Come one, Come all...

[Joker1]

I'm openning this thread to help address a lot of the recent issues with the Abit KT7A and SBlive.

From what i've seen when trouble shooting this problem there may even be 2 or more different issues with the board. This would explain a lot of the varied results i've seen in other threads.

If you've experienced problems then let us know, even if you havn't been able to solve the problem tell us whats been tried.

Maybe it will work on for someone else.

My Experience:
I had encountered some random lockups when using the above setup I tried disabling the SB16 emulation, reserving irqs, enable the 15-16m memmory hole. Alot of these seemed to make things worse. Eventually i found that setting the AGP drive strength to 'EA' solved the problem. One thing that also seemed to aggrivate the problem was my usb nic i was using to download drivers. Whenever i'd connect the nic and start transfering it would look up in about 15-20 seconds. If the nic was disconnect it ran fine.

Note: I'm running a Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 GTS PRO 32M DDR

I would really appreciate everyone's $.02 on this one. I know there are still a lot of people struggling with this board.

[Darren Wilson]

TBH I have not encountered any of the stated problems with my own SB Live! & KT7A-RAID (Northbridge - VIA KT133A, Southbridge - VIA 686B) nor on any of my friends systems (running a variation of Operating Systems). One thing that we all have done and that is to follow the following way of installing the IRQ resources & drivers for the systems.

Also the following IRQ resources are set to the PCI slots:-

• "INT Pin 1": AGP card and PCI Slot 1
• "INT Pin 2": PCI Slot 2 and PCI Slot 3 and ACPI (if enabled)
• "INT Pin 3": PCI Slot 5 (and HPT370 controller in KT7/A-RAID)
• "INT Pin 4": PCI Slot 4 and PCI Slot 6 and USB

Note you can force a particular IRQ number to be used by a particular "INT Pin #" using the PNP/PCI Configurations Setup in the BIOS. This allows you to force a certain slot to use a specific IRQ. You should not normally need to do this. Note that if you have ACPI enabled, Windows will ignore the assignments made in the BIOS and allow ACPI to determine this.

If you have an AGP card and two PCI devices, but no ACPI, USB or HPT370 enabled, you can put those devices in

• slots 2 and 4, 5 or 6
• slots 3 and 4, 5 or 6
• slots 4 and 5
• slots 5 and 6

If you have an AGP card, two PCI devices and ACPI, but no USB or HPT370 enabled, you can put those devices in

• slots 4 and 5
• slots 5 and 6

If you have an AGP card, two PCI devices and USB, but no ACPI or HPT370 enabled, you can put those devices in

• slots 2 and 5
• slots 3 and 5

If you have an AGP card, two PCI devices and HPT370, but no ACPI or USB enabled, you can put those devices in

• slots 2 and 4 or 6
• slots 3 and 4 or 6

If you have an AGP card and two PCI devices and ACPI and USB but no HPT370 enabled, then

• slot 5 will have its own IRQ

AMD recommend installing cards one at a time, shutting down and powering off between the addition of each card. They recommend installing cards in the following order:

• 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. They do require a PCI slot
• 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 others

I am not saying that the problem does not exist. I have a feeling that ACPI has a bit to do with it also. We (myself & friends) have all disabled ACPI & Power Management in both Hardware & Software. Using the drivers supplied with the Sound cards are also bad news (especially if you have an older version that uses LiveWare2), and installing Creatives 'Goodie (Baddie)' pack also is asking for troubles.

I will list my hardware list with PCI & IRQ allocations per item:-

PCI

• AGP - ATI Radeon 32Mb SDR
• PCI1 - EMPTY
• PCI2 - 3Com 3C905CTX NIC
• PCI3 - EMPTY
• PCI4 - Creative Labs SB Live! Value (WDM)
• PCI5 - EMPTY
• PCI6 - EMPTY
• ISA1 - EMPTY
• ISA2 - 3Com EtherLink III (3C509b-TP)

IRQ

• IRQ1 - PC/AT Enhanced PS/2 Keyboard
• IRQ2 - Not Used
• IRQ3 - Not Used
• IRQ4 - Communications Port (Com2)
• IRQ5 - 3Com Etherlink III (3C509b-TP)
• IRQ6 - Standard Floppy Disk Controller
• IRQ7(a) - VIA USB Controller
• IRQ7(b) - VIA USB Controller
• IRQ7(c) - Creative Labs SB Live! Value (WDM)
• IRQ8 - System CMOS Realtime Clock
• IRQ9 - Not Used
• IRQ10 - 3Com 3C905CTX NIC
• IRQ11 - HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller
• IRQ12 - ATI Radeon 32Mb SDR
• IRQ13 - Numeric Data Processor
• IRQ14 - Primary IDE Channel
• IRQ15 - Secondary IDE Cahnnel

All drivers for devices are latest Win2K releases from respective companies with Win2K SP1 & SP2 ATA100 Hot Fix installed. None of the rudimentory Creative Extras are installed (such as Launcher, Disc Detector, etc). System is running at 100Mhz FSB (200DDR) with 384Mb CAS2 PC100 Kingston SDRAM (4 Way Interleaving enabled), AGP4X enabled, Driving force set to Default. 3Com 3C905TX PCI NIC running Cable modem & Etherlink III card running LAN (10Mbps) to enable Internet access to second machine.

