Matrox G450 Problem

[gyoung]

I'm using a Matrox G450 but I can't get any 3d acceleration. I am using the PC as a Music Jukebox and when I run Winamp and try to get the visualization going I get an error stating that there is no 3d accelerator installed.

I ran DXDIAG and it states that all the Direct X features are not available. They used to be available!

Any help in troubleshooting would be appreciated. The machine is running Windows 2000 with Direct X 9. It has 384MB or RAM with a PII 400mhz processor (remember it is only serving as a jukebox!).

Thanks!

[gyoung]

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of drivers from Matrox's webiste. No luck.

[Peter M]

Are the Matrox drivers DX9 compatible? If they aren't, then you need to step back to a DirectX release that the G450 drivers can attach to.

I never installed above DX8.1 on my G450 DualHead (both the same chipset as G400 and that is touted as having DX6 support).

It's my understanding that DX9 is backwards compatible w/ older cards, just not all the features my be utilized.

Do you have the AGP driver for your chipset installed?

[Peter M]

This is not the case. The video card's _driver_ must support the very DirectX architecture you're using, else you'll get no 3D acceleration at all. The card _hardware_ does not need to support all the features of the DirectX release you're using - in that case it'll be missing some features, but acceleration in general will be enabled.

[gyoung]

DirectX 9 can't be rolled back easily can it? I probably have a Direct X 8.1 game around here somewhere that has the Direct X 8 installation on it.

[Kruzin]

The card will work fine with DX9. It just won't support the newer features. DX IS backwards compatable. I know of many, many people using DX9 on G-series cards with no problem.

The things you need to check:
Motherboard chipset drivers
IRQ assigned to VGA in the mobo BIOS
desktop set to 16 or 32bit color depth (no 3D support in 24bit)

[watchtower7]

Matrox has a very good customer support forum that is actively monitored by matrox employees. They can solve your problem there.
Having said that, the happiest day of my computing life was when I said goodbye to the matrox 550.

[Kruzin]

They do have a great tech support forum, with good techs. Unlike other manufacturer's forums, Matrox techs actually answer every thread.

There is also the best user-to-user support community around for Matrox users....The MURC.
Link in my profile