Lockups on A7V133

[CrazyDog]

I just built my first system with the help of my brother. It's an A7V133 mobo with an AMD 1GHz T-bird. I'm running Windows 98SE. At first I thought the lockups were related to the power management because the system would not wake up and required a reset. I changed that to not go into Standby mode, only turn off the monitor after 15 minutes, and never turn off the HDD. Today it locked up while deleting some news headers in Agent. The only things running were two copies of Agent and Windows Explorer. It's done this once before. As well as locked up accessing My Computer. As soon as it started to come up and display the drive information it locked up. Often after locking up I'll have to reset twice before it will completely reboot. And then a number of times the drive letters have been rearranged. I have two HDDs. Restarting Windows corrects the drive letters.

My guess is the problem has something to do with the Promise controller and the way I have my drives hooked up. I have the following drives connected:

1. IBM 75 GXP connected to Promise primary controller as master (this drive is partitioned 10G (Drive C), 10G (E), and 40G (F))
2. IBM 10G ATA33 HDD connected to Promise secondary controller as master (this drive is one partition (Drive D)
3. 40X CDROM connected to nonPromise primary controller as master
4. Zip 100 connected to nonPromise primary controller as slave
5. CD-R connected to nonPromise secondary controller as master

I've downloaded and installed the latest Promise drivers from ASUS -- 1.60 (Build 33). My next thought was to move my IBM ATA33 HDD as the master to my CD-R on my nonPromise secondary controller. I hope to try that this weekend. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Boonesmi]

you didnt mention what kind of power supply you have? i had a similar problem when i used a generic 250w power supply. adding a new 300w fixed my problem (but sure no guarantee that its your problem too )

 

[CrazyDog]

Here's the description of the power supply in my system:

Power Supply: AMD Athlon K7 approved Model ATX-730 300W made by Enhanced Electronics, recommended for up to 1000MHz (1GHz).

 

[Boonesmi]

to me the hard drive setup looks ok, i did read something at asus's web page yesterday about a problem with promise build 33 and bios version 1.02a. ill go see if i can find it

 

[Leo V]

CrazyDog, I'd say the chances are 80% that it's a PCI conflict. Try first removing all PCI cards and see if you can replicate the lockups. If yes, reinstall them one at a time, and try different PCI slots if you still encounter crashes. That's what I had to do, in order to make my A7V133 rock stable. In my case, the bottom 2 PCI slots always cause instability (conflict w/Promise) whenever used.

 

[Boonesmi]

i found what i was looking for, but... its not related to your problem


still you might want to take a look cause it has to do with your system.

http://www.asus.com/products/Techref/Tech-report/mthmbqa.html

 

[CrazyDog]

IRQ problems were my next guess after the way my drives are hooked up. The only cards I have in my system at the moment are:

1. Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro in AGP slot
2. RealTek (spelling?) NIC in slot 3
3. Montego (turle beach) sound card in slot 4

From reading the ASUS manual I thought the Promise Card shared IRQs with the AGP slot and PCI slot 2. And that PCI slot 3 only shared with the AMR slot that I don't use. That's why I chose this setup. Yesterday I disabled COM2 to free up one more IRQ. Still locked up.

 

[Leo V]

CrazyDog, please listen to what I said! I encountered conflicts with the same IRQ's being used, just because I used PCI slots #4 or 5!

 

[Sharkmeat]

AMD AMD AMD AMD all the way I love them can't wait till I get one when I grow up,but then I may become a fireman or police officer or maybe a teacher,maybe I will get smarter and get the next best thing and have no headaches.

 

[CrazyDog]

Thanks,

I'll pull the sound card and see if that has any affect on the lockups. I'm planning on replacing it and the video card with the next week anyway.

 

[Leo V]

Sharkmeat
...unless you happened to buy an Intel i820! Troll :|

 

[Sharkmeat]

We talking about a Chip here causeing the headache not the MB .You look to nice to respone to the sugestion of me being a troll .

