Announcement

**Rags** · 3 November 1999, 23:34

And concerning your Win2K problems:

Matrox has never claimed to support Win 2K until win2k actually releases. I cannot see where your disappointment there is, but I am sure that things have to get better, and I hope that they do for yours and many other's sakes.

**paulcs** · 3 November 1999, 23:41

Madman, I think the jokes were made to loosen things up a bit and make amends.

Everettes, maybe, just maybe, you have a bad board. It happens. If you have done clean installs with two different motherboards and nothing but your G400 and your SCSI card, then we've narrowed things down.

You have a heat problem.
Your power supply has problems.
You have a BIOS setting that your board doesn't like. (Is your AGP aperture set to 256 Mb?)
Your board is not seated properly in the AGP slot.
You have a bum board.

Have you tried it in another system. You mentioned something about eight days. Can you return it or exchange it?

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

**motub** · 3 November 1999, 23:45

Madman, I just went back to the original thread and re-read it. I think there's been a miscommunication as far as the RMA thing goes, but no one realized it.

When you asked tech support for an RMA, they (Daniel) replied, "We cannot issue an RMA for an IRQ conflict" (which is what seemed to be the problem at the time). You got angry and demanded an RMA, or a higher-level supervisor, etc.

What was never communicated (and please, Haig or anyone correct me if I'm wrong), is that tech support can only issue RMAs for legitimate technical faults of the hardware (which you have to admit, an IRQ conflict is not). If Matrox offers a "no-fault" RMA at all (which I don't know), that would be offered through customer service, not tech support!

You might say that the tech should have sent you to Customer Service, and that might be true, but there are a lot of reasons that mistake might have occurred, and it's the least of the issue.

Maybe it's time to accept that you both misunderstood each other, and that some of the issues you're angry about might be invalid.

---------------------
Holly
(This has been excerpted from Lesson #3 of "Making Friends and Lovers on the Internet: Same Language (you think), Different Countries & Cultural Assumptions--Beware!")

**paulcs** · 3 November 1999, 23:48

Windows 2000? When did this come up?

God, I missed this entirely.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 04 November 1999).]

**Rags** · 3 November 1999, 23:52

Hi Paul,

I was referring to everettes post that included:

The BETA 2000 drivers don’t cause this, so far. But they also aren’t fully functional.

PLEASE, If tech support can send me the most functional drivers they have for 2000. You’d never hear from me again. As long as I can do my work, and play a little I’m fine.

But the .chk files from scan disk are filling up my root directory because of all the reboots.

Rags

**everettes** · 4 November 1999, 00:11

To answer all questions:

Kruzin: I've lost you somewhere Kruzin! The SCSI has been everywhere BUT my back pocket, The G400 is MOST stable with the SCSI in slot one sharing an IRQ with it(Don't ask me why, but I've been running for 24 hours straight with no lockups, so I'm not going to question it). And, I never said anything about problems with Win2k, just the opposite. The boards does hurdles in Win2k flawlessly. I would like to also play the occassional games. I only have NFS 4 and UT. I'm not a big gamers. This is a work machine at home. I would love to use Win2k, they they are yet to have fully functional drivers (And I'm not fussing about that, but if they have some, all my worries would hopefully be over!) BTW, there's a TNT Ultra sitting beside me that worked great, I just prefered the Voodoo3 3000. It just seemed to be a bit smoother than the TNT.

Paulcs: I've mounted a fan to the G400, and have 3 case fans not including the PSU fan (If a Voodoo3 3000 doesn't have heat problems, the G400 surely won't (It runs cool as a cucumber). Brand new 300W PS bought just for you guys is in there now, no difference. AGP set to 256, and I have 256 megs in there. I've reseated it enough that I'm qualified to be an upholsterer now! LOL

OEM Board, ain't nuttin going back! By the time I fight for an RMA with Ingram or Tech-Data (I'll have to look and see from which it came) and pay to ship it back, then wait patiently for a return, I will have commited suicide.

Like I've said I've done it all. Maybe it just needs to get burned in.

------------------
PIII550, Intel SE440BX-2, 2 x 128 Kingston PC100 ECC, 2940U2W, Seagate Cheetah, G400-32 SH, Plextor 8\20, Plextor 40Max, Pioneer 303s, SBLive!, MS FFPro, Altec Lansing ACS-48, Sony CDP 520GS

**Madman** · 4 November 1999, 00:15

Thank you motub, that was exactly why I was so fired up. I didn't even really cared for that 'incident' anymore, but since you brought it up, I just wanted to say thanks for clearing that up. I have no hard feeling for Haig, it's just that it seemed to me that the way that he posted some of the things seemed very offensive toward me. For instance, he could've dealt with me directly instead of posted in this forum and made me look bad. It's all in the past and I don't really care anymore, but just wanted to make a point, that's all.

Madman

**everettes** · 4 November 1999, 00:20

BTW, just so you guys know.

I'm not just saying I've tried these, I HAVE tried all these. Only the power supply was an Idea that i hadn't tried before coming here. I'm surrounded by PC's ALL DAY. I know what to try before even entering a support request of any type. That's why I'm even headed about this. But look at all the complaints of freezing screens and lockups. That combined with perfect operation in Win2k says not bad board, but a conflict with drivers and certain boards or hardware.

AND, When the card is working, I couldn't be happier with its performance. It is a NICE, VERY NICE, card. That's why it pains me so much to be looking more and more at the Voodoo to my side.

