G400 MAX IRQ - change not possible!

[syntech]

MartinS: (damn, same like my real name in parts)

The CPU runs at around 25 degree Celsius (after the warm-up ), and I've installed a (my patent!) second BIG Fan to cool all installed cards (no more details, it's my secret *g*). Serisously, I'm pretty sure heat is not the problem. And the G400 is not (yet) overclocked at all. Thank god the next generation cards will have hardware monitoring. That'll make things ALOT easier (for overclockers).

And according to Jorden's explanations: hats off, good work!

In case of Drakan, well, it also crashes my PC (patch 444, DX7 and 5.41.008) from time to time. DAMN!

Just on quick question: Do you guys (and girls) think I should upgrade my CPU to a PIII-500 just because TurboGL? I think it's not worth the money (I run my Celeron @ 450)...

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- Syntech -

[Jorden]

I'll be checking in again and again and again until we've solved your problem, syntech

You could always read through the big McRhea thread from a couple of days back

I try to help and it seems I help alot of IRQ-problematics lately So what?

No thanks on the PnP OS tale... it's just something one has to experience for himself once to get the deeper knowledge behind the buggy program

Jorden.

[syntech]

Well, I'm back.

I've succeeded to change the IRQ of the G400 to 11 and of the SB Live! Value to 5. But this was just possible from within the Bios. Yep, the explanation on how slots share IRQs was very (!) helpfull. But I still can't change the IRQs from within windows - as if they would lock the settings. Well, who cares - the IRQs are set. That's what I wanted (but it didn't really help yet).

Anyway, I think in case of the IRQs I've reached the goal. But Drakan still is not 100% stable (throwed me back to the desktop after 1 1/2 hours of playing). Are there any G400 MAX users which are playing Drakan? Can you confirm those crashes? Unfortunately I hadn't the time to check my other games (but I'll do).

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- Syntech -

[Jorden]

SynTech,

Hi again... you should rename to SynTech

Okay, the SB Live! should be at IRQ5 either, but a high IRQC as 9 or 10. Put it there !

About Drakan, I know of friends with other videocards, that Drakan runs with problems on their cards as well (ATi Rage Pro 32Mb and GeForce whatever) ... It might not be the G400, but the game again (Unreal if anyone remembers )...

Jorden.

[syntech]

Hmmmm, 9 or 10....
I think I'll leave it at 5 until I've got the results of my tests with other games. Drakan is new to me, so I don't know how it runs, but I know HL, Unreal, and tons of other games, which runs fine (but I haven't tested them with the G400, coz I've bought the card last week). So if those games are fine, I'm happy with the SB Live! at IRQ 5. Otherwise.....ok, now I know how to change IRQs
Another (last) option would be, to revert back to the 5.30 drivers.... but, as said before, I need to test other games aswell.

At this point, a million thanks to all who posted suggestions here!!! I'll report later any progress. Till that - happy gaming!


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- Syntech -

[Jorden]

Get the PD-Unin.zip with which you can uninstall any Powerdesk before completely (including the registry notations, yes) !!

Read the reame file included in the uninstall program and if you still have doubts, call upon us (me!)

Jorden.

[snowwons]

I am having the same problem as syntech was (sharing irq with live! and g400 max). I keep getting lock-ups with menus (for example the start-up menu, and file menus within programs) and quake 3 arena doesn't like to work anymore. I just got done doing a reinstall of 98, and haven’t had a lockup with the menus, yet... and haven't tried a quake 3 yet. But I still do not want to keep with the irq sharing with the two cards. So here is where the problem comes in. When trying to change the irqs within the bios, I found I do not have almost all the options in my bios that Jorden was talking about. The ones I have are:
PNP OS installed
Assign IRQ for USB
The ones I do not have are:
Force Update ESCD
Resources Controlled by
Assign IRQ for VGA
PIRQ1,2,3 and 4
I’m running a PIII 500 @ 560
Asus P2B-LS bios version 10
Matrox g400 max latest bios and driver revisions.
Sound Blaster live! value
Seagate ST39102LW 9.1gb hd
External USR modem.
I have IDE disabled so irq 14 and 15 are available.
Also one other thing, my live! card is using two irqs. I was wondering is that normal?
Thanks for any help.
Matt
snowwons@hotmail.com


fixing spelling mistakes

[This message has been edited by snowwons (edited 11 December 1999).]

[Jorden]

I'll be back when I'm awake.... don't ever chat first and then go back to your fave fori !!!

Although, snowwons:

• Open your PC and check that PCI-slot 1 is free (the slot under your AGP port).
• If so, boot your PC and go into the BIOS (press Delete)
• go to the PnP & PCI menu
• set PnP OS installed to no.
• set Slot 1 [right] IRQ to 9, 10 or 11.
• leave the rest of Slots to Auto !!!
• Press escape until you see "Save changes and reboot Y/N ?? Choose yes.

let it boot into Windows, adn tell us what happens next

Jorden.

[snowwons]

Good news =o) (sort of)!! Well the IRQs are 15 for the g400 and 11 for the Live! card and now my SCSI card is 14 also. I did have to do one extra step. When I followed you instructions, the G400 went to 15 and the live! card went to 15 also. I had the live! card in pci slot 4 (right next to the isa cards). Since they stayed the same, I thought that slot 4 and AGP slot must share IRQs for some odd reason. So I moved it to slot 3 and everything worked out great. Thanks for you help.

Btw... the irq thing didn't fix everything, them menu lock up thing happened again. Does this happen with anyone else? It never happened until I installed my G400 DH, and continues to happen with my G400 Max.

