Booting

[Ken]

Hello!

I have some problem with booting my P4C800-E Deluxe.
Very often it stop booting after BIOS when it would start
reading from the harddisk. Sometimes it boot every times,
but sometimes I have to push reset button up to 20 times.
That's with min Matrox P750 AGP graphic card.
If put in my very old Matrox Millennium II PCI graphic card
it boots every time, even with P750 in at the same time.
And I can't use my Matrox P750 to change in BIOS.
The Matrox P750 is not compatible with BIOS.
I use the Millennium card for that.
What to do?
I have the original 1016 BIOS now.
Flash in new BIOS (1017) ?
Does the new BIOS help me?

 

[Philip Callan]

Hello!

I have some problem with booting my P4C800-E Deluxe.
Very often it stop booting after BIOS when it would start
reading from the harddisk. Sometimes it boot every times,
but sometimes I have to push reset button up to 20 times.
That's with min Matrox P750 AGP graphic card.
If put in my very old Matrox Millennium II PCI graphic card
it boots every time, even with P750 in at the same time.
And I can't use my Matrox P750 to change in BIOS.
The Matrox P750 is not compatible with BIOS.
I use the Millennium card for that.
What to do?
I have the original 1016 BIOS now.
Flash in new BIOS (1017) ?
Does the new BIOS help me?

I would hazard a guess, that the PCI card takes less power, and that
your PowerSupply isn't giving enough power to the AGP Matrox card, but
without knowing what else your PSU is running (CPU speed, # of HD's,
Optical Drives, Sound Card, etc) its hard to tell.

 

[Ken]

I would hazard a guess, that the PCI card takes less power, and that
your PowerSupply isn't giving enough power to the AGP Matrox card, but
without knowing what else your PSU is running (CPU speed, # of HD's,
Optical Drives, Sound Card, etc) its hard to tell.

I have a 550W PSU (Antec True Power).
If you read a little closer you can se that if I put in
the PCI card together with my AGP card (takes more power)
there is no problem at all.
The power capacity is not a problem here.
All the voltage are perfect.
--------------
P4 Northwood 3.2 GHz (draw about 85W).
2x 512 MB memory (low power, they are not warm at all).
One Seagate Barracuda V 120 GB 7200 rpm.
One simple CD reader.
No sound card or other card.
The fans takes ony about 4 Watts.
---------------

 

[Paul]

I have a 550W PSU (Antec True Power).
If you read a little closer you can se that if I put in
the PCI card together with my AGP card (takes more power)
there is no problem at all.
The power capacity is not a problem here.
All the voltage are perfect.
--------------
P4 Northwood 3.2 GHz (draw about 85W).
2x 512 MB memory (low power, they are not warm at all).
One Seagate Barracuda V 120 GB 7200 rpm.
One simple CD reader.
No sound card or other card.
The fans takes ony about 4 Watts.
---------------

There is one known problem, where the display is distorted
while the Matrox card is displaying the BIOS screen at boot.
They seem to have a disagreement as to what VESA? modes are
appropriate while in the BIOS.

Matrox has new BIOS files, for flashing their video cards here:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/bios/home2.cfm

For Windows, there is this file for the P750 and friends:
ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/archive/bios/2004/setup_p105.exe

It is a self extracting Winzip file, and inside is a README.txt
with some instructions.

You might want to Google, using some of the names of the programs
in that ZIP file, for more details as to what they are for.

Matrox also has a user forum:

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php
http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=3832

Matrox staff man the forums M-F 9-5 from Dorval Quebec Canada,
and if the question hasn't already been answered, they can
respond to a post in the forum. There should be some posts about
this problem with P750/P650 and so you should be able to read
about how successful these BIOS updates are at solving the problem.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Ken]

There is one known problem, where the display is distorted
while the Matrox card is displaying the BIOS screen at boot.
They seem to have a disagreement as to what VESA? modes are
appropriate while in the BIOS.

Yes, looks like some compatibility problem.

Matrox has new BIOS files, for flashing their video cards here:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/bios/home2.cfm

For Windows, there is this file for the P750 and friends:
ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/archive/bios/2004/setup_p105.exe

It is a self extracting Winzip file, and inside is a README.txt
with some instructions.

You might want to Google, using some of the names of the programs
in that ZIP file, for more details as to what they are for.

I tried all that. Have latest BIOS and latest drivers for
my Matrox card. Latest driver solved problem with 256 color
GIF images in Windows and now I have to solve the booting problem.
It's not at big problem because my computer normally is on
all the time (24/7).

Matrox also has a user forum:

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php
http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=3832

Matrox staff man the forums M-F 9-5 from Dorval Quebec Canada,
and if the question hasn't already been answered, they can
respond to a post in the forum. There should be some posts about
this problem with P750/P650 and so you should be able to read
about how successful these BIOS updates are at solving the problem.

Thank you for the links.

 

[Ken]

There is one known problem, where the display is distorted
while the Matrox card is displaying the BIOS screen at boot.
They seem to have a disagreement as to what VESA? modes are
appropriate while in the BIOS.

Yes, looks like some compatibility problem.
It is not only a screen problem.
I can't make any changes in BIOS at all, and it is a POST problem.
And it is some problem in my Windows 2000 with GIF images (256
colors).
Look at this images here
http://w1.857.telia.com/~u85704001/matrox/
A lot of dots in the images.
And I got a dotted vertical line to the right of the mouse cursor.

Matrox has new BIOS files, for flashing their video cards here:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/bios/home2.cfm

For Windows, there is this file for the P750 and friends:
ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/archive/bios/2004/setup_p105.exe

It is a self extracting Winzip file, and inside is a README.txt
with some instructions.

You might want to Google, using some of the names of the programs
in that ZIP file, for more details as to what they are for.

I tried all that and have latest BIOS and latest drivers for
my Matrox card.
Tried the "SystemLogoFix.exe" and "SystemLogoColorFix.exe"

Matrox also has a user forum:

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php
http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=3832

Matrox staff man the forums M-F 9-5 from Dorval Quebec Canada,
and if the question hasn't already been answered, they can
respond to a post in the forum. There should be some posts about
this problem with P750/P650 and so you should be able to read
about how successful these BIOS updates are at solving the problem.

Thank you for the links. Many have the same problem
and the tips Matrox gave does not help me.
I think my new Matrox card is faulty in some way.
Maybe some design fault.