Getting rid of A7V

[Gogga]

Hi,

I am looking for a new Socket A motherboard, because I am tired of the problems I am having with my Asus A7V. (Frequent startup problems. Crashes with IE5 in Win98SE)

I am looking replace the Asus board with either the MSI K7T Pro (version2) with multiplier adjustment, Abit KT7 w/o Raid and the Epox EP-8KTA+.

I did have a MSI K7T Pro and did have positive experiences with this board, but it was unfortunate that you couldnt change the multiplier. I saw that it is possible with version2, but does anybody know when this board will be released?

I am also curious about the Epox board. I would like to know if anybody had bad/good experiences with this board?

I am a bit wary of Abit boards since I had a Abit BE6, but that was because of the highpoint controller, but still... But this board should be a nice replacement because of the nice range of voltage tweaks? Does this board also have problems with IRQ conflicts with the Sblive?

Thx for your replies and suggestions!

Regards
Gogga

 

[ZigZag]

Download the BIOS 1003

It will fix your problem

I have it too

Yaniv

 

[hclarkjr]

Gogga, would you be interested in selling your ASUS board to me? i have a unlocked duron with the MSI K7T PRO board, they was suppossed to release bios for the original board that had multiplier but instead made another version board.i am wondering if i would be able to flash it with the bios for new version? i am calling MSI today to find out. let me know if you want to sell your board

 

[Gogga]

I changed to Bios version 1004A to because of the problems I had with 1003.
But it didnt solve anything. I tried Bios version 1004D now and still I get
lockups...

==update==
I tried a Voodoo3 in my computer now, and I havent had any lockups so far! Hmmmm, maybe it is just the videocard that is the problem.

 

[Midnight82]

I had issues at first w/ my A7V too, but now it rocks. Just setting some of the BIOS settings is tricky(some of the advanced default PCI options prevented my NIC from working!). But basically under the Advanced options some stuff like the PCI Master Read Caching and stuff that is mostly enabled by default should be disabled. Search this forum for something on settings on the A7V BIOS, thats what I found to solve my problems.

I love this board though! Combined w/ a Tbird 900 Mhz and a GeFroce2, my game playing experience is infinitely better than on my K6-3 400 Mhz. Anyways, good luck in finding a replacement if you decide to carry that out otherwise try setting the settings in BIOS and that will fix most probs. VIA drivers + latest drivers for all components help too, plus Windows Updates.

 

[Gogga]

Thx midnight, but I tried that as well too! Appears that my system doesnt like Nvidia cards.
I havent had any problems with the Voodoo3 so far, so I think I will maybe stick with my current setup. Voodoo3 is okay for Unreal Tournament

 

[Gogga]

Why does Nvidia cards have problems with the Via KT133 chipset? I had a P3 500E and a MSI 6309 (Via 133A chipset) before I switched to AMD and I NEVER had any problems with my Geforce 2 MX?

Does other Via KT133 motherboards also have problems with the Geforce2 MX? Plz let me know if your system is stable with a Asus V7100 or any other MX card!

Thx again!

 

[Mem]

I`ve had my MSI K7T PRO for 5 weeks now so it`s long enough for stability testing(rock solid on gaming & general use)& have used both a TNT card & now a Geforce2 MX with no problems at all,btw tried both 5.22 & the new 6.31 drivers both rock stable on my system,what drivers are you using & have you disabled fastwrites in bios?

 

[Gogga]

Hi Mem

I did disable fastwrites in the Bios and I tried all the detonator drivers (5.33, 6.18, 6.26, 6.27, 6.31 and now 6.34) and still I always get crashes with Internet Explorer5 and 5.5.

I dont have any problems running games, but just that my computer would lockup when I surf on the net? Netscape did work btw, but I like IE better :Q

I also had the MSI K7T Pro and didnt have any problems with it, but I wanted the multiplier settings so I swapped it for a A7V... Hmmmm, I think I am going to buy version 2 of the MSI board when it is released!

BTW, does anyone know how long it will take for the AMD760 motherboards to appear?

hclarkjr: I live in Holland so I dont know if I can sell my A7V to you

Anyway, thx for your replies so far!

Regards,
Gogga

 

[blammo22]

I'm running my Winfast GeForce2 MX stable (right now, anyway) with AGP4x/FastWrites and all options on in BIOS (ver. 1003). I had a lot of problems with random freezes before, and my sound was crackling/popping with my SBLive. I switched to a Yamaha sound card, which seemed to help, but I still sometimes had freezes in Win98SE (Win2K was stable, though). For some reason it seems that just messing around installing the Via 4in1 and Detonator 3's seems to fix/break the stability problem. I'm currently running 4in1 4.24a, and leaked Det3 6.34 under both Win2K and Win98SE - it's perfectly stable (for now, anyway...). Good luck.