G200: fun with mxset

[Ishmael]

I should start off by saying that I made the mistake of first trying powerstrip to overclock my G200. It changed weird stuff like the clock dividers and refused to return my G200 to a normal clock setting.
After that I tried mxset.
In DOS, mxset reports the default clock settings for my G200. Cool. However, the heatsink on my G200 is much hotter than before and it refuses to run in any 3d game. In windows98, mxset reports that the sclk is about 158MHz (can't remember the exact number) and glck and wclk are about 100MHz. Corect me if I'm wrong, but isn't that really high?
I'm guessing my PINS info is wacked, in which case it might help if someone were to send me an unmodified PINS file or tell me how I might get one.
Thanks for any help,
Dan

[paulcs]

I might be having a similar problem, although, for all I know, I may have damaged my board.

After posting all those benchmarks a couple of weeks ago, I received a couple of requests to overclock and test the G400. I downloaded the newest version of Powerstrip, had some problems after the install, uninstalled it, reinstalled it, and attempted to overclock the board. I got severe artifacts in both games and on my desktop. I stopped, set the board to its default settings (or at least I thought I did), and removed Powerstrip. Then the problems began.

I immediately suffered a framerate loss of about 2 fps in Quake2's demo1. Oddly enough, Kingpin scores improved a bit. Then the lockups started ...

I now get extremely severe lockups in OpenGL games (both Quake2 and Kingpin). Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't help, so I have to hit the reset button and, of course, get admonished by Scandisk for not shutting down properly.

I've reformatted my C drive and reinstalled Windows 98 three times in the last few days (both first and second edition). After a reinstall, I can play Quake2 for extended periods. However, if I open certain applications Windows Explorer for instance, after leaving the game, but before rebooting, the game will lockup the next time I attempt to play it or run the demos.

After that first lockup, the game becomes useless as the lockups will continue until I reinstall Windows or, oddly enough, if I downgrade the drivers from 5.13 to 5.12. Going in the the opposite direction didn't seem to help.

3DMark99 Max runs without a hitch, both in benchmark and demo modes. I've never been able to successfully run Expendable. If I attempt to do so, I get a "Fatal Error: The BDF is missing" error message and get booted back to the desktop. This, I suspect, is a separate issue.

After the last install of Windows 98, I installed the new Q3 Test and have managed to run it without lockups three or four times, rebooting before and after each session.

I have no idea what any of this means. I just hope I didn't fry something I need. Maybe a BIOS upgrade will clear things up.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[rickT]

powerstrip is a POS with the G400. Try using G200clk

BTW, you can get rid of the scandisk after a bad shutdown ---> start/run/msconfig

select General/Advanced and 'disable scandisk after bad shutdown'

[Alfie]

Using mxset,my readings in windows is sclk=189.0 gclk=94.5 mclk=126.0 wclk=94.5,so it seem,your readings are in the ball park.Powerstrip and other such programs don't alter your pins,at least I don't think they do,and your problems seem to be more driver based,unless you altered something in dos and did not change it back.As far as new pins check out "Matrox Files" http://grafi.ii.pw.edu.pl/gbm/matrox/Plenty of information and pins files,also directions on how to overclock your card via pins.Check it out and good luck!ps.Try screwing on a 486 fan on the heatsink of your g200 most 486 fans fit and aid in keeping your card cool or you can order the card cooler through murcs links on the main page.

[This message has been edited by Alfie (edited 07-17-99).]

[anid]

When I tried to use Powerstrip on my Mill G200 SD, it reset the dividers to a "2D" mode - sclk and mclk were the same. It sounds as if some how yours has gotten reset so that the gclk and wclk dividers are the same as the mclk (1.5, instead of 2). You can find PINS files on gbm's site at http://grafi.ii.pw.edu.pl/gbm/matrox/ . Good luck getting it fixed. And, if he doesn't have a PINS file for you, post the make and model of your card, I'm sure someone here will be able to help you out. The PINS shouldn't have been modified by any software, but reprograming it may help.
BTW, if your mclk is the same as your sclk, then the glck and wclk would be correct for a 2D mode. If you are running at 24bit color, this is the default, normal functioning of the card. Change it to 16 or 32 bit for better performance.
...and yet again.... gbm also has a handy little program called mxinfo that will tell you detailed info about your PINS, including whether or not they are corrupted. Good to have around if you are going to be doing any BIOS programing.

[This message has been edited by anid (edited 07-18-99).]

[This message has been edited by anid (edited 07-18-99).]

[paulcs]

Thanks anid. I have run mxinfo and posted the results. Not that I understand them. Hopefully someone will take a look at them and recognize the problem.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net