Millennium I and multiple monitors in win2k

[tranta]

There was a discussion in Marox newsgroup a few months ago about using G400 and Millennium I together to achieve multiple monitors in win2k. I know very well that in theory it should work.

However there were strange problems with that combination and Abit bp-6 motherboard that couldn't been solved. Now I have found another user but with different motherboard, Abit be6-II.

The problem was that when Millennium I was installed physically in to the computer, it installed ok but the computer started to have lockups just like that. If Millennium were pulled out, everything worked ok.

Lockups were always related to some other card and it's applications, like Sound Blaster Live, and could be repeated and always a lockup occurred.

This lead us to believe that this has something to do with IRQ:s. However we have tried changing them and all those other tricks but nothing worked. Millennium I doesn't actually even use an IRQ. And, there are no drivers available to Millennium I in win2k, other than those on Win2k cd. So there's not much to try.

Same problems have occurred later with some other card than G400, so the problem must be only in Mill I and _maybe_ Abit boards.

All this fighting lead to nothing, and now it seems that this is just something we can't make to work.

Finally before letting it go and buying some other card to replace Millennium I, I'd like to know IF ANYONE HAS A WORKING MULTIPLE MONITOR SYSTEM IN WIN2K WITH MILLENNIUM I?

And if so, HAS ANYONE GOT THAT WITH ABIT'S MOBOS?

Tips to try are still welcome too.

Tapani

[Brian R.]

I have a G400 MAX in W2K dual monitors with a G200. Works great (at least so far). MB is ABIT BE6.

I also have a Millenium. When I get a chance, I'll try my Millenium in place of the G200. Since there were no drivers on the Matrox web site, I hadn't bothered.

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 26 October 2000).]

[tranta]

Great!

You happen to have such a combination of hardware, that your results should help a lot.

Be aware that all of us who had lockups didn't get any error messages etc., but just lockups and those occurred only when one tried to use for example SB Live's Mixer. I personally had lockups with Live's mixer and speaker applet, playcenter and liveware setup program, right away when I tried to open them - but everything else worked perfectly.

Please tell me more of your system when you have tried Mill I!

Tapani

Btw, even though there are no drivers at Matrox website, win2k installs it ok. But of course if you have G200 too you want to use that one.

Oh, one extra question: Do you happen to have SB Live? I'd like to know because if I can't make Millennium I to work, I've been thinking to try to find a PCI G200, but I don't want to experience same problems again and as I told I had those lockups with SBLive's software.

[FrankDC]

Well, if an incompatibility exists, it's between the G400 and Millenium I and has nothing to do with Abit motherboards. One of my systems has both a Geforce DDR and Millenium I in an Abit BF-6 (which is a BE6-II without the UDMA controller). No problems at all. The Millenium is in PCI slot 1 which shares IRQ10 with the AGP slot.

Installation went something like this:

1. Go into System BIOS setup and set "Initialize Video First" (or something to that effect) to "AGP".

2. Boot Win2K and install driver for AGP card.

3. Shutdown, install the PCI video card, and go back into System BIOS setup. Set the same "Initialize Video" option to "PCI".

4. Reboot into Win2K and install the Millenium I driver from the Win2K CD.

5. At this point Windows should see both controllers. Set your primary display back to the AGP card.

6. Shutdown, set the Initialize Video option back to AGP. Reboot Win2K.

Frank

[tranta]

Hmmm. Interesting.

A few days ago someone posted a message to SBLive's newsgroups and reported having this problem with Abit Be6-II, Millennium I and some Geforce-based AGP-card (I don't remember what model it was).
This means that G400 is not important, because problems occurred without it too.

Now that you have almost same kind of system and it works ok, it seems possible to get our machines work too - maybe.

There is still this one thing - the UDMA driver. You don't have it, but all of us having problems do. And actually one of us didn't get the lockups with Live, but with UDMA driver...
___

Your installing method is interesting. Why did you change that "initialize video" to pci while installing Mill I?

As far as I know it only changes what display computer uses until it gets win2k opened (=primary adapter outside windows).

I still don't think this is a solution, since I have tried to change that afterwards and it doesn't help.

Thanks for your information anyway, it cleared things a bit.

Tapani