Installing and Using Windows 95 with Matrox Ultima, Ultima Plus, Impression, Impression Plus and Impression Lite Products


Overview
This document addresses questions and problems with the use and installation of Windows 95 and Matrox's graphics accelerator boards. This includes all Matrox Ultima, Ultima Plus, Impression, Impression Plus and Impression Lite products (referred to as MGA). The Matrox Millennium is covered in the "Installing and Using Windows 95 with Matrox Matrox Millennium" document. Windows 95-specific drivers for running Matrox MGA products are included with Windows 95 ( version 1.00). No other versions are currently available from Matrox. This driver does not support Powerdesk features similar to our Windows 3.1 Powerdesk drivers for MGA. The MGA Windows 3.1 Powerdesk drivers cannot be used to run Windows 95.

Installation Tips
1) If you are installing Windows 95 on a system with an Matrox product Windows 95 will detect the MGA and automatically install the correct drivers.
2) If you are adding the Matrox graphics accelerator to a system with Windows 95, when you restart the system the hardware detection capabilities of Win95 should detect that a new product has been installed. We recommend that you allow Windows 95 to detect the hardware and install the drivers automatically.
3) When Windows 95 installs the drivers for your Matrox card and an MGA.INF file exists (created previously by the Windows 3.1 Powerdesk or MGA DOS Setup programs), the card's refresh rate will be those chosen for the MGA.INF file. To use this file, the following variable must be set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: MGA=C:\MGA\SETUP (where the MAG.INF file should be located). If you do not have an MGA.INF file available, Windows 95 will operate at 60 Hz since this driver cannot use the Windows 95 monitor selection.
4) Windows 95 may not start correctly if the Matrox products for ISA(AT), VL and MCA busses are configured incorrectly. If you were previously using your card under Windows 3.1 and you did not change any other hardware in your system, there should be no problems associated with the hardware. If you are having difficulties in booting Windows 95 with the MGA drivers installed, then you should consult your installation manual and verify the following:
a) The board's address does not conflict with any other system hardware. By default, it is set to AC00 (hexadecimal notation).
b) The RAMBIOS.SYS file should be loaded.
c) The memory manager should be excluding memory ranges used by the card.


Problems with Applications and Windows 95
If you discover a problem running an application that you think is related to the Matrox card (such as screen corruption), there is a simple test you can do before contacting Matrox Technical Support. You can disable the card's acceleration features to see if this is the cause of the problem. To do this, start the System properties from the Control Panel and select the Performance sheet. Click the "Graphics" button and slide the hardware acceleration button to None. Close everything and restart the system. If the problem still persists, then the problem comes from the application or from Windows 95. Contact the application vendor or Microsoft. If the problem disappears then the problem may be with the video card. To confirm this, try changing to the VGA drivers (640x480x16 colors) and see if the problem persists. If the problem disappears is most likely with the MGA video driver and you should report the problem to our technical support. If possible, send a fax to 514-685-2853 or email to graphics.techsupport@matrox.com.

Known Problems or Limitations
There are no known problems or limitations.


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