P750 does not work in 2 computers, will any 750 work with my motherboard?

[zepp]

I just got a P750 for a PC I am putting together and all did not go well. I have a Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, P4C 2.4GHz CPU, 2 512Meg Corsair 3500C2 modules and a Antec 1080 with a True Power 430W PS. I have put countless PC's together so I have done this many times. What went wrong is the BIOS (display) on the motherboard comes up all corrupted but the Promise controller that is part of the motherboard is normal (you can read it). Basically there is no way to do anything with the BIOS on the motherboard because the display is all corrupted. Another problem with the motherboard is there were beep codes and it would not boot with any of the 3 keyboards that I have plugged in. I called Asus and they said it could either be the motherboard or the P750 but likely the motherboard and I could RMA the motherboard. It was recommended by Asus that it would be much quicker to go back to where I got the motherboard. When we called the vendor we were given 5 days to get the board back so without wasting any time I got it out in the mail ASAP.

Tonight I took the P750 to a friends house who ordered the exact same PC components except he got a ATI 9700Pro and the Corsair 512 Meg twinX 3200LL modules. The P750 scrambled the BIOS in his PC also. I did find that Matrox has a new BIOS for the P750 that should fix this problem so I flashed the BIOS on the P750 and still the same result.

I do think there was a problem with the motherboard because of the beep codes and keyboard issue. What I do not know is if I get a different P750, will I have the same problem?? Is there a problem with the 750 and just the Asus P4C800-E or could it be just a bad P750?

This is the notes that came with the BIOS for the Matrox card:

"Matrox Setup and Utilities (v.1.03.00.006)
Supports Matrox Parhelia, Millennium P750 and Millennium P650. Implements a fix that allows Parhelia Series and Millennium P-Series users to view posts during boot-up. There are no other bios notes for this file at this time."

Is anyone else having any problems?

Thanks,

[Kruzin]

The BIOS update by itself does not fix the scrambled video issue.
You may need to run the 'systemlogofix.exe' included in the BIOS patch to fix the mobo BIOS issue...

[zepp]

I wish the answer was better than that. It is not just the LOGO that is garbled it is all the BIOS. The 'systemlogofix.exe' is something that runs under windoze and sounds like it everything garbled would just not be displayed:

From the readme:

"you can use the "Matrox VBE Setup" program to disable (or enable) mode 101h. If this display mode is disabled and your computer normally uses this mode immediately after restarting, your computer screen may be blank until the operating system (for example, Windows XP) starts. (A blank screen may be preferable to a garbled screen image.)"

Also, it is hard to install a OS when you can't get in the BIOS.

Thanks for your help and quick response.

Does the Parhelia have this problem?

[Kruzin]

Just to be clear....did you run the systemlogofix.exe (perhaps in safe mode)....?
I have not had this problem on my Parhelia, but I also do not have this mobo.....

[zepp]

Since the computer where we tried my card was all configured with a clean install and was all configured for the ATI card we did not let windows boot with my card installed. It would have been nice to try it but looking at the readme it does not look like it would have made any difference because of this comment from the readme on the Matrox BIOS:

"(A blank screen may be preferable to a garbled screen image.)"


Would it work if I installed the P750 in a BX motherboard that is AGP 2X (probably 3.3 Volt) and ran systemlogofix.exe using windows 98? The motherboard is a BX6-R2 Abit board. I know the P750 is not supported under 98 but it should work in VGA mode.


If I can't get in the BIOS, this card will juts not work for me. I don't get why displaying BIOS screens would be a problem for any modern video card.

[zepp]

I was able to convince a friend with the P4C800-E to install the P750 and run the windows util systemlogofix.exe and he rebooted and said it now workes. (I was not there). Anyway, it appers this fixes the problem so the motherboard BIOS is now accessable. This is kind of a problem for people setting up a new PC because to fix the card you need an OS running. I think most people like to configure their hardware (BIOS) before they install an OS.

Kruzin, Thanks for the help!