new P650 card user, conflicts with Outlook 2003!! Also: WinXP restore NOT working!!

[DualMonitors]

I just bought the P650 and installed everything yesterday. my main purpose is to use 2 LCD's at different resolutions for 2D graphics/photoshop/word/excel/web browsing/dvd tutorial video watching uses.

Ouch! after installing the Matrox drivers, immediately after that, for the last 2 days, my Outlook 2003 has been acting up. Basically two problems that I can see so far:

(1) when you’re looking at an appointment and made a change (or even when you have not made a change) and click the “save and close” button on the upper left corner, nothing happens. Only the red x at the top right hand corner works when you click it, it asks if you want to save before closing.

(2) When I open up outlook now, it, as usual, opens up to the email screen. But the entire top buttons are gone: new, print, reply, reply to all…etc. only if I click the center (maximize and not maximize) button, will the row of function buttons reappear.

(3) Windows XP’s System Restore would NOT restore to previous restoration points (tried two dates/points).

KEY FINDING: if I disable the check mark to the available function (uncheck): “Automatically Save/Restore Window Positions” in the Desktop Management menu item in the Matrox dialog box, issues #1 and #2 are resolved. I have not tested #3 yet. While I don’t really know what “Automatically Save/Restore Window Positions” really does, it sounded useful and practical, so I had it checked yesterday. By chance, I tested various possibilities for conflicts before doing a full Windows XP Professional reinstall (lots of work) and this very important clue was discovered.

THIS IS SO RIDICULOUS! After all, Outlook 2003 is not an obscure, infrequently used software. It is key for me to not allow a new video card to ruin my daily essential functionalities.

Could the new card’s drivers have corrupted Outlook? By the way, all old video drivers have been completely and properly removed. A total, clean removal. The old card's drivers are not even showing up on Add/Remove Programs. I made sure that it was a clean uninstall and remove. Also one more clue: most say that only ATI drivers have unclean removal issues, nvidia drivers are easy to remove - I had only Nvidia drivers.

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm very disappointed at Matrox's driver conflicts. For a company that is not that innovative, that "prides" itself as a supplier to the professional market, a driver that conflicts and ruins a client's Outlook 2003 is simply not acceptable. I've spent hours trouble shooting and almost had to do a complete Windows reinstall.

[Greebe]

did you completely remove all traces of your previous graphics card dirvers?

and I do mean ALL

[cjolley]

My work computer has an Nvidia card and a Matrox card running 3 monitors.
While it does work, I must say the drivers do not play nice together.
I don't get the impression that the Nvidia drivers uninstall cleanly.
And I went through a lot of combinations before I found one that worked.
This is especialy true of the desktop control facilities like "save window positions".

Conclusion: Does Nvidia make a cleanup program like Matrox's?
If so, use it, if not try searching the registry for Nvidia settings and System32 for Nvidia dlls (and maybe exes too)

chuck

PS You might also check the Matrx tech support forum. If it realy is a bug you are not likely to be the only one who has seen it.

[Mikko]

Did you install the drivers from P650 driver CD, or did you use the latest drivers from Matrox website?

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm

[schmosef]

You might want to try the "Corporate SE" drivers that Haig turned me onto: link.

They don't require .Net and don't have as many bells and whistles, but they seem more stable to me.

[Kurt]

@DualMonitors:

Good to see yopu got teh Matrox card...

You might try www.driverheaven.com , they have a driver removal utility. Update your P650 drivers, and don't use the advanced functionalities. Also, they're a few updates for outlook/office 2003 too...

Check to update all other drivers, softwares and whatnot, it might be that, say real one is not playing nice with Powerdesk for ex.

[DualMonitors]

used the driver cleaner recommended by Dell's forum administrator

i have used the Cleaner software that the Dell forum administrator suggested:

http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/

i used this one because it was specifically suggested by that administrator, who works for Dell. i don't really trust that guy because as i think you noted, he said that certain cards would work that clearly wouldn't work, due to their power requirements and heat generation.

during the driver cleaner usage, there was a pop up window that said: some files that are used by Windows XP are changed and can change the function of Windows, do you wish to continue: yes or no.

I tried to click "no", but it won't let me, the pop up window simply stayed there. so the only choice was to click yes and let the cleaner do it's job. i'm a bit concerned that the cleaner might have been overly aggressive. though i have a hunch that it really is the software from Matrox that has been doing all this weird stuff since every time i uncheck some Matrox software function, my Outlook/Office 2003 works a bit more "normally" and better! ugh for Matrox...

[DualMonitors]

oh, by the way, i'm using the most recent Matrox drivers from their site. i have two threads on Matrox's site: one for an Outlook/Office 2003 conflict, and one for Windows Media Player 10 conflict while trying to use the "full screen" mode on my second LCD connected to dvi connection "B" of the P650.

thanks for continuing to help me. so far, the key was to uncheck the "save/restore windows..." choice in Matrox's hardware.

i just think that it is unconscienable for Matrox to brand themselves as a "professionally oriented, rock solid drivers..." type of video card company and their basic software conflicts with, of all things, Office 2003/Outlook 2003 AND Windows Media Player 10!! these are not oddball programs, afterall. ugh. i'm very disappointed at Matrox and in some ways, the way they are sort of "trying" to help me, which is telling me, in my thread, that they will "log my situation in their software bug log and come back every so often to check for new drivers". what a ridiculous, corporate, non-helpful response for a conflict with an ubiquitous program like Office/Outlook 2003!

[Lim]

Try to disable all desktop management function in your Matrox PowerDesk-HF