Guaranteed Lockups...Mmmm Matrox

[High_Ds]

Im really pissed that I shelled out so much money when this card cameout and now Im stuck with a POS that freezes on every game after about 20 mins of playing.

I've upgraded every component of my PC except this horrible G400 MAX and I still freeze...wtf is going on. Is is too much to ask to write stable drivers and produce a card that is CLOSE to the advertising hype...

The soultion (which never worked) from matrox (this is after 3mo. of waiting btw), was to set the AGP slot to run at 1x...this wouldn't be so bad if...
1)It had worked
2)I hadnt spent the $ getting a MB with 4x and 2x capability

Any ideas whats going on here?

-Win2k (happened on Win 9x aswell)
-Happened on all driver releases
-SBLive
-MB - Tried on ASUS and Gigabyte
-128M Ram

[Rags]

Im really pissed that I shelled out so much money when this card cameout and now Im stuck with a POS that freezes on every game after about 20 mins of playing.

Sorry to hear you are having problems with your card, but why in the hell would post complaints here now? I mean, if you got the card when it came out, then you have been living with it for two years now, and just now with your first post you find it in your heart to endear us with your such great presence?

I've upgraded every component of my PC except this horrible G400 MAX and I still freeze

Sounds like you haven't taken a very good troubleshooting approach. I mean of course the first thing I do when I have problems is start replacing random components

wtf is going on.

HTF should I know? The only thing I know about your system is that you are running win2k, have a SBLive and are using a G400 Max. That doesn't help us figure wtf is going on, now does it? Not to mention that your first post rant on how shitty you think Matrox is will just do wonders for getting you help.

The soultion (which never worked) from matrox (this is after 3mo. of waiting btw),

I find this hard to believe. How did you attempt to get tech support and when?

was to set the AGP slot to run at 1x...

Sounds like a logical step in trying to trouble shoot one of your problems.

this wouldn't be so bad if... I hadnt spent the $ getting a MB with 4x and 2x capability

You actually spent extra money because your motherboard has 4X capability? That doesn't make any sense. They all come with 4X now, even though only a couple of chipsets can TRULY use 4X, not just report 4X in some arbitrary program.

Any ideas whats going on here?

First collect your anger into a manageable state, then come back and let us try to help. We need to have more info about your system, first Tell us the exact configuration you had BEFORE, and the configuration EXACTLY as it is NOW, including IRQ's, and what all you have tried to resolve your problem.

Rags

[Kruzin]

Yea.
What he said.
If you want help, chill out and tell us what trouble your having, without acting sp pissy.
If you want to rant, take it to the Soap Box forum. Be prepared to back up your rantings, cause you'll likely get fried if you just go in whining and crying.
This forum is for tech help or general chat about games. It's not for ranting or moaning.

[ALBPM]

Ho Boy!!!! Youv'e had this much trouble for two years

Give us a list of your IRQ assignments and we'll start there.

I never had any problems with my G400 unless it was something I did to my system (such as IRQ conflicts) And that's with BX and i815 chipsets.

Paul

[Nuno]

I bet on the Power Supply (only thing left to upgrade?)

[High_Ds]

Sorry, Im just so frustrated...I was booted (yet again) out of a Ladder match on tribes2. The only thing I seem to be working on now is speeding up the boot times of windows so I can back to it more quickly.

The freezing is either 1 of 2 problems:
- The first occurs seemly out of nowhere (not doing anything specific, always happens w/in an hour or 2). The screen turns into a bunch of randomly colored vertical lines (cannot recognize anything), while the cursor turns into just a multi-colored rectangle which I can still move, however not click on anything.
- The second is what was described below, the computer locks up in any game requring a reset.

I didnt' just runout and replace all my components , my mobo fried so I had to upgrade it (and when I did AGP 2x was standard and 4x was extra $$...understand). I've been called matrox 4 times, and e-mailed b/f 20 times. Everytime I get the same response..."Try a reset","Have you tried changing the order of the PCI cards". But when I E-mail back saying yes I have and it doesnt work I dont recieve a response or at LEAST 2 months(g/t). The only thing that they suggested that worked was eliminating problem 1 by changing the AGP Bus speed...but this doesnt solve the main issue, and does not allow me to benifet from having a higher speed AGP slot(yes I know the G400 only goes at 2x max, but I wanted to upgrade later and not be screwed).

