Is my G400 a lemon?

[jasonk]

Well, I've read quite a few posts in the last couple of weeks. Even responded to a few. My problem hasn't really been addressed as far as I can tell, so here goes;

My system config:

AMD Athlon 600MHz
ASUS K7M rev 1.04
128MB PC100
Quantum Fireball Plus KA 18.2GB
Toshiba SD1212 DVD
Matrox G400 32MB DualHead (not max)
Soundblaster LIVE! X-GAMER
3COM NIC
Win98 SE
No real bios tweaking

My problem:

Well, first, the techdemo looks terrible. The alpha-blending is horrid, with all the 3D objects having jagged edges. Also, the DVD decoding is not good. It jumps and jitters quite a bit, though the sound works fine. In MultiDisplay mode, the 2 monitors each have a horizontal line that moves up the screen on one monitor and down the screen on the other. Games run a little slow also, and I seem to get the same jagged edges in the movie before Need For Speed 4. Funny thing is, I didn't notice this problem at first, but the same day I installed the DX7 drivers, this problem started. Sure it was bad drivers, I eventually wiped out my hard drive and started over without DX7 this time. No dice. Same problem. I built one of these for a friend, and so far they've had no problems like this, but they don't have DVD either. So is it possible that something has gone wrong with my G400 that might require me to return it, or am I missing something? Any help would be much obliged

[ALBPM]

Hi jasonk,

For starters could you list your IRQ assignments. That will give us a place to start.
Also what kind of power supply do you have in your system???

Paul

[This message has been edited by ALBPM (edited 01 December 1999).]

[The PIT]

No it's an orange

[Electric Amish]

People....People...

We get this all the time. I think the problem is that you're trying to put fruit in your computer.

Please, people. Don't try and insert fruit or any object other than an AGP card into your AGP slot. It just makes a mess. As can be seen in the above post, it also screws up your system.

Thanks for your consideration...

Paul

PS- I'd start with IRQ settings. G400 must be by itself (PCI Steering doesn't count) and above 9.

[cjolley]

Also, the Bios and Driver versions for your G400. If DX7 caused the problems, maybe you need to update something.
chuck

[jasonk]

Well, I can't list the IRQ assignments at the moment, cause I left the box at work for the night and I'm typing this on my trusty Celeron 450. I can tell you guys that the Matrox has it's own IRQ, 11, and that the sound card has 2 of its own, as does the nic. In fact, no IRQs are shared that I'm aware of. (USB is disabled until further notice - my PS-2 mouse and keyboard are as fast as I am, at least )

The overall display quality is not even up to snuff with my G200, so something definitely stinks in that box. The power supply is an Antec P253. I did try swapping it out with a Sparkle 300W on the AMD approved list, of course to no avail. Also, I was using Powerdesk 5.3, and upgraded to the new drivers yesterday afternoon, which didn't help either. I wish I had another card to test in the system to see if I screwed up somewhere else, but I figure I did my friend's the same way and its fine, so for now I'm blaming the Matrox card.

And though I might share some coffee or a cinnamon roll with my keyboard from time to time, I would never share any of my fruit with my computer

[Cmag]

Are the lines that move up and down your screens faint, or are they solid? If they are faint, it's because your refresh rates on the monitors aren't set correctly. Try and adjust them and see what happens.

Cmag

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Consequences smonsequences, as long as I’m rich

[CrazyBee]

Actually.. if you have monitors that are too close you will get those lines. It from the magentic field from each monitor rotating and interacting with each other.

I have some sides from dead computer cases placed right in between my monitors. And, i no longer get those lines. And the two 17" Trinitrons are as close together as I can get them.

Also.. I resintalled Win98SE and the drivers (5.30) and it has been working flawlessly since then. When I first installed the card the computer wasnt very stable. Blue screen of death every 20 min or so.. Now, it runs 24/7 and the G400 is at 1205 and its all good.

CB

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Abit BX6 Rev.1
Celeron 366A PPGA @ 566, 2.1v
192 meg RAM, CAS2
13.0 gig Maxtor 4320 HD
HP8110i 4x2x24
Creative DVD 5x
Creative DxR2
SB Live! Retail
USB ZIP 100
G400 32MB DH
Two KDS 17" Trinitron monitors

[cjolley]

jasonk,
I read in another thread that a G200 user solved some problems with 5.41 by reinstalling the drivers through the win update.....
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/006379.html
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Fyrespray
MURCette posted 02 December 1999 09:02
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I've been messing about and i have finally managed to get the new drivers working on my compy witout any stuttering. What i did was extract the setup files as normal then right click on my computer->properties->display adaptors->G200 and then updated the drivers from there using windows. They now seem to work fine i have got an increase in FPS and Q3 looks even better than it did before. I guess there is something wrong with the setup program they have included with the new drivers. Hope that helps fix the problems other ppl are having.
Fyrespray

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Celery 366 @ 550,Abit BM6, 128Mb PC100 Ram, G200 8Mb, AWE64 Gold, Win98SE.
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chuck


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ABit BH6 w/ Celery 333@500, 128mb gh@cas2, 10gb IBM@7200, SB Live Value@3.0, noname CDRom@40x, Mitsumi CDRW@2x2x8, Zoom@56k, Princeton EO75@1024x768x32x85hz, USB mouse,Matrox G400 MAX!!!!

[Alfie]

Where's Greebe when you need him?
One of the neccesities in super 7 was to have usb enabled in order to have agp work.
Is it possible that this requirement is a carry over with Athlon?
Worth a try,at least.

[rylan]

Nope, don't need USB physically enabled, just the support drivers for it, which have been present since the service pack for win95, and are integrated in win98 and SE.

Anyway, yeah, can you describe more of what the lines on the screen look like? Do they move in sync with each other, or is it randomly. Just out of curiosity, keep the second monitor off and disconnect the dualhead, and try the dvd on primary screen and your games and see what happens. Let us know, and we'll have more suggestions.