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

[DarkSyd]

Sven,
I have exactly the same problem. Others on the board told me it was due to my cacheless Celeron (?), but now we can see that that is not the case.
I have reseated the card, cleaned the contacts, tried a different vid card to rule out the monitor. I agree, it is hardly noticeable in games, but when working against a light background it is really distracting.

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Cel 266@448 on Asus P2b (1009), 128MB, OEM G400/16, Quantum Obsidian S12, Fujitsu 5.25gb, MX300, Dlink 530, Grey Cat, Orange Cat (still MIA)
--
Reports of Sig5.2x being 40% more interesting than Sig5.13 were greatly exaggerated...

[Gum]

To Sven:

I also have the same Asus P5A rev1007 mobo and here's what you need to do with the ALi AGP registry settings to enable AGP2X for your G400 SH 16Mb.

Goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Class\Display\0000\Settings\CPU\AGPFlags set to "-1"

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALi\ALi AGP Driver\AGPDataRate and set value from "0" to "2"

This will enable AGP2X. Not too many know that although the registry hack is already making the G400 itself running at AGP2X, but its the mobo that is stopping it from screaming at AGP2X due to the ALi AGP registry settings. I'm not so sure of the case with MVP3 mobos.

Anyway, anyone know what are the best settings for FrameBufferSize (currently value is "C") and GATMode inside HEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALi\ALi AGP Driver\ ??

Hope this helps. :-D

Anyway, me also have the mentioned "black lines" across the screen problems. Anyone know what's happening to our G400s?

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AsusP5A rev1007, K6-400 o/c to 448 (112*4), 128Mb Micron PC100 -8E SDRAM, G400 OEM 16Mb AGP, IBM 16GP 8.4, Quantum ST 3.2A, Toshiba 32X CDROM, HP CDWriter 7570i, SBLive! Value, Intel EtherXpress Pro 100TX NIC, Motorola CableModem, RIC 17" Monitor, HP Deskjet 710C, Altec Lansing ACS45 & Cambridge PCWorks

[jms]

Sven,
I am also experiencing this flickering problem with my G400 16MB single head.
It is very annoying.
When running Wintune the whole screen flickers around the window, during the OpenGL and Direct3D tests.
Browsing in Windows Explorer is starting to drive me crazy. Whenever I open a folder, the screen flickers briefly.
I have tried different refresh rates a.o., didn't make any difference.
PLEASE help Matrox!

My system:
Abit BE6
128MB RAM
C366@550
G400 16MB OEM
Panasonic S70 (17")(1024x768x32@75Hz)

-jms

[Simbaman]

never seen that before....
weird
i hope you guys get that worked out


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Greets from Stef

[Jacco Hoeve]

Hi..

I dont think this screen corruption should be called flickering..the artifacts on the screen arent from static or anything, the videocard really draws them
(lines) on the screen.. I had the same problem with 5.13 and after installing 5.25 I still had it..When I was forced to format and install Windows again ,and thus super clean driver install, the problem was fixed..

This 2D artifacts only appeared after a while..with my G400 it wasnt overheating.

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Jacco
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MSI-6167,Athlon 500MHz,256MB,G400 16MSH(160/200)

[This message has been edited by Jacco Hoeve (edited 09-18-1999).]

[Sven]

Gum,

thanks for the registry tip concerning the ALI driver and AGP 2x. It really works - well, almost. Fillrate in D3D went up by 15%, but...

When running NVidias Treedemo for example, the textures get messed up (it worked before, extremely slow, but no errors. BTW, is that demo OpenGL?). In contrast, D3D-games are perfect (Motorhead demo, g400 techdemo). I cannot make sense of this other than AGP 2x is disabled for a reason on boards with the ALI chipset.

Additionally, after running D3dtest (which makes my screen flicker like hell, as you might already have guessed), my screen is full of ............. lines like you get when you are overclocking the chip just slightly too much. I guess AGP 2x is not stable enough yet with ALIAGP 1.62e and the Matrox drivers.

Hmm. I don't seem to be alone with my flicker problem, and it's not related to boards with ALI chipset and AMD processors. Another fact that makes me think: Why should resizing a 2D-window flicker while moving the same window does not? What is involved in the screen redraw process that could cause those problems?

