Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 (/thread-3651.html)

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Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Irinikus - 08-14-2022

This morning I decided to remove the PowerStorm 4D60T from my AlphaStation and try out the Matrox Millennium G450!

I was able to install the driver, but upon reboot it was unable to load the driver, giving me the following error message:


This error code points to an inaccessible boot device??? (How could a graphics card driver cause this problem?)

It ended up completely messing up my Windows NT install, so I had to reinstall Windows NT onto this machine yet again!!! (Not very enjoyable!!!)

If it had worked, it would possibly have been a pretty impressive upgrade As this card has a very impressive pixel fill rate!!!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - sgt_barnes - 08-14-2022

Uh, that sounds bad. Does there really exist a graphics driver for Alpha NT for the G450 chip? IIRC, it is from 2000 or so, so after Microsoft ended support for Alpha NT…

I do not see any reason why a graphics driver install should mess up the system so completely. Did you install it on NT 4 or the 2000 Beta?

And did you try and install the driver again on a clean install?

If we can get this to work, we might have found the apex of graphics cards working on Alpha NT!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Irinikus - 08-14-2022

I never tried it on a clean install, so that may be the problem!

The driver from the Matrox website didn't state that it was for Alpha Systems, but it was the only one that I could find for Windows NT4, which covers basically all of their cards.

I just need to gather the constitution and get more information before I try it on a clean install!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Irinikus - 08-14-2022

I'm currently reinstalling Windows NT with the Matrox installed to see if I can get it to work!

If it doesn't, I'll try windows 2000 next!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Linux-RISC - 08-14-2022

This problem rings a bell: http://forums.irixnet.org/thread-3573.html

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Irinikus - 08-14-2022

This is the error message:



I'm now trying Windows 2000

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I'll admit that the directory structure that it's looking in looks suspect!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - sgt_barnes - 08-14-2022

Seems that the driver is not for Alpha systems…

I will check how far the driver support for Alpha goes with Matrox cards, but it will take a while, as I am currently on vacation.

Please keep us posted, Irinikus! This is a really interesting topic!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Irinikus - 08-14-2022

Cool, thanks!

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - Irinikus - 08-14-2022

This appears to be a no-go, I'm afraid! :(

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RE: Matrox driver crashing AlphaNt on an AlphaStation 255 300 - sgt_barnes - 08-18-2022

The latest drivers for Matrox cards I found is from 1997, and it supports Millennium I and II. On the Matrox site, nothing can be found of these, so I guess the Alpha drivers where serviced by DEC/Compaq employees.

It is just a guess, but I do not see another reason reason why Matrox would not want to support support anything newer, like at least a G200. If they were in control of the drivers, they would surely try to maximize sales.

Does the Windows 2000 Beta come with an update here?

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