Advice on P4 PCI bug problem

[Eastboy]

I am currently using a Dell Precision 220 with Dual PIII 866 with 512MB RDRAM.

I have been having problems trying to get my 4 monitors to work with these card combinations:

(1)
AGP- GF3 64MB
PCI- GF2 MX400 64MB SH
PCI- GF2 MX400 64MB SH
PCI- GF2 MX400 6MB SH

(2)
AGP- GF3 64MB
PCI- Matrox G450 16MB DH
PCI- Matrox G450 16MB DH

The only solutions the PC has been able to accomodate are

(3)
AGP- GF3 64MB
PCI- Matrox G450 PCI DH
PCI- GF2 MX400 64MB SH (Has to be made primary video)

(4)
AGP- GF3 64MB
PCI- GF2 MX400 64MB SH (Has to be made primary video)

(5)
AGP- GF3 64MB
PCI- Matrox G450 PCI DH (Does not require to be primary video)

(6)
AGP- Matrox G550 32MB DH
PCI- Matrox G450 16MB DH


My problem is for the solutions that apparently work, I do get intermittent stability issues. Win2000 reports there are no IRQ conflicts. But somehow I think my i820 dual slot 1 mobo is giving me problems with the mulitple PCI cards.


So I was thinking of moving on to a single Intel CPU solution. The PIII has been discontinued by Intel and its partner vendor Dell, so I am left with the P4 solution.

But have any you guys faced any PCI graphic card problems with a P4 850 chipset? (There is 2 versions out: 423pin and 478pin, pls state yours)

Do you get irregular/abnormal CPU usage under Win2k or WinXP with your PCI cards? It should be near 0% when there is little load.

Thanks.

PS: I have included this link FYI.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2668771,00.html

 

[Eastboy]

I have done some research on this subject, it seems that the P4 PCI bug stems from the ICH2 component of the earlier P4 boards. The newer boards now have been revised with a correct B1 prime stepping which solves the problem.

So there are no more PCI graphics card problems with the current batch of P4s being sold in the market.