Woes of the GA-7DXR

[Mogglewump]

Where to start with the problems that I have with this board my supplier and everything else computery? Hmm. OK. I bought myself a load of computer stuff in August stuck it in a case and made it work. While it was a bit wobbly this, I was told, was because I was using 512MB mem in Win98 and after adding a Maxcachesize=512 line to my System.ini it seemed to be more stable. Then I decided to upgrade to a GeForce 3 and an extra 256 PC2100 mem. What a mistake. First boot Windows crashed apparantly taking my onboard Promise controller and my HDD out in one go. Then my supplier (Dabs.com) seemed to be unwilling to replace either. I sent the HDD back to Maxtor and they sent me back a reconditioned one with 715MB missing off the top of the drive and it seems to be DOA as well. The motherboard issue s slightly confusing because on the same day they told me that they would replace it and in another email it wasn't their fault it was the manufacturers and I should speak to them instead. GRR. Can anybody tell me if there is a way to check if my Promise controller really has gone bang, other than the tests I've already done. (Swapping the drive over to IDE0 where it worked). Also I need some advice about how to get Windows to run for more than about 30 seconds in OpenGL or Direct3D as both of these seem to crash the computer, even on a clean install of Win98 with the most current drivers I could find (they might not be). After reading through a few other postings I think that the VIA 686 Southbridge might be the cause of some of my crashes (due to the incompatability with the SB Live) so I think that an upgrade to XP or W2K might fix some of my probs too. If you managed to read through the whole of that well done and any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thought it might be useful to have posted some info about the attached bits and bobs.
Athlon 'C' 1.4GHz 266MHz FSB
GA-7DXR
768MB PC2100
GeForce 3 (Inno3D Tornado - never heard of them but it was cheap)
Soundblaster Live! (One of the original ones)
2xMaxtor Diamondmax+ 60 30.7GB
(1 of which is the proper 30737MB the other is 30022MB (Grr))<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Mogglewump on 10/26/01 08:56 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Mogglewump]

OK bit of an update. Tried W2K, won't even install. Removed Soundcard. Disabled all unused devices through BIOS, and fiddled with the jumpers to turn off my onboard Promise chip. Put one HDD on IDE0 and tried installing Win98. It installs ok and I can just about get the thing to run but when I was trying to install something it locked up completely. I get multiple Fatal Exception OE and OD errors. I can't even get a reasonable 3D game onto the system to test if the 3D system works properly.

So a few questions.

Is it me or is my motherboard f'ed?

Could it be the fact that I'm running the motherboard, processor, GeForce, LS120, CD-ROM, DVD, 1 HDD on a 250W Enlight power supply?

How can I get anything to work!?!?!

Would it solve any of my problems to upgrade to WinXP?

And lastly (yes this really is the last one) Could any of these problems be because of bad memory (if so how can I test for that) or the fact that i bought a cheap GeForce 3 (considering the Nvidia demos (downloaded from their website) refuse to detect the presence of a "DirectX 8 compatable device"?

Ta

I really hate computers! Which is a shame given I study IT at Uni and I have an IT job too.

 

[o1die]

You might also want to try switching out the memory chips, using one at a time in different slots. Your ps may be a problem, but usually, the system will start rebooting on it's own instead of locking up. The only other recommendation is trying a fresh install of win98, using only one card at a time, starting with the video card. I would download directx 8.0 and copy it to a cd, install it first, then the driver.

 

[Guest]

>>>"I think that the VIA 686 Southbridge might be the cause of some of my crashes (due to the incompatability with the SB Live)"

My SBlive (original when they first came out) works fine with the proviso that it doesnt sit in one particular PCI slot - in witch case the PC wont get past post.

As for chipset drivers, I loaded in the latest (one month back they were) 4 in 1 drivers sans AGP driver. Then the latest AMD miniport AGP driver on top - works ok, but with a slight USB port issue thats a bit complicated to go into here.

For the Promise controler... you do have both the jumper set correctly on the board? You havent made any mention of those in your post, or how you installed the promise drivers - and wether they show up in device manager etc.

 

[Guest]

>>>"recommendation is trying a fresh install of win98, using only one card at a time, starting with the video card. I would download directx 8.0 and copy it to a cd, install it first, then the driver."

Agreed, but make sure you load the 4 in 1's + AMD miniport before your graphics card drivers etc. 1 card at once is the way forward - dissable serial ports you dont use to free up irq's etc and skip windows plug and play on things you dont want to install out of order and so on.

 

[troopr]

this was posted about 1 wek ago by XXskr8XX. maybe it will help you.

