I implore you to read this one

[GD]

Hi everyone!

I have sent numerous emails to this forum and probably I've been very annoying to some of you but, honestly, I do not know what else to do!

I own a Matrox G400 MAX (as you might know) and I 've been having, well, lockups. Some times more, sometimes less. Now with the beta drivers they have increased. They also happen when in 2D. There is no way to explain some of their characteristics, they do not have any. They might be resulting in garbaged screens with sound looping or with sound playing or in classic lockups with the image still with or without the sound looping, again. They happen in openGL as well as in direct X. There was some time where I could reproduce them (I knew that if I did that then the system would lock up). But now I can't! The lockups are completely random and I cannot find which factors are the ones evoking them! Some months ago I knew that if I followed that very route in expendable it would lock up.

I have the latest everything of course as everyone. I have tried many things including disabling AGP/bus mastering and changing AGP aperture settings and/or cache settings (of course even if anyone of them worked I wouldn;t consider it a solution).

I have of course contacted technical support. I always avoid blaming people, but lately in some cases, I really cannot find ANY JUSTIFICATIONS. I WANT TO! But I can;t find any! It is awful. I have never received any kind of response to any of my emails to them. Only some months ago I received one asking about several IRQ settings etc, which seemed to be an automatically sent message. I did respond of course, but it did not actually change anything.

I recently had problems flashing the BIOS (I have an LS-120 drive and the flashing utility looks for drives connected to the floppy controller, which was of course disabled, not to the A: drive). I thought I would see some improvement with the new BIOS but it proved to be only a hope.

Anyway this is what I am going to do. I will wait till W2K. Moreover I will put the card in other computers as well. If the problem persists, I will send an email to the technical support saying things I really don't want to say (I will not offend them. I'm not that kind of person. I will just be a very angry email).

You know what? You want to become a saint and sometime you find out they do not let them to become one!

Phew, I needed that!

PLEASE ANY ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS ARE MORE THAN WELCOME!

George D.

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PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

[Targon]

The problem you MAY have is a power supply, or motherboard problem. If the power supply doesn't provide clean current, this can cause the problem. I've seen it before. Another may be the motherboard itself. Do you have a single stick of memory, or two 64 meg DIMMs? You may also want to check if your memory is seated properly, same with the CPU. Pull them out, and plug them back in. It could be a BIOS issue, or a capacitor on the motherboard may be going bad, and not delivering enough power to your AGP slot(I'm sure you've heard of this with other cards such as the geforce).

You MAY want to try using some other memory, or to swap out your motherboard. I know this is an unpleasant thought(and takes a bit of time and effort), but it may just be your only choice. Good luck.

[GD]

Hello Targon!

Thanks for your response...

If have heard this P/S thing again... Do you think it might cause the problems? I had a G200 some months ago and had not such problems. There were of course some lockups but nothing like what I am experiencing now...

I have one single DIMM of 128MBs

I will check the connections of the CPU and memory as you said. I'll let you know of the outcome...

The problem is I have paid much more money to buy "quality" stuff. The moherboard is from American Megatrends, the P/S is from PC Power and Cooling and the Memory is from Viking. And this was to build a stable system.

Anyway as I said I'll plug the card in other PCs as well...

If I find anything defective, am I covered by the guarantee if it has not expired yet?

Thanks again,
GD

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PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

[Targon]

Depends on how long ago you bought them. Some stores give you only 7 days to return defective parts, others give you a full month. Worst case is that you SHOULD be under warranty, which means you send the defective part(s) back to the manufacturer to be repaired/replaced. I bought a Turbo Cool 300W Power supply, and found it did NOT work well with my FIC SD11 motherboard. Of course, not much DID work with the FIC so I replaced that piece of junk with an Asus K7M, which runs perfectly. The memory COULD also be a problem, though I suspect it's not the cause of the problems you have.

[APV]

if i don't remember wrong, the Intel GX chipset is a strip down of BX chipset, and if it is then running dual with GX may be the cause of your problem.

