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G400, VIA chipsets and Windows 2k/98
I've seen quite a few people who have problems with VIA-KX133 mainbased boards and VIA based Super 7 mainboards. There are various reasons for the problems that I can confirm.
Here's the deal (source www.Au-Ja.de):
Soulutions for problems with the Matrox G400, VIA chipsets and Windows 98 and 2000
First things first: the Matrox G400 should not share its IRQ with any other device! And never ever with a Soundblaster PCI soundcard
(Live/1024/128)! You might have to swap your devices into another PCI-slot. After sorting out the IRQs follow these steps:
1st problem: the Bios, the Soundblaster Live/1024/128 and the G400
problem: the system is unstable with Windows 98 and 2000 (all VIA chipsets) or the drivers won't install at all.
solution: in your Bios, disable "ACPI", activate "USB" (this is important for the Asus K7M and the FIC SD11, too!), disable "SDRAM
Bank Interleave" (important!)
result: if you were using ACPI Windows will reinstall all drivers, after this your Matrox should be stable (with 2D at least).
2nd problem: Windows 2000 does not recognize the VIA KX133 chipset correctly
problem: the AGP-Bus is not used, the AGP performance is far too low!
solution: you'll have to edit the file WINNT\INF\machine.inf to get AGP working correctly. Please add these lines:
search for [VIA_SYS] and add
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0391.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0391
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_8391.DeviceDesc% = VIAAGP_Install,PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_8391
search for VIA_MFG = "VIA" and add
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0391.DeviceDesc = "VIA Tech CPU to PCI bridge"
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_8391.DeviceDesc = "VIA Tech CPU to AGP Controller"
Now you have to go into your configuration and remove "Standard PCI to PCI Bridge" from the "System Devices" section. Reboot,
Windows 2000 will identify your chipset and install the AGP drivers.
result: Quake III Arena ran with 17 frames (512x384x16) using the slow Matrox G200, after the AGP fix the performance increased
38% to 23.5 frames!
3rd problem: VIA USB update for all VIA chipsets and Windows 2000
problem: various issues with USB devices and side effects with various G400 driver releases.
solution: install the VIA USB drivers from the VIA Homepage
result: USB devices cause less trouble, the stability is increased, the pre-logon crash within Windows 2000 is fixed (Asus K7M, FIC
SD11)
4th problem: the Matrox G400 driver 5.4 or higher is buggy!
problem: OpenGL software like Quake III will crash under Windows 98 and 2000, Halflife won't start.
solution: try the driver release 5.03 with Windows 2000 instead of the 5.04 certified drivers. If you're running Windows 98 you should try
the 5.4 drivers instead of the 5.52 release
result: Quake III will work just fine, OpenGL software will cause less trouble
Here's the deal (source www.Au-Ja.de):
Soulutions for problems with the Matrox G400, VIA chipsets and Windows 98 and 2000
First things first: the Matrox G400 should not share its IRQ with any other device! And never ever with a Soundblaster PCI soundcard
(Live/1024/128)! You might have to swap your devices into another PCI-slot. After sorting out the IRQs follow these steps:
1st problem: the Bios, the Soundblaster Live/1024/128 and the G400
problem: the system is unstable with Windows 98 and 2000 (all VIA chipsets) or the drivers won't install at all.
solution: in your Bios, disable "ACPI", activate "USB" (this is important for the Asus K7M and the FIC SD11, too!), disable "SDRAM
Bank Interleave" (important!)
result: if you were using ACPI Windows will reinstall all drivers, after this your Matrox should be stable (with 2D at least).
2nd problem: Windows 2000 does not recognize the VIA KX133 chipset correctly
problem: the AGP-Bus is not used, the AGP performance is far too low!
solution: you'll have to edit the file WINNT\INF\machine.inf to get AGP working correctly. Please add these lines:
search for [VIA_SYS] and add
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0391.DeviceDesc% = NO_DRV, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0391
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_8391.DeviceDesc% = VIAAGP_Install,PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_8391
search for VIA_MFG = "VIA" and add
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_0391.DeviceDesc = "VIA Tech CPU to PCI bridge"
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_8391.DeviceDesc = "VIA Tech CPU to AGP Controller"
Now you have to go into your configuration and remove "Standard PCI to PCI Bridge" from the "System Devices" section. Reboot,
Windows 2000 will identify your chipset and install the AGP drivers.
result: Quake III Arena ran with 17 frames (512x384x16) using the slow Matrox G200, after the AGP fix the performance increased
38% to 23.5 frames!
3rd problem: VIA USB update for all VIA chipsets and Windows 2000
problem: various issues with USB devices and side effects with various G400 driver releases.
solution: install the VIA USB drivers from the VIA Homepage
result: USB devices cause less trouble, the stability is increased, the pre-logon crash within Windows 2000 is fixed (Asus K7M, FIC
SD11)
4th problem: the Matrox G400 driver 5.4 or higher is buggy!
problem: OpenGL software like Quake III will crash under Windows 98 and 2000, Halflife won't start.
solution: try the driver release 5.03 with Windows 2000 instead of the 5.04 certified drivers. If you're running Windows 98 you should try
the 5.4 drivers instead of the 5.52 release
result: Quake III will work just fine, OpenGL software will cause less trouble
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