The North Bridge is the AMD main chipset The South Bridge is the VIA secondary chipset What the drivers (4in1) due is drive the memory, agp, cpu and everything near the north (excluding your peripherals such as USB and parrallel port and onboard audio and video. The agp port i believe is driven (or controlled) by the north bridge same with the PCI databus. So the North bridge is the main component that drives (hence the name drivers for software) your hardware. WHen you install the wrong drivers those drivers tells the hardware to drive it's data incorrectly resulting in crashes, blue screens and extreme slowdown of your computer. ALso please trust me! someone else had the same issues clean swipe reinstalled windows and installed the AMD drivers instead and it worked fine after that. I had the same problem because i have the same board! Thats why i know.DO NOT INSTALL VIA DRIVERS ON A AMD BOARD. The only VIA drivers you need to concern yourself with are the via IDE busmaster drivers. Which it is recommended that you install the standard microsoft drivers anyway. SO NO via drivers needed!-to the general public Hear me everyone! DO not install VIA drivers on your AMD board! Have you ever wondered why there arn't any via drivers loaded on the CD? it's because you do not need them!!

 

[Boondock_Saint]

That, and is your memory registered? What is your RAM configuration?

DDR RAM w/ 3 or more DIMMs needs to be registered.

:tongue: Have you ever tried cooking an egg on your HSF? Tasty. :tongue:

 

[khha4113]

The only VIA drivers you need to concern yourself with are the via IDE busmaster drivers. Which it is recommended that you install the standard microsoft drivers anyway. SO NO via drivers needed!-to the general public Hear me everyone! DO not install VIA drivers on your AMD board!

I don't know about his experience, but I do have Abit KG7-RAID which has same chipset as GigaByte GA-7DXR. The VIA drivers improves my Hard disk transfer rate much better than Microsoft's especially in WinME.

Have you ever wondered why there arn't any via drivers loaded on the CD? it's because you do not need them!!

In my <b>Abit CD</b>, it does provide VIA's drivers.


Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[DaveGOD]

feck, im about to buy basically a new comp (including a gigabyte mobo, though the GA-7VTXH) from dabs.co.uk , i hope .co.uk is better than that crap service.

[edit: WTF am i on about, .com/couk completely same.]
Yossarian lives<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DaveGOD on 10/27/01 04:12 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[DaveGOD]

looking back a few pages of posts, theres a fair few about the GA-7DXR... if you can convince dabs.com to replace it, it migth be an idea to get a completely different board... im a bit worried about my choice of giga-byte GA-7VTXH now too, anyone know of any problems with that board?

Yossarian lives

 

[Guest]

*sigh*

Forums used to be filled with Epox problems (and they still are on anandtech forums) when that board was the flavour of the month. You will see a huge number of posts here about the Sis K7S5A - doenst necessarily mean its a bad board.

So far none of the reviews on the DXR have stated problems. Remember alot of users dont know what they are doing.

 

[Guest]

I am not familiar with GA-7VTH board you refer to. I see available GA-7VTX with KT266 chipset and GA7VTXE with KT266A set, is it one of these? I am interested in the KT266A set in spite of my problems with VIA and my ABIT KT7a R. I am looking for stability and one that will last a while.

 

[Guest]

Gigabyte boards all sound the same - head to their website giga-byte.com iirc and look up the feature set for th board you are interested in then write down the letters of its name so you dont get mixed up in future

 

[Guest]

Thanks,I looked at their site.I based my question on what I could buy and not what was made. I notice the H has audio( Creative) and Realtec LAN. Might be a nice board for me.

 

[Mogglewump]

Good advice, ta muchly. Never heard of that requirement before but after ripping out one of the DIMMS and only having a graphics card in it my system was stable enough to load Black and White on. Yeah. Now all I have to do is see if the memory was interfering with my Promise controller in which case I might not have to send my motherboard back at all. Which would be nice.

 

[Mogglewump]

I agree the board does come with VIA drivers for its southbridge. (IDE Busmaster) and AMD driver comes with the admonishment not to use AMD drivers with anything other than AMD southbridges.

 

[Ron_Jeremy]

Well I fixed all my VIA problems by swapping in a Supermicro P6DGe. Ya ya, I know it's old. It sure runs Win2K sweet loaded to the hilt with 2 GB of RAM.

Local LAN party boys showed up with various 1.2GHz+ KT266/133/761 machines & laughed their asses off at my lowly PIII 850's. 7 hours of straight Counter-Strike without even a hiccup. None of them went without multiple reboots & driver swapping. Ahhhhh, love that good old BX/GX stability

Cheers,

Ron_Jeremy

If you loan a friend $20 & never see them again, it was worth it.