Retail Parhelia not at retail clock speeds...

[GNEP]

By the way I had a look at my PINS file - I am running at full retail spec (220)

Gnep

[Maggi]

I modified my pins for running my OEM Parhelia at 222/288(576) without any additional cooling ...

[Yxalitis]

Me Too!

Hmm, tested my card, 217, 542!
Not to worry, I thought, I'll just push it to 220, 550.
Not so, my Parhelia freezes when trying to run 3DMark!
I wrote back the original pins dump, only to still get freezing in 3DMark!!
I then copied the auxillery pins info Borat posted a while back, and pushed it back to 220 550.
I can run absolutely everything fine, except 3D Mark. It just goes black as soon as it starts the benchmark, reboot time!
The fact that Matrox would still use these chips on the retail cards, instead of binning them for OEM, speaks volumes about their current attitude to customers!

Unless, of course, we are all reading these pins dumps incorrectly

[Yxalitis]

It's OK now...

Ok, just reinstalled Powerdesk, tested OK.

Whew!

Runs fine at 220, so I don't know why Matrox send 'em out at 217.

Curous

[DGhost]

*bump*

still waiting for an official comment.

[Ryu Connor]

I don't think we're going to get an official answer.

[DGhost]

i agree... its been a month since Haig said he would find out...

[UberLord]

Originally posted by Ryu Connor
I don't think we're going to get an official answer.

That would probably be their legal department having cardiac arrests.

We might not be able to do squat about the horizontal disturbance problem, but if we sent loads of complaints off to various watchdogs, standards advertising or other various bodies then a squarm of offical angry men will arrive at Matrox's door.

[Ryu Connor]

IANAL, but to my knowledge this is how the cards currently sit.

The BBB lacks any teeth. They record customer complaints, but they don't have any real power.

Your state Attorney General on the other hand can compel companies to comply (with the threat of legal action), but since Matrox is based out of Ontario Canada, I do believe that makes them exempt from US law.

So the only remaining alternative would be to hire a private lawyer who can practice law in Canada to apply a class action lawsuit against Matrox.

The problem with that is that the lawyer tends to make more money than anyone else. Meaning if Matrox makes a cash settlement all Parhelia owners might only get $50 for their trouble. I do believe that in some cases such lawsuits have resulted in people getting an exchange for a fixed product.

It's a slow process and by the time Matrox would be compelled to fix the problem, buying a RADEON 9700 or NVIDIA NV30 would not only be affordable, but simply the more prudent choice.

Matrox is in the position of comfort.

The best any of us can really do is dissuade the purchase of Matrox products. Your friends, your business, your place of work, their place of work, etc.

A petition signed by a few thousand people stating that you will not purchase and will dissuade others from purcahsing Matrox products might have more effect than any lawyer could.

[DGhost]

hmm, and i was wondering if there would be basis of a class action lawsuit between this and the horizontal flickering...

guess i will just have to settle for making sure that the major news sites hear about this instead...

anyone got a problem with that if i were to do it?

[UberLord]

Originally posted by DGhost
anyone got a problem with that if i were to do it?

If you did that what do we Matrox users have to lose? Nothing. I say run with it.

I may have a word with a lawyer friend of mine. Matrox has a UK "shop". The UK has clear advertising laws about false advertising. The advertising watchdog would come down on Matrox UK like a ton of bricks if they had wind of this.

However, seeing as their "shop" is probably hosted in Canada and their UK offices are based in Ireland it's probably a grey area. Unfortunately my lawyer friend has no experience with the internet and law, but it won't hurt to ask

[Marshmallowman]

How many motherboards run at 132.8 or whatever?.

If you tweak the speed up with the matrox OC'er and it does not run at rated speed, you have cause for concern, RMA time

But If it does work, then it is a BIOS bug which can be fixed with a bios update, if and when matrox get around to it.

"Do complain to matrox" and matrox should release a bios update....but keep it in perspective.

[DGhost]

the motherboard issue has been mentioned earlier...

if the Parhelia was set to run at 220mhz and doesn't, thats a different story.

the problem is that there are Parhelias that are not even being told to initialize right. the device is set wrong in the bios. and Matrox advertises the clock speeds in which it is supposed to run at.

Yes, the clock speed difference is minimal. Yes, it can be fixed with a bios flash. No, Matrox has not issued a bios fix for it, nor have they even said anything about it. It is apparent that they have not made any steps towards rectifying the situation, be it by telling people to RMA their cards or by releasing a new bios. Combined with the horizontal flickering problem, this is not right for a company to do.

Again, this thread has been around for past a month. The fact they have not commented or released a fix is inexcusable, especially for something so trivial. I have the feeling that management is trying to sweep this one under the carpet, and that is not right.

[UberLord]

Originally posted by DGhost

if the Parhelia was set to run at 220mhz and doesn't, thats a different story.

Using the tweaking tool, I cannot get my Parhelia to overclock by even 1%. It's too unstable.

This indicates that they cannot solve this problem with a BIOS flash as some boards - like mine - will become unstable. Which is why they're keeping quiet.

Time to tell the world - Matrox has been given enough grace.

[R.Carter]

Originally posted by UberLord

Using the tweaking tool, I cannot get my Parhelia to overclock by even 1%. It's too unstable.

Maybe your card is defective. You card is not representative of all Parhelia cards since from this thread it does seem others are able to get their cards to run stable at the publicized clock speeds.

You should try to RMA it first.