KT133 / KT133a chipset bug causes crashes !!!

[CraigBee]

I finally made the jump and bough my first AMD / VIA system. I have an Abit KT7a motherboard. I was continually crashing during intence hard drive access. I can reproduce it continuously. This post on dejanews describes the problem I am having perfectly. Any one have a solution?

http://x57.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=689756779&CONTEXT=980022491.788398107&hitnum=2

 

[PieDerro]

Could you list your system specs... give us a starting point

 

[CraigBee]

System is currently:
Abit KT7a
Athlon 1200 (9x133)
384Meg Crucial PC133 (3x128mb)
C: ATA 66 - Quantum LCT15 30meg
D: ATA 100 - Quantum LCT20 40meg
TNT2 Ultra
Sound Blaster Live!
Linksys 100mb Ethernet
Adaptec 2905c Fast SCSI
USRobotics 33.6 modem

All current drivers are installed. This NEVER happened when using my Celeron II 850 / Abit BM6 combo (which is about what I am going to revert to in the next hour.) Based on the post to deja news, there is NO FIX because the KT7a can NOT change the PCI Latency Timer. I've used tweakbios (http://www.miro.pair.com/tweakbios/) to do this manually, but it still doesn't fix the problem.

Craig

 

[PieDerro]

Hmm... this is not good at all.

I'm getting a KT7A within the week, hoping to run 2 IBM 75GXP 30G Hard drives on it (non-raid). Strange how not many people have reported this problem.

 

[pillage2001]

LiNkIFiEd

 

[Mem]

Interesting read,it would be useful if any MSI owners care to test this possible bug out.

 

[Usul]

Thanks for the hand out, but if the real problem is the Latency, changing with the tweak should work.
And if it's VIA's error, try all 2 disks as prymary and secondary masters in the HPT370, no raid arranged.

 

[Usul]

Strange, the e-mail of the guy that pointed out the problem is rejected by the mailserver, had to use a hotmail account

 

[jpprod]

This post fits exactly to the problems I've been having with my K7Tpro-2A! Windows Media player movie playback randomly crashed with both sound and UDMA/100 mode enabled - not with other disabled. System gave hard lockups while copying a large file from one drive to another - not after reverting from UDMA/100 to UDMA/66.

VIA has better handle this with 4-in-1 driver updates, or my next motherboard will have an AMD or Intel southbridge in it.

 

[Technonut]

I have had a KT7A RAID up and running for close to a week now, and a KT7 before that for months, and have not experienced this issue.

I ran the hard drive intensive Content Creation Winstone2000 back to back 4 times with no lockups, and use PhotoShop, Net Objects Fusion, and MS Office 2000. I have done this before I set up the RAID, and after. I'm not saying there is not an issue in some cases, but this is the first that I have heard of it, and it will be interesting to keep up with.

I wish I could be of more help to you. I will post back if I come up with something.

 

[CraigBee]

Technonut,

Can you try something for me? Copy a HUGE (500meg or so) from one hard drive to the other then compare them using the following command in a DOS windows:

fc /b filename1 filename2

Mine would ALWAYS show a difference, if the computer did not crash first. I'd like to know how to get this rig stable, because when it works, it hauls.

Craig

 

[Technonut]

I have my 2 ATA 100 Maxtors in a RAID setup right now. I do have an extra ATA 66 15GB drive around that I will add later on today (after I eat )
and try that for you. Will post back soon...

 

[Tates]

I don't know if this related to your particular situation, but the girls at Overclockers.com seem to voicing concerns about the current crop of 133A boards.

Check it out:

Overclockers.com

Just a heads up.

 

[stroligo]

. . . but the girls at Overclockers.com seem to voicing concerns about the current crop of 133A boards.

Uhhh, excuse me?

 

[moocat]

Thanks for the info...I was teetering on the brink of a Tbird upgrade. I think I'll wait a bit.

 

[Sukhoi]

I'm kind of confused. Does this only effect Windows 2000? That's what the Deja thread seemed to say.

 

[CraigBee]

It effects any operating system using the KT133 or KT133a chipset. It is most prevelant when using both motherboard IDE slots.

 

[Sukhoi]

Dang. I'm going to really have to reconsider getting a Duron 800 and an EPoX 8KTA3. Everything in the system would be PCI, except for the modem. Maybe they'll release a new patched version of the chipset or something.

 

[Usul]

Looks like the ABIT RAID controller is safe, and the fact that happends after a while makes me think about overheating of the chipset.
So maybe active cooling on the north bridge wasn't only to look cool
Anyone with a ABIT KT7 having this problem?

 

[Mark R]

From the linked posting, it seems that this problem was first reported on an Abit KT7-RAID.

 

[Technonut]

I threw in the 15GB drive, set it as secondary slave from the VIA IDE controller, and used the HP RAID to copy UT (901MB/416 files/12 folders) to the 15GB drive 4 times, and had no crashes, and no file differences.

EDIT: I do have a Blue Orb on my Northbridge, attached with Arctic Silver Adhesive. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I also always installed better aftermarket HSF's on the Northbridges of all the other KT7's that I built for customers, and myself.

 

[Usul]

Mark: i mailed Kasper, the originator of the other thread, and he said
>We tested the promise controllers on a KT7-Raid board, no problems there.
Technonut The issue is with a single file. Try to make a GB+ single file - zip your game dir (or Win registry ) and try again, please.

Usul

 

[Technonut]

Usul, I will do that when I have more time, and post back. I have had this KT7A RAID board up and running perfectly for almost a week now, and have been very pleased with the performance and stability. I have put it through the wringer so far with no crashes. I use it more for business than games, and it does everything that I need to do. I may go on another Mountain Dew binge tonight , and see if I can duplicate this issue.

 

[cisco]

Craigbee,
I've heard you need exact hard drives to run raid, I couldn't tell from your specs if you are running the hard drives as two masters (but i'm assuming you are)except one is on the ATA100 IDE and the other the ATA66 IDE plug, it seems the problem may be associated with you running one at ATA100 and one at ATA66 try running both at ATA66.
Also , is the processor overclocked, if it is set all jumpers to factory specs for the CPU and memory, then copy the file (500megs)

 

[Usul]

Well, if you lower it to UDMS 66, you hould solve the problem anyway ( as suggested somewhere in the original thread) but the point is that you lose performance.