Problems with G200 and Direct3D/OpenGL

[VirtualOlympus]

Hey,
I am having a problem and was hoping that someone could help me out. Basically my machine locks up whenever it tries to run Direct3D or OpenGL-based games. I have a feeling it might be the CPU overheating, but I have Waterfall Pro and that is telling me that the CPU temp is too low for overheat.
I have tried with multiple games and all seem to lock up. Namely Unreal SE, Rogue Squadron, Final Fantasy VII and the OpenGL screen savers. (Side note: I think the only time the screen saver locks up is when the monitor goes into powersave mode, then comes out.)

Has anyone else seen this?? My hardware config is listed below:

Matrox Millenium G200 (16M SG)
AMD K6-II 300 (OC'd 266)
Epox MVP3E-M 1MB Motherboard
128MB PC100 SDRAM
Soundblaster Live! Soundcard
SMC EtherEZ PCI Network

Software:
Windows 98 (latest fixes, but no SE)
MGA Powerdesk v4.53 (OpenGL ICD)
Waterfall Pro 2.99
CA InnoculateIT Virus
LiveWare! 2.1
VIA GART/IRQ Routing/etc (lastest versions)
AGP 2x Mode (256M Aperture)

Anything else anyone needs?? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I didn't see any locking up under Win95...

Thanks in advance,
Ben

[benne]

OOps, I forgot my hardware, here it comes:

Matrox Millenium G200 AGP (8M SD)
AMD K6-II 350
64MB DIMM
ESS-Solo1 (es1938)
NE2000-ISA-card
VIA-Mainboard (VIA-VT82C586B/VT82C598MP)

Software:
Windows 98 & Linux (havn't tried any 3D in libux)
Latest Powerdesk d/l:ed from internet
DirextX 6.0 & 6.1


/Ben

[benne]

Bah, This reply should be b4 I said that I forgot my hardware.... *sigh*

Well, I have about the same problem - When I load a game which uses DirectX the computer just restarts, it does that even when I try the DirectX-Diag.

Does anyone have a clue what to do?

/Ben

(PS I'm not the same Ben as he who wrote the first message here)

[VirtualOlympus]

Hey,
It's the original poster again. Just thought I would correct a mistake in my G200 drivers reporting. I actually am using G200 drivers version 5.13 (downloaded 7/5/1999).

Thanks,
Ben

[Spider]

I was G200 user & newer seen any problems...now I am HAPPY user of G-400 MILL-32mb...& again no problems...you should check MBO-BIOS or G200 bios..upgrade them to latest this can fix some bugs, then reinstal DX..Latest 6.1. maybe some dll is lost...or if u can reinstal your system...

PIII450@465(bus103),ASUS P2b,128mbRam,MATROX MILL-G400 32,SB.Live value.. Pdesk 5.13,Live ware2.1 driver for SB LIve,Win98,DX6.1

[Steve C]

Usually when PCs die when the MGA kicks in a D3D or GOL app, it's becuase of an IRQ conflict. Check you're not sharing any IRQs with the MGA, if you are move the offending device's slot.

Cheers,
Steve

------------------
Yeah, you know the score...
(ICQ: 29468849)

[Wombat]

I agree w/ Steve. Check for IRQ conflicts first. Then try using AGP 1x - possibly go as far as to reinstall the VIA AGP drivers in Normal mode.

Good luck,
Wombat

[FZ]

I had the same problem with a G200SD PCI with a K6-III 400 on an FIC-503+ MB VIA MPV3 chipset - the system would always lock up when starting to run a 3d (Direct3d/OpenGL) -finally tracked it down to a BIOS switch on the Chipset Features called "Write Cache Pipeline" - it reads as "performance" option, however enabling it always caused lockups - disabled, the system runs fine.

If this doesn't work try setting the BIOS defaults to "SETUP" or "BIOS" defaults and see if you still get lockups - if you don't -the problem is somewhere in one of those obsure BIOS settings !

[billko]

Wombat:

Here's a question I wanted to ask for a while: What's the difference between "normal" and "turbo" installations for the VIA AGP driver?

Bill

[VirtualOlympus]

Hi everyone,
Well after much pain in the a$$ scrounging around, I came up with the following solution:

1. Reinstalled G200 drivers v5.13

2. Installed latest (all-in-one) drivers from VIA's website. Contained latest versions of GART and IDE Busmaster drivers.

3. Updated Motherboard BIOS to latest version (7/9/1999?). This appeared to allow the motherboard to actually do AGP 2x, I guess it didn't before.

4. Installed the Newset Win95 OpenGL drivers from SGI. I think they are version 2??

This all seems to have worked. OpenGL and Direct3D no longer seem to be locking up. I also found that turning off 3D positional sound in Rogue Squadron got rid of some of the lockups. Could this possibly be a driver issue between the Live! and the G200??

Thanks for everyone's help,
Ben

P.S. I believe that Turbo mode in the VIA drivers just means AGP 2x. I know that it goes a _lot_ faster in Turbo mode than in regular mode.

[Wombat]

I believe that Turbo is 2x, and Normal is 1.
I remember that some people had troubles a few months ago, when they had the drivers installed as turbo, even though they had AGP 2x disabled. Reinstalling in normal mode fixed the problem.

-Wombat

[billko]

Wombat:

Thanks for the info. I kinda suspected that.

Bill