System Running Temps are CPU Idle - 51C (123F), CPU 100% Load - 57C (134F), System Temp - 36C (96F).

[sennister]

I have an Abit KT7A (without RAID) and I'm experiencing problems when adding the Creative SB Live Value. I flashed the BIOS with the latest update, installed the latest 4 in 1 driver and USB filter for the chipset. Installed the Microsoft's patch for the ATA 100 HDD. Done Fresh installs of WIN98, WIN98 SEC ED, WIN ME, WIN 2K PRO. Played with so many BIOS settings I forget what they all were (I have been trying to get this to run now for 2 weeks). Some of the ones that I know I have tried are: enable the 15-16m memory hole, increase CPU I/O voltage, decreased CPU I/O voltage, and a bunch of memory settings. I have swapped memory, swapped NIC (PCI), replaced CPU HSF, and a few other things I'm sure I'm not remembering right now.

I wish I could say what fixed the problem because that would mean it's running. Well it's not and I'm looking for a new motherboard that DOES NOT use the VIA Chipset of any kind. I think I like the Asus A7A266. It was hard to find an AMD MOBO that does not use a VIA chipset. About 90% of the ones I looked at have a VIA chipset of some sort.

[Joker1]

Originally posted by sennister:
I wish I could say what fixed the problem because that would mean it's running. Well it's not and I'm looking for a new motherboard that DOES NOT use the VIA Chipset of any kind. I think I like the Asus A7A266. It was hard to find an AMD MOBO that does not use a VIA chipset. About 90% of the ones I looked at have a VIA chipset of some sort.

Dont give up.
See if This or This Helps

What video card do you have? Any other Cards in the system? Any USB devices?

[Joker1]

Originally posted by Joker1:
One thing that also seemed to aggrivate the problem was my usb nic i was using to download drivers. Whenever i'd connect the nic and start transfering it would look up in about 15-20 seconds. If the nic was disconnect it ran fine.

I have changed it to a pci nic in pci slot 6 and now i have no problems transfering from the net. (The live card is on the 2nd pci slot, the 1st pci slot is unusable due to the large cooler on my video card)

And thanks for the quick replies everyone.

[Joker1]

Here's some more info on the agp driving strength

What does AGP driving control do and how should I set it?
Note modifying this setting changes the signal timing to the graphics card. If you get it wrong, the graphics card won't boot, and you'll be left with a black screen. The only way to remedy this is to temporarily use an old PCI graphics card, change the driving control setting, and then reboot.

ABIT recommend a driving control of DA or EA with NVidia-based GeForce GTS or MX cards. ABIT recommend a driving control of E9 with the Prolink MX with fast writes disabled. For other cards use Auto.

The following answer was provided by AskArs of Arstechnica.com:

"By selecting a manual hex range (00h-FFh) we are setting the timing of the signal that your video card's driver uses to communicate across the AGP bus

Default for the AGP Driving control is going to be 'Auto'. This is pretty much akin to your 'auto' ram-timing selection; it is the lowest-common denominator settings that are going to yield you the widest compatibility at the cost of performance.

'Manual' AGP Driving Control setting is VIA's way of skirting chipset design and driver issues, by allowing them to configure for optimal scenarios.

"Since the 'AGP Driving Control' BIOS option is specific to the VIA
chipset's AGP implementation and there are multiple motherboards based
on the VIA chipset, I would have to say that for certain motherboards
there is no magic setting that works with every graphics card and
motherboard combination. For instance, a setting of CCh on a particular
motherboard is not going to mysteriously work better with every card
than a setting of BAh."

As for how to find out the specific settings recommended for various video cards, the best recommendation would be to contact your video card vendor first (and I would attempt to contact the chipset provider as well, if they are an IHV (like nVidia)). Ask them what their recommended manual timing is.

The only straight answer on manual timings that I have been able to get is from Epox and Tyan. For the original Geforce 256's, they recommend A8h for timing control. This is independent of driver, but dependant on chipset. With the Geforce 256 GTS they recommend a manual setting of BAh. Asus, keeping with PC tradition of doing your own thing, recommends a setting of B9h for their 6600 Pure card. Tyan used to recommend DCh with everything (as a few other vendors have posted on their websites), but with all Tyan VIA-chipset motherboard BIOS updates posted after 2/15/2000, you will notice they now recommend CCh."

(Grabbed from:Paul's Unofficial ABIT KT7 FAQ)

[sennister]

Here is a breakdown of what's in the system.

case Enlight (AMD Approved Power Supply)
MOBO ABit KT7A
Processor AMD 850 T-bird
RAM 256MB PC133 Micron
HSF Cooler Master DP5-6H11
CDROM Creative 52x (Now Dead)
Video CRD ATI Rage Fury Pro AGP VIVO 32MB
NIC 3COM 3C905C-TX
Sound Card Creative SB Live Value

No other devices USB, PCI, ISA

[Joker1]

Are you allowing any of the Creative software to load automatically on boot. If so disable it using msconfig.

