Pffff, i'm getting tired of this !!

[DEF92]

Well bad news, i tried RAGS option. So, i enabled the 'Bus mastering" and disabled "Use device bitmaps caching". After restarting the comp the system hangs with a black screen and the words "Windows is restarting" before it even went out. So i touch CRTL+ALT+DEL and the system starts up. After the windows music, i thought yes it works. But then the screen crashes and the system was locked up. After turning the PC off and on everything was good ?!?!? I have worked for 2 hours and then the system crashes again.

Then i have to put the system on and off. It still crashes on the same spot, after the windows tune when the screen pops black for 1 second and picture comes back, the system hangs. This happened 8 times and then everything was normal again.

Could anybody do something with my IRQ-list a couple of days ago ???

Or are there still some options left ???

Greetings, DEF

P.s. Nuno, you asked for my IRQ-list. Have you done anything with it ??

RAGS, it was a good try. But it only worked 2 out of 10. Thanx anyway !!

[Nuno]

Try to disable ACPI. What OS are you using?

[DEF92]

Where do i disable the ACPI ?? And what do you mean by OS ?? I'm sorry but i really don't know what OS is !!

[Nuno]

OS = Operating system (win95, win98, win98SE, win2k, linux, beos =))
ACPI is a advanced power management supported by the motherboard. It can cause quite a mess sometimes specially if it´s not properly implemented in the motherboard bios. See if you have a bios option to disable it.
In windows 2000 it´s easy to disable acpi, I go to device manager and set the computer type to standard pc. But I guess you are using win98SE, right?

[jackzod]

The OS mean operrating system. i.e Windows, Linux, etc..

My advice would be as said before to to force your g400 on another IRQ. On my Abit board, by disabling both Com port (I don't need them) I got my G400 on IRQ 3, some will say that it's better on 9, but I never saw ANY difference in quality and speed whatsoever.
I suggest to disable the two com port in the BIOS and see if your G400 goes on IRQ 3 or 4 and see if the problem is still there. If its gone, then we'll try to get your g400 ALONE on Irq 9 (or leave it on 3 cos I don't think it makes a difference. at least not in my case).

Hope it helps

P.S The com ports can be disabled on your board in the BIOS under "Integrated peripheral", The ACPI can be disabled under "POWER MANAGEMENT FUNCTION" in your BIOS.

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

[Rags]

What ever you do, don't put your card on IRQ 3, or anything below 9 or above 11 for that matter. Try forcing the G400 to use IRQ 11, that will stop the sharing with ACPI.

Rags

[DEF92]

Okay, i disabled the "ACPI function" and restarted my PC. The system hangs immediatly and is looking for something. That something has to be the "ACPI function". So that's not a good option.

When i was looking in the BIOS, i saw that "Ultra DMA66 IDE" was enabled. But has this not be disabled, because i don't use this anyway.

I agree with Rags on this one, i always heard that your Matrox shouldn't be lower than 9. I doubt it will work on 3. Are u sure ??

Answer to Nuno : I use Win98Se
Answer to Rags : See below

These are the IRQ on my PC :

9 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ-Steering
9 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ-Steering
10 Vortex Multifunction PCI Platform
10 Vortex PCI Audio
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ-Steering
11 Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller
11 Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller

How do i force it to 11 ??? Who do i forced it to 11 instead of 9 ??? Do i have to switch 9 and 11 ???

I will read all your good advice in the morning !!!! Greetings, DEF

[jackzod]

I had a ABIT BF6 Mobo, which is the same board than you minus the ATA-66.
I can assure you that my card did work witout a flaw on IRQ 3, BUT I know some people had problem with their G400 on IRQ under 9 (was not the case for me).Irq 9 is accessed on higher priority than 3, but here no problem at all, anyway...

To answer your question, you have to force an IRQ to the first Pci slot in order to force the IRQ to AGP slot (they share the same IRQ).
You have to go in the BIOS at "PNP/PCI Configuartion" and at PIRQ_0, put 11 instead of auto (in fact you can put any number you like there, but better go with 11 in your case).

[DEF92]

I will try this tonight, but i am beginning to think that i will return the MOBO and get another one. Which board is the best for the G400 ??

