Tech support? Is this typical of Matrox?

[Red]

Just had tech support (via email) blow me off.
Had 1st sent stating the 3 major problems with my G400 max (retail) including sys hd/sw. This was 11 days ago.
Have recieved 4 responses. 1st asked IRQs, 2nd PCI cards. Then the last 2 were questions
that I had already given him, ie: is VuePrint the only sw causing problems (the last and most minor of problems listed), then is there a PCI card next to G400.
I returned saying come on your asking questions that have already been answered, I know your probably swamped with work but this is starting to sound like I'm been stalled.
His reply was to call Matrox Tech Support for another tech.

I'm going nuts...just want the think not to keep locking up my computer. I was never rude but I guess my statement insulted him.. but hell after only recieving 4 single line replys (really only 2).

I no this is not the place to slam Matrox Tech Support, just wanted to know is this typical response, ie: no suggestions for almost 2 weeks then "go away, call someone else"?

Red

[ALBPM]

That doesn't sound too good. What kind of system do you have???
Hey, the Forum is the best Tech support around anyway.

Paul

[Red]

Asus P2B-F
Cel 400 slot (not OC)
196 pc100
SCSI (only PCI, in slot 4)
W95 osr2.1 (w/usb supp)
G400 Max w/lastest drvrs
SB awe64 ISA
everything with lastest bios/drvrs

Keep getting intermittent (1 to 3 times a day) lockups in Expendable & Tech Demo. No CRTL-ALT-DEL must hit reset.
Also with some software after fullscreen and 20-30mins the screen starts to break up and then must hit reset again.
All of this from day one.
From reading in this forum I resolved many things by 1) moving SCSI card as far away from G400 as possible and 2) by playing around with different settings for aperture (currently at 256).
I've tried all different settings for resolution/color and options in both Display prop and Expendable and Tech Demo.

The grind is I really like the damn card, but this is just going on and on. Asked my work for half a day off next week just to call Matrox, but damn I shouldn't have to, and really can't afford to.

Any ideas

[Rags]

First, try disabling ALL "shadowing" in your BIOS.

If that doesn't help, then try forcing AGP1X using the registry hacks.

Rags



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FedEx Sucks!

[bwhite33]

Red,

try turning bus mastering off in the options section Display properties -> settings -> advanced -> options. That stopped my time demo hang and my everquest hang.

bryan

[Rags]

Don't do that Red, it isn't necessary. And will slow everything down.

[Red]

I,ve tried disabling shadowing with no help. And regarding busmastering, if I disable the Expendable won't even start.
I haven't tried to change AGP to x1 yet. Would hate to think that the only way this card will run properly is to slow down the transfer rate. Maybe I don,t understand this completely but it does seem like switching to AGPx1 is slower.

[Mark F]

In theory YES. But...I could only get 1X reliably with my G200 for a while. Never could tell the difference with my eyes. Even benchmarks weren't all that dramatic. Slower?..YES, awfull?.. NO, not as bad as freezes and screen corruptions and other headaches.

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[Ian @ work]

Hi Red,

I solved freezing problems in the techdemo by disabling "palettized textures" using the PD5.x reghacks. Maybe this'll work for you ?
( I think this option is only for compatibility, can anyone give a full description ? )

Good Luck

Cheers

Ian

[Maggi]

Hi Red,

do you know what your AGP divider is set to ?

Reading ypur mail, you seem to be running at 66.6MHz FSB, if you set the divider to 2/3 instead of 1/1, your problem might be funded in this.
(Check your MoBo manual for the correct jumper settings)

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Cheerio,
Maggi
________________________
Asus P2B-DS @ 103MHz FSB
2x P3-450 @ 464MHz
512MB CAS2 SDRAM
Millenium G400 32MB DH

[JoeDredd]

Yeah

I had similar dealings with Matrox Tech Support via email

Have problem with not getting AGP 2X on my card, sent them a mail, they told me to download latest drivers Bios etc for my Mobo, i have already done this, so i sent a reply telling them this

$ days on still no reply

[Rob M.]

I've been dealing with matrox tech support and I get a decent reply from them every day. I'm one of those ABIT people who have the AGP 2X problems, it seems to be an incompatability, but they seem to be making some headway on the problem.

