Does Matrox have a game compatibility lab? (Help with G400 crash!)

[Boom]

Can anybody reproduce this?

Requirements:
Windows 98SE, Starcraft Brood War 1.06, Half-Life 1.0.1.3, Internet connection, G400 (obviously)

1) Reboot (this procedure MUST be done after a fresh Windows load).
2) Run Brood War and start any game. Play a little, and then exit out to Windows.
3) Run Half-Life.
4) Join any Internet game. Once joined, disconnect from it.
5) If the system doesn't crash here, join another Internet game, or the same one again. It should now crash with a series of invalid page faults.

I know this sounds strange, but depending on my desktop settings and what kind of Brood War game I play, I get different kinds of invalid page faults in these modules:

"unknown"
HL.EXE
ddhelp
kernel32
G400ICD.DLL

For instance, if I run my desktop at 800x600x16, large fonts, and a single player game for step 2), I get a fault in "unknown", followed by a fault in ddhelp, followed by an automatic reboot. If I run at 1024x768x32, large fonts, then play a Battle.Net game for step 2), I get 1 page fault in "unknown", followed by 2 in HL.EXE, followed by 1 in G400ICD.DLL. Here is the G400 one:

HL caused an invalid page fault in
module G400ICD.DLL at 018f:691a77ff.
Registers:
EAX=83367f4c CS=018f EIP=691a77ff EFLGS=00010282
EBX=03de0074 SS=0197 ESP=0080fb34 EBP=0080fb8c
ECX=833617e0 DS=0197 ESI=03de00a4 FS=0faf
EDX=00000000 ES=0197 EDI=03de00a4 GS=108e
Bytes at CS:EIP:
ff 51 64 8b f0 85 f6 74 25 81 fe ae 01 76 88 74
Stack dump:
83367f4c 00000000 0080fb8c 00000001 00000000 0080fbf8 03de00a4 03de000c 03de0074 691a838b 00000000 0080fb8c 03de070c 03de0074 03de000c 00000075

I run Half-Life at 800x600 OGL. After a reboot, if I run Half-Life first before Brood War, I get no crashes. So Brood War must be run first, then Half-Life, to discover the problem. I have been getting these crashes with every G400 driver, but they are showing up much more consistently now (100% reproducible!) with 5.30. I never had these kinds of crashes with an old TNT. Can Matrox or anyone run through this procedure and tell me if they get the page faults?

[This message has been edited by Boom (edited 24 October 1999).]

[Zwisch]

to be able to help we will need to knwo what type of systme you have, what else is in that systems, IRQ's, drivers, used.... I would try in 640x480 small fonts... there are too many variable in what you are saying...

It also doesn't make much sense since starCraft does not even use the ICD... it's a 2D game... what version of directX are you using by the way?

I do not think that Matrox call do these types of tests since up to now this seems pretty trivial since an internet connection is needed??? and also that Matrox cannot join internet games, their proxy is preventing them from doing this for security reasons...

BTW what type of modem are you using and could you tell us what are your system ressources at after each steps? I am under the impression that your modem is a winmodem and it is taking all the CPU ressources, not leaving enough for OpenGL rendering and hence, creating an invalid page fault.

[Rags]

Sorry, I cannot duplicate your problems at all. I have played those games in all kinds of sequences before, with a winmodem, all apps running including an antivirus, SETI, ICQ, etc. etc. NO crashes.

Rags

[Boom]

I really just wanted to know if anybody else could reproduce this problem on their system, so I refrained from posting specs since it would be very long. But if you could isolate the problem, great!

My system specs:

Celeron433+Slotket
BH6 v1.1 bios NK
G400DH32 bios 1.5-22, drivers 5.30 (IRQ 11)
Sound Blaster Live! Value drivers LW3.0 (IRQ 5, 9 for SB Emulation)
Linksys EtherPCI II net card (IRQ 12)
Tekram DC315U SCSI adapter (IRQ 10)
Logitech Firstmouse+ ps2->serial (IRQ 4 COM 1)
USR Sportster 33.6 FAX/modem (IRQ3 COM 2)
Plextor 8/2/20 CDRW, Pioneer 103S DVDROM, WD Expert AC418000, Quantum Fireball CR 8.4GB, Sony Multiscan 15sfII port 1, Panasonic 20" TV port 2 composite

I have a cable modem hooked up a hub, which is hooked up to the net card. That is what I use to get online when getting these page faults. (The analog modem is there for backup -- I don't use it.)

All video options for G400 are enabled with G400tweak. DVDMax on, clone off. Currently using DX7.0, though same problems with DX6.1a that came with 98SE.

Zwisch, the crashes come from Half-Life; Brood War just somehow triggers it. It doesn't make sense I know, but that's what's happening (if it weren't happening to me I wouldn't believe it). BTW, I used to work in a compatibility lab (company will remain nameless!), and our lab was beyond the firewall so that we could "test" games online. It could be possible for Matrox to have a similar setup.

Rags, thanks for trying it out. I guess I'm on my own on this one.

I'll fiddle around some more, this is really starting to get on my nerves.

[Zwisch]

only thing that I might think of is to get the latest liveWare from Creative and to try closing the TSR's (mostly EM_EXEC). Did you also check teh % of ressources available when making those tests?

[Boom]

After some more testing, I have discovered that the faults do not occur if I run Half-Life at 640x480 OGL. Running at 800x600 and 1024x768 OGL will yield the page faults. I am running the latest SBLive drivers (3.0), and the only things running in the background are explorer, systray, and pdesk. I am not sure how to check system resources within the game, especially Half-Life, which gets very flaky when you alt-tab out of it. Oh well, I guess I'll run at 640x480 for the time being (which isn't too much of a downgrade I suppose -- the menu-console transitions are much smoother and faster at this res).