JB, Help!!! Is my G400 MAX defective?

[Reverend Maynard]

I posted this thread a couple days ago but paulcs recommended that I post it again with a different title.

My new G400 MAX is haveing major probs. The problem seems to be random, or I just cant find the pattern. What happens is sometimes when I start up my computer, all the text comes out as jibberish. Then when Windows 98SE starts up there are tons of corrupted graphics. Is this a common problem that can be fixed or do I have to call Matrox up and get a new board? I have tried taking the card out and putting it back in several times.

My specs...

Soyo SBA 3 mobo
P3 450 (not OC'ed)
Diamond MX300
G400 MAX (of coarse)
13.5 gig IBM HDD
128 megs PC133 RAM
Win 98 SE w/DX 7
Power Desk 5.30 video drivers

At the moment the G400 is sharing IRQ 11 with "IRQ Holder for PCI Steering", and I know that is bad, but I dont know how to change IRQ's so it is alone on 11. I am not sure that this is the prob though since even the bios is coming out corrupted.

[paulcs]

I believe the IRQ issue is moot in this case. It is my understanding that sharing with "IRQ Holder for PCI Steering" is not an issue.

I've only had severe graphic corruption with an ATI Rage Fury, and it was caused by known issues with a very bad series of driver releases. I *briefly* tried overclocking my G400 Vanilla, and it caused some display corruption: mostly lines across my desktop. Heat problems can also cause graphic corruption.

Did you try reseating your board as Jorden suggested, uninstalling and reinstalling the Matrox drivers (ver. 5.30, also you might want to try an earlier version), making sure all traces of the drivers for your previous board are gone, and running your machine with the case open?

In addition, it is recommended that you disable all video shadowing in your BIOS and increase your AGP aperture size to 256.

If you display runs fine with the case open, you're probably having a heat problem. It could be a ventilation problem, or it could be a problem with the board.

Is the fan on your Max working?

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[J.B. Matrox Tech]

First sharing with an IRQ holder is normal and is not a problem. Since you are getting defects The first thing I would recommend is to upgrade the video Bios. You can do this with the Unified Bios file called Bios_104 Here is the link. http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/bios/home2.htm
Next get the Powerdesk uninstaller here: http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/fi...l2.htm#utility and run it then reinstall the drivers. See if that helps if not try the card on another system. If the problem follows the video card, contact Matrox technical support.

[everettes]

Hey guys, I was having REALLY bad lockups. I was at the point I was going to shove this card up someone's orifice, then I happen to notice that I had no lockups till I changed display settings to 16 bit. So, I left it in 256 and no lockups. Tried 32 bit color, no lockups yet for an hour. Tried to go back to 16 and ind=stanly had a lockup. Rebooted and set it back to 32 and lockup free.

PS, yes I fooled with ALL the suggestions, busmastering, disabling ECC, IRQ's, slots of other cards. None worked, but this did.

[Reverend Maynard]

Thanks for the help. I am downloading the two files you suggested as I type so hopefully that will work. If not, I suppose I'll be back.