G400 + Win 98 SE -- Freezes at boot!

[wattage]

Sometimes, Windows will freeze after almost completing the boot process. It usually happens right after the password for Network Neighborhood is submitted. The login box will disappear then the hourglass stays on screen. And a thin band of color (green or purple) appears at the top of the screen. Pressing the reset button on the box is the only way around so far. Any idea why this happens? Solution?

Thanks,
James



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System Specs:
Operating System: Windows 98 SE
Video Card: Matrox Marvel G400-TV (16 MB, PCI, PowerDesk 5.52*)
(*) Problem persists with 5.41.008 Marvel Drivers
Processor: AMD Athlon 650 (not overclocked)
Motherboard: ASUS K7M (1008 BIOS, most current, 300W power supply)
Memory: 128 MB PC100 SDRAM
Hard Drive: Seagate Cheetah 9.1 GB Ultra2 SCSI
SCSI Controller: Adaptec 2940U2W
CD Devices:
(1) CD-ROM: Teac CD-532S
(2) DVD-ROM: Toshiba M1201
(3) CD-R: Plextor PlexWriter 8/20
Removable Drive: Iomega ATAPI Zip 100

[Björn]

Have had something similiar but i wonder:

does the same thing happen if you install the SVGA driver of Windows or only if you use the Matrox drivers?

And did i get that right, its a Marvel you own?
Then you shouldn't use the Millenium drivers and the newer powerdesks, see Matrox.com for details. But apparently the Marvel needs its own drivers and these can not use the newer powerdesks (the version numbers must be the same or lower or so).

Whatever, in my case (i own a MVP3 board) it helped to switch on the USB. I know, sounds silly, but results are what count ;-) If the AMD750 has the closest resemblance to a VIA chipset, try it out.

Hope that helps
Björn

[Targon]

The Asus K7M is a hybrid AMD/VIA chipset board. You need to use the AMD drivers for the "northbridge", which is the AGP drivers. The VIA drivers are for the other features. What BIOS version are you running? The current 1008 BIOS solves MOST problems people have experienced. The G400 runs almost perfectly with the K7M(ver 1.04) board with the new BIOS. Please be aware that you may need to reset your CMOS settings back to the defaults after your flash in order for it to work properly. Scared the hell out of me when my system started beeping and wouldn't boot after the flash. A reset of CMOS to defaults, followed by setting them up the way you want will fix that problem.

As always, be sure to flash from DOS, or boot into DOS mode from a complete re-boot before flashing your BIOS. If you try from within windows, you will need to bring it to a shop to be serviced or replaced since the BIOS will be corrupted.