G400 MAX causing hard reset!

[kelin]

I have had probs each time I take my Max out...but only in my full tower case...my mid had no prob...
Anyway, its like the member above said, the card is not fully seated...gets very frustrating...seems to be in all the way, but when I tighten the screwed on the back down, it pulls the card down at the back and lifts the front connection of the AGP slot out...seems like a bit touchy to me..never had any trouble with my V3 3000 or TNT/TNT Ultras...
Remember the news blurb on the MURC where they were taking about the (I think) Abit BX6 2. (This was a couple moboards ago, for me...I sold my and replaced my BX6 2.0 with a Soyo Ba6 +III cause it wouldn't oc my Enhanced Memory Systems HSDRAM PC133...guys at EMS said besides being very unstable- I had some troubles with mine...mainly when I had multi boot with NT, 98, and Linux- having the six memory buffers causes probs)...Anyway, apparently the actual spatial configuration of the BX6 2.0 (and some other boards, apparently...all of the K7 mobos I have tried...FIC, Gigabyte, and now running the Asus...have had probs when putting the Max in for the first time...once its in there and running its fine, but if I have to take it out...I go through the same thing...putting it in..making sure its all the way seated...turning it on...turning it off...taking the Max out, putting back in, aud naseum....
i am going to try the spacer...I was going to play with rebending the right angle on the slot bracket...but would rather use a spacer....have to keep the front area of the AGP connector in while screwing down the bracket...
Sorry for the ramble...
Kelin

[DukeP]

Thats completely allright, kevin!

But if the end of the g400 card have somehow been lifted from the motherboard, wouldnt that result in something completely different, eg chrashes, refusing to boot etc?

It seems a rather "harmlees" thing to do, plain hardware reset, and only when accesing the advancede features of the card. If I'd play minesweeper, then I would not have any problems! It only resets when starting microsft mediamanager, starting a game etc. I would think, that if several pins where out of contact with the motherboard, then it plain would not work....
;(

[kelin]

Yo is probably right...
I just know that I have had a bunch of wierd goings-on with my max that I finally was able to attribute to the card not being completely seated...of course, the most signifcant was not show any video at all...but there was some other wierdness that I was able to cure by messing with the card's position in the AGP Slot...
Now, if anyone could please tell me why my system continually reverts to AGP1x, even with "Force 2X" checked in the tweak tab....
HAve to reinstall the 5.30 set to get 2X back...
Kelin

[DukeP]

I have now moved the g400 to irq 9.

So far no crashes, Ill have to wait and see!

[RichieJarvis]

It's funny, but I also have experienced exactly the same problem as Kelin with all the matrox boards I have ever purchased. I have now owned a Mystique 200, a M3D, and a G400, and I had to bend the back plate in order to stop it pulling itself out of the slot. I know it's not the machine or M/B either, cos all three have been shifted between my 3 different case, and 4 different m/b's since I started with Pentium class machines. Hmm... I am glad to see I am not the only one who has noticed this - is it a stock Matrox thing?

Thanks,

Richie

P.S. Sorry for taking it slightly off topic!

[DukeP]

Thats allright, RichieJarvis. I am still not sure wheter it actually IS off topic

Although this is the first time I have ever had this problem. I have had the original millenium, the mystique, the g200 and now the g400. I always use Abit boards wherever possible. I now use a spacer to fit between the bracket and cabinet, but I might try to bend the bracket instead....

[ALBPM]

I posted these awhile ago in a Thread concerning ABIT boards.



Here's what I think is happening with some cases/mother boards.


Paul

[DukeP]

It looks like IRQ 9 is the winner!

I have had the machine running all day, starting each and every 3d progra, available to me (I even went out and bought a copy of the UT based Wheel of Time. It Rocks!), and, well, NO RESETS!!!

Thanx Guys!

[SteveC]

All matrox cards want to be on IRQ 8 or above. It's something to do with level and edge triggering of IRQs, which, for some reason, Matrox are very fussy about. I don't know if other gfx card manufacturers are the same.

Saying this, I know someone with a Marvel G200 at IRQ5 even with an SB Live! and it runs perfectly.
*SHRUG*

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Stanley Pavlisin]

I have exactly these problems!


My config is g400 32MB SH, pII-333@500(2.1v), ABITBX6r2, SBLive! Value, 3c900 combo, 128MB DIMM.


But my problems are "extended" in this way: I simply cannot reset machine as usual. I mean that software reset, warm reset and hard reset causes machine not to boot and it beeps error code. It is one long and two short or one long and three short beeps. Both of these error codes are Video/VGA circuitry related. What only helps is to turn off machine and then turn it on.


I tried "everything", from reseating to removing "unnecessary" cards, or freeing up various (first, first two, last) PCI slots.

NO CHANGE!

My friend had similar configuration and similar problems with fresh bought components (abit+g400+...) and he tried to change power supply for another (noname for compaq) and resetting disappeared.
I expect top quality power supply this week. Then I see, wheather it solves my problems or not.
Stanley

[ALBPM]

Stanley, try something off the wall here. Move your 128 DIMM to the slot/slots furthest from the processor. Let me know if it makes a difference.

Paul

[DukeP]

Argh!

I don think I could bear it, if this turns out to simply be a problem about the psu...

Ill try to run with systemmonitior on, to see if I have problems with delivering the right current...

Thanx

[Stanley Pavlisin]

DIMM module position changed - no effect

IRQ 9 reserved - no effect
still awaiting quality power supply unit..
:-(


Stanley

[Stanley Pavlisin]

huh, no quality psu yet (maybe next Monday, I hope)


but I tried another common (= cheap = low qualuty) one and something has changed: reset after 2 (two) seconds (!!!) od 3D game instead of several minutes.

[Stanley Pavlisin]

Yesterday I've got that high-end 300W psu. With thermoregulation, extremely low noise, extemely high price (3x than the old cheap one).


Till yesterday I used to downclock my overclocked PII. At first to default 333MHz, later to 416MHz. No self-resets occured, even during 3D games.

Yesterday I raised clock speed back to 500 and tried the new power supply. Here are the results:

3.5 hours of high-res 3D game with no machine reset (the most reseting game was Driver, so I used Driver to test stability int this case, too).
The only thing, that makes me angry is still occurence of error beeps after reset. Today I've got another g400 board (max) and I try it in my machine. Then I take my g400 and I try it in my friend's system. I'll inform you about the results.