 

[Leo V]

Sharkmeat, if your point is that VIA seduces goats with their chipsets, I agree completely. However notice I'm running a perfectly stable A7V133 system myself, which is faster+cheaper than any Intel solution for my purposes. Don't come here suggesting that Intel solutions are painless, I'll smack you with my BE6 motherboard

 

[SofaKingWeTaughtIt]

LOL

 

[SofaKingWeTaughtIt]

Sorry about that last post, but I really was.

I think Leo is on the right trail here.

From your description, the HDs are set up correctly.

I would get the vid card and the Promise controller up and running with the latest drivers/BIOS first, then tackle the other cards.

 

[Kuntry]

I am CrazyDog's brother and I believe the problem is that his system is slightlyfaster than mine and I have secretly sabatoged it.... Just kidding (about the sabotage, not the brother part)...I am thinking that we hook all the drives up on the non-promise connectors and see if it still locks up...

 

[CrazyDog]

"I am CrazyDog's brother and I believe the problem is that his system is slightlyfaster than mine and I have secretly sabatoged it...."

I knew it!!! It's about time you finally admitted it.

 

[Sharkmeat]

Leo-V I,m sure you are a talented lady and everthing you got is fast and stable.I,m sure you can get to the root of all your hardware needs ,But not one time have I mention Intel.What I am saying if you buy an AMD product and don't no squat leave the cooking shores to the cook and stay out of the kitchin.Now be Honest Leo V .Is AMD the best system to work with!!,if it is your first time assembling a computer.With the diff MB and chipset,s and so many diff drivers that can cause so many problem for the the best of us much less a poor recruit.PS But you right -- Leo V -- if you get one together it is a fast mechine and if not overclocked will be stable as any other product.Besides I love competition,it keeps the blood pumping .

 

[Dulanic]

CrazyDog ignore all these fools fighting over other stuff. The likely cause is a IRQ conflict, try swapping the NIC and Sound Card. Sound Card should always go in PCI 3 on this board since it does not share IRQs.

 

[Leo V]

"Leo-V I,m sure you are a talented lady"

LMAO!! He really believed I'm a lady

"if it is your first time assembling a computer"

ROFL!! What does my Platinum status on this board suggest, Private? People who've actually been here know that I've had years' experience building systems (mostly Intel BTW), not to mention I make money programming! I've done overclocking with everything from a keyboard controller to videocards to a Peltier-cooled CPU. I don't anymore though, because my priorities have shifted--in fact I underclock CPU's these days. I hope this gives you a better idea of who you're dealing with

Maybe you should abide by your logo more earnestly!

 

[Sharkmeat]

Boy you get bitchie when some one hit your sore spot,I didn't say you Leo V. Read it as a thrid person.And far as my user Name it is not as through I,m a bad ass,but as a pilot that treaded water in the salt pond for rescue or become Sharkmeat.I no you are one of those women that like to be talked dirty to,but I,m not that type person.I don't call people names or put people down because they make a mistake buying recommended products by people that gets lost putting there own crap together.Maybe you are not a lady,if not sorry for your defaults maybe one day you will grow up to become one.An if you are a programer maybe you could plug your self into the usb port and run a tune-up .PS maybe if i start bumping I could become a platinum memeber.

 

[zOmbiebOy]

Go with Dulanic's suggestion. That's what ended my problems with lockups.

-z

 

[Leo V]

"I no you are one of those women that like to be talked dirty to,but I,m not that type person."

No more drugs for that man Great post though

 

[CrazyDog]

Thanks Dulanic and zOmbiebOy,

I'll give that a try.

 

[CrazyDog]

My machine locked up again so it seemed like a good time to turn it off and pull some PCI cards. I moved the sound card to the PCI 3 slot and the NIC to the PCI 2 slot. Restarted machine and received warning message that PCI 2 shares an IRQ with the Promise controller, press F1 to continue. I continued and my second HDD was not recognized. I restarted a number of times, but the Promise controller would not recognize my second HDD. I pulled the NIC and moved to PCI 4 where the sound card was originally. Rebooted and everything seems to be working ok so far. Everything seems to have it's own IRQ now except for the USB controller, sound card, and NIC are all sharing IRQ 3. Promise controller and video card have their own IRQ now. I don't know if this will change the next time I reboot though. If I can make it two full days without a lockup, I'll consider my problem solved. Otherwise, I'll keep looking.