[Q:long] How to fix: flashing hozizontal lines on G400 desktop

[Sven]

3D gaming is nice and smooth, sure. But there is an annoying flicker on screen everytime I resize a window or delete some text in my email client or DTP program (I am not talking about general screen refresh, that's clearly high enough not to be obvious at 85-100Hz). It's a dark horizontal bar that flashes on a random vertical position running across the whole width of the screen. This phenomenon comes up in all modes, resolutions and refresh rates. When running windowed 3D on the desktop, there is a lot of flickering right and left of the window - the rest of the screen looks completely normal.

I have done the following without success:

. tried another monitor
. reinstalled the latest drivers 5.25
. updated the card's BIOS to 1.5 22
. tweaked the motherboard BIOS settings related to AGP and memory
. gradually turned off hardware acceleration in system properties
. scanned system properties for anomalies

Nothing helped.

The only thing that makes me wonder is a "silent" hardware conflict between the PCI-Standard-PCI/PCI bridge and the Millennium. It does not cause an exclamation mark to appear, so I stumbled over it by
chance. It's not an interrupt conflict, but a memory-address thing.
That's how it looks from the bridge's point of view (German OS):

"Speicherbereich DF000000 - DFFFFFFF verwendet von: Matrox Millennium G400 - English
Speicherbereich DF000000 - DFFFFFFF verwendet von: Matrox Millennium G400 - English"

from the Millennius's tab:

"Speicherbereich E6000000 - E7FFFFFF verwendet von: PCI-Standard-PCI/PCI-Brücke
Speicherbereich DF800000 - DF803FFF verwendet von: PCI-Standard-PCI/PCI-Brücke
Speicherbereich DF000000 - DF7FFFFF verwendet von: PCI-Standard-PCI/PCI-Brücke"

I have manually edited the addresses for the PCI-Standard-PCI/PCI bridge, but after rebooting, the Millennium caused memory collisions instead.

Editing the Millennium's memory settings was not possible.

Could anybody please shed some light on this? How can I fix it?

Bye, Sven

m/b P5A BIOS 1007.A, AMD K6-II/400, Win95 OSR2.1 QFE

[SteveC]

You're using win95, that's why you have the PCI-PCI bridge (The AGP Bus) sharing memory with the Millennium. There's nothing wrong with that, don't touch it.
Your problem though, I've never seen or heard of... anyone else?

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[el_bruto]

I have experienced something very simmilar with Dualhead configuration.I had to change refresh rate for one of the monitors - now is everything perfect.

[Uwe]

Hi Sven,

do you have VSYNC disabled ?

If it is disabled, enable it and have a look if that flickering still appears.

Bye, Uwe.

[Sven]

Thanks for a _really_ fast reply. Okay, so the PCI-PCI bridge thing is not the cause. I have a single head G400 16MB, and editing the refresh rates has not made a difference.

Could it be a hardware problem? I am running my AMD K6-2 350 processor at 4x100. But as far as I understand it, the multiplier setting should not interfere with the AGP clock, as the bus is not overclocked.

Very mysterious. No, not mystique

Bye, Sven

[Sven]

Switched the VSync setting with the reg file. Nice try. Didn't help, though.

To describe the effect a little more precisely:

To test it, I normally open up a large, white window in Wordpad and continuously resize it. While doing this, it looks like there is interference in the video signal (I am using a high-quality VGA to BNC-cable now, that's not the problem. Before, with a standard cable, I had the same problem).

This interference is most obvious in front of a white background, but it covers the whole screen. It consists of dark horizontal bands of varying height. If you look closely, there is a lot of static on the screen.

What I don't understand is that fullscreen 3D is not affected, only 2D on the desktop or windowed 3D on the desktop.

It's kind of frustrating - I bought this card for 2D quality and ergonomy. Now I am looking at a sharp but occasionally flickering picture.

Any more ideas? Anyone?

Bye, Sven

[SteveC]

It's not heat related is it? Check how hot it is.
Can you get hold of another card to test?

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[Marco]

This card is damaged.Go to your dealer and try what SteveC posted above.

[merchant2112]

i would make sure the card is set all the way in your agp slot. and or try diffrent memory chips/ or rearange the chips. (maybe one is ng)

lastly have you checked for heat problems. ie dose your problem show up imeaditly or after things heat up. (only apllys if you shut your system down. mine is always on and runing at full speed (no power managemnt i turn my monitor off)



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I think I need help. I'm not sure what do you think, do I need help?

[Sven]

Thanks for the hint. I've done that already and checked the registry. The respective value is -1. But PCIList insists that the card is _not_ running at AGPx2 (not checked).

Ciao, Sven

[Sven]

Well, I am flooding my own thread with messages, but I guess any information can be useful for troubleshooting. I need a clear display to focus on my main work.

I suspect that there is a problem with the AGP bus on my system. I downloaded PCIlist from MURC main and got some strange results. There are two devices that seem to have AGP capabilities.

1. "CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge"
a) PCI command and status
Bus Master is checked and Memory is checked
b) AGP capabilities and status
Nothing is checked (!)

2. "AGP VGA adapter"
a) PCI command and status
Bus Master, I/O and Memory are checked
b) AGP capabilities and status
Nothing is checked (!)

As far as I know, the G400 should support a lot of the AGP capabilities listed here. I don't know why they don't show up here. I thought I had installed the latest AGP drivers for my motherboard. Got to check that again.

Thanks for paying attention,

Sven

[Sven]

Update
Installed new AGP driver for my motherboard. Did not fix the main problem, but the readings of PCIList have changed:

1) CPU-to-PCI/AGP Brigde
a) PCI command and status
checked: Bus master, Memory
b) AGP capabilities and status
checked: AGP enabled, AGP pipeline - 28,
AGP sideband

2) AGP VGA adapter
a) PCI command and status
checked: Bus master, I/O, Memory
b) AGP capabilities and status
checked: AGP enabled, AGP pipeline - 28,
AGP sideband, AGP 1x transfers

Hmm, shouldn't the card support AGP 2x? I bet it should.

Bye, Sven

[SteveC]

You can force AGP2X using the registry hacks from <A HREF="http://www.murc.ws" target="_blank">Ant's</A> site.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[Alfie]

I seem to have suffered a similar problem,but with a g200 card.Random horizontal whit lines,as though there was some type of interference,not serious,but enough to drive you batty.Did the following:Pulled card,made sure it was sitting properly,by loosening the little outside nuts,a little leeway is allowed to make sure card is seated properly Reinserted after cleaning edge with an edge cleaner.Isolated monitor chord to make sure no other wires came in contact with it.The following thing I did is not for the timid,nor those not familar with hardware!Took cover off of monitor and being very careful,I cleaned the inside of my monitor,denatured alcohol works.Allowed monitor to dry thoroughly,before reconnecting.
This procedure seemed to work,however I can't say it will work for you.Please,if you clean your monitor,please be careful.I want to hear how you made out!

[hkarapuu]

Sven,

I'm experiencing the same flickering problem, expect that i can't notice any difference between right and left side of the screen.

I would describe the amount of flickering as very distracting when working seriously with graphics apps, but i think it would go unnoticed by most gamers.

Unfortunately (for you I got it fixed in one minute just by turning performance down to 'Some accelerator fuctions'.

G400 16MB single head, asus P3B-F
bios 1.2 19, driver 4.11
(if it works, don't touch it)

If you get the problem fixed, please post the solution..

-Henry