G400 Problem and XP (maybe)

[macrotech]

OK

Supermicro P6SBA Slot 1 M/board, latest BIOS
1 Ghz Pentium III 100 MHz
384 Mb RAM (256 + 128 make unknown)
G400 MAX
Ricoh 12/10/32 CD-RW (also a new addition since the problem free beta XP, hmmmm)
IDE Zip 100
Pace 56 internal modem
Adaptec AHA-1510 SCSI controller
Creative AWE64
Sidewinder Force feedback wheel
Sidewinder 3d Pro joystick
Microsoft optical mouse

Any ideas?

Kevin

[Goc]

Well it seems we all have Creative sound cards. 2 Live! cards and an AWE64...
But since those are pretty common, I guess more people would be here with same problems... Still no idea here...

[Finberg]

So the 5.71 2k drivers work good w/ XP? I just upgraded from Me so that might explain some funky color lines I get instead of the boot up screen...

[MatthewW]

OK Complete system specs

Windows XP RC2 fully updated
Latest Matrox Beta Drivers
G400 Vanilla with Blorb for cooling
Celeron II 633 @ 950 using 1.75 volts cooled by Thermoengine with stock fan. Using 100Mhz FSB.
512 MB 133 SDRAM
SB Live 5.1 with latest MS Driver from Windows Update
ASUS CUSL2-C with ver 1.09 bios
AGP at 2/3
ASUS 12x DVD-ROM
Plextor 12/10/32A CD Rewriter
Maxtor 30GB 7200 RPM Drive
IBM 30GB 75GXP Drive
Old Maxtor 10GB Drive
ZIP 100MB IDE Drive
Promise Ultra 66 Drive Controller
Intel Application Accelerator Drivers
Intelimouse Optical Mouse
Saitek Cyborg Joystick
Linksys 10/100 Network card
CTX 17 inch trinitron monitor
Old US Robotics 28.8 external modem (used only because the phone line I have doesn't support 56K, **%£$£$%^ BT)
Globalwin case with 2 fans one blowing in / one blowing out.
Case temperature runs at about 24 degrees.
CPU temp runs at about 40 degrees.

The problem is fairly intermittent but when it happens that screen will go blank for up to 10 minutes before an image returns (my monitor just doesn't bother showing the garbled image). It was an old monitor that I had that showed that there was garbage coming out of the G400, rather than a failing Monitor.

I am not sure but I also think that the brightness of the Image has decreased somewhat as well.

I don't get any unexpected rebooting, and the machine is running nearly 24/7 at the moment.

[Goc]

Matthew, you say that image comes back after 10 mins? Funny, I've never waited that long, and usually garbage on screen means a BSOD very soon after that... At least on my system. It never recovered... Guess I'll try putting 5.71 drivers, and check that out...

[MatthewW]

On earlier drivers and earlier versions of XP, I did have the problem where the would be some screen corruption and not long after that XP would BSOD with an error saying that the Graphics display was stuck in a loop or words to that effect.

But that problem has now gone away.

[Goc]

Yep, that's the same thing happening to me with any set of drivers except 5.32... Any idea how that problem went away? Do you remember what you changed?

[MagikMole]

Well I have the same problem atm, XP Pro 2600 crashes after a few secs when I install 5.52 or 5.71, but the weird thing is that I had WinXP Home 2600 on it before and it worked like a charm, the only thing I changed was the soundcard, from crappy noname card to a Awe64 Gold. I'm going to try WHQL drivers now & remove the soundcard if that still doesnt work.

Sys Specs: Celly 300A@450, Matrox G400 Dualhead, 128MB ram, some cheap BX chipset mobo, Awe64 Gold, D-Link 530-TX network adapter

btw does dualhead work with those WHQL drivers? oh well I'll soon find out

[MatthewW]

OK. For me my problem is a hardware not a driver problem. It happened again last night, and when I rebooted, during the POST procedure there was still no image.

So out came the card. Checked the fan, gave it a good dusting off and reseated it in the Machine.

Booted back up and the image was back and as bright as it should be.

Great I thought, for about 5 minutes when I noticed that the text on the screen was corrupting.

Reboot.

As soon as the XP logon screen appeared, corrupted graphics, though everything during the boot process was fine.

Did this a few times and every time there was a corrupt image in some way.

A quick boot into Windows 98 (well actually a lot longer than an XP boot) and the image was fine.

Back to XP and the image was fine.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I will see how long the image stays clean, and tonight go and give the case a thorough dusting and check the card again.

FYI With the latest drivers I have had no problems enabling DVD Max and creating Monitor configuration files, unlike the previous Windows 2000 drivers. For me they are also the most stable drivers under XP Pro RC2.

[MatthewW]

Yesterday, I took to cleaning the G400 and removing all the dust from it. I noticed some dust under the blorb and couldn't easily get at it, so off came the blorb and then I noticed that the blorb doesn't quite cover all of the G400 chip and the Artic Silver was discoloured where the blorb wasn't covering the chip. There was also a little discolouration on the board itself.

So I cleaned up the chip, removed the discoloration from the board itself (it did just wipe off) and swapped the blorb for an old Laguna cooler I had, which does cover the chip better, and is less likely to get dust between it and the board itself.

Bingo.

The picture was a bright and vibrant as it has ever been and it has remained so since.

Now all I need to do is find a use for the blorb, other that looking very blue.

[Goc]

Hey guys. What's the BIOS version on your G400?

[macrotech]

I have just updated the BIOS to the latest version last night and hope to try Win XP again tonight (fresh install).

Will keep you posted.


Kevin

[Goc]

I've just updated my BIOS (used to be 1.5-22) to the latest one, and it seems it works like a charm!!! Not a single crash since.
Hope it stays that way... I'll keep you posted.

[Goc]

Damn... It crashed.

[macrotech]

No good - it's still completely unusable. Minor screen corruptions then complete instability or an unannounced reboot. The card works perfectly in Windows 98.

Anyone any idea when the official Matrox drivers for G400 MAX / Win XP will be released?

Kevin