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**Saud** · 2 July 2000, 23:40

I had the same issue with my PIII 500 & BX motherboard. Forced it to 1x and it went away. Try that. Use the Reg hack or something similar to force to 1x mode.

**The PIT** · 2 July 2000, 23:45

I was going to say that.

**niranjan** · 3 July 2000, 22:55

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion (AGP 1x force). But, I guess it didn't help much.

However, I tried doing many things. One interesting observation was that whenever I run a game on the secondary IDE master, it runs well, whereas on the primary IDE master, it hangs or gives the criss-cross trash screen. I tried changing both the drives and it runs well with both the hard drives, whenever they are on the secondary. (I have my CDROM on primary slave.) Could anything be concluded from that?

I have checked my card seating and the fans. There seems to be no problem there. In fact, I just pulled the motherboard out and have carefully rewired it.

Another (perhaps, a tangential) observation is that SiSoft Sandra CPU benchmark sucks whenever I run it in normal windows mode. However, it gives the expected benchmark in safe mode. I tried doing the same on my office machine and the CPU benchmark was the same for normal as well as the safe mode (as expected). So could there be some problem with the windows installation?

Would be glad if anyone can comment.

Thanks,
Niranjan

**andrei** · 4 July 2000, 14:09

He can't overclock it, this mobo only takes 66 or 100 fsb CPUs (maximum 100 fsb).

Here is the latest bios for it, in case you haven't flashed it yet.
Set your AGP aperture size to 64. By me it doesn't like 256 at all.
Try to upgrade the memory to PC100.

Edit: SiSoft Sandra 2000 also sucks by me, whenever I click on the Mainboard Information module it locks, the reset and power buttons don't work, so I have to switch the power off and on from the back of the case to make it work.

[This message has been edited by andrei (edited 04 July 2000).]

**HollyBerri** · 4 July 2000, 16:38

Several things:[list=1][*] Seeing your cursor or icons become black squares is absolutely an indicator of a memory/resource problem. In other words, you've run out (and Windows can't display your icons/cursor, which I bet you have at more than 256 colors, and maybe even animated in the case of cursors). The fact that you're running on 64MB supports this... think about getting another stick... in the meantime you might want to run Windows' System Resource Monitor in the tray, just to see what's eating you .[*] If I remember correctly, the Intel mobo does not natively support UDMA66... do you have a controller card in there? If so, which one? I suppose you're running the ATA33 HDD on the mobo's IDE controller... that could be the source of the conflict, since I think that the mobo looks at its own controllers before the additional controller cards. I have 2 Iwill UDMA66 controllers, and while they work well, they do have a tendency to jump to odd IRQs when I'm not watching them. As I understand, the Promise controllers cause even more problems. Check your IRQ listing.[*] If you're running the games from CD-ROM, you might want to make that drive your <u>secondary</u> slave... you're basically asking the PC to do a lot of memory intensive operations all at once, on limited resources. Since you have low memory, and are running from CD-ROM, the game is probably swapping out to the HDD at the same time it's trying to read data from the CD... and it's short on memory to do so, not to mention the fact that all that data is trying to transfer on the same IDE channel (primary), to and from the HDD and CPU. It's a bit much.[*] Maybe just me, but I don't think this sounds like a display problem. It's just that since everything must ultimately be displayed, any internal system problems end up being transmitted to the user through the display... especially when Windows gets so choked up that it can't "speak" with the hated B(lue)S(creen)O(f)D(eath).[/list=a]
Seems to me that what you need to do, in the absence of buying more memory (which is not the total solution, but seems needed) is to post your IRQ listing, check what you have running in the system tray or background (many games really need nothing to be running but themselves), and move that CD-ROM drive to the secondary channel (in order to use the primary HDD for games, if you still want to do so).

Btw, are you overclocking that CPU at all? As I hear it, the Intel boards don't like that at all...

Just a concept.

---------------------------
Holly

[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 04 July 2000).]

**niranjan** · 4 July 2000, 22:50

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions, Holly.

Here is my IRQ list:
0 System timer
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
2 Programmable interrupt controller
3 Communications Port (COM2)
4 Communications Port (COM1)
5 OPTi Plug-N-Play MPU-401
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 Printer Port (LPT1)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
9 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 OPTi Plug-N-Play Sound System
11 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead Max - English
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 (free)
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller

I tried the same thing with CDROM as the secondary slave as per the suggestion. But it didn't work. Then I tried putting the CDROM as a secondary master and my HDDs on primary. It seemed to work without my games hanging and giving trash displays. (I will have to test a bit more probably before jumping to conclusions).

The SiSoft Sandra issue where my benchmarks are less in windows (normal mode) as compared to windows (safe mode) still bugs me. I have tried to install windows from my other disk onto the first disk. So could there be any problems with that? I have also not partitioned the disk (the 20.4 GB one) fully. I had put a couple of FAT32 partitions and have removed them following this problem. Before I had created the partitions, when the primary partition was 2 GB and the extended one was also only 2GB (the rest of the disk was not even recognized due to the partition sizing), my benchmarks were good even in normal mode.

