chips falling off G400 Max

[pdsman]

Guys please pass along any positive comments you can - I'm really losing faith in Matrox. I've been using Matrox cards (100's of them actually) for years at work and finally bought a G400Max for home - I tried it on 2 computers at home AMD K2-300 and Athalon 650, it didn't work on either one, my ATI card worked on both, so after blowing about 20 hours and replacing memory, power supplies and reloading W98 over and over I finally bought another ATI card. The MAX was sitting on my shelf for the last six months until I decided to build a new PC. Matrox would not give me a hardware compatibility list so I returned my card to them as defective. (Their support leaves a lot to be desired but their RMA service was very efficient.) My only complaint is that they sent me a refurbished card that looked like it had been around the block a bit. I spent $225 for my original card and I feel a bit put off that they replaced it with a previously defective card. Now comes the clincher, after I had installed my card I noticed a small low profile chip (yellow, stamped 106A, looks like it belongs at C154) in the plastic case. I have been building computers for 5 years and providing hardware support for over 10 - this is the first time I have ever know a chip to just fall off the card. When I looked closely at it I can see glue residue and it looks like it may never have been properly soldered to the board. Now I have to go through the RMA process all over again. Please let me know if this is just a fluke - I've been specing out and recommending Matrox cards for our dual monitor CAD stations, right now I'm thinking I might need to evaluate other vendors.

[fds]

I never had a hardware problem with a Matrox card. So far I used two Millenium II PCI, Millennium II AGP, three G200 AGP, G400 OEM SH, three G400 MAX cards.

There wasn't a hardware problem either with an ATI Rage Pro and two Rage 128 cards.

[Brian R.]

I have owned 3 MAXs, 3 G200s, and a Millenium II and a Millenium. Other brands have been around my computers also. I have never had any trouble with any of my video cards.

In fact, the only card I have ever had any problem with is a MX300 sound card.

(in fact, I had a problem with the Cinemaster DVD software with my MAX, but I don't attribute that to the card or Matrox)

[pdsman]

Thanks guys - this is the first time I've ever had a problem either.

[mynx]

I had bad memory on a G200. It was replaced with a refurbished card, but that card is running fine.

[Alec]

Owned an M3D, a G200 and now a G400 and no probs.

Most times the problem comes from bad handling, bad tranportation and unnadequate environmental conditions.

The cards maybe well manufactured, but what about all the rest?

------------------
"I wish I was a witch...
...to shove my broomstick right up your *ss."

Celeron 433 o/c´d to 459Mhz; Intel Atlanta 440LX o/c´d to 70.7 FSB (BIOS Rev. 14); 128 Mb SDRAM PC100; Soundblaster PCI 128; Matrox G400 16 Mb AGP at 146 Mhz + fan, o/c´d BIOS, 348 Mhz RAMDAC (thanx Hunsow); 4.3 Gb Western Digital Caviar; Iomega internal 100Mb Zip drive; Sony HMD-A200 17" Trinitron

[This message has been edited by Alec (edited 31 August 2000).]

[Bixler]

Pdsman:

If I were you, I'd take another look at your statement about Tech Support. I've NEVER seen better, faster, more responsive support than that provided by Haig Dedyan and his team. T.S. is the best asset that Matrox has. But it appears that you are perhaps confusing Tech Support with the RMA dept. which is a whole different office and staff within Matrox.

If your experience with T.S. was not-so-good perhaps you should try again. Every time I've posted in on their official T.S. forums the response time has been excellent, and their team has a pattern of sticking with the problem until it is solved.

We've all seen Matrox stumble a bit in other areas...thrashing around with product development and such, but the general reputation for quality of their hardware remains one of the industry's best.

[Rob M.]

I agree, Matrox's tech support team is awesome. I wish they were as good in other depts...

[pdsman]

Just want to thank the Matrox RMA department for replacing my graphics card - I got the new one up and running in less than 10 minutes.

[DuRaNgO]

Congrats!
jim

[Thundrchez]

I've never had a problem with any Matrox card I've had or recommended:

Had: Mil I, Mil II, M3D, Mystique 220, G200, and 2 * G400
recommended to friends: Mil I, 2 * Mil II, 2 * G200, 2 * G400

All of them rock solid. I recently paniced thinking that one of my g400's was biting the dust, but it turned out to be the AGP port or northbridge of the mobo that went bad.

My overall rating of Matrox is A+. I've played around with some other video cards, but I never can bring myself to recommend them over a Matrox card.