[Red]

Unfortunately it seems from what I've been reading here that the customers that have problems which they are "getting a handle on" or onces they have the fix for seem to get prompt and curtious service.
But anything out of the norm either get no responses or lame responses.
Which is probably the way most companys handle when they are swamped with problems on new products.
In other words quantity not quality. Which is not knocking Matrox as much as its just the way things work now a days.
Just hope your not one of the poor slobs that gets the shaft.

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks without a dependable card and out $200 +. But still trying.

[GD]

I'm currently in the "r there any PCI cards installed next to the g400" question... I wonder how many will follow....

BTW the probs R:

1) The bundled version of Expendable causes the system to lock up every
time at the same spot if I follow a certain route. This happens at the
first level of the game.

2) The system SOMETIMES locks up when running Direct3D applications
(This has never happened with OpenGL apps, even with the beta version of
the ICD. I don't use OpenGL applications a lot though...). The lockups
either result in a frozen screen with the sound playing, or in a distorted
screen with the sound either playing or looping. Expendable is the game
with the most lock ups although I have experienced similar situations under
other games like Need for speed hot pursuit 3, Motorhead vesion 3, 3Dmark99
MAX demo & benchmarks.

3) I feel the benchmarking scores are relatively low for my system.
I get nearly 3700 3Dmarks at 800x600 (I had reached 3100 with an overclocked
Millennium G200 Rev A.). Is this normal? Do you think it is ECC causes
low performace or it is the CPU the restricting factor? I'm running at
AGP2x and Bus Mastering is enabled without any apparent problems. The G400
card is the only device assigned to IRQ 11, along with an IRQ holder for
PCI steering which is normal for every Busmastering enabled device.

4)Tex Murphy Overseer doesn't work (DVD version). Neither the movies
nor the 3D virtual world will load. I don't really care, it's probably
a problem with the program itself but I just refer to this in case it is
in some way related to the other problems.

Anyway I don't like the idea of disabling shadowing/busmastering/agp2x at all.. I bought a card which is supposed to be working under these conditions and have a motherboard whose chipset (Intel 440GX) has very good AGP support (faster and newer than 440BX) and my motherboard (AMI MegaRUM II) is one of the few out with such good systems for noise elimination. I don't even have a PCI card in my system (The only PCI device is the intergrated dual symbios SCSI, and the second SCSI channel is disabled...).
Moreover I have not overclocked any device in my system in any way.

Well thing are not that bad but those lock ups are sometimes very annoying... Since this is a custom built system I knew from the start I was going to have compatibility problems but I had none of the ones described above with the G200...

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PC Power and Cooling Deluxe Chrome Tower case and 300W ATX Power Supply, Dual Slot1 440GX AMI MegaRUM II motherboard, 128MB of ECC 100 MHz SDRAM, PII 450 MHz, Matrox G400 MAX, Seagate Cheetah 9,1GB @ primary SCSI Ultra2 Wide controller, Hitachi 4x DVD-ROM, Panasonic (Matsushita) LS-120 Drive, Terratec EWS64XL sound card.

[SCompRacer]

Going to AGP X 1 for me only causes 32MB texture rendering to fall, otherwise performance is same in other areas.

I can empathize with you about having problems with hardware. When I first got the G400, I had ECC crashes with any OGL apps common to my series MB. You go from a working setup to freaking disaster. Don't matter the card may be better, patience departs and I said things in anger I later regretted.

As far as their tech support they are only people subject to the same emotions we have, particularly frustration when they may have no answers to your particular problem as yet. In my case Matrox tech support even went so far as to duplicate and confirm the problem by replicating my MB/ECC combination. Eventually the ECC issue was corrected with the 5.13 driver release.

While they may not be successful in making everyone happy, I believe they are trying. Just advocating patience here, hang in as long as you can and keep the dialogue going.



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P III 500 @ 560 via 112 FSB, ASUS P2B-LS, 1010 BIOS, w/256 MB 8ns ECC RAM, ECC Enabled since 5.13 driver release, current 5.25 drivers, dual 9 GB Cheetahs, 10 GB IDE DiamondMax, Plextor Ultraplex/Plexwriter 8/2/20, Hitachi IDE DVD CD ROM, SCSI ZIP Insider, G400 MAX, SB Live, Sigma Hollywood + DVD decoder, US Robotics 56K Sportster, Sony GDM400PS, UMAX 2400S SCSI scanner, Soundworks 5.1, HP 6P Laser & 890C, LAN & USB enabled. SB Live shares IRQ w/MAX, bus mastering enabled, Win98 SE and NT 4.0 SP4.