AMD ABIT KT7A MOTHERBOARD - Help Me B4 I Blow It Up

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

Ok, I am getting really frustrated with this. I know this to be one of the best motherboards out there but right now I am ready to set dynamite to it!

What is happening is in order to get my PC to boot, I literally have to UNPLUG my PC every time, wait thirty seconds and plug it back in and then hit power. Then it boots fine. If I don't do that, all the fans come on, the HD spins, the other drives initiate but the monitor does not come out of sleep mode...

Allow me to tell you what ABIT has suggested and what I have done:

[order=1]
[#]Try a different monitor - DONE - Tried three different monitors (varying in size from 15" - 19")
[#]Try a different video card - DONE - tried an older TNT2 Ultra AGP card, tried a Voodoo 5500 AGP video card, and tried a Voodoo 4500 PCI video card
[#]Get A Sparkle PS - DONE - Do they get commission for selling these?! Didn't make any difference...
[#]Try A Different Processor - DONE - WTF? Where did this come from? I tried a Duron 800 MHz, T-Bird 850 MHz (mine) and a T-Bird 1.33 GHz 266 FSB (my friends)
[#]Take everything out but the video card - DONE - no change in status
[#]Reset CMOS - DONE - The way the ABIT tech told me to do it was leave PS plugged into both wall and computer, switch the jumper, wait 5 seconds and switch it back. Did NOTHING!
[#]Try Different RAM - DONE - Ended up dishing out serious cash for this DAMN Crucial RAM
[#]Defective MoBo - DONE - Swapped it at the computer shop for a brand spanking new one, same problems.
[/order=1]

Now here comes the kicker, I borrowed my buddies IWill KA-266 MoBo with 128 DDR RAM and hooked everything up on my system. Guess what? It worked fine. So I went to a local computer shop and tried it with the IWill KK-266 (I think that was the model #) with all of my equipment including my RAM. Worked perfectly.

Called ABIT back and then they blamed all my problems on putting an IWill MoBo in my case because it, and I quote, "Causes serious corruptions in the case as well as the power supply". Has this company ever heard of actually helping a customer? They told me that there was basically nothing else I can do and just live with it.

UPDATED - I just tried to boot it again. I am ready to destroy this damn motherboard. I moved my PC, and now I cannot get it to boot AGAIN! Just like the suggestions say, it lights up and everything appears to be fine (fans spin, drives seek) but nothing will bring the monitor out of stand by. I tried two different monitors, two different AGP video cards, a PCI video card, I reset CMOS (including pulling and replacing the CMOS battery), and everything else. ABIT is absolutely no help, I check to insure that there was no metal to metal contacts with the motherboard mounting (even went so far to use ground isolating rubber grommets). My PS is the SPARKLE 300W which is exactly what ABIT recommends. Is this board a piece of crap or what?

Anyone else got any other suggestions?! Please help.

__________________
Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[UnseenMenace]

I personally consider that you have far to much running of that 300w and should consider upgrading or another power supply (I run two on my KT7A system).. but anyway you wanted suggestions and here they are

If you have BIOS version WW or WZb00, and you get four beeps (some people describe it as more of a siren) and then the machine shuts down, this is because these versions of the BIOS will shut down your machine if no fan tachometer signal is detected on FAN1 header. Make sure you attach a fan to this header! In some cases a loose connection can also cause this - try spreading the pins a little. BIOS WZb01 and later have this functionality disabled by default, and it can be enabled in the BIOS. Note - only fans with a three-wire cable can supply a tachometer signal. If your fan only has two wires then even if it is connected to FAN1, the motherboard will not see a speed. In this case never use BIOS WW!!

Have you accidentally moved the SMB1 jumper on the motherboard - this can cause these symptoms?

Does the machine display these symptoms when not overclocked ?

Have you correctly connected the case's power switch to the "Power On" switch header (pins 8-9) on the PN1 header on the motherboard?

If you have tried unlocking your CPU using the "pencil trick", a badly joined bridge can cause this.

 

[WillysNut]

Keith...your scaring me first of all. My KT7A-Raid is gonna be here this week. Man...what the heck could it be...can you get into the BIOS??? What BIOS version are you running?

Are you sure...considering the Two HO fans, the big delta, and the card cooler, that the PS is enough? Also...I'm not sure if the KT7A still has it...but do you have a fan plugged into the 3-Pin marked CPU on the mobo? I believe some Abit boards or newer BIOS' won't allow a the board to run if a fan is not plugged into the CPU header near the socket.

Good luck and please, please don't give up...I'll have my board in two days and I can give you an update...there's been waaay too many mentions of KT7A/R problems on the boards lately.

