G400 crashes again and again and again.

[ALBPM]

Hi TheSaint,

If you are using the IBM 13.5GB AT/66 hard drive you should disable the Primary IDE controller in your Bios and in the Windows Device manager. This may be the cause of your lockups. I'm using the ABIT BE6 and have an IBM AT/66 hard drive also and have disabled the Primary IDE Controller. This will also free an IRQ.

Paul

[Kruzin]

You will also want to get the G400 onto an IRQ of 9 or higher. You can do this by changing the IRQ assignments in your BIOS's PnP options...

[TheSaint]

okies let me try it out.
thanks guys =)
my "gods"

[WayneHu]

Are you sure which AGP mode you were running with your G400? AGP 1x or 2x?

If you don't get a General Protection Fault message immediately when starting Windows or 3D modes, that means there might be some timing problems between your MB and SDRAM.

In fact, I had met this problem with my G400DH/32MB... I have to set SDRAM CAS Latency to 3 (in BIOS) to get AGP 2x works in 3D modes... With Latency 2, I would get random lockup in some games which use a large amount of AGP texture...

Of course, my previous solution was to force AGP 1x, and it also worked for me!

[TheSaint]

Thanks!!!
but what i did actually was.. i went to the soft menu
set the agpclk/cpuclk to 1/1 then reboot
then i change it back to 2/3 and reboot
run the tech demo ..and 3hrs + it din hang..
hmm wondering why??
i also disable ide controllers
blah blah blah..
some how i still dun get the exact source of the problem. but well fingers crossed hoping it wont crashes anymore.. but any one of u guys has got a solution please tell me..
thanks u guys(gods/saviors/whatever)

=))))

[rinkol]

The reason setting the agp clk to 1/1 instead of the normal (for 100 MHz FSB) 2/3 works and seems to fix the lockup problem is that it causes the g400 to switch to agp x1. If things still seem to work after switching back to the 2/3 agp clk , it may be that the g400 is still operating in the agp x1 mode (Use Sandra or pcilist to check). I've seen this with my vanilla g400.

FWIW I have (temporarily) solved my own lockup problems by swapping my g400 with another one from a computer that runs NT and therefore doesn't use agp 2x.

While some g400 (particularly g400 MAX problems seem to be related to the correct seating of the card in the agp socket, I don't think this explains all of the problems.

Robert Inkol

[TheSaint]

what is pcilist and sandra??

[The Rock]

The Saint:

SANDRA is a great little diagnostic / system info utility. Highly recommended. Stands for System Analyzer and Diagnostic Reporting Assistant.

------------------
The Rock
"Discourage incest - ban country music NOW!"

System:
P2 350 /w Asus P2B /w 128 Meg PC100 SDRAM
17.2Gig Maxtor DiamondMax HD + 6.4Gig Fujitsu HD
Matrox G400 32Meg + SB PCI 128 Sound
Modem Blaster 56K Modem + Panasonic 2x/4x SCSI Toaster + 32X CD-ROM

[TheSaint]

where can i get that sofware??

[rinkol]

http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/

[TheSaint]

ok so i've got the software (thank rinkol)
but how do i check?

[rinkol]

Start Sandra and start mainboard information module and look for

-AGP Bus

-Data Transfer Rate

will show 2x (133 MHz)

or 1x (66 MHz)

(note that the specific data transfer rates in MHz will vary if you are using non standard bus speeds).

Robert Inkol

[TheSaint]

it says version 1
bus speed 67hmz (damn)
data transfer rate 1X
max data transfer rate 2X
sideband enabled yes
aperture size 32meg

shit.. so what should i do?
to get it back to 2x
and what if getting it back to 2x still
crashes..?
*arghh... where's my sutra..think i need to meditate..*

[ALBPM]

Now go back in your Bios and set the AGP aperature to 128.

Paul

[TheSaint]

How will that help?