KT7A Raid working, final config question

[[email protected]]

Everone knows my continuing saga with this board. It is working great now. No lock ups for a whole day, being used or not. It's current config is this
850 T Bird
Bios all at defaults except
parallel port disabled
both serial ports disabled
1 20 GB IBM on Raid channel 1 as boot drive with Millenium
2 40 GB WD400 mirrored on ATA100 channel 2
Linksys Net card in PCI1
ATI XPert 2000 PRO
I do NOT have the drivers for the Highpoint 370 installed. I know that this makes it not ATA100. But does the mirroring operate at a BIOS/Hardwae level or will it not mirror without drivers. I have only two more things to install in theis PC. Highpoint and sound. I don't have to have sound but it would make it easier to Organize MP3 's on this machine sibce they are stored here. I have 2, an SBLive 5.1 MP3 plus and an AOPEN AW200. What should I install next(Highpoint, sound-which card inwhat slot.)
Thanks, you guys have all benn a wealth of help. Looks like I am nearing the end. Thanks
Jim

[Darren Wilson]

Pauls Unofficial KT7 FAQ recommends the following order to install the drivers for these boards (which does seem to alleviate a lot of the problems.

• AGP card
• Voodoo I or Voodoo II Cards: Since these cards do not require an IRQ address, it is recommended that they be installed after the successful installation of your operating system
• Any ISA card
• Internal Modem (PCI)
• Sound Card (PCI or ISA)
• Network Card, a.k.a. NIC (PCI or ISA)
• DVD Devices requiring Dxr3 Decoder Board (PCI). Note: Some video decoder boards require two (2) IRQs for complete functionality. Check with your video decoder card manufacturer for video decoder support and requirements
• SCSI Adapter (PCI)
• Any other cards

Make sure though (& I am sure that you already have done this) that IRQ#5 is set to ISA/Legacy in the BIOS or you will run into problems with the Highpoint controller & any PCI device that wants to use IRQ#5

[Gr82B8]

PCI slot 5 also shares IRQ's with RAID controllers. So don't put anything in that slot. I have my sound card in slot 2 if that helps. For me..it didn't matter which card I installed first or last. I started to go by what Paul's site said and it screwed things up. Hope this helps!

[[email protected]]

Thanks,
Live did nothing good. Immediate lock ups no matter what. Put the cheap-o AOpen in on slot 3, NIC card on slot 1. That is all the peripherals. Highpoint, etc, all installed. Since it worked so well I finally finished the system.
Final Config that seems to work:
ATI XPert 2000
Linksys NIC slot 1
AOpen AW200 sound in slot 3
IBM 20GB on ATA100 channel 1
2 WD 40GB mirrored on ATA100 channel 2
LG 32x CDROM as master on IDE1
TDK CDRW master on IDE 2

No Problems except on that seems to be Power supply related. System works great until using alot of devices(e.g. burning a CD from the mirrored drives. Then when finalizing system restarted. PS is Athlon approved, but only 250 watts. Will put a bigger one in tomorrow and that should do it. This has NOT been fun, but I do feel a sense of accomplishment. Thanks for all the help.
Still prefer Intel, though.
Jim
BTW, my two sons and I just got home from Tomb Raider, and it Rocks.