[cnyb]

Overheat perhaps? Have you tried to run the computer with one side open?
/Chris

[IceStorm]

My G400 MAX is relatively stable in an:

Athlon 550
MSI 6167
384MB of RAM (two PC133 Micron DIMMS, one PC100 Azzo DIMM - soon to be three Micron DIMMs)
Antec PS-303X 300 watt power supply
Millennium II PCI card
Intel Pro/100+ Management network adapter
Promise Ultra66 IDE controller card
SB Live!

Occasionally, I get a spontaneous reboot on startup (happened this morning), and once every couple days, the whole thing hangs. However, I've got quite a few things in the system - 3 HD's, a SyQuest Sparq, SyQuest SyJet, HP 8100i CD-RW, and a Hitachi GD-2500 DVD-ROM drive, plus a Card Cooler, front and back fans, and CPU fans. The system needs a reinstall of Winblows 98 SE and some vibration dampening (the DVD-ROM shakes the case when spun up - think I overtightened its mounts).

I think my problems are a loose piece of hardware somewhere. The box is getting torn down in two weeks - I want to reseat everything, and it'll be easier to add the Arctic Circle cooler when the machine is in pieces.

Just my $0.02

[This message has been edited by IceStorm (edited 16 February 2000).]

[Ali]

I notice you have a dual mobo. Do you have one of those 'terminator' cards in the second slot?

I had an Asus P2L97-DS mobo a few years ago, and had to have a card sitting in the second slot 1 slot. This card had a few resistors and capacitors on it from memory.

When I put a 2nd CPU in I lost this card (stupid me), and when I couldnt overclock the 2nd CPU to the same speed as the first one, I took it out again (the sencond CPU). Turns out a single P2 233 at 293 is faster than 2 233s at 233.

Ever since doing that the computer was a little unstable. I had a Millenium2 AGP in it I think (could have been my Mystique 220).

This might be what your problem is. Sorry the post got all messy, but Im not thinking straight today.

Ali

[mkaresh]

Ouch, a Sparq? Worst thing I have ever owned. Period. Two non-working units collecting dust in my closet. I once told the company I'd keep exchanging them until I got a good one or they went out of business. They went out of business first.

As for the lock-ups, I'd simply find a computer to plug the thing into. Any true friends? That will be cheaper and quicker than experimenting with all kinds of parts in your own system.

[paulcs]

Is this a server? The GX chipset is actually not a stripped down BX. I believe it was designed to run Xeon CPU's.

In any case, this still sounds like a seating problem. You should make absolutely sure your board is all the way in and seated properly in your AGP slot.

I'm assuming your G400 is not sharing an IRQ and is using IRQ 9 or above.

I know that's a very nice case and power supply. You shouldn't be having a heat problem. Do you have a way of monitoring this?

This is an awful thing to do, and if you're running a server, maybe you can't. The best way to track down a problem is to take out all the components except for those that are absolutely necessary: CPU, RAM, video board, and hard drive. If you're still having problems, reinstall Windows with just the above components.

If the lockups stop, add components one at a time until the problem returns. Then you know you're having a conflict, and you have identified the device causing the problems. If you're get lockups with the stripped down configuration, you're probably having a hardware problem.

This is, of course, a solution of last resort.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 16 February 2000).]

[rylan]

Hi GD. Sounds like not too much fun.

Just to rule this out, can you post your entire IRQ list from device manager up here so we can take a look at it? You never know, especially with SCSI cards since those like to take good irqs.

[Helevitia]

Greetings GD,

I feel your pain dude. I've been there on several occasions as I'm sure alot of people have on this forum. Here are my suggestions:

1. Sometimes the PS is not grounded properly to the chassis. It would be wise to screw a ground wire from a bare metal spot on the PS to a bare metal spot on the chassis. Scuff it up if you need to.

2. Have you tried disabling cache in the BIOS? Disable both internal and external cache. Try one at a time.

3. This third suggestion is actually several suggestions in one but requires you to kind of lump them all otgether or maybe some of them at a time etc...you'll see what I mean.

