[AG-TECH] Configuring Matrox Cards on some Dual Processor Machines

[Jonathan C. Humfrey]

I wanted to submit this for the record.

We had a very hard time configuring our Matrox cards for our Video Display
machine.  

We recently purchased a dual processor machine running two 1 gig pentium
3s on a Super Micro Super 370DE6 motherboard.  When we tried to install
our Matrox cards (1 G450 AGP and 2 G450 PCIs) the machine would not enable
them.  We had a variety of problems from Windows restarting over and over,
to instantly freezing up every time the machine was just about done
booting up.

The problem was that Windows 2000 "does not recognize video adapters that
are based on the Serverworks HE chip set on AGP video adapters that use
the "CPU to AGP controller" driver.  Windows installs the "Default
VGA" video driver".

None of the tech support people at Serverworks, Supermicro, or Matrox
seemed to know what to do.  However by installing Windows 2k Service pack
2, an updated set of bios for the Super 370DE6 motherboard, and a VGAfix
from Matrox, I was able to get the cards working.

Jonathan Humfrey
Digital Classroom
University of California at Santa Barbara