Question: Is the Matrox G400 compatible with the VA-503+ MoBo?

[wenDigo]

Greetings,

I know this question may seem a bit trite, since I noticed alot of you have apparently moved on to bigger and better MoBo's, but I have to ask this anyway. You see, I currently have no intention of upgrading my MoBo anytime soon (financial constraints, mostly), and I'd rather not find out the if there is an issue with this board and G400 combination the hard way ( eg: buying, installing, possibly swearing and cursing my luck, uninstalling, etc.).

I've already tried contacting Matrox in regards to this matter, but the rep there was unsure himself of any conflicts. I also tried to contact FIC, the makers of the VA-503+, but they don't bother to help unless your "already" having a compatibility problem. Any and all help with this question is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Jorden]

Go have a look in this Thread

You might find answers there

Jorden.

[Thundrchez]

I tried nearly everything that I could to get my FIC VA-503+ to work with a Mill I, Mill II, Mystique 220, and Mill G200. I never could get it to fully work. In the end, I booted the 503+ in favor of a 440BX based mobo.

[jediphoenix]

well my g400 is kicking ass on my FIC PA-2013 rev 2.0 board

------------------
***TRUST IN YOUR TECHNOLUST***

[wenDigo]

Hi there,

Thanks for the refferal, Jorden! Thankfully, I've already done about 90% of everything "ALL" of you guys listed in that lengthy thread due to prior experience with other AGP cards (trial and error phases); excellent job should go out to you, Kruzin and all of the other vets for helping that guy out! Well, I guess that definitely answers my question, I'm gonna go out and get one now! It's too bad tech support doesn't operate this fast ;o)

PS: I know it's off the subject (and possibly beating a rotting corpse of a horse), but for someone that troubleshoots Full Networks and all, he ("Don") sure seemed to overlook alot of basic troubleshooting steps; MicroMaintenance 101 stuff, actually (eg: BIOS settings, Safe Mode, etc.). Oh well, I guess we all have our off-days. Thanks again!


[This message has been edited by wenDigo (edited 16 December 1999).]

[Zwisch]

Again... this can be found off Matrox FAQ's and FIC FAQ's... you people need to read more...

5. Are there any known issues with the FIC VA-503+ and PA-2013 motherboards?

You can find some tips on both these motherboards in the FAQ section at www.fic.com.tw

For the VA-503+, you can try the following :
- Make sure that you have all the VIA drivers (bus master, miniport/IRQ, etc)
- Assign the video card an IRQ in the BIOS if necessary.
- Try the latest driver for the video card and if none of above works, upgrade the video card and the motherboard BIOS.
- In Matrox Properties, DISABLE AGP Bus Master.
- In BIOS Setup, DISABLE a) DRAM Read Around Write and b) DRAM Write Pipeline.

If you have problems with the FIC PA-2013, you can try the following:
- Be sure to have the latest Drivers and BIOS.
- Disable CPU to PCI Write Buffer.

[DonKiddik]

Wendigo

I hope you don't have too much hassle getting your 503+ and G400 working together.

Mine was a sod to do in the end! All the help I got was really appreciated.

However your comments:
PS: I know it's off the subject (and possibly beating a rotting corpse of a horse), but for someone that troubleshoots Full Networks and all, he ("Don") sure seemed to overlook alot of basic troubleshooting steps; MicroMaintenance 101 stuff, actually (eg: BIOS settings, Safe Mode, etc.). Oh well, I guess we all have our off-days. Thanks again!

Yes I was having an "off day" in fact an OFF WEEK was more precise! You mention "MicroMaintenance 101" which I assume is some sort of course? FYI I do look after a smallish Network and have never been on any reasonable courses such as that one. All I know is self taught, hard work when you look at the competition out there!

Sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees, if you know what I mean? :-) That's what happened to me with my G400 & Mobo.

All the best, just had to reply to your comment.

TTFN


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

[Thundrchez]

For the 503+, they recommend disabling the Bus Master for Matrox card?

In NT4, if you have Bus Master disabled, you can get a BSOD in 5 minutes if you select a 3D OpenGL screen saver.

I had much better luck with my 503+ with Bus Master enabled. However, it never was stable enough to stay up for more than a day or two. Then again, NT4 is a much different beast than 9X.

[cash]

I have an older FIC VA-503+ motherboard, its a 1.1A REV.

I had trouble with the G200, and had to stick with the 5.30 version of the drivers.

I just upgraded to a G400 DH 32Meg OEM card and it has been great! I've been able to run the latest drivers with no problems.

The G200 only would work w/ AGP 1X. Without changing any settings, the G400 runs at AGP 2X!

Of course my system isn't supposed to work anyway... I'm running an original AMD K6-III 400Mhz (Bought last Feb.) on this old 1.1A 503+ motherboard.

[RAB]

wenDigo,
From my days with the 503+ and a G200 here are some suggestions. Some experimentation is in order, but since the G200 and G400 are more similar BIOS-wise than not, there is no reason a G400 shouldn't work in a 503+.

1. Disable DMA for your CD-ROM. Run it PIO Mode 4 instead. This will often work better than disabling busmastering for the G400. On my machine, this is the only way I could get it stable. If you have a newer DVD-ROM, try it both ways through VIADMATOOL, but CD-ROM's and DMA don't work well.

2. If you have a K6-2 then, yes, disable DRAM read around write and write pipelinig. If you have a K6-2 400 or faster or a K6-III you can enable them. WIth either CPU, the advise to Disable CPU to PCI Write Buffer is correct.

3. If you have a network card, it will likely only work in one slot, usually the slot closest to the AGP slot. Experimentation with card swapping is in order, and be patient because it can sometimes be frustrating getting a NIC to work with an AGP video card.

4. The G200 was never able to get AGP 2x, but most people can get AGP 2x with the G400. The 503+ is an older design and the boards had trouble with AGP 2x. Don't be disappointed if you can't get 2x, its still not used much (if at all) even in games.

5. Put your hard drive and CD (or DVD) on the same IDE cable for best results. This seems counterintuitive, but (I'm guessing here) with both IDE channels working, the CPU has more work to do tracking both channels and it is not as efficient.

6. Limit overclocking. While it will work on a 503+, it can eventually burn up the board (guess how I found out?). Now you know why the earlier 503+'s were not on AMD's recommended list. Don't use more than 2.4 volts and only go one speed step up. Don't even try to overclock a 2.4 volt K6III.

Within these limits, the 503+ works well. Hope this helps.

RAB

[This message has been edited by RAB (edited 20 December 1999).]

[wenDigo]

Hmmm...so many replies (I thought my thread ended days ago ;o> ); wasn't expecting that. Oh well, thank you all "AGAIN" for all of the advise ;o) (although as I had stated earlier, I had already solved the problem with a different card in the past that had simmilar issues). Having said that, I think I better conclude this thread before it gets out of hand, cheers ;o) !