This is a message torward Haig.

[everettes]

To JamesA:

Termination is set right, problems would have shown long before the G400. Bios 2.20(The Latest)

Reset the bios in both MoBo's I've tried this on.

Tried ECC, and No ECC, and with one stick out, and with just a new 64 Meg stick

Years of experience is telling me to scrap the G400. I was trying it in the first place as an alternative to the nVidia and 3dfx chips I've been using for those customers that wanted higher 3d performance. But if I'm going to have to face this with even ONE of my customers, it's gamble I'll never take.

When it's me providing the tech support, I'll opt for the tried and true! LOL

Like I told Tech. Daniel Lewis, I'll keep this card to the side waiting for Win2k drivers or the next Bios and Driver upgrade.

While I had the PC off a few minutes ago, I went ahead and put the V3 back in. I feel very safe all of a sudden. Whew!

I'll stay around here to keep up and chat.

It's a pretty good group of people in here.

I'd be proud to play any of you guys in UT, just be gentle with me! LOL


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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

[Cmag]

Everettes, I completly understand where you're coming from. My G400 is by far the most difficult piece of hardware that I've ever installed. I, like you, really enjoy this card when it's working properly. The image quality and dual monitor features are priceless. However, I believe when a piece of hardware requires 3 formats and 5 fresh installs of Windows just to get it running, things are getting just a little out of hand.(Not to mention the constant reconfiguration of my other PCI peripherals.)

I don't claim to know everything about computers, simply because I don't. I have however been frequenting these forums for a long time now (always around even if not posting much). I have listened to advice of the people that I have grown to trust on these forums, and have tried ALL of their posible solutions. And while my card does run very well most of the time, I still have lock-ups and other weird anomolies every now and then (when running games for the most part).

I have heard of the troubles with other certain hardware devices installed (such as the SB Live and Abit motherboards) and have grown increasingly impatient with these problems. These are not second rate pieces of hardware that come out of some guys garage. They are extremely popular equipment in many computers these days. I don't think that for the sake of ANY hardware that we should have to sacrifice the other peripherals that we enjoy. I'm sure that we can all agree that Matrox could not posibly test every piece of hardware now on the market, but you would think that with the most popular hardware, they would give it one hell of a run through.

The simple fact is that the G400 is not a user friendly piece of equipment (at least in most cases). And with a target market of end consumers, you would think that they would have tried a little harder to make it easier for the average Joe to pop this thing in.

I'm am looking forward to new driver and bios releases in the hopes that my problems will disapear. I will not, however rip my system apart just to make one peripheral work properly. If the problem becomes too anoying for me to handle, i'm afraid it is the G400 which will be replaced.

Cmag

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Consequences smonsequences, as long as I’m rich


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

[Dennis1]

Hi Madman,

To get Agp 2x do this:Under: hkey_local machine\system\current control
set\services\class\display\0003\settings (the 0003 may be different) you'll have a few subkeys. Under the CPU one, you'll have an AGPFallBAck setting. Add a AGPflags and the settings are as follows:
-2 - Up to 4x (No AGP Test)
-1 - Up to 2x (No AGP Test)
0 - Up to 1x (No AGP Test)
1 - Highest if test
2 - Highest if test succeed (Force AGPFallback = 1)

If you fresh install W98SE do this:

1. Install DirectX7
2. Install G400 Drivers/do not install Liveware yet !.
3. Try to run you're software/games without the Sblive drivers installed

Does it work ?, let me know and we'll get you from there.

Dennis

[Borg]

Hi ! MadMan

I am from Croatia (HRVATSKA) in Europe & nobody ewer told me anything about my poooooor ENGLISH..So try to be nice, because ewery one around here helps you.

Did you try any other util. like POWERSTRIP or PCI LIST to see your AGP status ?

My friend hed a sim. problem but after useing REGHACKS we FORCED AGP2x..and after reinstaling sys it was 2X by default with 5.30 @ P2b ..

from the wery first time I didnt have any problems with my G400 & P2b, BUSMASTERING works fine & AGP 2x was always by default..

& this about AMERICANS...men ! where do you live..(planet BRAIN.. ?)..wery , wery stupid from you ! ...

