A7V PCI slots question

[BigRat]

I'll be getting my new PC day after tomorrow.
I need to know which PCI slot to put what card because I've heard of people having problems with A7V IRQ sharing.
the specs are: Thunderbird 850MHZ
128 MB SDRAM PC133
SB LIVE!VALUE
Creative GEForce2 MX
Internal Aztech V.90 modem
30 GB Maxtor HDD ultraATA100

Thanks for the help.By the way, how do I update the bios and where can I get the VIA 4 in 1?

 

[RavenPrime]

PCI slot 1 shares with the AGP.
PCI slot 2 shares with the onboard ATA/100 controller.
PCI slot 3 is independent--the only one.
PCI slot 4&5 share IRQ with each other and with the onboard USB.

My system:
A7V BIOS 1005a
900MHz T-bird
Elsa Gladiac Geforce2 GTS 32MB AGP slot
Kingston network 10/100 network card slot3
SB Live Xgamer slot4
Firewire card slot5
30GB IBM Deskstar 75GXP in master primary ATA/100
Toshiba 12X/10X/32X DVD master primary IDE
LS120 slave primary IDE
Smart and Friendly 2/2/24 CDRW master secondary IDE
USB mouse, keyboard, joystickX2, and printer
WinMe
Via 4in1 v4.25a
ATA/100 controller v16 build 25
Latest SB Live drivers for WinMe v4.12.01.0801

In the BIOS I have the AGP at Optimal and have even been able to turn on AGP fast write with the latest BIOS.
I have disabled system restore and removed all the startup files from my registry.
My system finally runs stable and fast. No bootup problems or delays.
I am trying the Detonator3 drivers again and will let you know--so far stable but not any faster.

Web sites to download drivers:
www.amdzone.com
www.asus.com
www.nvidia.com--see your graphics card manufacturer's site first.
BIOS: ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_A/VIA_Chipset/Apollo_KT133/A7V/
SBLive: www.soundblaster.com--Do not install the LiveWare software.
Via 4in1: www.viatech.com


James

 

[Bubba]

AGP card in AGP slot
SBLive in PCI #3
Modem in PCI #4
Hard drive attached to ATA100 or IDE 66
Just wait on updating your bios. I would only update the bios if the one you are using isn't working. Since it is relatively new it will probably be 1004.
Here are the VIA drivers:
www.viahardware.com/download/4in1426.zip
When you get your board, put it all together (except for the PCI cards) and do a clean install of windows after formatting your drive. The first thing you should do after installing windows is install the VIA drivers. Then install the drivers for the video card. Then install the PCI cards one at a time (don't leave them in while installing windows).
I prefer installing windows Me, this removes the need to download all the updates from the Windows Update web site.

Make sure you download all the dirvers on your current system and put them on a disk before you format.

 

[Bubba]

Sorry, one last thing, I agree with ravenprime, do not install the Liveware software for your sound card. I know what your thinking, So what's the use of this expensive card if you can't use all its features? Well the answer is that Liveware 3 sucks and it is almost a year old and doesn't work with WinME. You need to wait until Liveware 4 comes out which will be sometime in the next 10 years. Sorry that's as accurate as I could be, after all, it is Creative Labs.