G400 problem with low res. in DOS (320x200)

[jlordsen]

Actually, I use Win98, but this happens in both - windows DOS emulation as well as when booted to DOS.

The problem is that during games (Betrayal at Krondor and others), which run at 320x200 resolution, the monitor blackens time-to-time for a while(I estimate for 1/2 second), but enough often to be annoying. It looks a bit like power saving mode, except the monitor control light does not change to orange.
I don't know where the problem is - in card/its BIOS, monitor or communication between them - and how to solve it, if even possible.

Motherboard ASUS P3B-F, G400 16MB, monitor Belinea 103040.

[Zwisch]

there is a program in teh 3rd party drivers section on matrox site for low res dos apps with a G400 that works really nicely, you should give it a try.

[Smiff]

Scitech display doctor v6.53:
http://www.scitechsoft.com/down_sdd_win.html

Yeah I noticed this too: the G400 is completely missing the lower res Vesa2 modes...not that most poeple would notice ... I do 'cos i'm quite partial to the odd spot of zSNES nostalgia (which is best at 320x240) It can do lots of ridiculously high ones that my screen can't handle though

Any ideas if it's possible to enable extra modes via the BIOS? (if space is the issue just drop some of higher ones).

Just a thought.

[Lewpy]

Head on over to <A HREF="http://hjem.get2net.dk/surfsmurf/index_g200.htm">http://hjem.get2net.dk/surfsmurf/index_g200.htm</A> and check that out.
Also, v6.53 of SDD doesn't support the G400(nor the G100/200). The latest beta does, apparently, but I've yet to install that and try it.

Matrox have already pruned out the high res modes, so they can have more BIOS space for other things. The G400 has no low-res nor high-res VESA modes in BIOS, just boring middle-res stuff (640x480 and 800x600)
In DOS, you need to load C:\Matrox\util\VBEXT.EXE to get the high-res modes back, while under Win9x this is handled by the display driver.

Hehe, the G400 seems to advertise itself as a G200, when using VESA2 under Win9x

VESA Info:
-> Version : 2.0
-> Total Video Memory : 8192kb
-> OEM String : Matrox Graphics Inc.
-> OEM Software Revision : 0.1
-> OEM Vendor Name : Matrox
-> OEM Product Name : MGA-G200
-> OEM Product Revision : Matrox Graphics Inc.
-> 8-bit Wide DAC Mode : Yes
-> VGA Compatible : Yes
-> RAMDAC Normal : Yes

Seems to be a slight bug in the building of G400.VXD

[Smiff]

Yep for anyone who cares it works great with zSNES. Cheers Dears

[Smiff]

Great thanks i'll give it a go Matrox seem to have forgotten about us ye olde dos users. Why is it that every graphic card has to have some tiny but irritating flaw?!

BTW the Voodoo3 does have the low res dos modes....quick plug for 3dfx

Sorry if I misled anyone with Scitech. Ooops!

L8rz,
Smiff

[jlordsen]

Well, but the mentioned program (at http://hjem.get2net.dk/surfsmurf/index_g200.htm) does not affect the problem I have encountered (see the first article). The good thing is it provides VESA VBE/Core V3.0 (otherwise known as VESA 3) implementation.

[This message has been edited by jlordsen (edited 03 November 1999).]

[This message has been edited by jlordsen (edited 03 November 1999).]