Announcement

**motub** · 30 October 1999, 08:45

Hi, GD!

Did you just drop by to complain, or did you want some actual <u>help</u>?

Just wondering....

If you do want help, you know what we need (details of the problem, specifics of what Matrox suggested and what you tried... you know, like everything)....

If you just came by to complain, well, guess you've done that now, so have a nice day .

-------------------
Holly

[This message has been edited by motub (edited 30 October 1999).]

GD · 30 October 1999, 14:06

I knew it would end up like this...
Anyway
I have tried many times to solve my problems through the forums and it has proved the best choice most of the time. I have posted my problems here long before contacting Matrox's Technical support. I just wanted something more than a "try different Bios shadowing settings". Lock ups are just the kind of problems you can hardly tell what causes them.

What I cannot understand here is the tendency to disaprove of complaints. I consider expressing one's personal opinion is vital for a healthy society. I am not here to "bury" matrox or anything like that. I just share my experiences with others with whom I have something in common...

Anyway sorry for my english. I hope I'm not misunderstood.

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PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

**Ant** · 30 October 1999, 14:16

I don't see anyone disapproving of your complaint just someone willing to help and asking for clarification of your situation.

GD · 30 October 1999, 14:36

Dear Sir Madam

I have pre ordered a MAX unit from your on-line store. I installed the
card without problems but since then I've been experiencing weird lock
ups with expendable always at the same 3d scene. Moreover after 2
formats the problem has not been solved plus, 3Dmark also lockups some
times... 2D is VERY stable. In expendable the screen just lock ups at
that very spot there is no image distortion. At 3Dmark however the image
appears distorted some times...I don;t think this is a cooling problem
since the heatsink of the G400 is not even warm and there are 7 fans in
my case...

My system configuration is as follows:

Pc Power and cooling case & 300W power supply
AMI MegaRUM II motherboard (440GX chipset, Dual slot1 ...One processor
installed with termination card at the other slot... has also dual ultra
2 wide scsi on board by symbios (896 chip)
Intel PII 450 (not overclocked)
Viking components 100MHz SDRAM 128MB with ECC
Seagate cheetah 9,1 GB
Terratec EWS64XL sound card
Matsushita LS-120 drive
Matrox G400 MAX @ AGP2x

More over I get relatively low 3dmark scores (if the benchmarking is
completed without lock ups): that is nearly 3750 3D mark points...
Motorhead is perfect at 1600x1200 though... no problems with q3test
either (apart from some "rainbow" textures which appear when dynamic
lighting is enabled at 800x600....

This is excactly the msg I sent at matrox tech support...(the uk one...the one i sent to canada was via matrox's web site i can not find it in the sent items folder...)

I don't think there is much to do anyway.

------------------
PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

**Rags** · 30 October 1999, 15:10

First thing I would try if I were you is to go to Intel's website and get the GX chipset drivers for your OS, there are some for Win95 and Win98. You should have these installed in order for you to get proper performance and stability.

Rags

GD · 30 October 1999, 15:20

been there done that... AGP wouldn't work without it... it solved 95% of my problems :-)

anyway thanks for the help rags..

------------------
PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

**motub** · 30 October 1999, 15:38

Yes, Rags, that's certainly the 1st step... bet that might just fix that slowdown in 3DMark99

what intriques me is GD's mention that

I've been experiencing weird lockups with expendable always at the same 3d scene.

GD, is this correct? The exact same scene, every time? But Motorhead and Q3Test (of all things!) run flawlessly? And 2(!!!) re-formats have not solved this?? What the heck is going on in that scene?

If it's not some kind of graphics-heavy, sound-heavy (is that a 3D sound card, by the way?) EMBM gorefest that your poor AGP GART-less (if you're missing mobo driver support)PC just can't deal with... I wonder if there's maybe something wrong with his copy of Expendable?? (Yes I know it's the one that came in the retail box, but that's not some kind of magic CD-ROM charm of protection, is it?)

Obviously, a lockup in a specific program could be caused by either a hardware failure, or a software problem... what if that scene is looking for some support file that just didn't install correctly? Let's face it, if Q3Test runs (and Motorhead at 1600X1200!!!), it's hard to believe GD has much of a driver issue...