Bye, Sven

[Sven]

Update:

the ......-lines and messed up textures were partly due to wrong SDRAM-timing (3,2,2 while my RAM-modules only support 3,3,3) settings in the m/b BIOS.

In the NVidia Treedemo, I have spotted one of the ......-lines, though.

Solved the AGP timing thing, but still working on a screen plagued by "2D redraw errors". I propose this term instead of "flicker"

Man, and I only wanted to have clean 2D display, and now have to delve headfirst into technical details. Gotta get back to work.

Bye, Sven

[Sven]

I have ruled out two additional variables in troubleshooting the display problem:

. Reseating the card and cleaning the contacts did not make any difference.

. It's not a problem with overheating, because it even comes up when just started, i.e. cold to the touch, with an open case.

Something else: Overclocking the K6-2 350 to 4x100 resulted in .......-marks even when running the G400 not overclocked. I did not have the same problems with my age-old Mystique 170. Guess the G400 and AGP are a different beast altogether.

In the ng alt.comp.periphs.videocards.matrox, another user has reported the same flicker/redraw problem. Perhaps we have a faulty batch of cards? Let's compare serial numbers. Mine is JBK55699.

Bye, Sven

[paul]

Sven,
1)At 1 point you said you tried a different card. Did this card produce same crap that g400 was doing? You didnt really state results. Watch those reg hacks, it corrupted my video (g200) on next re-boot and had to enter safe mode to clear registry.

2)Did mb's agp driver eliminate memory conflict?

3)did you disable shadowing in your bios

4)Is 1.6 your latest vid bios? My g200
is up to 2.6

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k6-2 400 - tyan 1590s bios 1.16 - g200 mill sgram w/8mb upgrade & bios 2.6-20 & 32bit z-buffering enabled & pd5.25 - 128MB 10ns sdram - wdac10100 - sblive value - 3com 3c905b-tx - usr14.4k (for emergencies) - win98 service pack 1

[Sven]

> At 1 point you said you tried a different
> card. Did this card produce same crap that
> g400 was doing?

I didn't have the opportunity to try another G400 or G200. Just my trusty old Mystique 170 with the latest unified drivers. It worked fine.

> Watch those reg hacks, it corrupted my
> video (g200) on next re-boot and had to
> enter safe mode to clear registry.

I haven't had problems with that yet. Thanks for the warning.

> Did mb's agp driver eliminate
> memory conflict?

All the latest Ali AGP driver did was enable AGP transfers as reported by PCIList. Now running at AGP 2x stable and without corrupted video.

> did you disable shadowing in your bios

Do you refer to video shadowing or all shadowing items? No, I haven't disabled that. Got to try that.

> Is 1.6 your latest vid bios?

The latest revision of the video card's BIOS is 1.5-22. It was released in the beginning of September.

Thanks for your input!

Sven

[paul]

I forgot to mention, some of my cards necessitate bending of the tab that the screw secures the card with, to allow the card to be pushed fully down.
Bad tolerances are the culprit.

[Dude]

Sven-

It sounds like a low refresh rate. I had this problem too when updating to the latest drivers. Just crank it up to 85hz. Or if you monitor can't hanlde that 75hz should do the trick.

I know what you're talking bout... it's damn annoying the flickering and flashing. So people don't even notice it.

[jms]

Dude,
it does not seem to be refresh-rate related.
I am having the same problem at 100Hz as well as 75HZ.
My card's serial number is jbk36791.
-jms

[Sven]

Dude,

my screen refresh is completely ergonomic at 100Hz. Please refer to the earlier posts in this thread for a description of the effect.

Another bit of information: turning off video shadowing in the m/b BIOS does not change a thing. Nice try, though.


Bye, Sven

Dude, are you into bowling? SCNR

[syrios]

I have the excact same "flicker - 2D redraw" problem with my G400 16MB / single head.
I thought that a had a damaged card and I was about to try replace it with a new one but after I read your problems I think that it is a general issue. The problem in 3d games is very difficult to be spotted (although it exists there too) but normal windows operation (especially using windows explorer)sucks.
I just upgraded (???) my old TNT board but now I think that I will replace my new G400 with a Voodoo3 3000.
If I manage to test another G400 I will inform you ....