a7m 266 4x problems?help

[Sigma]

i was having problems with 4x enabled in my bios. all 3d applications would crash immediately upon start. switched to 2x ane everything was fine. then installed latest 760miniport drivers from amd, and then able to run in 4x outstandingly. shut off computer, went to sleep, turned on, tried to run an application, and again the computer reverted back to crashing. tryed re-instarlling the miniport drivers and this time didnm't work. does anybody have any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Don't know that I have a solution, but it may help if you post what video card you are running.

I had a problem with my Creative Labs TNT2 Ultra after installing Creative's most recent "Blaster Control" program. During setup of that utility I hit the video tab (not an enable box, just the menu tab) and it caused my system to crash. After rebooting, whenever I tried to run a 3D game it would lock up the system. It was fixed by removing "Blaster Control" and running the card with the vanilla drivers. This was under WinME.

For note, I have 4x enabled in the BIOS and installed the most recent agp miniport drivers also.



A scientist will never show any kindness for a theory which he did not start himself. – Mark Twain

 

[Crashman]

Like I've said so many times, try setting BIOS to configure your PNP cards (not the OS), and to reserve an IRQ for VGA.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Sigma]

i'm not sure how to set bios to configure pnp cards adn not os. they are all set to no/icu and the only other option is yes. do i use yes or no/icu. and also dont know how to reserve an irq for vga, i do not see an option for that. i have just slot 1 - 5 set on auto under pci configuration in the bios.

 

[Kelledin]

I don't think you want the AMD miniport drivers. I'm not 100% certain on this, but I believe the AGP interface is handled by the southbridge--and the soutbridge on the A7M266 is still a VIA southbridge.

Kelledin
<font color=red>"Step away from the gimp suit and put your hands on top of your head."</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

so far so good, but you should also have a setting at the top of that menue for automatic. And on another menue that says reserve IRQ for VGA. You might have to look around for it, but it should be there. Nice to see how VIA is up to their old tricks still, concerning IRQ configuration errors.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

Make sure you have AGP Fastwrites off and try it on 4x even if your vid card does support it. I have the amd miniport drivers and mine runes like a dream.

However...a wiseman once said .."Dont update your bios if you dont have any problems or you will cause more problems."

_RK_

 

[Sigma]

my vid card is a leadtek winfast geforce2ultra. thanks for the reply.

 

[Sigma]

i have all my irq slots in pci/pnp irq resource exclusion set to no/icu. slots 1 - 5 in pci configuration is set to auto. I have my plug and play o/s set to no. But I can not find anywhere a place to reserver irq for vga. You can take a look at the manual online at asus.com the mobo is A7M266, i just don't see it anywher and its not in the manual, maybe its a function not supported by this bios.

 

[Sigma]

do you think you can list for me what your bios settngs are for agp categories and for your irq categories since were using the same bios, alnd by the way did you remove the tab in your agp slot because mines still in there. dont know if i had to remove that. my card is leadtek win fast geforce 2 ultra

 

[Crashman]

Dang, I don't know then, because every board I've had for the past 5 years have had this option. I would certainly hope that Asus does not think this to be outdated, as it is necessary in certain situations, especially when there are configuration problems.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Crashman]

BTW, the tab is there to cover the extra power connectors for an AGP PRO card, so you don't stick the AGP card in the wrong way and fry it.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Sigma]

i tried it with fast writes off and it stil crashes when 4x is enabled.

 

[Sigma]

a guy from asus e-mailed me and told me to download a beta version of the mobos bios (rev. 1004). Do you think its okay to flash the bios with a beta version.

 

[Crashman]

Asus usually has good beta bios, I use beta on my Asus.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Sigma]

ill give it a whirl and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

Flash at your own risk. =) Wise man once said "dont flash a new bios if there are no problems with your current" ...but in this case I think not running stable at 4x agp is justifiable since that can cut ur card speed in half especially with a geforceultra chipset based card. I used a geforce2 ultra card myself. Sorry I didnt reply earlier I didnt see the message but if you have no luck after the new bios message me and I will go look up my bios settings for ya but I think ya should be fine.

Good Luck,
_RK_

 

[Sigma]

no the bios update didn't work. Now 3d apps in 2x mode are crqashing as well. I dont know what it is. My first attempt at building a computer and i'm ready to smash it in with a sledge hammer. Its got to be something with the vid card and this amd760/via chipset. Or maybe its win me. I have been getting alot of random error messages in windows all related to iexplorer or explorer. I installed win 98 first right after partitioning and formatting, then after I installed the vid drivers and the sound and nic card, then i updatd win 98 to Me. I dont. Maybe I'm just grasping at straws here,but i'm at my witts end.

 

[Sigma]

One more question? I have realised that when i get this to run stable in 4x mode. Then boot up the next morning after bing powered down, it always detects new hardware (specifically my monitor) and installs new drivers. then i try it out and its back to its old tricks until i can get it working again. Do you think this might have to do with the monitor settings or win Me not being configured properly. could this be a monitor problem? or a win me problem? thanks for any help and thank you for your previous assistance.

 

[OzzieBloke]

Something that occurred to me... you said you upgraded to winME over win98, as an actual upgrade to the operating system, or you have the full version of ME? It has been known that installing a new 'upgrade' OS onto an old one is a good way to cause system performance problems... you may want to try a clean install of JUST winME, and avoid win98 First Edition like the plague.. make sure it is win98 SE.

Australian PMs are like steer horns; a point here, a point there, & a heap of bull in the middle.

 

[Sigma]

thats right. i first installed win98 first edition on the new computer, then and which was stupid of me, i updated it to win me. I should have tested the vid card before upgrading to me. I have a feeling its an os issue.

 

[Guest]

I have a question? How many memory modules are you using? I have been spending time on ASUS website becuase I have a crashing problem also. Me and several other people have a memmory issue. If we run two 256mb PC2100 modules are system becomes very unstable. Using 1.33mhz Athlon C and manual approved Samsung memmory. If you only run one module it works perfectly in any slot flawless and fast. I have tried four different modules and two motherboards. If any body has a solution that would be great. Back to my question how many modules are you using and what size are they?

 

[Sigma]

Pc2100 256mb. One stick in slot 1.

 

[Guest]

Hi, I've experienced the sme problems on my A7M266/A1.2C/2x256MB/GF2Ultra system. My system crashes on bootup or directly in windows login.
My only solution so far was to lower the system clock to 100MHz(200MHz FSB). Not a nice cure when you've paid up good money for the thing.
When on 200MHz FSB everything run smoothly. Never tried lowering AGP speed though.
I tried removing one stick of RAM without effect.

 

[Sigma]

what are your bios settings. my system only crashes in 3d applications. what are your settings for sdram configuration, sdram cas latency, sdram ras precharge time, sdram ras to cas delay. also what are do you have your software ddr pdl delay set to. these settings are all in the bios. they are in mine, we should have the same bios options. thanks for any help. they should all be under chip configuration. thanks