I'd say, uninstall Expendable, borrow another copy from someone and install that... see if it will get through that scene.

Good luck..!

-------------------
Holly

GD · 30 October 1999, 18:10

Hello there!

Thanks for the feedback motub!

1) My soundcard is a relatively old ISA card (but with advanced MIDI features). The only 3D sound I can get is what is known as Miles 2D positional audio and Dolby Digital (At least these work with the demo version of Star Wars. Other settings result in a "couldn't load audio drivers error). I don't think there is a problem with the sound card. I has proved to be the most stable peripheral in my PC (Once it is installed correctly everything works flawlessly... Its installation is a bit tricky though :-) )

Anyway I do experience some lockups every now and then in other applications (which is partly normal since this is a custom built machine). I refer to the expendable locking up because yes, it does lock up at the same scene. Well there are one or two times this hasn't happened but most of the time it just locks up. Anyway there is a way to bypass this point by following a certain route...
This doesn't make any sense...

2) I'm not sure if that's what you mean but the AGP works perfectly. I have A 400GX board and windows 98 do not come with support for it out of the box, so I had to download the drivers from intel. This way everything works fine as far as the chipset is concerned.

3) It's a bit difficult to find another copy of expendable right now. I think it hasn't hit the market in Greece yet and I know no one with a G400.

Expendable, however, doesn't always lock up in the same way. Some times I get a distorted screen and sound whereas some times the image freezes and the sound continues to play...

------------------
PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

**rylan** · 31 October 1999, 16:42

Just out of curiosity, can you post your IRQ settings?

GD · 1 November 1999, 09:32

0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 Communications Port (COM2)
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 TerraTec EWS64 XL Codec
6 (free)
7 EPSON Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Intel(r) 82371AB/EB/MB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 Symbios Logic 22910 (896-based) PCI SCSI Adapter
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel(r) 82371AB/EB/MB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel(r) 82371AB/EB/MB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

As you can see, there are no conflicts or sharing.
IRQ 6 is free because I have disabled the floppy disk controller (I use my LS-120 to read disks which connects to the IDE bus)

Thanks your interest,
GD

------------------
PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

**Maggi** · 1 November 1999, 09:42

Hey GD,

could you mail me or make your e-mail accessible ?

------------------
Cheers,
Maggi
________________________

Working Rig:
Asus P2B-DS @ 103MHz FSB
Double Pentium III-450 @ 464 MHz
4 x 128MB CAS2 SDRAM
Matrox Millennium G400 32MB DualHead
Nokia 445Xi (21")
Nokia 447Xpro (17")

Home Rig:
Asus P2B-S Bios 1010 @ 100MHz FSB
Celeron 333A @ 500MHz
2 x 128MB CAS2 SDRAM
Matrox Millennium G400 32MB DualHead @ 150/200MHz
CTX VL710T (17")

**Jorden** · 1 November 1999, 10:11

Is it right for any system to have 4 IRQ holders for PCI-steering??

GD: Wasn't there a patch for the boxed Expendanle version? Something to do with the EMBM thing not working.

I don't know, for I have the OEM version of the G400, so only the Tech-Demo and drivers on a CD-ROM.

Does the Tech-Demo work okay?
Did you try disabling all memory shadowing in the motherboard BIOS? (Or would a SCSI system have problems then?)
AGP-Aperture-setting is set to 128Mb or above?
And last question: Which version of DirectX are you using?

Jorden.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 01 November 1999).]

GD · 2 November 1999, 14:21

Hi!

Maggi I'm sending you an email right away.

Jorden:
1)The tech demo works perfectly
2)I can't think of any reason why disabling the shadowing would cause problems with the SCSI. I haven't tried it however. I don't really like the idea to do so :-).
3)AGP is set to 128. I tried 64 as well but it did not seem to affect the locking up frequency. I'm back to 128MB now since the performance is slightly affected.
4)Direct X 7 official.

Thank you for you feedback everyone!
GD

------------------
PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

**Zwisch** · 2 November 1999, 16:37

hey, what's wrong with IRQ 9? You have 2 IRQ holder for PCI steering assigned to one USB device... that's not right... either that you have something not properly detected by windows that is being assigned an IRQ without even being recognized or your mobo is not doing something right... try disabling USb and resetting your data configuration in your BIOS.

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