MY OLD SYSTEM:
--------------------------
G400 MAX
Intel BX MoBo (Gigabyte)
Intel PII450
128M Ram
SBLive!
Maxtor 6GB HD
HP-CDwriter 8100
250W PowerSupply
*All drivers were up to date

System As It Exists Now:
---------------------------------
G400 MAX (Tried All Versions)
Asus VIA Apollo Chipset Mobo (tried w/wout VIA 4-in-1 drivers)
Intel PIII800
128M Ram
SBLive!
Quantum Fireball 20GB HD
HP-CDwriter 8100
400W PowerSupply
*All drivers are up to date
*See system summary below

System Summary:
-----------------------------
OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 2 Build 2195
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6 GenuineIntel ~803 Mhz
BIOS Version Award Medallion BIOS v6.0
Total Physical Memory 130,528 KB
Available Physical Memory 35,272 KB
Total Virtual Memory 503,848 KB
Available Virtual Memory 284,052 KB
Page File Space 373,320 KB

Conflict/Sharing:
------------------------------
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
IRQ 9 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
IRQ 9 VIA USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 VIA USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 Macronix MX98715 Family Fast Ethernet Adapter (ACPI) #2
IRQ 9 Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)

DMA:
-------------------------
Channel Device Status
4 Direct memory access controller OK
2 Standard floppy disk controller OK
3 ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK

I/O:
----------------------------
Address Range Device Status
0x0000-0x0CF7 PCI bus OK
0x0000-0x0CF7 Direct memory access controller OK
0x0D00-0xFFFF PCI bus OK
0x03B0-0x03BB VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK
0x03B0-0x03BB Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
0x03C0-0x03DF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK
0x03C0-0x03DF Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
0x0A79-0x0A79 ISAPNP Read Data Port OK
0x0279-0x0279 ISAPNP Read Data Port OK
0x0274-0x0277 ISAPNP Read Data Port OK
0x0010-0x001F Motherboard resources OK
0x0022-0x002D Motherboard resources OK
0x0030-0x003F Motherboard resources OK
0x0044-0x005F Motherboard resources OK
0x0062-0x0063 Motherboard resources OK
0x0065-0x006F Motherboard resources OK
0x0074-0x007F Motherboard resources OK
0x0091-0x0093 Motherboard resources OK
0x00A2-0x00BF Motherboard resources OK
0x00E0-0x00EF Motherboard resources OK
0x03F0-0x03F1 Motherboard resources OK
0x04D0-0x04D1 Motherboard resources OK
0xE400-0xE47F Motherboard resources OK
0xE800-0xE80F Motherboard resources OK
0x0020-0x0021 Programmable interrupt controller OK
0x00A0-0x00A1 Programmable interrupt controller OK
0x0080-0x0090 Direct memory access controller OK
0x0094-0x009F Direct memory access controller OK
0x00C0-0x00DF Direct memory access controller OK
0x0040-0x0043 System timer OK
0x0070-0x0073 System CMOS/real time clock OK
0x0061-0x0061 System speaker OK
0x00F0-0x00FF Numeric data processor OK
0x03F2-0x03F5 Standard floppy disk controller OK
0x03F7-0x03F7 Standard floppy disk controller OK
0x0378-0x037F ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK
0x0778-0x077B ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK
0x03F8-0x03FF Communications Port (COM1) OK
0x02F8-0x02FF Communications Port (COM2) OK
0x0060-0x0060 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
0x0064-0x0064 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
0xD800-0xD80F VIA Bus Master Ultra ATA Controller OK
0xD400-0xD41F VIA USB Universal Host Controller OK
0xD000-0xD01F VIA USB Universal Host Controller OK
0xB800-0xB8FF Macronix MX98715 Family Fast Ethernet Adapter (ACPI) #2 OK
0xB400-0xB41F Creative SB Live! Value (WDM) OK
0xB000-0xB007 Game Port for Creative SB Live! OK
0x01F0-0x01F7 Not Available OK
0x03F6-0x03F6 Not Available OK
0x0170-0x0177 VIA BM Ultra DMA Channel OK
0x0376-0x0376 VIA BM Ultra DMA Channel OK

IRQs:
-------------------
9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
9 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
9 VIA USB Universal Host Controller
9 VIA USB Universal Host Controller
9 Macronix MX98715 Family Fast Ethernet Adapter (ACPI) #2
9 Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)
8 System CMOS/real time clock
13 Numeric data processor
6 Standard floppy disk controller
4 Communications Port (COM1)
3 Communications Port (COM2)
1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
14 Not Available
15 VIA BM Ultra DMA Channel