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PIII450@465,P2b,128mb,Matrox Mill-G400 32SH,SB.Live !(value)...

[stevenscott]

Wow!!! I happen on this thread and I have lots and lots of stuff in my computer. I went through a few hours of work before my marvle G400 would work, so I understand the frustration. I am only going to make one comment before I give a suggestion that might help. Please, whoever hurled the insults, please apologize to each other. next.
---------
Ok, I did this when I could not get my card to work right. I tried to make the new card work and had nothing but problems when trying to get it to work on my first install and after a couple hours I tried the following:
-----------
I have an old video card, which is a PCI slot card. I put that in. I booted the computer with that old trident PCI video card and ran the computer. I don't think you need the proper drivers but I did instal them anywya, though you can use the default drivers VGA provided by Win98. I then shut-down the computer. I then also put in my Marvel G400 card. So, now I have both my trident PCI card. (I new if I saved my old junk it would come in handy, I am a pack-rat). I fired up the computer and installed the drivers for the Matrox Marvel G400. I then shut-down the computer and switched the video monitor cable to the Matrox G400. And, I think at this point I removed the old Trident PCI card. I fire up the computer and wa-la, the thing works, brand new Matrox marvel G400. Note, I had previously a Matrox Mystique G200 in my computer. And, when I did the removal I did a complete unistall of all the Matrox software and drivers. I have no clue if this will help anyone, and am not recommending any PCI card to try, I just happen to have the one I used.
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Good luck and please do not send me any E-mails, post here. I don't have any answers, I just tried something and it helped.

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Home:
Server:
I run a Matrox Marvel G400 AGP with an:
Abit BE6 MotherBoard
Win98
Adaptec CD Creator 4
Pentium III 450
128 MB Ram
SB Live
Maxtor 13 GIG HD
2 3com Nic cards
Wingate 3.05
1 Symbios SCSI for my HP Photo Scanner
Boca 56K Int. Modem
Mitsumi 4801-TE CD-R
MS Precision Pro Joystick
Surfboard SB1200 cable modem
Shamrock 17" Monitor
HP OfficeJet Pro 1175Cse 4/1 printer/Scanner/Fax/copier
Note: I have the Matrox Mystique G200 16MB AGP Video Card, stashed away,
That I took out and replaced with the Marvel G400 on 10/13/99.
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Client1:
AbitBX6 MB
Win98
Celeron 300a
Maxtor 6.4 GIG HD
128 MB Ram
Netsurf NIC
SB Live sound card
Teac CDRom
Hercules Thriller AGP Video Card
Boca 56K Int. Modem
MS Precision Pro Joystick
Shamrock 15" monitor
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[Gurm]

This is NOT a nasty post. It is merely an informative post, in which I will attempt to explain a few little facts of life to some people...

Yes, the G400 is pretty touchy in some systems. No arguments. I took two IDENTICALLY configured systems. I mean 100% identical. Motherboards from the same batch (ASUS BX6v2), memory from the same batch, all cards identical, all COMPONENTS identical.

Fired 'em up, installed in an IDENTICAL manner. One runs fine, the other hangs hard on the Tech. Demo, and many other 3D problems manifest themselves.

So I swap the G400's. Doesn't make a bit of difference!

Then I start swapping other parts. NOTHING makes any difference!

So I guess my point is this - it doesn't MATTER how good your components are - sometimes you tax them in just the right way and it screws you up. No other video card pushes the AGP bus as hard as a G400. Not a TNT2 (DMA not DiME), certainly not a Voodoo.

Anyway, the eventual solution in the abovementioned case was memory slots. AGP noise, most likely.

So please - don't assume that because you have nice equipment that it can't be touchy - nice equipment is OFTEN touchy.

That's just the way it goes, unfortunately.

- Ash


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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

This signature is not Copyright by anyone. Especially not some guy named Steve. Yeah. That's it. Please don't kill me, Holly.

[JamesA]

Gurm,

Not trying too hard not to be a smart ass.... but did you mean to say the <u>Abit</u> BX6v2 instead of <u>Asus</u> BX6v2, right?



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JamesA who BOLDs a LOT
System Details

&quot;Have you had any licorice lately?&quot;

[Haig]

Hi Holly,

Everything TS does gets logged into our database.

