Announcement

**Kruzin** · 13 December 1999, 18:02

Whether you feel messing with IRQs is right or not, it IS often required for ANY hardware.

If you are not even willing to look at this as a possible sollution, you might as well take the card back right now.

If you decide to see hardware as it is in reality, as something that needs to set up properly to work properly(which means IRQ adjustments), we will be happy to contribute what we know.

IRQs are ALWAYS the first thing we check.

You should have the G400 on an IRQ by itself (with one IRQ holder).
It should be IRQ9 or higher.
Your motherboard's AGP aperture should be at 128 or 256.
You should have read-around caching disabled in your BIOS.

**SCompRacer** · 13 December 1999, 18:44

My first Matrox card was a 16MB G400, which is a fine card, and it replaced a Permedia 2/VooDoo II SLI setup. I went from a working setup to one with numerous problems. Can be frustrating but if you want to make it work you have to follow a logical process of elimination.

Kruzin gave you some ideas, and all I can add, if your interested, is having latest updates/patches for games. Yeah, I know some patches have been out for a long time, but thats how much of a gamer I am.

Seems the VooDoo cards would run anything I had while the G400 needed the games to have all the latest updates. I am talking about games like Forsaken, Quake II and Unreal.

And as far as IRQ's go, mine shares with a Live with no trouble at all. I am also running on my first and only install of Win98 with the SE upgrade.

Seems the G400 can be finicky in certian systems, but it is worth the effort to get it to work.

**paulcs** · 13 December 1999, 21:09

Could you at least tell us if your G400 is sharing an IRQ with another device? It could be an unrelated problem, and then you wouldn't have to take it back.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

**Gurm** · 14 December 1999, 06:31

I'm gonna make a new category for these people, and find something witty to say when they post. Until then:

"Yet another moron with a degenerate chipset, unwilling to troubleshoot his own problem, who wants the VIDEO CARD COMPANY to fix his problems."

- Ash

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

**McRhea** · 14 December 1999, 07:16

Hey there, I know exactly what you are going through right now... I was in the same place... But why are you so stubborn? Why don't you want to move IRQ's around? It's fairly easy... hell... it took me a 200+ post on this very forum before I found the answer to my problem... so it takes time man... don't just say, "Matrox can rot is hell because they make crappy cards!!" No.
They make cards that are so advanced, the rest of the system can't keep up with it until you tweak it to accept the card. Just post your IRQ list, and then we can get to the root of your troubles. Bixler and Jordan will help you A LOT. They helped me!

Ps. Do you have any virus scanning programs, like Mcafee or crash guards like Norton running? Try UNINSTALLING them. In the end, that's what was causeing MY troubles... it was the Mcafee virus scanner... so try uninstalling any unnecessary stuff and see what happens. Hang in there man... Once you get the card running, you won't look back. Trust me.

**LAMFDTK** · 14 December 1999, 07:36

...look at the response time on these "I got a Problem" threads. Its almost always faster that being on hold with any tech support line! Its Amazing....and you get 2nd and 3rd opinions

**KaosDG** · 14 December 1999, 08:15

Ok, one thing... A person in the IT industry (especially in the Windows world like me) would know that one of the first things (After checking the power cord) to look at is the IRQ's... Why are you so unwilling to change that? I have a g400 max, and i had to do some tweaking myself to get it to work in windows NT/9x... and then came win2k... all this before i found MURC...

Dude just switch the IRQs, it's not like pulling teeth or anything.

**Joel** · 14 December 1999, 08:43

Hey Gurm,

Actually it should just read,

"Yet another moron, unwilling to troubleshoot his own problems, who wants the VIDEO CARD COMPANY to fix his problems."

Just because you are a Wintel asskisser does not mean that anyone who is not has "a degenerate chipset".

Joel

**DonKiddik** · 14 December 1999, 15:00

Boy did I get some stick!

Ok, thanks for ALL your replies. Some of you seem to have taken my post personaly. My anger was aimed at Matrox not any fans of Matrox.

I will post my replies here to each of you and post back later after doing some testing.

Kruzin:
Firstly I appreciate what you do a LOT!
With plug n pray no one should have to mess around with IRQ's or bios. Not all computer users who purchase upgrades have the know how. I am willing to try setting the IRQ's up manually but this would be the FIRST time I have ever had to do this either for a personal PC or professionaly used PC. Believe me I have built a fair few! Thanks for your comments they WERE appreciated.

SCompRacer:
Thanks for not giving me stick, glad to hear your sharing IRQ's with NO problems, that is how it should be!

