Need Help with KT7-100RAID Board

[Guest]

I am currently having lots of problems with my Abit KT7-100RAID board and the Athlon 1Ghz processor. I have stripped my system down to just the video card(GeForce2 GTS), the hard drive and 256 mb of pc-100 memory. For some strange reason, in windows 98 system monitor, the cpu usage is being reported in the 40-90% range when absolutely NOTHING is running in windows. If anyone has had similar problems, please reply. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[phsstpok]

from Paul's Unofficial KT7 FAQ, a great site.

http://www.icrontic.com/faqs/kt7faq/kt7faq.htm

"System Monitor reports 25% CPU activity with no processes running!

There appears to be a bug in the Windows 98 and Windows 98SE System Monitor application which incorrectly reports CPU activity. This is probably due to it reporting the CPU cooling functionality of ACPI as CPU activity. If you use a more sophisticated tool such as the excellent TaskInfo2000 (shareware but not crippled) you will see that whilst System Monitor reports 30% CPU activity, TaskInfo2000 reports 99.1% idle!!"

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. However on MemTurbo's CPU usage, it also shows 40% cpu usage. Another mystifying thing is that when running 3DMark2000 using D3D Hardware T&L Optimizations, the machine runs like a dog, getting 1900 or so 3d Marks, when other PC owners with the same configuration are getting 6900 and above. What do you think could be causing this??

 

[phsstpok]

The note mentioned a "sophisticated tool". Don't no much about it. Just passed on the information. I saw the same results with System Monitor and dismissed them when I realized my system was running great. I mean when System Monitor makes claim of 100% processor usage that is absurd. Your machine would be frozen.

Anyway, onto your performance problem. I would say you need to update the Via 4-in-1 drivers to get AGP working properly. When you install them you can select Turbo to get 4X but there is very little improvement over 2X but do turn it on here. (I'll talk about that in a bit). Also, the fastest Geforce Drivers are 6.50. 6.31 is the official release by nVidia. 6.67 gets the quality nod from Microsoft. 7.17 is the latest experimental drivers, slow but supports more directX 8 features. You take your pick. I use 6.50 and get a 3Dmark 2000 score of about 5000, on my KT7, with a Duron overclocked to 900 mhz, and a Geforce256 SDR slightly overclocked to 135/180. (I can get to 5549 with maximum overclocking). I'll try to pass on some info that will help you.

You are using PC-100 memory. That will handicap you by about 5-10%. I advise you to get pc-133, cas2 memory when you can. 128 mb only costs $61 at www.crucial.com with free shipping in the U.S.A. Even with PC-100, you still should be getting better scores (and you will with the 4-in-1 drivers).

For more speed we can do some Bios tweaks. Your system, I assume, is stable so we won't mess with memory timing with pc-100 DRAM. However for performance enhancement I recommend you turn on 4-way interleave and 4-K page mode(for more than a 5% improvement). Also you could turn on 4X AGP and Fast Writes but I have found together these increased my 3Dmark scores by only 49 points. Since I have heard that 2X is more stable with the Via chipset that's what I use. Also, because on a KT7 mobo to make Fast Writes work you have to turn off Enhance Chip Performance (This is a bug that maybe fixed in future BIOS updates). Neither of these have much effect, anyway.

That's about it. With good PC memory you can select CAS2 and Fast or Turbo DRAM timings for noticeable gains (in benchmarks).

There are other tips for increasing I/O performance but you can read about these at Paul's unofficial KT7 FAQ, a great resource I might add. Here is the link.

http://www.icrontic.com/faqs/kt7faq/kt7faq.htm.

Well, good luck.

 

[Guest]

I tried that software you recommended and it reported my CPU idle speed at 96%. You were correct on the System Monitor reporting bad CPU usage stats. I also fixed some other problems causing system instability. One was removing my Voodoo2 card. I also had to put both hard drives on the RAID controller. I installed the 4-in-1 drivers that came with the mobo. I will upgrade to the newest ones, do I need to flash my bios by any chance?? I will also go with the Nvidia 6.50 drivers, hopefully they will be more stable. I'll try these other things you recommended as well, hopefully these will fix my horrendous video card performance. Thanks for your help!!

 

[phsstpok]

I believe there is a driver update for the HPT RAID controller you probably should get it. (I have a KT7 and don't use or need RAID). If you don't need RAID I recommend disabling it to preserve an IRQ.

As for BIOS updates, my rule of thumb is if the system is stable don't do it. Check in with ABIT once and a while and see if any updates apply to any problems you might be having at the time or just to see if there problems you don't know about. If ABIT says you need a BIOS update then that's different.

Incidentally, I read, somewhere here, that the update WW won't boot if the CPU fan isn't working correctly. This is well and good unless your CPU fan isn't plugged into the motherboard header. I'm an overclocker with an oversized fan which can't be plugged into the header because of power requirements. Don't know what I will do if I later find I need that BIOS update.

Well, my system has been running for 3 months. I think I will check in at ABIT and see what's new.