Matrox Support Hell

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7 total messages Started by Keith Bennett Sat, 25 Nov 1995 00:00

#62

Author: Keith Bennett
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 1995 00:00

58 lines
3521 bytes

I have been going through hell trying to get OS/2 drivers that work for
the Matrox Millenium video card. 

I tried installing from the CD that comes with the unit, and from the
drivers on ftp.matrox.com.  Both installs appear to complete
successfully, but when the machine is rebooted, I get a Trap D.

My frustration is compounded by the complete ineptitude with which
Matrox has handled my problem.

When I first phoned them about a couple of weeks ago, I was told that
they were aware of the problem and had a fixed driver.  I begged them
to make it available on their ftp site, or BBS, or to email it to me.
I was told that they could only send it by regular mail.  I asked why
it could not be made available electronically, and was told that the
person reponsible for that basically didn't feel like it.  When I
asked to speak with him to communicate with him my urgency, I was
told that he was not available.

(By the way, if I'm not mistaken, the only thing required to make a
file available on an ftp site is to copy the file into the
appropriate directory.  It's not as if it's an involved process.)

I have not yet received the driver, and although Montreal is in
Canada and I am in the U.S., it's just a one hour flight from there
to here, and if it had been sent the day of our phone conversation as
was my understanding, it should probably have gotten here by now.

Yesterday I called Matrox and spoke with another person there.  I was
told that there was a new driver on their BBS.  There wasn't; it was
the same driver dated June 30th that was there before.

I then called the dealer who sold me the machine (it was a complete
system including the video card).  The president of this company
called Matrox himself.  After waiting on hold for 30 minutes (and
this was an international call), he was given the name of the file
for me to download.  When I found it on the ftp site, it was in the
Windows NT directory, and the readme file confirmed that it was a Win
NT driver.  The fact that the file name was a cryptic "1597_110.zip"
did not help any in knowing its contents.

There are more intermediate steps that I don't remember clearly, but
I expect this is enough to illustrate the pattern.  It reminds me of
the time I was in a restaurant and got a well done steak instead of
the medium I ordered.  When I explained to the waiter, he took it
back to the kitchen.  A few minutes later he dutifully returned with
the same steak (evidenced by the shape of the cut I had made in it
earlier), even more burnt,

In short, IS ANYONE HOME AT MATROX?

- Keith

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Bennett                             Bennett Business Solutions, Inc.
Silver Spring, MD USA                     OS/2 & DOS Software Development
kbennett@cpcug.org                        (301) 871-7696

Re: Matrox Support Hell

#63

Author: Daron Myrick
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 1995 00:00

3 lines
845 bytes

Strange, the drivers install and run without a hitch for me.
Check your CMOS to be sure things aren't running too fast.
You wouldn't by chance be using an Asus Pentium Motherboard would you?

Re: Matrox Support Hell

#64

Author: hugo jimenez
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 00:00

25 lines
1851 bytes

Daron Myrick (daronm@onramp.net) wrote:
: Strange, the drivers install and run without a hitch for me.
: Check your CMOS to be sure things aren't running too fast.
: You wouldn't by chance be using an Asus Pentium Motherboard would you?

Well, i have an Asus P55TP4XE (P120, 16 MB EDO RAM, and 256 kb of PB
cache) and a Millenium and they seem to be working quite well with OS/2,
thank you. I did have problems at the beginning but now i think they
were related to the other parts i had from my previous computer.

I've contacted Matrox about four times, and they've always answered
promptly, and yes, i can say that courteusly too. When i was having the
problems i thought they were related to the drivers, and so i told them.
They sent me a beta version of their latest drivers by e-mail (V1.03,
build 013) even if i didn't specifically asked for them. However, i
wouldn't recommend this unless you are capable of receiving big files by
e-mail. The uuencoded drivers took about 1 Mb of space.

Regards,

--
 Hugo Jimenez-Vazquez
 jimenez@gaus90.chem.yale.edu
 Yale University
 Department of Chemistry

Re: Matrox Support Hell

#65

Author: John Chapman
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 00:00

45 lines
2766 bytes

In article <4982uj$q4o@cpcug.org>, Keith Bennett <kbennett@cpcug.org> wrote:
.
.
.
>I then called the dealer who sold me the machine (it was a complete
>system including the video card).  The president of this company
>called Matrox himself.  After waiting on hold for 30 minutes (and
>this was an international call), he was given the name of the file
>for me to download.  When I found it on the ftp site, it was in the
>Windows NT directory, and the readme file confirmed that it was a Win
>NT driver.  The fact that the file name was a cryptic "1597_110.zip"
>did not help any in knowing its contents.

Just out of curiousity I download this file after seeing your posting
(I've been wanting the new drivers too since there is some bad
interaction between IBM VACPP and the display driver) and they look
like NT files to me too. Did you actually try installing and running
the contents of that archive? What did you do?

On another note.... does anyone have the settings for the millenium
for use with a Mitsubishi 21TX? I can get the display up using one
of the other settings provided but every once in a while it wavers.
I'd like to know the correct settings for Millenium<-->TX21 before I
complain to the vendor (of the monitor - since it is such a pain to
lug around a 90lb monitor).

Thanks!

>There are more intermediate steps that I don't remember clearly, but
>I expect this is enough to illustrate the pattern.  It reminds me of
>the time I was in a restaurant and got a well done steak instead of
>the medium I ordered.  When I explained to the waiter, he took it
>back to the kitchen.  A few minutes later he dutifully returned with
>the same steak (evidenced by the shape of the cut I had made in it
>earlier), even more burnt,
>
>In short, IS ANYONE HOME AT MATROX?
>
>- Keith
>
>-- 
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Keith Bennett                             Bennett Business Solutions, Inc.
>Silver Spring, MD USA                     OS/2 & DOS Software Development
>kbennett@cpcug.org                        (301) 871-7696

Re: Matrox Support Hell

#66

Author: Bruce Sabalaskey
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 00:00

8 lines
1161 bytes

In article <4987ui$kfe@news.onramp.net>, daronm@onramp.net (Daron Myrick) says:
>
>Strange, the drivers install and run without a hitch for me.
>Check your CMOS to be sure things aren't running too fast.
>You wouldn't by chance be using an Asus Pentium Motherboard would you?

I have an asus TP4XE with a millenium 4M running fine. Is there
some kind of incompatibility issue here?

Re: Matrox Support Hell

#69

Author: Daron Myrick
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 00:00

6 lines
1136 bytes

I've called Matrox several times and I was completely amazed at how polite, responsive and quick
it is to get help from them.
Their drivers work perfectly for me under OS/2 Warp, Win95 and my home grown VESA 2.0 complient 
programs and have no earthly idea what everyone is whining about when it comes to the Millenium 
since mine has always worked perfectly and I'm even sharing it's IRQ 11 line with my CDROM drive 
with no ill effects whatsoever.

Re: Matrox Support Hell

#61

Author: Daron Myrick
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 00:00

5 lines
967 bytes

|I have an asus TP4XE with a millenium 4M running fine. Is there
|some kind of incompatibility issue here?

It's starting to look as if there are problems with only certain ASUS motherboards yours which
I havn't heard a complaint about.

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