ECS K7VZA Rev.3 and Abit Silluro GeForce4MX440 incompatability?

[condor]

Well, upgrading the BIOS should have been the first thing to do, then resetting the CMOS and reconfiguring the BIOS.

if your computer did not boot with ACPI disabled I would have first eliminated IRQ conflicts (swapping PCI card slots)

Although it is possible for certain boards not to work well with certain cards it is very rare at least in newer systems.

All the symptoms that you described show IRQ conflicts.
Disabling ACPI, making sure that every card has its own IRQ and installing XP as Standard PC should have cleared all these problems..

[trinitro]

That's what I thought also. Regardless of what I did, the integrated sound, ACPI system and the video card would always share the same IRQ (5 usually), although if I would reserve 5 in the BIOS it will change, but always be the same. There was a BIOS upgrade that solves an error message that shows up on the event viewer. The message went away, but the problem didn't even with a reload. Oh well, I now have a new MB, and a new processor. There are two strange problems about this new combo though (Amptron K7-830XLM, XP1700+). First, the MB will not boot with a ALS4000 chipset sound card. Second, when running PCMark the FSB shows up as 66 Mhz, even though I'm running DDR266 and the BIOS is setup as 133/133. Since the processor is listed as a XP1700+, I assume the FSB is indeed 133Mhz, and not 66. The MB doesn't even support a 66Mhz bus.

[condor]

Again, IRQ conflict - sometimes even after you disable ACPI cards still conflict. If moving them to different slots doesn't help sometimes you have to reset the CMOS (take out the battery overnight while the comoputer isn't plugged to the AC is the best way) that should clear any CMOS setting (sometimes jumper clearing doesn't work) and should allow you to solvethe IRQ conflicts.

Don't get me wrong, there is a possiblity that you had one of those rare problems and I realize that it's a little too much work for astupid problem. I'm only advising from past experience and it doesn't mean to imply you did anything wrong - hell I'd be replacing it too

Only thing is that Amptron and ECS are both based on PC-Chips designs (they're almost the same boards..) and amptron ois really junk grade.
I would have gone with MSI (low budget).

[trinitro]

I found out that my Amptron is identical to an ECS design. Actually my MB is listed as an ECS, even though there is Amptron labeled everywhere on the board. Regarding my older board, it seems that everybody had the same problem with MX cards, but nobody really had a solution. I knew I should have bought an ATI.
I had 2 MSI boards, and wasn't very happy with them really. Plus, this board was a very good price (case (300W PS), floppy, MB, all installed) for $125. Too good to pass up. Plus, I will replace it in a year anyway. My computers don't "last" more than that.

[confus-ed]

Icarus fails to soar & goes down in flames......

Nice rant!