Boot problem and DOS Window problem

[Nessus]

I have a weird problem, my computer (BP6 and G400 DH) start to boot but I don't see anything on screen until the background of Windows loads (monitor changes to active), and if I try to open a DOS window this window don't work, all Windows programs are OK.
Restart the computer don't work, the computer was fine until yesterday.

Any ideas?

[karlpeng]

Yes, I have similar problems too. I could boot my system as normal with no
DOS display Problems(BIOS, DOS).
My problems are, when I run full screen DOS prompt under Win98SE, I got
blank screen(nothing display just totally Black). In this case, I still can
run DOS command such as dir or Exit, just cann't see anything here.
If I try to run some DOS Graphic mode utilities then quit to DOS(Full Screen
DOS prompt under Win98SE) the command prompt now show up(C:>_).

Some times but fewer I can see the C:\> when I first time run the DOS Full
screen mode under Win98SE. But if I press [Alt]+[Esc] switch to Win98SE
Desktop then press [Alt]+[Esc] again back to DOS Full Screen Mode. Now, the
screen become blank(black).

That's very strang problem. I think G400's BIOS or VDD of Matrox 9x Driver
have something wrong with DOS text mode(80x25).

Would greatly welcome any advice. Thanks.


My system:

MS-Windows 98 SE (4.10.2222A)

Matrox Millennium G400 MAX DH (150 Core/200 memory, G4+MMDH4A32GR)
G400 VGA/VBE BIOS 1.5-22
IRQ11 not sharing with any other device, BUS Master, AGP 2x with
Sideband enable.
PowerDesk 5.41(same problem with 5.25, 5.30, 5.50 Beta)
1152x864x16 Windows Desktop
DirectX 7.0a

Mitsubish Diamond Pro 700 17" Monitor

Intel Pentium !!! 550 (FSB 100x5.5)
Asus P2B rev 1.04 BX MB
384MB PC-100 SDRAM (128x3)
IBM DPTA-372050 20.5G IDE HDD
IBM DTTA-350840 8.4G IDE HDD
IBM DHEA-34330 4.3G IDE HDD

Adaptec AHA-2940U SCSI card PCI(IRQ10)
Plextor W8220 SCSI CD-RW Int.
Plextor 32x SCSI CD-ROM Int.
Fujitsu DynaMO 640 SCSI MO Ext.

MS-IntelliMouse with Wheel
Wacom 6"x8" Table
USR Courier V.Everything V.90/X2 Ext. MODEM

Creative SB Live! PCI Sound card (IRQ5)
MS Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro

[karlpeng]

Also, I have a Diamond Viper V770 Ultra(nVidia Riva TNT2 Ultra Core 150/Memory 183)before I gor G400 Max. The Diamond's one haven't this problem with same system.

[Jorden]

Nessus,

• What was the last program you installed or used before yesterday??
• Did you change something in the drivers/screen resolution??
• Did you check the pins on the connector, nothing bend??
• Did you change anything in the BIOS??

Some things to get you going. My primary monitor has a new warm-up time since I re-installed the dual-head function. Killing Dual Head fixes things to the old situation.

It might help you

Jorden.

[Nessus]

I have not installed nothing before the problem, don't change BIOS or drivers. I am tried to update BIOS from Windows but the program don't work (I think that the program tries to open a DOS session), is very strange, seems how the G400 fails to send signal when DOS is active.

[Hunsow]

Sounds like a corrupt bios nevertheless, I hope you made a recovery disk. If you didn't there is still the recently released bios recovery util from matrox.

http://www.murc.ws/Utils.html

[Kruzin]

I agree with Hunsow. Sounds like another dead BIOS. Try the bios recovery util he pointed you to...