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This is driving me mostly crazy.
I have a Mystique G200 AGP (with 16MB), and I can't run any of the latest "non-certified" (but more recent) drivers. In this case, we're talking about PD 5.25.
I used to only download the "certified" driver sets, and about a year ago (maybe?) I downloaded one of the newer, non-certified sets. It created some problems (see below), so I chalked it up to its "non-certification-ness" and reverted back to the certified set. No problems there.
As we know, Matrox cranks out the certified sets VERY slowly. So I don't have the benefit of having all the latest and the greatest if I'm waiting on those.
In any case, my problem is this:
When I use the non-certified driver set (which seems nifty, BTW), I get all kinds of screen corruption and garbled fonts, etc. after a (seemingly) random amount of time. Sometimes I can work for hours before it manifests itself, sometime it shows up scant minutes after booting. Needless to say, this makes tracking down the CAUSE a bit of a nightmare.
It's hard to describe exactly what's happening, so here's a link to a screenshot (it's 300K, but if you're willing, this'll help explain my problem without words):
http://www.cyberenet.net/~redjr/screenshot.jpg
It's ugly and nasty and it's driving me crazy!
This is the exact behaviour I noticed a year ago with the (then) current non-certified drivers, and this is the exact behaviour I get with every non-certified set that comes out now.
All the previous drivers are uninstalled as per Matrox's instructions, so the driver installs are as clean as I know how to make them, and it doesn't make any difference.
Right now, I'm back at 4.33, and I don't see this problem. But I'm back at 4.33.
The BIOS has been flashed to the latest version, and it makes no difference. I've tried toggling Bus Mastering (to no avail) and I've tried throttling back to AGPx1 instead of x2, and that made no difference either. Color depth (16bpp, 24bpp, 8bpp) doesn't affect this either, nor does resolution.
My mainboard is a Giga-Byte GA-6BXE with the latest BIOS (3.3), and there aren't many options in the BIOS to tweak AGP settings or anything (actually, there are NO options), but I can't see how that should matter in this case.
Anyhow, I've not gotten very useful feedback from Matrox (only form letter help for generic problems and when I follow-up with more questions, I get no answers - very frustrating!) and I'm hoping someone can tell me a) what's the magic difference between the non-certified and certified drivers that's causing this problem and b) any idea what it is/could be and how to fix it?
Because as it stands, this is frustrating enough that I'm thinking I'll have to jump ship for the first time in five years and get a video board from a different company.
Also, a side-problem... I've noticed that I can't change the screen size via the Matrox Display Properties function (through QuickDesk). The screen will stay at the current resolution, but the software will report that it's in a different resolution - very screwy! I can, however, correctly change the resolution using the "Microsoft method", by accessing the Display properties. That doesn't seem right.
Anyway, any help/insight would be GREATLY appreciated - and sorry for my long-windedness.
- Excalibur
[This message has been edited by Excalibur (edited 09-17-1999).]
I have a Mystique G200 AGP (with 16MB), and I can't run any of the latest "non-certified" (but more recent) drivers. In this case, we're talking about PD 5.25.
I used to only download the "certified" driver sets, and about a year ago (maybe?) I downloaded one of the newer, non-certified sets. It created some problems (see below), so I chalked it up to its "non-certification-ness" and reverted back to the certified set. No problems there.
As we know, Matrox cranks out the certified sets VERY slowly. So I don't have the benefit of having all the latest and the greatest if I'm waiting on those.
In any case, my problem is this:
When I use the non-certified driver set (which seems nifty, BTW), I get all kinds of screen corruption and garbled fonts, etc. after a (seemingly) random amount of time. Sometimes I can work for hours before it manifests itself, sometime it shows up scant minutes after booting. Needless to say, this makes tracking down the CAUSE a bit of a nightmare.
It's hard to describe exactly what's happening, so here's a link to a screenshot (it's 300K, but if you're willing, this'll help explain my problem without words):
http://www.cyberenet.net/~redjr/screenshot.jpg
It's ugly and nasty and it's driving me crazy!
This is the exact behaviour I noticed a year ago with the (then) current non-certified drivers, and this is the exact behaviour I get with every non-certified set that comes out now.
All the previous drivers are uninstalled as per Matrox's instructions, so the driver installs are as clean as I know how to make them, and it doesn't make any difference.
Right now, I'm back at 4.33, and I don't see this problem. But I'm back at 4.33.
The BIOS has been flashed to the latest version, and it makes no difference. I've tried toggling Bus Mastering (to no avail) and I've tried throttling back to AGPx1 instead of x2, and that made no difference either. Color depth (16bpp, 24bpp, 8bpp) doesn't affect this either, nor does resolution.
My mainboard is a Giga-Byte GA-6BXE with the latest BIOS (3.3), and there aren't many options in the BIOS to tweak AGP settings or anything (actually, there are NO options), but I can't see how that should matter in this case.
Anyhow, I've not gotten very useful feedback from Matrox (only form letter help for generic problems and when I follow-up with more questions, I get no answers - very frustrating!) and I'm hoping someone can tell me a) what's the magic difference between the non-certified and certified drivers that's causing this problem and b) any idea what it is/could be and how to fix it?
Because as it stands, this is frustrating enough that I'm thinking I'll have to jump ship for the first time in five years and get a video board from a different company.
Also, a side-problem... I've noticed that I can't change the screen size via the Matrox Display Properties function (through QuickDesk). The screen will stay at the current resolution, but the software will report that it's in a different resolution - very screwy! I can, however, correctly change the resolution using the "Microsoft method", by accessing the Display properties. That doesn't seem right.
Anyway, any help/insight would be GREATLY appreciated - and sorry for my long-windedness.
- Excalibur
[This message has been edited by Excalibur (edited 09-17-1999).]
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