Thanks
Matt
snowwons@Hotmail.com

[SCompRacer]

Hello snowwons, with the P2B-LS, PCI slot 1 is just above the ISA slot (per MB manual) and they count up from there. MB architecture is PCI slot 1 shares with AGP, Slot 2 gets seperate IRQ, slot 3 shares with onboard LAN and slot 4 shares with onboard SCSI and USB.

The second IRQ for your SB Live is for SB emulation, used for DOS games. You can disable this in Device Manager to free up an IRQ if not needed.

If you have no use for a second serial port, disable one in BIOS. Alot of computers come configured this way with Serial (Com) port one disabled.

My setup is as follows;
AGP Slot Matrox G400 MAX
PCI Slot 4 Free
PCI Slot 3 Free
PCI Slot 2 Sigma Hollywood + DVD Decoder
PCI Slot 1 SB Live
ISA Slot 1 Free
ISA Slot 2 3Com Courier V Everything

No to PNP op system in BIOS
IRQ 5 forced for PCI slot 2
Serial Port 1 disabled
Secondary IDE disabled
Graphics Aperture Size 256

IRQ 3 is modem
IRQ 4 is Com 1
IRQ 5 is Hollywood +
IRQ 9 Free
IRQ 10 Intel LAN Chipset
IRQ 11 G400 & SB Live
IRQ 14 Pri IDE
IRQ 15 Adaptec SCSI Chipset & USB

No problems with games, demos. Tried removing SB Live in beginning and got no improvement in FPS/benchmarks so I left it as is.

Win98 SE has latest updates, and only problem I experience is an illegal operation message if I flip between Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and MS Front Page Editor several times when modifying images/web pages.

Only other problem I had was crashes when resetting in 3D Studio MAX with the beta turbo OGL drivers. So I quit using those, and life is good.

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P III 500 @ 560 via 112 FSB, ASUS P2B-LS w/1011 BIOS, 256 MB ECC RAM ECC Enabled, current 5.41 drivers, DX 7, Seagate 9 GB LVD Cheetah & 9 GB UW Barracuda, 10 GB IDE DiamondMax, Plextor Ultraplex 32 X/Plexwriter 8/2/20 RW, Hitachi GD 2000 IDE DVD CD ROM, SCSI ZIP Insider, G400 MAX, SB Live/Liveware 3.0, Sigma Hollywood + DVD decoder, 3Com US Robotics Courier V Everything, Sony GDM400PS, Soundworks 5.1, APC Smart Ups 700 UPS, SCSI, LAN & USB enabled. SB Live shares IRQ w/MAX, bus mastering enabled, Win98 SE and NT 4.0 SP4, and Win 2000.


[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 11 December 1999).]

[syntech]

Just for the files:

If someone wants to change IRQs within the Bios, set UPDATE ESCD INFORMATION to YES (or enabled)! This info comes from my boards manual. Otherwise the Bios won't accept and update the changes (that's what the manual says).

According to my game problems: I've played Half-Life for about an hour, without any problems (but an hour is not much). The only thing I found out is that it's pretty slow at 1024x768 (no matter if I use OGL or D3D). Are there any known issues on that?

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- Syntech -

[Jorden]

Thanks syntech, I missed that one

About HL: it's slow on my P3-450 as well. So I just go back to 800x600x32bit to play it

Jorden.

[traverso]

bonjour

i am french and excuse for my english

on my system all card use irq9
irq 14 and 15 for ide channel
i have some problem with matrox dvd player.
when i run it, i have a blue screen and this kind of message : erreur d ecriture disque c:
i think it s a write error on c:.
i have to reboot and scan disk
with dvdplayer98 it s good 3/5.
i wonder know how to count slots
is it ?
agp
pci 1
pci 2
etc ..

this is my system

carte asustek p2b bios update
p2 400
ram 128 pc100
win 98
adaptec scsi card 2940 u2w bios update
two seagate scsi hard drive 4.3go drive and termination to an pionner cd 32x
matrox g400 agp bios update and revision power desk 5.30
nic card 3com 3c509
soud blaster awe64
dvd rom creative labs 5x first channel ide master alone
cdrw yamaha ide second channel master alone bios update

thank s for your response and if you think that reassigne irq is the great sqolution (?)

merci
au plaisir de vous lire

[Casper99]

I agree with Jordan you reall yneed to have your bios set up appropriately for irq's but you can move things in device manager by just disabling them in their current hardware configuration, rebooting and configuring the bios to work in conjunction with that.

I just had to do it today and you guy's think you had problems!!!....i updated my bios and then said hey i dont need my serial ports i just free them up and forgot to configure everything first and had an ugly mess!.....(My own stupidity though!)

Anyways i hope it helps!

Cheers!

[DukeP]

Whats with the high irq?

My g400max is runing at irq3..

Heres a printout:
0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
3 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
4 (free)
5 Realtek RTL8029(AS) PCI Ethernet NIC
5 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Creative SB16 Emulation
10 Creative PC-DVD Encore Dxr3
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 Creative SB Live!
11 D-Link DFE-530TX PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
11 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 MouseMan2 (PS/2)
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller


I have problems...
I have tried to correct them before, but nobody seems to have experienced the same...

When a game fails (I thnik) or at initialisation of a game or when somethnig happens (like I go to cut scene etc) or more seldom: at random, my computer resets.

Its never in "plain" windows. Always connected to a game, although once (out of 28 resets) it happened when starting an avi file.

Please help...!