When a client calls or emails us, we will troubleshoot the problem. If the problem is still there, we process the RMA as long as it's hardware related. In our database, we will put in the clients' personal information, problem, all the troubleshoting that was done and forward the case to RMA.

RMA gets the case, sees what the problem is and what has been done, they contact the client with an RMA # and shipping instructions. RMA gets the card, they send out a refurbished or even a new card. Everyone's happy.

If the client does not want to do any troubleshooting, insists for an RMA right away, etc, this is what we will put in our database and forward it off to RMA. At this point, Technical Support is out of the loop.

This is why I told Kai what might happen if he still wanted the RMA before fixing the irq conflict.

Haig

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

[merchant2112]

i try to stay far away from flame/help posts becuase i just don't want to be bothered with angry people who don't want to listen but, has anyone noticed that madman has ststed that he is getting repeted errors while installing windows 98 se and that he is hitting ignore to continue his instalation. meaning that his windows intall is being messed up in some way. the only time i had any real bad problems instablity problems with win98 was when i was haveing errors during windows install after i fixed those errors so they did not happen duriong windows install did my ramdom system crashes and other hardware errors went away. i may be wrong but this could be his problem windows is getting screwed up during installation.

make sure you bios virus warning is off windows will not properly install with it on. that was one of my problems when installing windows the other was irq shareing. did your windows install errors show up only after you put the g400 in your system or did you allways have this problem ? and windows install errors is a problem it just might not have been one untill u started useing a video card that pushes the tecnology limits like the g400 dose. dime vs dma agp sec, embm ect...


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EVIL IS GOOD. EVIL IS LIVE SPELLED BACKWARD AND WE ALL WANT TO LIVE RIGHT ?
INTEL EVIL INSIDE, INTEL SPYCHIP INSIDE
INTEL AND MICROSOFT HAND IN HAND AS THEY SCREEEW YOU OUT OF YOUR HARD EARNED DOSH.
MICROSOFT THE OTHER EVIL EMPIRE.

[everettes]

Gurm, was that so hard? Someone actually saying that the card ACTUALLY has problems.

THAT'S what we've been trying to discern. Everyone here is saying that it's something WE'RE doing wrong, or something WRONG with OUR system. That's incorrect, It's the cards problem and the cards fault. Would you put up with this much crap from a piece of hardware? Now how am I suppose to view this? As a great card and I'll use it for all my customers? Or a _touchy_ card that needs it's _space_. This is my first experience with Matrox, so I gave some leeway. But come on now. The only FACT OF LIFE you've taught me is that no matter what flaws this card has, some people will still point the finger at anything but the card. So I've aged my computer a year by inserting and removing hardware so much the last week. For a card that has KNOWN problems. Now I know to tell people that the card just MAY NOT WORK in their system. For reasons unknown.


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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

[Joel]

Well then I guess I must just be the luckiest man on earth. I have not had the first day of trouble out of my G400 and I have not had to disable any of it's features. I had a G200 in the system before this and all I did was uninstall Powerdesk, switching back to standard VGA, power down the system, remove the G200, put in the G400, power on the system, and then ran the Powerdesk setup for the G400.

Joel

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System Specs

[Madman]

Well, after reloading my computer this time with some major changes, it seems like the G400 is finally working without a hitch. Everything is the same except that I took out my Voodoo2, added my Kenwood CDR that came back from RMA, and added a new Maxtor 10GB Hdd. So far, it hasn't crashed on me once. I don't know if I've said this before, but this is a damn good card when it works.

Madman

[space7]

WOUOUOUWWWW!!!! I'M VERY HAPPY FOR YOU !!!

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Sorry for my English.
A G400 in a new G4 have wing's

[paulcs]

I thought he said he did a clean install of Windows with nothing but his SCSI card the G400.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[SwAmPlAdY]

So this whole time of thrashing Matrox techs was all due to mis-information from the complainer.

For all the people who kept saying that the G400 was at fault, what do you all have to say about it now?

tsk tsk

At least it's working now.

SwAmPy

[This message has been edited by SwAmPlAdY (edited 07 November 1999).]