G400 AGP 4x (1.5V) and Asrock K7S8X and R68 Patch

Hallo

I have a few questions:


Is ist true that you can put an old type G400 (MTHA32G, 906-01 Rev A)
into an ASROCK K7S8X without damaging borad or card? (There is a warning
labal on the AGP-port of the board: no 3.3V Card -> damage!!! )
If it doesn't work it's ok, but i don't want to 'burn' my hardware!!

Is ist true that the old G400 are Univeral AGP Card's (4x 2x 1x 3.3v
1.5 v) with a bug?

Is it true that you can fix the bug by connecting the free resistor R68
by a blank wire (or something else)?


The left pin of my R68 is conneceted to the ground and the rigth pin is
connectet to pin A2 (=TYPEDET#, the second one from rigth on the back
side of the card)
hm, that looks like the R 68 trick may work


It's said that a r68 patched G400 still works fine on 3.3v system. is
that true?


Is there anyone with that card/board comibantion?

Is there anyone with tried to put the old G400 into a K7S8x?


Do you know a good website with tips to that topic?


(Attention:
as far as I know new G400 may be labeled MTHA4X32G or 906-02)



Ciao, Andreas
----

Andreas D. Bauer <> wrote:

> Do you know a good website with tips to that topic?
http://www.matroxusers.com is the place to ask, IIRC this question is
seen there once in a while.

> (Attention:
> as far as I know new G400 may be labeled MTHA4X32G or 906-02)
IIRC (don't blame me!) the Rev4 G400 can run in any system, Linux'
/sbin/lspci -v says on my G400:"MGA G400 AGP (rev04)", so it seems I'm
lucky, though I "only" have an ECS K7VZA Rev3. If you have a bootable
Knoppix CD try it to find out which revision you have.

hth
Malte

"Andreas D. Bauer" wrote:

> Hallo
>
> I have a few questions:
>
> Is ist true that you can put an old type G400 (MTHA32G, 906-01 Rev A)
> into an ASROCK K7S8X without damaging borad or card? (There is a warning
> labal on the AGP-port of the board: no 3.3V Card -> damage!!! )
> If it doesn't work it's ok, but i don't want to 'burn' my hardware!!
>
> Is ist true that the old G400 are Univeral AGP Card's (4x 2x 1x 3.3v
> 1.5 v) with a bug?

I am not sure, but I do know that most of the very early G400s were AGP 2x
cards, and did not support AGP 4x. They cannot go into an AGP 8x motherboard
afaik.


> Is it true that you can fix the bug by connecting the free resistor R68
> by a blank wire (or something else)?

no idea. The best place to ask these questions is at
http://www.matroxusers.com . This has been gone over at depth there, with
detailed specification sheets posted.


> The left pin of my R68 is conneceted to the ground and the rigth pin is
> connectet to pin A2 (=TYPEDET#, the second one from rigth on the back
> side of the card)
> hm, that looks like the R 68 trick may work
>
> It's said that a r68 patched G400 still works fine on 3.3v system. is
> that true?
>
> Is there anyone with that card/board comibantion?
>
> Is there anyone with tried to put the old G400 into a K7S8x?
>
> Do you know a good website with tips to that topic?
>
> (Attention:
> as far as I know new G400 may be labeled MTHA4X32G or 906-02)

I believe the cards with "A4X" in the identification serial can go into 1.5v
AGP slots, but I might be wrong. It is best to ask at the site I listed
above.


>
> Ciao, Andreas
> ----

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 15:02:00 +0200, Andreas D. Bauer wrote:

> Hallo
>
> I have a few questions:
>
>
> Is ist true that you can put an old type G400 (MTHA32G, 906-01 Rev A)
> into an ASROCK K7S8X without damaging borad or card? (There is a warning
> labal on the AGP-port of the board: no 3.3V Card -> damage!!! )
> If it doesn't work it's ok, but i don't want to 'burn' my hardware!!
>
> Is ist true that the old G400 are Univeral AGP Card's (4x 2x 1x 3.3v
> 1.5 v) with a bug?
The "full" G400 designed for AGP4x (1.5volt) slots has a 4A in the model
number (on the matrox sticker on the card itself).

All G400 are capable of voltage switching between 3.3 volts and 1.5 volts.

But you don't necessarily need a G400 with 4A in the model number to work in
in an AGP 4x board. The earlier model G400's will work in some AGP4X
motherboards. It depends on the motherboard (more info below).

Matrox realised they had made a mistake with the circuitry on the
original G400's and revised the circuit board even before the model 4A cards
were issued.

There are at least 3 different types of G400 cards:

TYPE 1) the original G400's 2x

TYPE 2) the revised G400's 2x with revised circuit board number (002 I
think)

TYPE 3) the "full" G400 4x cards (with 4A in model number)

I have a Gigabyte 8IRXP and an Asus P4B533-E. Both of these boards are for
AGP4x 1.5v
cards only. The difference between these motherboards is that the 8IRXP does
not attempt to save itself if a 3.3volts video card is inserted. ie. the
motherboard will burn itself out. The Asus P4B533-E actually checks the
video card
type inserted into the motherboard and will NOT boot with a 3.3volt card.

Now the TYPE 1 cards are detected by motherboards as 3.3volt - so the TYPE 1
card works okay in an 8IRXP (because the 8IRXP does not check the video card
type) but
the TYPE 1 cards won't work in a P4B533 (because the motherboard thinks
its 3.3volt card, but of course its not, because it will switch to 1.5volt)

The TYPE 2 cards will work in any motherboard looking for an AGP 4x 1.5v
card

The TYPE 3 cards will work in any motherboard looking for an AGP 4x 1.5v
card

Because of the auto voltage switching you can insert any Matrox G400 into
any motherboard with takes an AGP 4x 1.5v card and you will not burn it out.