G400 MAX Constant Problems

[Philstat]

I have to get on a soap box tonight and sound off, here goes: I ordered my G400 Max Order #10127 (placed order 3 June 99) after waiting nearly a month (with my credit card charged from the very first week) I wait in antcipation my card arrives last Monday, and kaboom one thing after another: First off this card runs Freaking outrageously HOT, I literally thought my computer was on fire, my wife smelled it downstairs in a two story home, I have not iverclocked and nor do I tend do, I cant say this for all G400 Max's but mine is running very hot from time to time. Games where do I begin: XCOM Apocalypse doesn't work right with it wont even boot from DOS, I take the card out and boom throw in the G100 Presto shes up and running with XCOM. Heavy Gear II still no water shown anywhere throughout the game, though I must admit the speed is excellent for D3D games. Starseige forget about it goes nuts in Open GL will not work, same as Rainbow 6 hangs up in D3D mode image distortion. SHOGO rocks with the G400 MAX, Fleet Command crashes about every other game, the list goes on and on Rogue Squadron forget about it looks horrendous (I hear this is from the game itself and not the drivers) Quake II works great though slower in Open GL than should be. Mechwarrior 3 works fairly well though crashes often on startup. I called matrox and the tech support said well it could be that my G400MAX and my MX300 are sharing the same IRQ, I asked how to fix it and all he kept saying is boy this is going to be a big job, I really didnt get any good inforamtion off of him at all. When the Max is working correctly its great but thats the problem I've had not getting it to work correctly, Ive done all I know to do other than reformat my hard drive which is FREAKING outrageous do do over a damn video card, a customer shoudnt have to do that in order to get a product to function properly. I have a trmendous amount of experience in video cards having owned: Velocity 4400 TNT, Diamond V770 Ultra TNT2 (it rocks), STB Velocity, Diamond Monster 3D, Wicked 3D Voodoo 12MB, Number Nine Revolution 32MB, among others this is HANDS DOWN THE MOST DIFFICULT CARD I HAVE EVER OWNED. I just cant seem to get it to function properly, Im at my wits end with it, crash after crash, it might be driver related I'm using the latest drivers it might be a config problem Im having I dont know anymore, I'm sure R0M will have a different outlook on this (he must be the only guy getting this damn thing to function properly) just take a look at the Matrox Gaming Forum and look at the problems people are having. Most of all for $249 one shouldnt have to call Canada and wait online FOREVER to get help while they are footing the bill, it s an outrage. I have a Quantex PII 400, 128 PC100 RAM, G400 MAX, 6.4GB HD, WIN 98. I have been so sown over this card and its performance and reliability that I have just about quit trying to play games lately, Im not sure what else to do, think about thios guys this is from a guy who has played games for almost 20 years now, this is coming from a gamer for gamers if you are having better luck than my Im happy for you this is just my experience.

[R0M]

Ok calm down and let's dissect the problem bit by bit:

1- Do you have AGP aperture set to 256?
2- Did you uninstall any previous drivers you had.
3- do you have any memory sims you can try instead of the ones you have in your system?
4- I still can't reproduce the water problem you are seeing.
5- Try flashing your bios to the latest one
6- reinstall dx6.1 over the existing one
7- Try using any other drivers and see if your problems still happen ie: 5.11.12 that came with your Max (even if they're old)
8- If everything else fails, don't panic, backup your stuff, format and install cleanly if it fails again then we know it's the card,

Good Luck

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"The opinions or comments expressed by me do not necessary reflect those of Matrox Graphics Inc."

[rekamlias]

Try squareing away the irq conflict.
What mother board what bios what settings?
I find people in this forum usualy would rather help you then listen to complaining.
A new driver will be available eventualy.
Remind me to be patient when I going off about my machine when it coughs and chokes on my MAX when it comes in. Good Luck. Post some specifics about your machine and its irq setup.


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p3 450 underclocked to p2 266 Mill2 pci card running @ VGA 16 colors ,I'm jusk kidding

[Philstat]

R0M,

Thanks for replying,

(1) where do I check to see what my AGP aperture is?

(2) The heat this card is generating is ASTRONOMICAL, it happens at various times and others it is fine, though when it gets hot it smells as if its literally on fire.

(3) Only have current memory sims, these have worked fine with the G100 as early as a few days ago so they should be good to go.

(4) Heavy Gear II dont know why water is doing that totally beyond me, have tried everything water is fine with other cards for some reason cant get it right.

(5) Tried flashing bios it said that it appeared I already had the newer bios and recommended me not to change them.

(6) Already reinstalled direct X 6.1 this was one of the first things I did.

