G400 flickering horizontal lines part xxx

[sasa]

Sorry for annoying you all again, but I am forced to do it. In short, my G400 16 Mb SH has annoying flickering horizontal lines going up and down (rather fast) in any 3D game(OGL or D3D). I have P2B, celery 400, SBlive, Nokia mon., 96 mb ram... I posted this few months ago and find no solution. After a while flickering suddenly stoped. It was all ok for a month, and then it started all over again. My configuration havent changed at all for that time. What really puzzles me is G400 tech demo, where is no even the slightest sight of flickering. That is why I havent returned the card. I tried every driver I could find, reinstall windows(98SE), removed SBLive... In fact I did image of windows when the card runned ok. Now with that image card flickers... I tried to change bios settings, nothing helped. Is it possible that this is driver issue since demo works ok? If card is bad (I am almost positive in that) WHY IS STUPID DEMO RUNNING GOOD? Should I returned the card? I dislike that option.

[Haig]

Hi guys,

some clients had this fixed with a new board.

In here, we are still unable to reproduce this even with the boards that we received from our clients.

Your best bet is to contact us for an RMA.

Haig

[Livius]

Hi!
There's some older thread (titled something like "Matrox do something about it! (flickering part II)") that describes the problem in detail. What surprises me is that you get horizontal lines in 3D as well, which was actually uncommon. I hope this is not a premonition for all of us poor flickering G400 16MB owners.

The funny thing is that Haig reported somewhere that they could not replicate these problems on different/their systems. I tried three completely different ones (with PS's ranging from 235W to 300W) and the behavior was identical.

[Bakwetu]

I have also seen this especially in some game intros, but it is not consistently so. It doesn't bother me that much.

[sasa]

As far as I remember I tried everything I found posted. Maybe I missed something, Ill do the search. Regarding flickering, it is strictly 3D related since 2D picture is fine.
And IS very annoying, especialy on light coloured background (e.g. sky in NFS5). Somethimes it became so frequently and strong that makes me sick. It is visible from 5 meters from monitor.

[sasa]

As far as I remember I tried everything I found posted. Maybe I missed something, Ill do the search. Regarding flickering, it is strictly 3D related since 2D picture is fine.
And IS very annoying, especialy on light coloured background (e.g. sky in NFS5). Somethimes it became so frequently and strong that makes me sick. It is visible from 5 meters from monitor.

[Alfie]

When I first installed my g200,had the same flickering lines,as if it were some kind of interference.
Isolated the monitor cable cleaned the inside of my monitor(not adviseable for the novice,as danger lurks!!) The monitor seemed to have a lot of carbon deposits,wiped it clean with isapropal alcohol,cleaned all connections,and the problem vanished.
Also made sure the card was well seated and connections were clean.
I suspect the interference may have been caused by the crud build up and somehow was interfering with the signal.
Is this possible?
Haven't had a problem since.
Now use a g400 16meg S.H.

[sasa]

No, monitor is in top condition. Few months ago I had TNT, and last week I installed GeForce DDR for a while. Flickering problem is G400 only related. Card is well pluged in.
Now I am playing NFS5 and flickering is extremly noticable. Only 3D with no flickering is tech demo. Maybe I should try to return card, but I am to lazy and I want to try everthing else before that. Again, why is stupid demo PERFECT is card is bad???

[Alfie]

A friend just went through the same thing on a g200,g400 and a third card.
Changed all cables,cleaned monitor,double checked agp seating,moved monitor to a different location,etc.etc.
Today his keyboard failed,replaced it and no more flickering.
Go figure!
Not saying it's the cure,but definitely worth a try!
If it works,I'd like to know why!

[labrador]

The problem is that there is a broadcast using the same channel as your video card setting. If your video card is set to channel 3, switch it to 4 and do the same for your monitor. It should give you a clear picture.

Worked for my satellite decoder, so I thought it might be worth mentioning !

But seriously, is there anything in the vicinity of your machine that emits RF interference? It is possible that the banding stripes, like the case of the TV getting a local station on top of a cabled connection signal, is caused by a source of interference. What happens when each internal card aside from the graphics card is removed from the system? They are not supposed to emit too much RF, but it is possible if someone isn't meeting the spec. My old TRS-80 computer from 1980 disabled use of radios or TVs anywhere in the house - this was how bad things were before the RF limiting specs came into being.


[This message has been edited by labrador (edited 18 April 2000).]

[sasa]

I am sure there is nothing unusual with my EM environment. I frequently change cards for testing, and none has similiar problems except for my own G400. Therefore I dont believe that my cherry makes me trouble.
I am positive that only wrong thing is G400 in my system.

[sasa]

To Haig,
I am located in Croatia, Europe. I believe Your location is in Canada. This is the reason why I did not contacted Your RMA. It is so far away.