BIOS settings for a G400

[Sprocket]

Hi, I would like to know what BIOS settings to use with a 32Mb G400 Dualhead card, aperture size, passive release, etc. enable/disable/size. I have 128Mb RAM, Celeron 466, 10.1Gb WDC, SBLive!, 3Com PCI NIC, Win98. If I shut off ACPI to free an IRQ, won't win98 get angry- I mean doesnt it use it? Also, my G400 shares w/ ACPI IRQ9 and if I shut ACPI off the G400 moves to IRQ 5. My mobo doesn't like to give the card 11 like it did my trusty Trident PCI 2Mb 2d card. Is that a problem? Also what is L2 ECC checking? Do I need that enabled? ANy other hints would be appreciated. Plus what are the benefits of flashing the G400's BIOS? Would it help me? Thanks very much!

[Ghydda]

Glad I could be of some support, My nick-name is allso an inspiration from a commercial figure.

You wouldn't by any chance have some episodes on tape or whatever? I currently only have the tree first episodes, unfortunately syncronised in my native language.

Ghydda

PS. Don't you just hate when the neighbour brings his cat over for a visit?

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A slowly desintegrating nobody, soon with an AMD K7 600 with 256MB Memorycard PC100, Adaptec 2940UW, Adaptec 2904CD, 3 SCSI HD, JVC cooking equipment, Plextor 40Max, SBlive Value with homemade S/PDIF I/O-card and last but not least - Matrox Marvel G200 AGP 16MB SD

Only thing missing: G400 Marvel Max

[rylan]

I have a differant AGP card at the moment (viper V330) unitl I get my MAX, but I'll let yo know the settings I am using. I also have a SS7 mobo (Epox MVP3G-M rev 1.. one of the few that is actually stable and doesn't suck.. heh), so some things may be differant.
Anyway, AGP aperture size try to set to your system ram size.. 128mb in your case. I found slightly higher performance with higher aperature since it can swap larger memory chunks at a time. IF it gives problems, go back to 64, but don't increase above available ram, it can get strange.
Passive Release: Enable, if I remember right this allows the card to let go of a transfer or interrupt cycle when it is finished, instead of waiting for a bus cycle.
As for ACPI, it doesn't use an irq in win98 for my system, and doesn't cause a problem if off, so I can't help ya much there.
L2 ECC is Error Correcting Control for your L2 cache. Try to keep it on, but if you're overclocking your cpu or fsb then you may have to turn it off so you don't get system halt errors.
As for G400 Bios, you should flash it to the most recent if you haven't, since bios updates usually fix previous problems or add features/stability. Hope that helps some!

[Ghydda]

Hey Sprocket

I have no help to offer, but your nickname is so cool, wonder how many off the youngsters on this forum who remember this loveable dog from the teletube. He sure is one off my favorites.

If you feel completely lost from the sentences above, feel free to ignore them.

Ghydda

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A slowly desintegrating nobody, soon with an AMD K7 600 with 256MB Memorycard PC100, Adaptec 2940UW, Adaptec 2904CD, 3 SCSI HD, JVC cooking equipment, Plextor 40Max, SBlive Value with homemade S/PDIF I/O-card and last but not least - Matrox Marvel G200 AGP 16MB SD

Only thing missing: G400 Marvel Max

[Sprocket]

You remember! Yeah, that is my nickname inspiration, my fav too. Out of all the message boards and forums I post to this is the first time anyone has ever figured that out.