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

Ok,
Ok, I am going to try it without one of the fans and then two of the fans plugged in and we'll see what happens. Yes, I have a 5400 RPM fan plugged into FAN1 on my board BTW.
I am seriously considering an IWill MoBo after seeing all the problems people have been having with the KT7A

__________________
Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[sfa ok]

I would assume that most of Abit's buisness on the KT7A comes from people that know what they're doing, correct? Do they actually think that they can fool their customers into believing an Iwill board can corrupt a case? This makes me really, really angry, their DDR board better be very good for me to buy it, otherwise I'm going with the Iwill. (I own a KT7A, and it hasn't caused any problems for me. This kind of "support" just really angers me.)

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

Ok, once again, per the last suggestion...I took and removed everything including the MoBo and started from scratch. After slowly one piece at a time putting parts in...I got it to boot once again.

Still having the power on/off problem but let me play some more...I'll post more...




__________________

Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[GOD]

try it with the minimium setup.
1xcdrom
1xHDD
Vcard.
and no more.
and remmember not to use the SBlive card in No`5 PCI slot.
install the latest 4in1 32.
uninstall the SBlive driver and replace it with the latest driver from creative.
try the WW bios.
if it still don`t clear your problems with this then there is a problem with one of your componants ,and it can`t be your mobo since u just got a replacement.
and remmember all win9X will only support up to 512meg of rams.
hope it will workout for u..

GOD.....

 

[bdf24]

I noticed that with certain settings on my parents pc in the bios of there KT7A. Certain settings will cause the system to not post. Which I will either have to turn power on and off a bunch of times or discharge the cmos to get it to post again.

Also I get this same problem on my pc every now and then. It's an Abit BE6-II. But only with my watercooling installed! Only thing I can think of is that the tubes are putting slight pressure on the cpu and keeping it from seating just right in the slot. But it seems like when I take the watercooling off and put in my P3125 Alpha it doesnt do it? Ya got me!

 

[Tacoman667]

The 300W PSU should be enough for that system to run, but, you really need to play with the BIOS settings some more. When I overclock my 1gig TBird over 10x135(1350) I have to turn off the Enhance Chip setting in the BIOS on the variable FSB/Voltage page. This enables me to clock to where I am now stable(10.5x140). Do you run Motherboard Monitor? I use this for not just the temps, but for the voltages too. This should tell you how things are in the +5 and +12 areas of the PSU output. If they drop below about .1 or more, I suggest a better PSU. I have never had problems with my Enermax 350W or my now used 430W Enermax. Check ALL the jumpers in the manual and set them all to default positions and put the BIOS on optimal settings to see if you still have this problem or even try the default settings. I have a KT7A that the DIMM slots went bad on and it took me about 4 eamails of suggestions to finally get ABIT to accept an RMA of the board. Try these suggestions and let us know how things fare.

 

[JEFF]

i had to uninstall the vxd from via and use the drivers from my nvida card .i kept getting out of range signal.
in power management,have u changed any settings there and do they match windows settings?

 

[Tacoman667]

I personally have not even touched the power management page. I don't want to mess anything up so I feel that defaults on that page are ok. So, that was the whole problem? The VXD drivers? Have you tried the ZT or YH drivers yet?

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

Ok,
Like I said last night, I got it to boot...attempting the Windows install now. We'll see what happens. Still having problems with it when it needs to reset itself. It doesn't fully do it. I have to power off, unplug the power cord, plug in back in and power on for a reset. Strange. I am going to attempt a new case, I think, maybe with a 400W PSU.

__________________
Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[Fiz]

Try flashing to a newer BIOS, my KT7A-Raid shipped with the YH revision and it has not caused me any problems at all. I am sorry to hear that abit treated you like such garbage though, you go and buy a 150 dollar mobo and thats wgat you get??? Anyhow, good luck.

Fiz

 

[AMDGuy]

Just a suggestion...your AGP isn't set to 4x is it? I had this same problem until I changed it to 2x.

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

OK,
I have about had it with this damn MoBo.

I had thought that everything was good. It stopped doing the power cord pull/replug thing (I have no idea why). But then everything in WinME started going freaky. It kept telling me that I did not have enough memory to run this or that program (I have 768 MB and it was showing 89% free). Then I rebooted today and BOOM....BSOD...general protection fault, you system my be reset. Reset and the same thing. Tried safe mode...same thing...does this motherboard work with anything? I just RE-wiped the HD and now am going to start with a fresh 98 SE install and see what happens.

