G400 still locks, please help

[JK]

I got my G400 a couple of weeks ago, and since that I have tweaked and tweaked with poor result.
My problems are:

- Windows hangs at boot (Windows Protection Error)

- Sometimes machine boots into windows with colored stripes all over the screen (and locks)

- Qauke3 won't start (colored stripes or just white screen..A few times I got into the game mode but it locked after couple of minutes)

- Unreal Tournament locks 1/3 times (Often after 5-10mins of play)

- Sometimes PowerDesk won't launch after boot.

- Random Blue Screens in Windows

There have been other errors too, but I don't recall them all. The strange thing is that , without no changes, windows sometimes work and sometimes not :P .

I have the following rig:

AMD 500mhz
128MB PC100
MS 6167 board
2x IBM 14.4G GXP
Matrox G400DH 32megs
Diamond MX300 soundcard
Asus ISDN adapter
Win98, DirectX 7, Office 2000
PowerDesk 5.30

I have tried the following:

-Moved G400 to IRQ 9 (currently alone there)
-ISDN is alone at IRQ 11
-MX300 alone at IRQ 10
-Disabled Video Bios Shadowing
-Formatted HD twice ( currently all drivers from clean install)
-Checked that there are no errors in DirectX
-Disabled Read Around
-Video boot order in BIOS is set to AGP first
-Forced AGP 1 - caused total Windows crash and forced me to reinstall Win (currently 2x)
-Checked that G400 is properly installed in the AGP slot
-Tried 5.25 drivers with even worse result

Please Help,

JK

[Bohrn]

Borrow as many known good parts as you can, and swap out one at a time until you find the culprit. Mem and processor are easiest, so do them first. Use a bare install. Mb,mem(minimal, one chip),processor,hd,fd,cd,video/monitor. Use and test at minimal. Then add one at a time, testing each time until you duplicate the error. Hopefully you don't have to replace anything expensive. Oh and set all specs to standard. Bios settings to default, no o/c ing etc. Hope you get it, this sort of thing gets really annoying.

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AssuP2B ,iCeleron337, 128megs PC100, G40032megSH, Yamaha PCI sound, 2 small HD's, 42X Sony CDrom and 98SE w/shutdown patch, PD 5.30 w/beta ICD

[Zwisch]

Did you get the proper patches for your motherboard and was USB enabled when you isntalled windows...? This needs to be done if you have a VIA chipset.

Z

[DuRaNgO]

are your voltage settings correct on your mobo?
jim

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PIII-500mhz @ 620! with an Abit BE6 mobo
128mb pc-100
Mill G400(YAHOO!!!) 32mb @ 165/205 with MGATweak), PD 5.30 & bios 1.5-22
Maxtor 13.2 gb Uata66 hdd
SB Live!
Winblows 98se & DX7
FOUR BIG FANS, six little ones and a case that sounds like a turbine engine...doh!
3DMark Result 5954.69 3DMarks
Synthetic CPU 3D Speed 9325.69 CPU 3DMarks
Rasterizer Score 2791.72 3DRasterMarks
Game 1 - Race 65.07 FPS
Game 2 - First Person 54.89 FPS
Fill Rate 268.79 MTexels/s

[Sprocket]

Are you installing correctly. Install on a clean video card only version, then install ALL patches for system first. reboot every time. then install DX7. then video card driver 5.30. Is every okay?? tweak a bit and run the tech demo, make sure you have the proper monitor selected- dont let windows say "unspecified monitor". Then one by one install everything else (SOUND IS ALWAYS LAST INTO THE SYSTEM!!!) that means force the G400 to 11, ISDN to 9 and sound force to 5 for MSDOS compatiblity. install add on cards one by one with latest drivers. (I know you have a vortex, but as an example a sblive- use EAX 2.0 instead of the cd) and use latest for the ISDN adapter- not what windows gives it (from ASUS website) then when all is fine- everytime you add something check the tech demo- then install software and keep checking until you feel safe. It took me 6 moths to get my system running stable (I went through hell with a Rage128- ugghh).

[Speedy]

unstall, and then install again powerdesk