DOA G200 recovered ok, why

[Bovon]

Hello.

I put together a K6-2 500 for my daughter, and I have been using a Milleminum G200 sence `98 and love it. I had a chance to buy a used one for my daughters system, but it came DOA. I was offered my money back, but by that time, I had read the forum at Matrox, downloaded the recovery utility and that fixed the card.

Sence then, I have purposefully bought 3 more G200s that were listed as dead, and recovered each one.

Question:

What happens that the BIOS goes dead?...how did this happen in the first place?. And...more importantly, after one has been recovered by flashing the bios, will it hold up...or, is this something waiting to happen again?

When I shipped my daughter the computer, I included a floppy disk with the boot-recovery data one it with instructions just in case. I would like to know for my own knowledge why the bios fails in the beginning.

I have been in electronics for over 40 years, so my curiosity is getting the better of me.

Thanks!

[Ali]

I dont know why they go bad to start with, but once recovered they stay that way.

I had to recover a couple for work about 2 years ago. they have ben running non-stop ever since. I wouldnt worry about them going bad again.

I do kow that G400s at least can sometimes clear their BIOS if you closk the FSB too high. Maybe the G200 were even more susceptable to AGP noise.

Ali

[Bovon]

Thanks, Ali. I am just courious, and thought maybe a Matrox savy tech person might have a definitive answer. I would guess that handling a card without static preventive measures could cause it, but I believe I read where one died on some guy right out of the blue in a machine where it had worked fine in for some time.

Good to know that they will probably 'keep on trucking' once recovered tho...sure don't like to give something to family that might leave them high and dry one day.

Regards, Bovon