Dead board?

[AlexK]

I got in from work last night and switched on my PC, and the screen stayed blank (its a Sony Multiscan 200sx). Normally, the monitor light is amber for a few seconds and then goes green, and the picture appears.

well, this time, the little led stayed amber, while the PC seemed to boot (ie, no post beeps, and all the hard disk grinding and flashing leds on the keyboard and PC all seemed to do the right stuff at the right time).

My first thought was that the monitor wasnt plugged in properly, checked that - fine. Tried pulling the lead out and plugging it in again - nothing. Tonight I tried another monitor on the card - nothing, and tried the other DVI->RGB adapter. Still nowt.

I thought it was (unlikely but) possible that the card was not seated properly, but it was.

Finally, I put my old GeForce2 back in the machine - worked perfectly.

I'll be honest, I'm a bit upset that my brand new P at a cost of 300 royal portraits is presently good for little more than act as (an inferior) paperweight.

This all seems a bit surprising, tho' - the board was mostly fine over the weekend, and it never went bang or made any funny smells.

Any ideas?

[R.Carter]

DOH!

It's rare, but sometimes video cards come out of the AGP slot.

Can you try the P in another machine? If it still doesn't work then you'll have to contact Matrox and get an RMA so you can exchange it.

[AlexK]

That's my only AGP machine.

I'm pretty sure that the card was seated properly - I didn't get any POST beeps (which on my mobo you usually do get with an unseated video card), and I did try removing and replacing the P.

Also, before I removed the card, it _seemed_ properly inserted - it was screwed in properly and didnt wiggle about.

[Ryu Connor]

Could have been a lemon. Might explain your difficulties with the Reef demo.

[AlexK]

Bah!

I emailed UK tech support on the only email address listed in the P manual (graphic.tech.uk@matrox.com).

Today I got a response that <i>inter alia</i> said "This is an <b>automated</b> reply from an <b>unmonitored</b> mailbox..."

How can I contact Matrox and get a human on the other end?

Sorry about whining, but I was stoked to have a PC running a P, now I have a big paperweight - no choons, no DVDs, no games. At this rate I might have to go get myself a life...