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*sniff sniff* i miss my g400 max :(
I accidently left my computer on overnight (g400 Max DH, dual celeron 400's, 256 meg ram, SB live, quantum LM 20 gig hard drive) and i awoke to find windows 98 screen seriously messed up. THere were artifacts everywhere, semi transparent blocks moveing every which way makeing the windows 98 desktop completely useless. I instantly turned off the power, thinking it might have overheated in my crappy case. Several minutes later i turned it back on to be greeted with the exact same artifacts and other such strange things on my screen, except they were on the POST screen of my motherboard.
I thought that it may be a probelm with my main board (BP6 Dual) however, i cleared teh bios and the exact same thing occored. I grabbed my Abit resue disk that allows me to flash my bp6's bios with a fresh copy without any intervention from me. It sucsessfully flashed and automatically rebooted, however, the same screen showed up.
I thought that then it may be my G400. I grabbed a spare floppy and created a matrox rescue disk with a bios for my G400 MAX and let it flash my cards bios. However, once it was completed, i rebooted to the exact same screen i had seen before.
I then proceeded to remove the card from my motherboards AGP slot and inspected it. I noticed absolutely nothing wrong with it. Everything looked great with nothing noticable to the human eye which could've caused this error.
So i then proceeded promptly to my borthers computer (pentium 2 400, 128 meg ram, microstar BX2 MB, fujitsu 9 gig HD), removed his grafics card, and replaced it with my G400 Max. The same screen showed up as before, with everything all garbled up and not legible.
Then i considered the posibility of my Samsung 900NF monitor posibly causeing the problem, so i quickly unscrewed it and inserted the connector from my brothers monitor (daytek 17 inch). I crossed my fingers and turned on my computer, however, the exact same screen appeared. I thought that perhapse the fan had failed, yet when i looed at it with the system powered up, the fan spun as it was soposed too.
I have contacted matrox's tech support before through long distance phone conversation about this, and they said that my board was defective and that someone would call in the next 48 hours with an RMA number.
72 hours later, i entered there online forums, posted my problem and he gave me the rma department # so i could phone for a number.
The RMA department said "it should be e-mailed to you in 20 minutes". 24 hours later, i entered the online forums of matrox technical support and told the tech my problems in recieveing my RMA number. The tech (alex i believe his name was) then said he'd track down my rma number and e-mail it to me. About 45 minutes later, i recieved my RMA number via e-mail and was finally able to prepare to send my card to matrox. I put it in an antistatic bag, put foam pellets in a box half way full, put the card in, then filled up the rest of the box and sealed it tight.
Went to the postal office, sent it via insured next day air mail. It recieved the next day.....
And here i am waiting..... and waiting..... For 11 buissness days now..... for any sign that they will actually send me my replacement card. I have not been contacted by matrox or anyone about my replacement board, and i guess i'll have to bitch and moan at matrox AGAIN to get any sort of answer on the status of my replacement board.
So here i am, sitting on my computer with an ATI 2d grafic card and my canopus pure 3d2 voodoo 2 card, wondering if i am ever going to see my matrox card again. Its hell sitting here looking at my 900NF monitor at only 1024X768 @ 85 hz (the rage 2+ can't handle any bigger resolutions....... god i hate ati). One things for sure, you certanly don't appreciate anything good that you have (such as a board with excellent 2d and 3d on one board.....) untill you loose it......
anyway, just had to get that off my chest....... (damn its a pain to return things....)
I thought that it may be a probelm with my main board (BP6 Dual) however, i cleared teh bios and the exact same thing occored. I grabbed my Abit resue disk that allows me to flash my bp6's bios with a fresh copy without any intervention from me. It sucsessfully flashed and automatically rebooted, however, the same screen showed up.
I thought that then it may be my G400. I grabbed a spare floppy and created a matrox rescue disk with a bios for my G400 MAX and let it flash my cards bios. However, once it was completed, i rebooted to the exact same screen i had seen before.
I then proceeded to remove the card from my motherboards AGP slot and inspected it. I noticed absolutely nothing wrong with it. Everything looked great with nothing noticable to the human eye which could've caused this error.
So i then proceeded promptly to my borthers computer (pentium 2 400, 128 meg ram, microstar BX2 MB, fujitsu 9 gig HD), removed his grafics card, and replaced it with my G400 Max. The same screen showed up as before, with everything all garbled up and not legible.
Then i considered the posibility of my Samsung 900NF monitor posibly causeing the problem, so i quickly unscrewed it and inserted the connector from my brothers monitor (daytek 17 inch). I crossed my fingers and turned on my computer, however, the exact same screen appeared. I thought that perhapse the fan had failed, yet when i looed at it with the system powered up, the fan spun as it was soposed too.
I have contacted matrox's tech support before through long distance phone conversation about this, and they said that my board was defective and that someone would call in the next 48 hours with an RMA number.
72 hours later, i entered there online forums, posted my problem and he gave me the rma department # so i could phone for a number.
The RMA department said "it should be e-mailed to you in 20 minutes". 24 hours later, i entered the online forums of matrox technical support and told the tech my problems in recieveing my RMA number. The tech (alex i believe his name was) then said he'd track down my rma number and e-mail it to me. About 45 minutes later, i recieved my RMA number via e-mail and was finally able to prepare to send my card to matrox. I put it in an antistatic bag, put foam pellets in a box half way full, put the card in, then filled up the rest of the box and sealed it tight.
Went to the postal office, sent it via insured next day air mail. It recieved the next day.....
And here i am waiting..... and waiting..... For 11 buissness days now..... for any sign that they will actually send me my replacement card. I have not been contacted by matrox or anyone about my replacement board, and i guess i'll have to bitch and moan at matrox AGAIN to get any sort of answer on the status of my replacement board.
So here i am, sitting on my computer with an ATI 2d grafic card and my canopus pure 3d2 voodoo 2 card, wondering if i am ever going to see my matrox card again. Its hell sitting here looking at my 900NF monitor at only 1024X768 @ 85 hz (the rage 2+ can't handle any bigger resolutions....... god i hate ati). One things for sure, you certanly don't appreciate anything good that you have (such as a board with excellent 2d and 3d on one board.....) untill you loose it......
anyway, just had to get that off my chest....... (damn its a pain to return things....)
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