AMD 760/761 Problems, very detailed.

Okay everyone. This is a strange one.

I just bought two DFI SKN-76 Mobos (they use the new AMD 760 Northbridge with the Via Southbridge). I installed both mobos and CPUs (Athlon 1.2 ghz) exactly the same. Both systems are also using 2400 DDR RAM from Mushkin. I am not overclocking anything, and never have (maybe in the future). Both systems also have a SB Live! sound card. For those who dont know, the DFI board is popular because it doesn't have any onboard sound, video, raid, etc. It has 6 PCI slots, 4 fan slots, and 2 DIMMs. It is supposedly very stable and great for overclocking (according to all the reviews I read).

The dilemma is this:

My system which has an AGP Voodoo5 runs perfectly fine without a hitch.

My dad's system, which I built had a TNT1 in it, would lock up occasionally while playing games (several different ones). We wanted to get a new vid card anyway, so we went and got a GF2 MX-400 by Gainward and put that in. Again, the system would hard-lock occassinoally in several different games. I checked for temperature problems in the case, and his internal and CPU temp are exactly the same as mine. I dont think heat is the issue. We then went and bought a Radeon and installed that. Again, it would lock up occasionally.

When you get an AMD 760 chipset board, it instructs you to install the AMD AGP Minidriver and THEN install the Via Bus Master drivers. I did this to both systems when installing them mobos originally. Here is the question.

My friend, who just bought the same mobo, states that he had heard that you shouldn't install the AMG AGP Miniport Driver if you have the VIA southbridge (to my knowlege, all AMD 760 mobos have the VIA southbridge except for Tyan, and that board isn't even out yet). When he built his, he did NOT install the AMD AGP Miniport Driver.

He benchmarked his system on 3DMark 2001 and got 1500. We both know this is WAY too low, as he should be in the 5000 range. So, he installed the AMD AGP Miniport driver, and now that program won't even load.

I ran the Miniport program again, trying to uninstall it on my Dad's system, and upon doing so, it automatically RE-INSTALLS (does not give you the option to un-install). My system reboot, and like his, 3DMark 2001 would not even boot. Furthermore, so, I tried changing the drivers and could not! Everytime it would boot after trying to change the drivers, it would state that the display adapter was not installed properly, yada yada.

To make an already too-long of a story shorter, I had to boot in safe-mode, use some AMDDriverpack.exe file from AMD that actually allows you to uninstall the AMD AGP Miniport driver. It reboot, and I was able to re-install the Radeon fine. So far, it has locked up once, but we haven't been able to test it more.

Does anyone have any experience with this chipset or mobo? What have you heard about the AGP Miniport driver? I heard that SB Live cards had problems with alot of people who had the AMD 760 Chipset/VIA Southbridge combo. Any truth in that? Basically, I just want to find out as much as I can. I think there is a new bios by DFI for these mobos, but you cant download them, because they have been hacked by RedWorm. haha Thanks in advance.

Tonester

Actually,

I had not installed 4in1 or 3in1 for either mobo. I checked Via's website, and the 4in1s dont seem to be for my mobo at all, but I was told today by someone else that I SHOULD install them. haha, maybe this is my problem. Where are these 3in1s? Thanks in advance.

Anthony

Yeah, a CD did come with it, and I think it had VIA bus mastering on it.

I actually went to Via's site, and installed the 4in1s anyway (it auto detects what needs to be installed). Well, it installed 3 things (all but the IRQ miniport).

After doing so, all seems okay. I then tried installing the AGP AMD Miniport driver, and once again, the system wont even boot. So, I promptly uninstalled this.

Tonester