DEF

[jackzod]

I don't honestly think the board is the problem, it's just an IRQ conflict problem that can be solve.

If you really want to change your board, Soyo makes good, stable mobo. Asus too.

[DEF92]

Well, what next ??? I put the G400 on IRQ 11 but now it is in combination with HPT 366 Controller and the ACPI. I don't think that's good, so i'm thinking hard about a better MOBO that don't gives any trouble. Which MOBO is the best or better which MOBO works probarely with G400 DH ???

I return or my G400 DH or my MOBO to the dealer, so what's the best choice you people can give me ??? I'm tired of this after five weeks working with crashes and hang ups with this combination. Really, the first PC-combination that i had was prefect. No problem at all, when you change it to something better you think about it.

DEF

P.s. Do you people think that i should be looking further to perfection ??? Or should i return the MOBO or the G400DH to the dealer ???? I want to work normal again after 5 weeks trouble with this problem !!! Hope to hear something soon, DEF

[Rags]

DEF,

First of all, if you are not willing to go through the steps to properly set up your system, then it won't matter which brand of motherboard you purchase, or video card you use with it for that matter, you will eventually have problems. If you get your system set up correctly, you will have little trouble.

Ok now, on to your problem. Give us another COMPLETE IRQ listing. Do you still get lockups? What CPU are you using? Are you overclocking? Have checked to make sure your AGP ratio is set properly? Have you tried using different RAM. Have you EVER tried flashing to that older bios and change SDRAM Leadoff to 4 and see if your problem is helped. Have you tried setting all of the IRQ's for your cards in your system manually? Have you set PCI Plug and Play from Plug and Play aware OS YES to NO? If you don't use the HPT 66 controllers, you can disable them in your bios, and then disable them in windows under device manager by selecting disable in this hardware profile.

Rags

[jackzod]

Are your hard drive ATA66, if not then disable those controller (in the BIOS) on the IRQ 11 and no more IRQ sharing.
Changing your board won't change anything here, you'll have the same conflicts (more or so), the trick here is to remove what you don't need that's all.

[DEF92]

Thanks for the advice, i will try this tomorrow and i will let you know and give you the answers to your questions. I understand that when buying a new MOBO some things never change. It's true, i have to solve this problem first. It's good to know in the future what the problem was. It sucks when you buy a new MOBO and your G400 doesn't work on it. Okay, one week is not so bad but 5 or 6 weeks fighting with this combination is #$%!#$%!#%.

So i let you know what the ansers and the results are. Notice the "Pffffffff.... " file on matroxusers

Thankx, DEF

[jackzod]

I did some tweaking with my Board wich have the same BIOS than you.

First, do you have any USB device ?

If not, then:
1) remove the USB: Go in BIOS under "PNP/PCI Management" and find assign IRQ to USB, and put disabled.
2) In the same place, locate the PIRQ related to your sound card pci slot (PIRQ_1 for pci slot 2, PIRQ_2 for slot3 and PIRQ_3 for slot4, don't use slot 5 or 1)and when located, force the IRQ of that slot to 5.( in place of your USB Controller).
3) Still in the same place, force the AGP IRQ (PIRQ_0) to 10 (instead of the sound card). Et voila your G400 is all alone on the IRQ 10, and the sound card doesn't mind (at least it has never for me) to be on IRQ 5.

If you have USB device:

1) if your mouse is USB compatible, put it on USB it will free IRQ 12.
2) Try to remove ACPI or The ATA66 controller (if you don't have ATA66 hard disk)
3) In last, if nothing works and you're about to change your board, or worse, your G400, disable those com port and put the AGP IRQ to auto, your G400 should go on IRQ 3, and for ME, with the nearly the same MOBO (BF6 Mobo) it has worked, and presently I've put my G400 back there (IRQ 3) to test it, and it is working without a flaw. It's last resort, not really recommended (but every benchmark I've runned didn't show a difference, nor stability problems)

Btw you should post a list of your hardware, it would help us a lot, cos we're guessing here.

Hope it helps

------------------
Don't open your Computer... you never know when you'll close it again




[This message has been edited by jackzod (edited 13 April 2000).]