Matrox G400/450 Bug when doing part name displays on NT

[randychase]

NT O/S users running Matrox dual monitor video cards.

When you use the Library feature and search on parts, too many parts will cause you to not be able to select a part, just the first one.

Workaround:
Limit your search string to something smaller so that the list is not so long.

[ratkiller]

hay! I have that card.

I think i have seen what you are talking about. I thought it was just strange didn't know it was a real bug.

I an not running dual monitor thought. They might expect me to work 2X as fast if I did.

[Matt Boxall]

I use the Matrox G450 card with dual monitors on NT. Works great most of the time but there are other problems...

1. In 'Layers Setup' if you define a layer as split/mixed and then try to associate a net to that layer, the first net in the list gets added despite the fact that you haven't selected it. There are two workarounds that I know of....

a. Temporarily re-name the net so it appears at the top of the list alphabetically. Associate it with the split/mixed layer and then rename back.

b. Ascii out, add the netname to the ascii file and re-import.

2. Find -> Net also suffers from the same problem.

I believe that this has been mentioned on the listserver previously, but you may have missed it. In my experience, it only seems to affect designs with a connection count above approximately 1500.

Personally I'm going to change card when funds allow!!! Does anyone know if the 'Colorgraphics Preditor Pro2' card is a good investment?

Matt

[ratkiller]

Let me ask you this Matt.

Does opening menu's up work? I mean if you move your color pallete over to your left monitor. You know crtl alt c. will is stay up there with out causeing problems. Last time i tryied dual monitor things like that got twecky. I needed stability, so I went back to one monitor.

wayne

[petehouwen]

but that list bug is a pain.

I upgraded the driver, and that helped a lot. But then I ran into a BIGGER list, and the bug was back. It all depends on the size of your list (see - size does matter). I understand there is another driver update, I may try that one.

Before you give up on the dual monitors, try playing with the display properties settings.

[Matt Boxall]

Wayne,

As far as I can see everything else works as expected. After you set the G450 to run 'dual head' you can change various options under the 'powerdesk' pulldown menu to tailor the graphics card to your own requirements. There is a 'bug-fix' shown on the Innoveda website but I tried it and it made no difference.

I only asked for a dual head card so we could run Viewlogic and cross-probe to PPCB. The bugs that I mentioned before are a real pain but as Pete mentions they only apply to designs that contain a long list of net names. In my opinion the extra functionality that I have gained from using two monitors outweighs the problems in PPCB. The workarounds are pretty tedious but after using PPCB for 4 years I'm used to the ocassional 'ascii-in-and-out' !!!

Matt

[petehouwen]

OK, I just installed the latest driver (4.94.005).

The problem remains.

[Mark Larson]

The only real fix to this problem is to upgrade the OS. The problem is with NT.

There are work arounds that minimise the problem, in addition to the 2 previously mentioned by another user, here are some:

When trying to add or edit Design Rules in PowerPCB for a net, instead of going through Setup-Design Rules simply highlight object (net, nets) and RMB- Rules

If you have the problem in Library Manager break your large library into smaller ones

I have been told that the problem occurrs only when you have PowerDesk set to prevent Display spanning, instead allow display spanning. I have tried this on my particular setup (AMD 1GHz, Matrox G450 with 32Mb, 1/2 Gig of RAM, NT4) and found it does NOT fix the problem. Perhaps it may work for you(or perhaps the tip was bogus).

I have found that installing different drivers can change at what point (number of items in list) the problem occurs, but installing new drivers does not eliminate problem.

If you want dual displays, here may be a better way:

Any Windows OS, 98 and later, you can install another video card and the OS will recognise the additional display/monitor combination. Through Control Panel/Display you can set each display/ adapter combination independently. If you have an old ISA VGA card laying around and a 14 or 15 inch monitor, and have room for it on your motherboard, you can add it. Now you have a place for keeping open all the dialogue boxes, Outlook, or whatever. In 98 you can only add single display adapter cards (up to 4 I think), but later OS will take multiple multiple display adapters. Think of the possibilities!

[Lameris]

I use a single display Diamond Viper TNT card and I see the problem with the SMN library. I updated my video drivers, changed from NT SP5 to SP6, the problem is still there.

Now I loaded our latest and biggest board and I find that selecting Nets with the Find utility doesn't work either.

I haven't observed the problem until last month. Now it's driving me nuts...

[Lameris]

The bug is not limited to this card. It has been seen on several cards by nVidia or Diamond multimedia, including my 16M Diamond Viper TNT AGP.

Watch out for it on your Dell PC's...