G400Max & Asus K7V and I'm still crashing.

[JesterTek]

My G400 is running on a standard AGP2x clock, no overclocking. I only have a 230W PSU, but thats not the problem, because I have been adding extra fans since getting the G400, and its stability has increased (although my system never got really hot before).
I was reminded of another problem today. Sometimes win98 doesn't recognise the G400 and bumps my res' and colour depth to the minimum - and I have to restart and reset the system.
Ive got DX7, the latest G400 drivers, the latest gigabyte mobo BIOS update, and the latest Ali AGP and PCI drivers.

[Rob M.]

Chicane: Stable at 1x, exactly. I could not run at 2x on my bx board even at 66mhz

paulcs: In my k7v, I did get the error, but I was at 67 mhz agp bus. I havn't seen it YET at 66mhz, but I've only had it for 3 days now..
All the other hardware I listed in my original post did do the matrix-style crash with everything using recommended speeds, drivers, etc.

Jester: Yeah, a customer called me up with that exact problem on his TNT card, I told him to get the latest drivers from nvidia, but I never heard back from him. (he could've just given up)

[Rob M.]

More responses for chicane, I definately agree with you about asus. They are definately #1 for stability and compatability, probably partly because hardware manafacturers make sure 'it runs in an asus'

If you do try to upgrade to 5.52 I'd definately like to know your results.. I was thinking about doing that myself, but I never got around to trying it.

[chicane]

Hee...BOB

I once sold a System using TNT 2 with a MSI K7Pro. In those time, KX133 chipset is not ready, so i betcha that either Asus K7M or MSI K7Pro will do okie. So after much thought i decided to head for the K7Pro as its a pure Irongate chipset than Hydrid K7M. Easy to maintain is the key point.

I did hv crashing on the Quake 3 also. So after this, i tried using the new TNT 2 driver which is still 3 series. The detonator 5.08 still not released yet. Then i Forced AGP1x and reduced the CAS timing to 3.

The crashes goes off. Performance wise, i think the AGP1x is not a big issue. So sometime, its take a little bit of patient to get things to turn around.

As for the Matrox G400. I love the Visual Quality. But the Driver R too slow. Some games even exhibited with clipping issues and corrupted texture. But they r slow to resolve it. I not sure i will B going back to Matrox in my next Graphic card investment.

I sold some systems using the Voodoo 3. They may not hv the features designed for the future. But they hardly had problem with games.

ASUS K7V's stability is awesome. Beside getting hangup frm trying various clockspeeds. I never had to reset the system in window environment.

BTW....installation shld go like this.

VIA 4-1 4.20 (AGP turbo) Busmastering use Win98SE default.
Install soundcard/Video card driver
DirectX7.0a

This shld made ya life much easier when u r installing VIA based system.

I hope u hv great time Athlon-ing~

[bunnymud]

I am having the EXACT same problem, except I have a asus P2B-S mobo. I did get my card when they first came out and was thinking it may be faulty. The odd thing with the problem is that if I uninstall and reinstall the 5.30 and 5.41 drivers, it sometimes "catches" and works without a hitch. That is until I power down for one reason or another, then it f00ks up again. I have been going through this problem for a year now and tried everything(inculding removing my sweet Canopus card for Tribes purposes) but after having to shut down lastnight, I cannot get my G400 max to work. There is nothing sharing IRQ with it(IRQ 11)and there is nothing in the PCI slot next to it. I am using Win98SE by the way. I need help or an RMA number.

[Rob M.]

Well, Matrox kindly sent me a replacement for the 2nd card I tried, and although the replacement still crashed, it was much better than the one it replaced... The 2nd card was the worst, the matrix crash would come up even at 1x

Rob

[Pennhaven]

Chicane et al,

I've got a new Asus K7V Matrox G400 Max system I just put together (config below). All was going great under Win98SE with the VIA 4-in-1 and
the Matrox 5.52 drivers until I ran the Matrox Tech Demo. (BTW This demo
sure looks like the Unreal graphics engine to me. Can anyone confirm
this?)

Unfortunately the demo would run OK for a while and then hang with a
pattern of green bars on the screen. I tried going back to the Matrox
5.41 drivers, but the Tech Demo still hangs (no green bars, anymore though. BTW I was getting AGP 4x with the 5.52 drivers, now it's 2x with the 5.41.) Everything looks great when it works, but there is still a definite stability problem.

So I checked here for some expert advice. After reading the posts on this thread, I tried disabling Bus Mastering in the Matrox Power Desk and , voila, no more lock-up!

Questions:

What does not being stable with bus mastering enabled imply?

How can I fix it?

I *think* that I'm am using the Win98SE busmastering drivers as Chicane recommends.
How can I confirm this for sure? (Device name in the device manager is "VIA Busmaster PCI IDE controller". Driver Provider: "Microsoft". File Version: 4.10.1998)

My configuration:

Win98 SE
VIA 4-in-1 drivers (except ATAPI)
Asus K7V-WA Rev 1.01 Motherboard
BIOS 1004.3a beta
AMD Athlon 600 MHz CPU to be Oc'd with Maximizer GFD once graphics are stabilized.
Corsair PC133 128MB SDRAM
Nspire 300W PSU
Matrox Millenium G400 MAX 32MB DH 5.41 Drivers
IBM Deskstar 34GXP (20.5GB) Ultra-ATA/66
Hitachi 8X DVD ROM
Hewlett Packard 8200i CD-Writer Plus
Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream 1187 Drivers
Diamond SupraMax 56i Voice PCI SUP2570
Netgear FA310TXC PCI 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Adapter


------------------
--John

[This message has been edited by Pennhaven (edited 19 April 2000).]