Remove all of your components except for the necesseties(sp?). Run your computer for a few days and see if it crashes, locks up, etc...If it doesn't, then put one peice of hardware back in at a time and then run it for a few more days. Keep doing this until the problem appears. You may also wnat to do this with a freshly formatted HDD. If the lock still occurs then you may need to buy and IDE drive so that you can be sure it is not your SCSI controller. IF it still locks up, then you ened to swap the sound card or remove it and test for a few days. If it STILL locks up, try another video card for a few days with and without all of the combo's above. I know it's a lot of work, but it is worth it to get past this evil, evil problem. Don't put your CPU above this probem either or your MB. You just need to work at it one peice at a time. I have never owned a PII so I am not much help there, but I can help you on almost anything else. Oh yeah, don't forget to try what everyone else told you to above as well. Good Luck and be patient.

Dave

[Chucky Cheese]

hello gd!

i have that same mobo and have no problems with it...

hey APV, if anything the GX chipset is a super set of the BX chipset...the dedicated successor to the GX is the 840.

first off, get the latest bios and flash it. be sure to format the floppy(..i don't care if it says pre-formated), put that floppy back in...this is important!!!!!!!

next, go in and load the "high performace" option...save the setting and exit(...i know you are booting off a scsi drive, after you successfuly boot to floppy you can make the necessary modifications)

get the removable scsi media devices on their own channel(...verify the integrity of each bus)

take paulcss' advice and check the seating of your MAX...check them all while your in there.

personally i think you should get an atx 2.03 power supply, 400 watt...=>45 amps at 5 volts, and Vsb should be > .8 amps(..you get this info by looking at the label on the PS). this board is very stable for me, my sblive even shares irq 11 with my MAX. take all the sound advice above...good luck!

my system:

Motherboard: AMI MegaRUM II, dual 600Mhz Pentium III processors (installed), each with a 32/512 Cache configuration. 512 Mb of PC100, 8ns memory. Symbios Logic 53C896 U2W SCSI controllers. Intel 443GX Xeon chipset.

SCSI I/O:

Channel 1(LVD/U2): 4 Seagate LVD Cheetah 18LP, ST39103LW Ultra2 Wide SCSI-3 hard Drives, each with 1024k cache.

Channel 2(SE): JAZ 2GB internal, Plex-Writer 8/20, Pioneer DVD-303s ultra-scsi DVD reader and 2 UltraPlex-Wide 17/40 speed CD-ROM drives.

USB: USB Zip Drive, Epson Stylus Scan 2500, Intellimouse Explorer

Networking: The network adapter is a 3Com 3C509B-TX PCI 10/100 Mbps controller, and a US Robotics Courier V.Everything 33.6/28.8/x2/V.90 internal ISA modem.

Video: Matrox G400 Max with Dual Head. The primary display is a Panasonic PanaSync E21, .25-dot pitch, 20" viewable; the secondary display is a Viewsonic flat panel display model VP150.

Multi-media: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live PCI Bus Mastering sound card. Speaker system is the Cambridge Works FPS2000 Digital speaker system.


IRQ Usage Summary:

00 - System timer
01 - Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
02 - Programmable interrupt controller
04 - Communications Port (COM1)
05 - Creative SB16 Emulation
06 - Standard Floppy Disk Controller
08 - System CMOS/real time clock
09 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
09 - 3Com Fast EtherLink XL 10/lOOMb TX Ethernet NIC (3C905B-TX)
10 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 - Symbios 22910, 21002 PCI SCSI Adapter; 53C896 Device
11 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 - Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
11 - Creative SB Live!
12 - Microsoft PS/2 Mouse (IntelliPoint)
13 - Numeric data processor
14 - Intel(r) 82371AB/EB/MB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
14 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
15 - Symbios 22910, 21002 PCI SCSI Adapter; 53C896 Device
15 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering

chucky

[franksch3]

One side note: Do not remove your casing. One of the biggest errors made is that removing your casing will cool your system parts better. This is actually not the case as the cooling airflow only reaches every part of your system when the case is on. When removing the casing their is no moving air taking away the heat from your components.

Frank

[RAB]

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but have you turned off DMA for your DVD-ROM. The Hitachi is a 4x unit, which means its an older one and the older DVD's, like CD-ROM's, don't use DMA. If DMA is on, it often causes random crashes. Go to Device Manager and turn it off there and reboot. This is simplest fix I know and I can't tell you how many times this has solved problems. If it doesn't help, and sometimes it doesn't, its very easy to turn it back on. You don't even have to open your case!

RAB