HELP pls, anyone

[GunX]

Help me please, I got a serious problem and I’m very scared. I have upgraded my “Matrox MARVEL G400-TV” BIOS to ver. 1.6 from 1.5 and everything worked fine for some time, until I put this directx8 beta drivers, and when it come to the reset part required by Win98 SE, my system cannot longer detect my graphics card. I run the emergency disk (thank God for it) and everything went again good for a while, staying at the old version 1.5 and after a format C: and reinstall win with directx7a. But now, two times in a week I got this very strange behavior : At some point, after a reset or shut down, when the computer starts, I cannot see any display in DOS text mode or the windows logo, the monitor tells me that there’s no signal from the video card, but when it reaches the 1024x768@85hz init part from the windows desktop, I can see image, and the only video modes I can use are the 1024x768 modes. In MS-DOS modes if I go, again, no signal. A reboot doesn’t change this status at all. Running again the emergency disk works and everything is back at normal, but I don’t know if this is a good half-solution, what about the situation if I’ll have to run this every time, is this BIOS a limit number of time re-programmable ? What can be and how can I repair it, I have no warranty at this product, it’s a gift, and I feel terrible, pls if anyone knows what could this be, help me. What should I do ? Any info will be appreciated.

Thank you very very much !!


I got a MB MSI 6163 rev 2, celeron 366@550 bus 100 (could this be the problem ?) and 128 RAM. It's also very hot arround here these days, but i put a cooler on the G400 chip, i don't know what to do, can I only wait to see it burned up and throw it away ?


[This message has been edited by GunX (edited 07 July 2000).]

[Brian R.]

Hopefully your AGP/fsb is 2/3 in your MB BIOS. If not, set it that way and unistall the drivers and card and start from scratch (see below). I would use the latest BIOS if this is your problem.

If I were you, I would go into safe mode and unistall the video drivers. Delete the Matrox card from your system and reboot. When the card is detected by Win, bypass the driver setup. After the system is running without any Matrox driver, Use the setup program in the driver files to install the drivers (use a driver version you know is stable in your system). After the system is running with the reinstalled drivers, run it. If it is stable, install the new BIOS version. Should be OK.

If the system is not stable with the driver reinstall, I am out of ideas.

From what I understand, your video BIOS can be reprogrammed many thousands of times.

[GunX]

Thank you, been there, done that, in about only 2 houres my graphis BIOS went corrupt again and the emergency disk once again solve it, but I don't know how much time I can get away with it like this because it's getting really annoying ! The sad thing is that on www.matrox.com forum in the general trouble shooting part, there are several guys (at least one where I'm gonna post my reply) are in the same s***t, the exact problem I described above, so maybe it's from the warm wather, or just a bad quality BIOS which if u try and flash it it cannot remains the way it should be Now I am trying the AGP 1x solution they advice that guy and in the past 3-4 h no BIOS burn out yet, so I'm hopping.....thx anyway

[mynx]

You mentioned the heat. Have you tried running with the case open? There could also be a voltage problem, with the heat lots of a/c are on, using up the power, lowering the line voltage. You may want to consider a backup power supply like Black out buster or APC.

[GunX]

I am running with my case open of course, got 2 coolers on the CPU, one of them directly in it, another one pulling out the hot aer from the entire case, and also the 3rd on the matrox card, so my mobile senzor shows about 35-37 degree all the time, I don't think this could be it. The power problem sounds again a low percent possible since I don't see it on any others devices such as the monitor or the desktop lamp which often tend to show a little variation of light in such a case. I repet, there are 2 more guys with the same problem on the matrox forum, I just posted under them showing that this is not something never seen, and that could prove to be in my loose cause they got warranty and I don't Anyhow, did u guys upgrade the flash BIOS on any G400 with 1.6 ? Any problems afterwards ??

[This message has been edited by GunX (edited 08 July 2000).]

[Brian R.]

No problem with updating my BIOS with 1.6. Haven't tried my other MAX.