G400 has died! Need re-live it! :-)

[Franc]

Hi guys!

Last night my G400 16 Mb SH died!

I had just installed TurboGL and then restarted the PC. And so, my system begun to BEEP constantly. The same beeps of when there are no video card inserted.

I have tested my card in another machine, and it is really died!

I heard anyone saying that there are a utility that can re-live the board. Does anyone know where can I find this program? At least the name of this program?

Thanks!

---
My system:
Abit BP6; Cel 366@525; 160 Mb RAM; CD-ROM Creative 48x Infra; CD-RW HP 9100; SB-Live Value; Matrox G400 16 Mb SH.

[Brian R.]

If your card has a corrupted BIOS, try:

ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/utils/biosutil/

recover.zip may be able to restore the BIOS

[Franc]

Thanks a ton, Brian!

I have downloaded the file, and trying to understand how it works!

How do I use the boot diskette and follow the steps, if i can´t see nothing in the display? Should I put in my MoBo a PCI video card?

The french and spanish readme´s are saying that the system just can have the defective card. So... what I do? Will do occur something wrong if I do that with a PCI card inserted into PCI slot and G400 into AGP slot?

cheers,
Franc

[This message has been edited by Franc (edited 11 April 2000).]

[Jorden]

I wonder if I'm the only one who reads my own forum Or the Archive that's got the same name... (FAQs... gosh, what could that be?)

But okay, Franc, here goes:

<u>BIOS Reset Utility</u>
Matrox Recover Utility MATROX GRAPHICS INC. 22.12.1999


Contents
========

Instructions to create a recovery boot diskette for Matrox G-series graphic cards.

Usage of the recovery boot diskette


Creating a recovery boot diskette
===================================

1. Copy recover.exe to a new directory e.g. c:\pfad
2. Extract the file by double-clicking the recover.exe file

Recover.exe contains:
- RECOVER.IMG
- RUNME.BAT
- RAW.EXE

3. Go to MS-DOS prompt
4. Insert a diskette into the floppy drive
5. Execute RUNME.BAT e.g. C:\PFAD\RUNME (Enter)
6. Please follow the instructions given


Usage of the recovery boot diskette
====================================

1. Insert the recovery boot diskette into the floppy drive A.
2. Boot the computer
3. During the complete recovery process DO NOT shut down your computer
although there is NO display on your monitor.
4. The computer will reboot automatically after which the monitor display should
function again.


So to answer your question: No, it's not really needed to have a PCI video-card present in your PC. You won't see a thing when you boot from the recovery diskette anyway

Jorden.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 11 April 2000).]

[Franc]

Thanks jorden!

I thought I havent saw the topic #3 in "Usage of the recovery boot diskette"! :-)

I´ll try it out and hope it solve my problem!

regards,
Franc

[Nuno]

Let´s hope so. But a card with a dead bios usually doesn´t have any display in DOS, but it works in windows because the drivers operate the card. If the pc starts beeping like there is no card in the slot something more serious may have hapenned. Try to reseat the card.

[Franc]

Nuno,

Are you saying that usually a card with a defective bios starts but 'only' cant display nothing in DOS, and works perfectly under windows?

In another words: when the pc is turned ON, the card displays nothing and just begins to show something when windows starts?

I have not tested recover yet, cause I´m at work, but I´m begining to stay worried!

[Nuno]

Franc, I´m not exactly an expert in G400 bios failures (fortunely never had one) but what I described is generally what is reported here in bios failure cases.
A G400 with a defective bios usually boots up, and "works" under windows - but with some limitations, like only 2mb video ram being recognised and so on.
That typical video failure beeping nor mally happen when:
1- there is no videocard in the slot
2- the card is not properly inserted (and G400 can be a pain to insert properly)
3- the card is malfunctioning.

And if the pc doesn´t even boot how are you supposed to recover the bios?

[DuRaNgO[MU]]

maybe you bumped the g400 when you were installing the turbogl into the case

sorry, actually it does sound like the card may have been jarred out of it's slot
jim

[leech]

Actually, I'm not going to say I'm an expert on this...but twice with my Millenium G200 I've had them go bad...the first one really did mess up in the VESA (dos) modes. wouldn't display them, or if it did, they were garbled. But it worked perfectly in Windows. The second BIOS flash I had to do was indeed that my computer had started to just beep when I turned it on (my power supply had fried and guess decided to 'take' the G200 with it) but I emailed Matrox about it (after having purchased my new Marvel G400 :-) ) and they just sent me a recovery disk, and it worked! So I wouldn't be too worried. It should work. (fingers crossed) Here's hopin' for ya. I ended up selling my G200 to a friend of mine, and all worked out great in the end. :-) So give it a try. It should work.

Leech

[Jorden]

Oh darn And just as I was thinking this could grow into a monster-thread with Nuno as head-meachanic

Congrats Franc. Keep that diskette in a safe place You never know...

Jord.

[Nuno]

LOL

Glad you got it working, Franc

[Franc]

Thanks in advance for your help, guys!

Everything ran just fine!

My G400 is working again and perfectly!!! :-)))

It´s the miracle of life! :-D