I am truly perplexed. It's the best card I've ever had, but the darn thing has a mind of it's own and doesn't want to perform the way it should.

I know you guys are trying your best. And I was mentioning Win2k because the Beta drivers and the card worked flawlessly. Not even the first hiccup. WHY? As soon as they have operational 2000 drivers, I'll be on Win2k and out of everyone's hair. But I understand that Win2k drivers aren't here. I've got no problems with that, I can fantasize, right? LOL

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PIII550, Intel SE440BX-2, 2 x 128 Kingston PC100 ECC, 2940U2W, Seagate Cheetah, G400-32 SH, Plextor 8\20, Plextor 40Max, Pioneer 303s, SBLive!, MS FFPro, Altec Lansing ACS-48, Sony CDP 520GS

**George** · 4 November 1999, 00:21

Madman,

When you re-install Win98SE again, could you make a note of the error message you talked about during isntallation (if it happens again that is)

**George** · 4 November 1999, 00:30

Madman,

I have one further suggestion. Before you do you re-installation of win98SE, copy the contents of the CD to the Hard Drive (I'm assuming it's IDE) and remove all your other peripheral cards. Boot from the Win98 boot floppy (that you would have created prior to shutting down) and install Win98 from the hard disk. If the Matrox card still refuses to work, then I think it would be safe to assume that it is either the card, or possibly the motherboard (as prior to the G400, nothing has really taxed your AGP slot).

Cheers,

George.

**JamesA** · 4 November 1999, 00:34

Everettes,

Have you tried resetting the BIOS? Sometimes PlugNPlague can get really stubborn and not abide by your or the PnP OS's wishes.

And I assume your system works just fine without the G400 and with a TNT2 or Voodoo3? If yes, then, the resetting BIOS idea, is worth a try (if you haven't done so).

If no, uh, SCSI termination issues? I don't have LVD drives, and only AHA2940UW, but heck, I spent close to $2K on SCSI cables, UW repeater, and external enclosures (all from <a href="http://www.scsipro.com/" target="_blank">Granite Digital</a>.

Also, do you have the latest bios for your AHA2940U2W? Go get it if you haven't. Just make sure you follow the flashing procedures properly.

BTW, just to see if your system runs at all with the G400, try using just ONE SDRAM stick. Also, disable ECC (just try, nothing permanent). Could be bad ECC implementation? (Rags?) Or could be sync. issues with 2 sticks of SDRAM? (Kruzin?)

Of course, just for testing purposes, you could try with an EIDE drive and see if your sys. works or not. Also, if you are ALL SCSI™, have you disabled the EIDE controller on your motherboard? I did.

Alrighty, good luck trying!
May the horrors of Plug and Play follow you wherever you go, but never once reaches you!

------------------
JamesA who BOLDs a LOT
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

**everettes** · 4 November 1999, 00:36

I'm going to try what George said. I've been thinking about it and he just convinced me. HOWEVER, we should note: I run my O\S from a Seagate Cheetah SCSI with and IDE as backup. I'll take all out and install to IDE, but you guys are paying for my performance hit!

Is there any coincidence that MATROX is forcing me to use my MAXTOR drive? Hmmm, yeah guys, try to explain that one!

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Reach me on MS Messenger as everettes@hotmail.com
PIII550, Intel SE440BX-2, 2 x 128 Kingston PC100 ECC, 2940U2W, Seagate Cheetah, G400-32 SH, Plextor 8\20, Plextor 40Max, Pioneer 303s, SBLive!, MS FFPro, Altec Lansing ACS-48, Sony CDP 520GS

**Madman** · 4 November 1999, 00:39

Hi,

I'm sorry, but does anyone here know how to set the AGP card back to 2x? I do recall someone posting it somewhere but I just don't know where. Thanks Also, I wanted to add that I didn't have my SCSI card when I reloaded before. Only the G400 was in the computer. I think I got a little confused because a while back before I bought the G400, I was running my system with SCSI CD-ROMs, and now that I bought the Kenwood, I replaced it :P Sorry for the confusion.

Madman

**JamesA** · 4 November 1999, 00:42

Hey MadMan,

Did you get your error after picking the display adapter & monitor screen?

If yes, you should pick VGA/SVGA (or the one with least amount of possible colors and will make your desktop really really really ugly) if you can.

Once your system is functional, then install the G400 PD drivers.

If you have tried this, disregard this post.

------------------
JamesA who BOLDs a LOT
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

**everettes** · 4 November 1999, 00:56

Let me retract, after looking at my SCSI setup and my ONE IDE as secondary, It hit me just what a task I was about to embark upon. There ain't NO WAY IN HELL I'm going to go through all this just to see if this card works. If it has problems with SCSI, that's Matrox's problem. No other hardware has had ANY problem with ANY of my hardware. I'm not doing the job of their tech support team, NO WAY. Man what was I thinking. Hell, I don't even have a floppy drive to boot from. All CD Drives are SCSI, and a Zip IDE is set for drive A:. That figures, haven't needed a floppy drive for a year, get a G400 and need one. Go figure.

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Reach me on MS Messenger as everettes@hotmail.com
PIII550, Intel SE440BX-2, 2 x 128 Kingston PC100 ECC, 2940U2W, Seagate Cheetah, G400-32 SH, Plextor 8\20, Plextor 40Max, Pioneer 303s, SBLive!, MS FFPro, Altec Lansing ACS-48, Sony CDP 520GS

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