ABIT KT7A + SB Live! + DMA = Death

[Kentucky Fried Duron]

I've tried to figure this out but can't so I'm coming to the experts... the SB is a SB Live Value, the bios version is YH. Currently not overclocked.I installed the most recent VIA service pack (31) and enabled DMA, rebooted, ran a benchmark and it locked up. While booting I got a message saying Windows detected an error in my registry and it reloaded an earlier registry (from prior to the via install). I then tried just installing the PCI Bus Master drivers. Same result. I tried disabling SB16 emulation on the SB Live, still locked... I pulled the SB Live! and it's fine. I have 2 questions....
1. Is there a fix for this? Different Bios version? Manually setting the IRQ/DMA settings for the SB or PCI Bus Master Controller or both? or do I get to choose between DMA and SB Live?

2. If there's no fix what do you all recommend as a good soundcard for the KT7A?

Thanks in advance either for the fix of the replacement sugestions


KT7A with YH Bios
AMD Duron 750@750
256MB Generic PC100 Ram
13GB ATA-33 HD
60GB ATA-66 HD
ATI Radeon 64DDR 198/198
PCI 3COM USR 56k Modem
SB Live! Value (For Now)

 

[UnseenMenace]

Welcome to the forum

Ive tried to give you as much information as I can from what you tell me, which hopefully will assist you in soling the problems, however if you can provide us with any more advice, we will try to help you more..... I personally use a sound blaster live with WW bios and have no problems
----------------------

The most common cause of difficulty is the SB16 emulation that the drivers seem to automatically install. This emulates an old ISA driver, which cannot share resources, and thus causes your system to hang when another device unwittingly shares

Does the computer hang when my sound card initialises SB16 emulation on the KT7-RAID?

This has been reported on a number of sound cards including the Soundblaster family of cards. It is due to a conflict between the legacy SB16 emulation (which allows your soundcard to function under old DOS-only games) and the Highpoint controller provided on the KT7-RAID card. The SB16 was an ISA card, incapable of sharing its IRQ or DMA, and hence the problem.

The following installation sequence can solve this problem:
[order=1]
[#]Disable Highpoint controller
[#]Install sound card software
[#]Re-enable Highpoint controller
[/order]
This will leave your system with both SB16 and the Highpoint controller functional.

Other stability solutions

There is a glitch bug in the 686B Southbridge of its popular KT133A chipset for AMD CPUs. Large DMA data transfers between hard drives on separate IDE channels caused data corruption. The presence of a Sound Blaster Live! worsens the problem. See this news article of the tests performed.

If your struggling with exception messages and/or page faults involving devcon32.dll and msgsrv32.exe, under Windows 9x, these can be resolved by replacing the devcon32.dll with an older version 4.06.642 or earlier which solves the problem. The files can be found at http://home.kc.rr.com/macjohn/DEVCON32.DLL and another at ftp://ftp.dq.com/special/devcon32.zip.

A number of users with Soundblaster problems have found that installing Windows 9x without ACPI support (use "setup /p i") and without installing the Liveware! 3.0 drivers resolves instabilities. ( although I can not confirm this )

Bios Version YH (1 March 2001) Issues solved and reported bugs
[order=1]
[#]Enhanced Flash Menu support.
[#]HPT 370 RAID BIOS version 1.0.3B.
[#]BIOS compile date: 2/14/2001
[/order]
Reported bugs
[order=1]
[#]Problem if the CPU multiplier is changed from its default value then Windows may hang at the desktop during start up. This can be resolved by setting the K7 CLK_CTL Select as Optimal, rather than Default.
[#]Some experience problems with ISA PnP cards, which can generally be solved by reserving the card's IRQ as Legacy in the BIOS
[/order]

 

[M@€$†®Ö™]

Now this answer is the most thorough I have seen. Good show Unseenmenace I have wondered what the deal with the SBlive and KT7 was

Maestro

 

[Kentucky Fried Duron]

Thanks for the info unseenmenace. It's always nice when you look for a little help and get a short book back. (and even stay on subject) I had tried the SB16 fixes. (I don't have a Raid board though) but I didn't know about the bug in the southbridge. Do you know if there are any low cost sound cards that don't have the problem? I'd rather spend $20 on a budget soundcard than risk flashing the bios when everything else works perfect.
Do you use the newest drivers for the SB btw?

Duron 750@750
Abit KT7A
256Megs PC100
13&60GB HD

 

[Kentucky Fried Duron]

YES! VICTORY!! It's Alive!!! It's Alive!!! MUAHAHHAH!!! I updated to the 3C Bios version and still nothing then I booted up windows in safe mode and noticed there were a billion drivers conflicting so I fixed that and it's ALL good.
Ran 3dMark2000 to see how she runs....
Is 5000 good for a Duron 750@750 and
Radeon 64DDR at 1024x768x16?

Tip to those having problems with SB Live, doublecheck everything before you blame the bios. I overlooked the obvious and wasted a couple of days. I'm happy now though

Now I just have to tweak