[Rob M.]

The 5.52 drivers were working great for me, except in quake3. If you aren't using quake3 I reccomend them.. In fact, I'm actually using the 5.52 with the 5.41 g400icd.dll for quake (it works chicane

If I were you Pennhaven, I'd try forcing agp 1x mode first, it worked for me, and isn't as bad of a performance hit as disabling busmastering is.

I was able to get the g400 techdemo running fine for about 10 loops or so, so I think it's probably your g400max & mb combo, you're just a little unstable. A friend has had good results underclocking his card, you could also try that.
I'm also using the 1004.04a BIOS, but you mention you have the K7V-WA, is that a typo?
I've heard of the -RM and just the plain old K7V but no Asus K7V-WA..

Rob



[This message has been edited by Rob M. (edited 20 April 2000).]

[chicane]

Bob...am glad tat u r rocking now wif a combination driver.

Okie....u shld'nt diable the Busmastering. I believed this is the interface where Matrox G400 is using its to transfer Polygon setup frm the CPU. Disabling it might hv serious impact on performance.

Try switch to AGP1x....the impact is much smaller.

[Pennhaven]

Rob M.,

K7V-WA = K7V with Audio, whereas K7V-WOA = K7V without audio. Just indicates whether or not there is onboard audio.

Rob & Chicane,

Thx for the advice. I'll flash the 1004.04a BIOS and try going back to 5.52 driver and AGP 1x and possibly underclocking. Not happy about paying for a G400 MAX and having to "de-tune" it, though.



------------------
--John

[aiwa501]

Hello all,
Chicane & Rob M.
You guys seem to have gotten Quake 3 to work on the K7V with PD 5.41, which I have not been able to. The only way it sees to work for me is w/ PD 5.30 which is alot slower than other setups & screwy as well. When I use PD 5.41 & native OpenGL, Quake 3 starts to load and then it crashes on a white screen w/ continuous beeps and I am forced to press reset or power off buttons(Ctrl+Alt+Del won't work). I have not updated the bios because the only one I seem to find in the asus page is the orig. one my mobo shiped with (1003).
Where did you guys get the new Bios?
I'm using the 4.00 VIAGART.VXD file which came off of the 4.20 4-in-1 setup.
My setup is:
AMD Athlon 700 on an Asus K7V Mobo, 128 MB PC133 RAM, Seagate 13GB 5400RPM DMA33 HD, G400 DH, Miro Capture Card, SB Live, Intel NIC, Creative CD-Rom & AOpen 6x CDRW.

IRQ's
05 Creative SB Live
09 MiroVideo DC10
09 Intel Pro 100+ PCI Adaper
09 Via Tech 3038 PCI to USB Univ. Host Contr.
09 Via Tech 3038 PCI to USB Univ. Host Contr.
11 G400
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering

If you guys can help me with this problem I'd gladly appreciate it.
Also if you can help me with what my Bios settings for the K7V should look like would also be great.

Thanks in Advance
aiwa501

[Pennhaven]

Thanks for the help Chicane and Rob.

Thanks to you I'm making progress. I flashed the 1004.04a BIOS and went back to the 5.52 drivers. With this setup the Matrox Tech Demo did *not* hang at either 640x480 or 800x600, which was a *big* improvement from before. Still, it did freeze before completing one loop at 1024x768, so I tried Chicane's Quake fix and used the G400icd.dll from the 5.41 driver set with the rest of the 5.52 drivers. This got me several cycles of the Tech Demo @ 1024 x 768 before eventually freezing. So it's not totally stabile, but this is a *big* improvement from before and I'm still running at AGP 4x and *not* underclocking the G400 MAX.

Thx,

------------------
--John

[Rob M.]

aiwa: Took another look at asus's ftp sites, it seems they took it down. If you still want it, email me, I can send it to you.
The only major tweak I know of for the K7V is setting your DRAM latch latency UP to 2.0. Other than that I use pretty much defaults.
I'd also try forcing your video card (slot1) to irq 9.
Also, install the 5.41 drivers, backup the g400icd.dll file, then uninstall all your video drivers and re-install in this order:
VIA 4in1 v4.20
VIA 4in1 v4.17 (agp driver only)
Matrox 5.52 win9x g400 drivers
then copy your g400icd.dll overtop of the 5.52 version. That is what I'm currently using. Also try chaning the pci slot that your DC10 or Etherexpress Pro is in, you've got them in slots that share IRQs. (shouldn't make any difference, but it's a good idea not to share irq's unless you need to)

Pennhaven: your stability came from the 5.52 driver, the g400icd.dll only helps quake3 (other opengl apps seem to be ok with the 5.52 g400icd.dll)
I'd still try to force at least 2x to get that stability, as I doubt there'd be any performance loss at all.
I ran between 1024x768 and 1600x1200 for about 10 minutes in the techdemo at 2x and didn't get one glitch. Of course it may not work out that way for you, but is certainly worth the try.

Rob

Oops, guess I should add my e-mail too.

robmorriss@home.com


[This message has been edited by Rob M. (edited 21 April 2000).]

[aiwa501]

Okay, I've finally found the Beta Bios 1004.04a, Flashed it, But still have the same problem. Quake 3 Won't run.

again any help appreciated.
aiwa501

[aiwa501]

Rob M.
Will try what you just suggested.

Will let you know in a few.