Could improper windows installation or partitioning/FAT32 be possible reasons for the game 'hangups'? I don't have a clue.

Thanks for the help, though I would certainly appreciate (and need) more of it.

Thanks,
Niranjan

**andrei** · 4 July 2000, 23:42

One thing puzzels me, when you gave your system specs you said you have "64 MB SDRAM (66)". Does that mean that you are runing a 66 MHz dimm at 100 MHz (overclocked), the current fsb frequency of your Katmai ?

**niranjan** · 5 July 2000, 02:25

Hi,

As Andrei has pointed out, probably, the 66 MHz RAM is running at 100 MHz. I guess, that is not a very good thing? The 66 MHz modules are good upto 83 MHz, as they say, but their performance may be questionable for a bus speed of 100 MHz. So, could the problem be because of that?

BTW, how do I know what bus speeds are all the things running at? (e.g. RAM, AGP card, processor, etc.)

Thanks,
Niranjan

**Jorden** · 5 July 2000, 05:37

Niranjan, have you checked the temperature inside your case? I see nothing wrong in your IRQ list, so a next question would be, what the operating temp inside and outside your PC is?

the display is garbled with a number of coloured criss-cross lines and the computer hangs.

This could be a problem due to heat (nothing said about moisture). Get a better case-fan or a better fan for the Max.

Jord.

**OzAndrew** · 5 July 2000, 06:11

It looks very much like the 66Mhz ram running at 100 could be the problem, in my experience garbled images appear when everything is too hot, I tried running my system overclocked without any extra cooling and got garbled images, and if I overclocked my MAX too much it gets garbled quickly, I think maybe if it's possible you should look into getting some PC100 ram, (one a side note I use 64MB PC100 RAM and I don't find too many problems, sure I'd like more but I don't think I really need it)which is annoying, damn ram, it used tobe one of the cheapest (cost/effect wise) upgrades for a computer damn it.

[This message has been edited by OzAndrew (edited 05 July 2000).]

**niranjan** · 5 July 2000, 22:20

Hi all,

I reinstalled my windows from scratch (just to check on the P-III benchmark problem). Now everything is ok till I am running at 640x480 resolution. Once I switch to higher resolutions and colour depths (32-bit and 1024x768) the black icons and garbled screen problems are much more than before. This time, I specifically found the BIOS saying that 'Serial Presence Detect (SPD) device data missing or inconclusive'. And following that there was a message that '100 MHz memory assumed'. This (probably) clearly indicates that the problem has been with my 66MHz running at 100MHz.

Frankly, the Intel documentation did say that the mobo will not like the 66 MHz in most cases. I did overlook that...

So, today, I am going to get a 128MB stick (unfortunately there is a lot of shortage - at least in India, and the prices are close to ~210 $ !!!), but I cannot help it, since my computer is not in a 'runnable' state. Any quick advice?

BTW, how do I know that the memory is SPD?

Thanks,
Niranjan

[This message has been edited by niranjan (edited 06 July 2000).]

**Drizzt** · 6 July 2000, 02:43

niranjan, SPD is not a kind of memory. SPD indicate a part of the memory that stores informations about the speed and temporization of the Ram.

Probably your problems were originated from a having a 66 Mhz ram to 100Mhz.
And the SPD missing could be caused from this, probably the ram has broken.

Now, you must buy a 100 MHZ ram, and try your old on a friend PC who have 66MHZ bus. If it still goes, then, you can ever resell the old memory DIMM.

Otherwise...sorry!!

**niranjan** · 6 July 2000, 08:19

Sorry folks, I was a real idiot to post the following post, perhaps. (I didn't look into what memory and clock speeds meant, since I didn't have my internet operational...) Still, I am keeping the post for your perusal and the following reactions (could include chuckling, rolling on the floor with laughter, or just an askance glance full of pathos).

=================
Hi all,

I finally got a PC100 SDRAM stick before the prices soar sky-high... It is a hyundai memory and the part number is 'GM72V66841XT7J 0011 A65'. The mobo identifies it as 128 MB.

When I run Powerstrip diagnostic tool, I get a memory speed of 201 MHz and a graphics speed of 150 MHz. What is this memory speed and why is it so high? (Powerstrip also identifies it as 128 MB though). Does that by chance mean that someone has changed the SPD settings in the RAM to show that it is 128 MB when it's just 64 MB? Just a thought.

Please respond asap, since if there is a problem, i must return the stick....

I will let you know about the outcome of the exercise...

Thanks again,

Niranjan

[This message has been edited by niranjan (edited 06 July 2000).]

**Rob M.** · 6 July 2000, 21:48

You're safe. The 150/200 is referring to your G400. Basically, with PC100 memory, if it works, you've got the right stuff, and you weren't ripped off.

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