Paulcs:
I will list my IRQ's at present after I post this. They may change after tonight though! Thanks.

Goc:
Cheers I love you too!
Yes I do stink! You want to smell my trainers? Hey, ever built and configured a Quad Xeon 550 with 2Gb ram, installed and configured NT 4 server and SQL 7, looked after a Novell 3.12 network and 70 client problems? NO? well I have and do, so don't give me any crap! YES I was pissed. This is a home family system not just my own. After work I come home and my son or daughter want to go on the "pooter" and I have to say "no sorry" I'll say I was pissed. The post was directed at Matrox NOT you for god sake.

Gurm:
What an appropriate handle! Is it pronounced like "Germ"? Hey, what with a family and a mortgage and a dislike of Intel, buying a cheaper brand of Mobo and sticking with socket 7 was my choice, right or wrong, MY CHOICE. OK? So don't make it personal.

McRhea:
Thanks, I still say it should not be this way. Just take a close look at the postings on these forums!
I posted here because I knew people out there are willing to help. I post on various boards myself, helping other's who help me. I have Norton Utilities and all it's inherent problems so that is being un-installed after I post this.

LAMFDTK:
Yes, exactly why I posted here. Exactly why companies like Matrox set up forums like this, with moderators or sysops that are free/volunteers. It helps keep the support department that little bit quieter. I agree it is brill, I am NOT knocking it.

KaosDG:
Again I will quote Plug n Pray! See above. I have had a Mystique, an M3D (and others I have forgotton) NEVER have I had to fiddle with IRQ's. The old cards came out, the new ones went in, end of story. Not just graphic cards either.

Joel:
Cheers, I am not sure if your reply was a dig at Gurm and me or just Gurm? Anyway enough is enough let's try and put this one to bed.

Please none of you take any of this personal because you love your Matrox cards. I only changed from Matrox to ATI and Voodoo because of cash limitatioans at the time. Otherwise I probably would have had a G200 or whatever I wanted at the time.

I will post back after with current IRQ settings. They ARE pretty bad!

Thanks

------------------
Rgds
Don (Kiddik)Davidson
"Welcome Back my Friends to the Show that Never Ends"

**DonKiddik** · 14 December 1999, 15:10

Ok here is the bad news

[Conflicts/Sharing]

IRQ 9 REALmagic Hollywood Plus
IRQ 9 Matrox Millennium G400 - English
IRQ 9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
IRQ 10 Creative SB Live! Value
IRQ 10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
IRQ 11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
IRQ 11 VIA Tech PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 14 Primary Bus Master IDE controller (dual fifo)
IRQ 14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller (Ultra DMA)
IRQ 15 Secondary Bus Master IDE controller (dual fifo)
IRQ 15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller (Ultra DMA)

I will now see what I can do by manually setting IRQ's.

Laterz.
Don

**Ashley** · 14 December 1999, 15:41

Probably too late to be useful, but if I were you I'd just move the Hollywood to a different slot, and let Windows reconfigure IRQs automatically.

**Jorden** · 14 December 1999, 16:32

Errr, I saw my name fall twice, read the post yesterday before Kruzin answered, but thought to chill until the heat blew over...

Okay Don, how about giving us the complete IRQ list? Not the conflicting IRQs only. As far as I can see they're all the higher ones, where one would like to put a G400, SB Live or whatever new card. We could use the other IRQs as well, especially those that are free

In the mean time I'll go hunting for the BIOS onboard a FIC503+ (never heard of it, must be something special ). Or you could ofcourse tell me. Is it an Award, AMI, Phoenix or other BIOS? If other, what other??

Jorden, getting ready to remove McRhea's 'A' key and replacing it with an 'E'

Oh, PS: Ash (Gurm) has a really big BOOMSTICK ... don't mess with him, Don

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 14 December 1999).]

**Greebe** · 14 December 1999, 16:41

Don, OK that only proves you can read instructions, have you ever just done it? And...

<q>Exactly why companies like Matrox set up forums like this, with moderators or sysops that are free/volunteers. It helps keep the support department that little bit quieter.</q>

FYI, the MURC is not affiliated in anyway with Matrox.

[This message has been edited by Greebe (edited 14 December 1999).]

**Jorden** · 14 December 1999, 16:49

Okay, I could use:
The motherboard revision... (Rev A1-A4, pick one )
The BIOS revision...
The VIA driver revision...

Well, that's about all

Jorden

Announcement

New G400 and I am not happy!

New G400 and I am not happy!

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