(7) Going to try the drivers that shipped with my MAX (the ones on the CD).

(8) If there is anywhere in the registries I should look please tell me where to go and delete stuff to the best of your knowledge I knwo all systems different, though if you have any general suggestions I would be very thankful.

(9) Of all things the heat has me very worried this is very unusual, plus I tried dual head on my TV and it had a constant rolling effect throughout the seconday output (32inch TV Magnavox) I tried all tweaks nothing worked, I seriously think this card has a problem, like I said the heat factor is beyond belief, it works fine for a long time than instantly smells as if it is going to catch fire or something. Please give me whatever help you can I love this card and it has amazing potential I just havent been able to enjoy it due to the many problems I have had. Thanks for your help!
Jesse

[R0M]

Can you hear the fan of the G400 Max, make sure it's on or else you're burning the card


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"The opinions or comments expressed by me do not necessary reflect those of Matrox Graphics Inc."

[R0M]

Can you hear the fan of the G400 Max, make sure it's on or else you're burning the card


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"The opinions or comments expressed by me do not necessary reflect those of Matrox Graphics Inc."

[vplin]

Have you already solved your G400MAX heating problem???

Let us know!

VPLIN

[Philstat]

I will try and take the cover off when I get home from work and will check the status of the fan, its hard to tell without doing that due to my pentium fan and my tower fan to hear the noise, I will tell you guys when I get off work today, thanks take care. Jesse.

[Ant]

I've never known my MAX to get anything near to hot so it could well be a fan failure.

[Gurm]

Nothing new in this message, just a reiteration:

1. Fan failure. Big time. Hard core. Happened to me on a Guillemot Xentor32 (TNT2 Ultra) and it was UGLY.

2. Get that Mx300 off your G400 IRQ. Just do it. Now. Today. Yesterday if possible. To do this is very simple... just move it. Physically. To a different slot. Then you may or may not have to play with BIOS settings as to which IRQ goes to which slot.

- Gurm

[Faffy]

Hi!
I am positive that your problem is in the heat that is generated by the card. If you look at how Matrox is late with the delivering of the MAX cards, you can see that they have a huge problem with the yields of the chips on the card. They simply can not churn out so many MAX cards, because they dop not have enough high quality chips. My opinion is that you are just one unlucky guy who got a card that was not checked thoroughly and develops this amount of heat. When the core is running at that high temperature you will get unlogical problems, and the only resoultion will be that you will not have hair on your head, if you try to solve it rationally. It does not help if you have a freshly formatted HD or a newly installed OS. It is gutile. you should get in contact with MATROX and get a new card ASAP.

That's my 2 cents.

Csaba

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csakis@ki.se

[Philstat]

Hey guys off on lunch break, will once again check the fan after work (Im most certain it is functioning correctly though will check later today. IRQ switched MX300 to different slot and it still had both of them in IRQ 11 my MAX and MX300 I will switch it to another one today when I check the fan. Like now PC is running cool is only happens sporatically, going to call MATROX today and see what the deal is, and what my options are.

[Philstat]

Checked Fan its working fine, no heat problems last two days though this has been my experience it heats at various times and not a constant pattern, though card looked to have had no visible damage or scaring and I have ventilated my case much better to ensure it stays cool. Switched all of my components to different slots still the MX300 and MAX are both at IRQ 11 how do I fix this switching slots did not work. Using drivers that came with CD pack in hoping that might fix the problem no luck. Two new game experiences: MS COMBAT SIM looks freaking incredible with MAX at 1280x1024 32BIT color best I've ever seen it look, though got Starseige WILL NOT work open GL shows two of everything then game refuses to start after setting all options, any more suggestions Im prepping my HD for a possible reformat. Will call MATROX tomorrow in hopes of solution got home to late today to call. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[madmax05]

Just to check to see if the irq conflict is the problem, disable the mx300 in device manager, then reboot. Make sure there is a red "x" by the device, then try some of the games you have been having problems with - you won't have sound, but this will eliminate the irq problem as a possiblity. If everything now works okay, you will need to look at where all your irq's are assigned and see if you have any free - if it gets down to this and you don't know how, repost here and I or someone else will walk you through it.

[madmax05]

Just to check to see if the irq conflict is the problem, disable the mx300 in device manager, then reboot. Make sure there is a red "x" by the device, then try some of the games you have been having problems with - you won't have sound, but this will eliminate the irq problem as a possiblity. If everything now works okay, you will need to look at where all your irq's are assigned and see if you have any free - if it gets down to this and you don't know how, repost here and I or someone else will walk you through it.