full refund minus shipping costs (£10 at most).

Why did I change boards? Well, I was never really that confident with the FIC PA-2013. It's *possibly* faulty in that I have to disable the Write Cache Pipeline to prevent system lock-outs during DX use. I haven't tried enabling it yet with the Matrox but I don't think it will work.

Nevertheless, even with the WCP disabled, the FIC is proving to be very stable and I'm satisifed with the performance. QuakeIII, Descent3 run great even at higher resultions. I know I can push the Matrox harder with a better processor but shelling out more money just isn't an option at the moment. When I do upgrade again, it wont be with S7, that's for sure

Thanks
Rob G.

[Rob G]

Epilogue:

I got a mail back from Tyan stating that they didn't recommend the G400 for the S1598. Said something about the VIA chipset causing the problems. Strange really, the same chipset is in my FIC PA-2013 and it works fine.

Can't really say I've been that impressed with Tyan.

Rob G