Problem with Abit boards, solution maybe??

[Whisper]

I must admit that I am perplexed by the problems that people seem to be having with ABIT motherboards and G400's, as there are a lot of people, generally the more experienced on this board who do not have these problems.

Anyway, this maybe a possible solution.

It might be the way ABIT make their boards combined with the way Matrox G-400's work, but I have managed to cause similar problems with my G-200 in my BH6.

How did I do this?

Simple, I pulled the card out, cleaned the dust off, put it back in, properly, so I thought and so it looked to me, turned computer on, Windows boots up, and I get a BSOD.

I thought that was extremely annoying as nothing was changed in the Hardware, BIOS or Software, all I had done was take the Video Card (G-200) out and put the Video Card back in, correctly so I thought.

I checked to see if I had pushed the card in properly, by giving it another good shove, and the Video Card did seem to me, to be correctly inserted. I turned computer on, Windows boots up, and I get a BSOD, again!!

So I pulled the Video Card out of the AGP slot, cleaned the contacts on the card, blew out any dust that may have happened to have settled in the AGP slot and re-inserted the Video Card.

Windows Booted up and I have not had any problems of that nature since.

My speculation is that maybe my G-200 was not making contact correctly with all of the pins in ABIT's AGP slot, if this is the case and is easy to do with a G-200, then perhaps a G-400 with its finer tolerances, might even be more susceptible to having this problem if it is not correctly inserted, even though it looks and feels like it is inserted correctly.

I know this is wild supposition on my part, but the inability to duplicate this problem by quiet a number of people, leads me to think that this maybe a possibility, in some, if not all the cases.

Anyway, what is the worst that can happen? It won't work? So I suggest to those of you having a problem to give it a try.

Hope that helps somebody

Cheers

[SteveC]

If you can, when inserting any AGP card, support the motherboard from the underside. So that when you push the card in, the mobo doesn't bend at all. In my case, if I remove the CPU and push it bach in again, the board bends downwards, and the AGP slot is pulled away from the G400.
I've seen this all too much recently - the AGP slot is sooo fussy, because it has two rows of connectors.

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Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[Alfie]

Another cool trick I learned over at matrox files,was to loosen the 2 nuts on the interface.Doing so gives you a little leeway,once the card is firmly in place,retighten!