Memory:
------------------------------
Range Device Status
0x0000-0x9FFFF System board OK
0xF0000-0xFFFFF System board OK
0x100000-0x7FFFFFF System board OK
0xFFFE0000-0xFFFFFFFF System board OK
0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus OK
0xA0000-0xBFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK
0xA0000-0xBFFFF Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
0xC8000-0xDFFFF PCI bus OK
0x8000000-0xFFFFFFFF PCI bus OK
0xF4800000-0xF5DFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK
0xF4800000-0xF5DFFFFF Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
0xF5F00000-0xF7FFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK
0xF8000000-0xFBFFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller OK
0xF6000000-0xF7FFFFFF Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
0xF5000000-0xF5003FFF Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
0xF4000000-0xF40000FF Macronix MX98715 Family Fast Ethernet Adapter (ACPI) #2 OK

[Rags]

First of all, I find it hard to believe that Matrox tech support would keep you hanging on email when they have a very popular and effective forum they could have directed to you....but that's not the point, and we will move on if you agree to at least check out their tech support forums and then form an opinion on them.

The Gigabyte motherboard has known ACPI issues with busmastering devices such as the Sound Blaster Live and Matrox G400 (and all other new cards). When you say you have an Asus apollo motherboard with a P3-800, I assume it's a cuv-4x, which is another motherboard that has serious issues with ACPI. And you just happen to be using ACPI under win2k, and probably were doing the same using win98.

Try doing this:

Re install win2k by booting with the win2k cd, hitting F5 when install is starting, then choosing standard PC hal as your platform. Allow it to install as normal, then make sure you aren't sharing IRQ's. To get devices on their own IRQ's, all you have to do, when running standard PC HAL under win2k, is to move your PCI devices to different slots.

After you get this far, post back with your progress.

Rags

[spazm_1999]

Rags, would'nt it be easyer to just go in the device manager select ACPI and change it to standard pc?

Spazm

[Rags]

It would if that worked, but it doesn't. It doesn't take that long to do it the way I posted anyhow.

Rags

[Maggi]

Originally posted by High_Ds
...
The freezing is either 1 of 2 problems:
- The first occurs seemly out of nowhere (not doing anything specific, always happens w/in an hour or 2). The screen turns into a bunch of randomly colored vertical lines (cannot recognize anything), while the cursor turns into just a multi-colored rectangle which I can still move, however not click on anything.
...

sounds like an ordinary heat issue to me ...

Try to leave the case open and see if it lasts longer before it locks up.

Cheers & welcome aboard,
Maggi

[Electric Amish]

I'm with Maggi.

The first issue sounds like heat.

Rags looks to be on top of the other.

amish

[Alec]

Other advices

If nothing of the above works, it could be a couple of other problems.
I don´t believe it´s related to the G400, though... anyhow, trying everything doesn´t hurt, and so I would advise to flash the G400´s with the latest BIOS file, as well as the motherboard, if an updated BIOS file is available.



...but I´m inclined towards the heat issue

[Michel]

I also think it's an heat problem.

i've had the same problem with 2 completely different systems and cases. (only thing identicall to them where floppy drive and G400MAX).

i mounted an sunon case fan and a little fan wich blows air out on the side of the fan directly out of the case through an lpt case hole. That last fan is sucking air away from my g400max.

Now i don't have those lockups anymore (only when i install new drivers and forget to force agp1x).

I DO think that the standard cooling provided by Matrox isn't enough for the G400MAX.
Mayby it's because i've got mine from the pre-ordering so it's prolly an early batch.

Michel

hmmz, why can't I find the spellchecker in this new forum

[Pneumatic]

You can't find the spell checker because there isn't one!! Of all of the cool stuff that these new forums can do, spelling isn't one of them.

[Ali]

If its a MAX, have you checked to see if the fan is still spinning on it?

It does sound heat related.

If you had the same problems under win98, then I doubt its ACPI.

Shouldnt be the power supply with a 400W one.

Try running the computer with the case off, and a fan blowing at it. This will at least let you know if its heat or not.

Another thing is your system RAM.

Are you sure its quality stuff? Have you tried it in different slots. Go to BIOS and try setting it to the slowest settings, and see if that helps. If you mobo supports it, try running it at 3/2 system/ram speeds.

Also, try setting AGP appiture size to 256MB. Make sure all shadowing is turned off, and AGP divider is set right (ie you are running it at 66Mhz, not 89 or 100).

Good luck, and let us know

Ali