Also i should mention your 52x drive has known issues. If it has the older firmware version it will go into standby and stop spinning the disk however the laser will stay on and continue heating the disk. This has a potential to shatter disks when it revs back up.

[Joker1]

Originally posted by sennister:
Here is a breakdown of what's in the system.

case Enlight (AMD Approved Power Supply)
MOBO ABit KT7A
Processor AMD 850 T-bird
RAM 256MB PC133 Micron
HSF Cooler Master DP5-6H11
CDROM Creative 52x (Now Dead)
Video CRD ATI Rage Fury Pro AGP VIVO 32MB
NIC 3COM 3C905C-TX
Sound Card Creative SB Live Value

No other devices USB, PCI, ISA

Try disabling whatever you dont need to free up irqs. This will at least simplify trouble shooting. I recommend turning off your com ports lpt port (if your not using it) and you may wish to try disabling usb for now. You can also disable the secondary ide controller if your using 2 or less drives.

[sennister]

Oh Currently I do not have any creative software loaded on the system. It is dual booted but I'm operating under WIN 2K Pro for stability. In fact the driver was installed from the I386. I got the system up and running with out the SB and then added it once SP1 and all critical updates installed. It installed the driver automatically and never prompted for the cd. In 98 sec ed I noticed it would crash the system when the software was installed. So I pulled the card, uninstalled the software, shut down, reinstalled the card, and rebooted. That way the drivers were still there but not the software. It worked a little better (it lasts longer before kicking hte bucket). I have since pulled the SB and I still get stack dumps, lockups in 2K pro. The big problem is I have spent alot of time working on this system and I just don't have the time to mess with it anymore. I am to the point where I will pay for a better MOBO if it will fix the problems. There is no reason that a system should be this hard to put together and work properly. I never had this many problems back in the old days before plug and prey and I things have been easier with other plug and play systems. There has to be an answer. I think it's the VIA chipset. Despite thier big anouncment blaming Creative. I don't see myself buying a VIA chipset ever again or another AMD. I'll return to my Intel. Like an old teacher once said.....

"There are three things GOOD, FAST, and CHEAP. Now, you can only have two. It can be GOOD and FAST, but it's not CHEAP. It can be FAST and CHEAP, but it's not GOOD. It can be CHEAP and GOOD, but it's not FAST."

I think I'll pick GOOD and FAST and spend the extra money.

[Joker1]

Good luck with the new board sennister. I hope you get things to work out. If you ever do find anything pertaining to the Via glitch let me know.

[BauerSM]

Well here is what we got.

We have the Abit board mentioned, along with the SB Live 5.1 Platinum.

Also we have

AMD 1.33 GHZ Thunderbird
256MB PC133
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Rage Pro 32mb
Adaptec 2940U PCI SCSI
3COM Etherlink XL PCI NIC

What we get is the MFC42.DLL file is always getting corrupted for some reason. I have tried to extract a new copy of it off the cd, but even with a replacement of that file, it still gets corrupted. We often get a Windows Protection Error on boot.

Along with the file being screwed is the video being all messed up. I have the most current drivers for the card. It sticks me at 16 colors and 640 x 480. When I try to switch, it says it needs to restart and when I do, it hangs. A warm boot brings us back into windows, but it says there is a problem with the display. This is a continuous circle.

A total removal of the devices for both the SB Live and the ATI, and that has worked once. But now it is not working. I figure that I will try to do it device by device and make sure all is working. I will keep you posted as to how it goes.

[BauerSM]

Originally posted by BauerSM:
Well here is what we got.

We have the Abit board mentioned, along with the SB Live 5.1 Platinum.

Also we have

AMD 1.33 GHZ Thunderbird
256MB PC133
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Rage Pro 32mb
Adaptec 2940U PCI SCSI
3COM Etherlink XL PCI NIC

What we get is the MFC42.DLL file is always getting corrupted for some reason. I have tried to extract a new copy of it off the cd, but even with a replacement of that file, it still gets corrupted. We often get a Windows Protection Error on boot.

Along with the file being screwed is the video being all messed up. I have the most current drivers for the card. It sticks me at 16 colors and 640 x 480. When I try to switch, it says it needs to restart and when I do, it hangs. A warm boot brings us back into windows, but it says there is a problem with the display. This is a continuous circle.

A total removal of the devices for both the SB Live and the ATI, and that has worked once. But now it is not working. I figure that I will try to do it device by device and make sure all is working. I will keep you posted as to how it goes.

We had it up and running but then we tried to install the software needed to use the TV Tuner program then things went down hill.

75% of the time when we reboot we get a Windows Protection Error. And it seems like we are in a loop. Looks like I might have to reinstall. AGAIN!!!

I am really starting to miss my Pent II 350.

[Joker1]

The plot thickens Here