I called Abit once again for ***** and giggles. Get this, the guy on the line tells me that the power system in my home is probably corrupt. I ask him how comes my Tyan Trinity 1590S MoBo system works fine and when I had the IWill MoBo in my system that I borrowed it worked fine. He told me because they are lesser products. At this point it became a game with me so I asked him if anyone else had called in with Abit KT7A (or KT7A-RAID problems), he said "No, all of our customers very happy with their motherboards...you is only one I have heard of." I asked him if he had Internet access and I directed him to the AMDMB.com Forums and the Overclockers.com Forums and see how many people were having problems. Get this, and I quote him, "That is just same person posting over and over, probably working for one of our competitors." I asked to speak to a supervisor/manager/god and he told me, "He no speak English" To which my comment dealt with something about him being a PEBKAC error (Problem Exists Between Keyboard & Chair) and asked him if he ever even did an install with this motherboard. He got real quiet and said, "No." WTF? This has become a quest for the Holy Grail for me.

BTW here is my system layout.

Super Power Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB slot 1, 1x256 MB slot 2)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive IDE 1 Master
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive IDE 2 Master
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive IDE 2 Slave
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card AGP Slot
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card PCI 1
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL PCI 2
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card PCI 3

Any other suggestions?

Wanders off looking for C4...
__________________
Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[DF]

get rid of that memory!

Like so, win9x can only handle a max of 512, so you need to take some of it out...... Get rid of it, or give it to me ;D

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

Ok, so lately everyone has been telling me it is a power supply problem...maybe what I should do is get a different case and power supply. I am not overall happy with the case that I bought since I cannot remove the MoBo tray anyways. I have been considering buying a Future Power ACE case like on this EBay Auction. I like the extra front USB ports as well as the 400W power supply.

Maybe I should buy that for my Abit and buy an addtional IWill MoBo and use this case to upgrade my old K6 system. I bet the upgraded system will still run better than this stupid Abit. I don't understand it, I have been die hard Abit forever and built 5 systems on the Abit KT7-KT7RAID MoBo's, but this KT7A must be the biggest hunk of crap Abit has put out. Just looking at all the problems people are having on the forums makes me wonder if they rushed this one out with bugs to get to work on the KG7.

Hmmm....what to do? Any more suggestions? Input?

And DF, I'll probably hold onto the extra RAM to help with the upgrade of the older system...sorry dawg...

__________________

Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[GOD]

u r missing the most important point here....
yes the psu might be the problem ..
but 2ppl have already told u that win9x`s can only cope with 512meg off rams and no more including me........
get rid of that 256meg stick.
or give it to me....
or go with win2k.
but since u r having enough trouble with winme i suggest u stay with winme longer.
get to know the OS inside out then move to win2k.
almost forgot.
check that those rams r compatible with KT7A
from the ram manufacture.

GET RID OFF THAT 256MEG OF RAM!!!!!!!!!!!
GOT IT??!!

GOD....

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

GOD - Ok, before this I had both tried a Windows 2K install and a Windows ME install. Both of those I had the full 768 MB of RAM in. Now that I am doing the 98 SE install...I only have the 512 MB chip in. On a side note on that, one of the other PC's I have built is running Windows 98 SE (Abit KT7-RAID, Athlon 1.2 GHz, 2 512 MB Crucial Chips, 2 80 GB Maxtor 5400 RPM ATA 100 HD's in RAID 0 formation) with 1.0 GB of PC133 RAM in it. Now Win98 will only use a maximum of 512 MB, but according to Microsoft and also with this PC, it does not hurt to have it in. The guy I built that PC for wanted that much RAM because he is waiting for XP to come out and wants to be totally loaded. His PC works fine. But I wanted to be safe so I pulled the other 256 stick.

I haven't completed the installation because formatting the 45.0 GB hard drive took too long last night and I needed to get some sleep for work today. I will complete the installation tonight and we shall see what happens.

__________________

Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.

Generic Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card

 

[Keith O. McKeever Jr.]

Also, please, I am very familiar with all three OS's (98 SE, ME, 2K)...I have done multiple installations/set ups with both. I called Crucial and they stated, "Our RAM is 100% compatible with all KT-133/KT-133a/KT-133e motherboards. We have received numerous calls regarding the Abit KT7A(and RAID) motherboards due to instability. Abit has blamed our RAM as well as Kingston, PNY and about every other manufacturer. We believe it to be a problem with their motherboard." Hmmm...am I starting to see a trend here?

My other PC I have is running the following:

Dual Boot Windows ME/Windows 2K
Tyan Trinity 1590S MoBo
AMD K6*2 400 MHz Processor @ 500 MHz 2.4V Air Cooled
256 MB of PC100 RAM (2 * 64 MB, 1 * 128 MB)
Western Digital 20.1 Ultra/66 Hard Drive
Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
LG-Electronics 32X CD-ROM Drive (SUCKS REALLY BAD)
Hewlett-Packard 10/4/32X CD-RW Drive
Diamond Viper 770 Ultra nVidia TNT2 Ultra 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SB Live! MP3 PCI Sound Card
Creative Labs ModemBlaster PCI Modem Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
ADS Tech USBX404 TurboQuad 4 PCI USB Card

Running stable at the following temps:
At Idle = 33*C
Under Normal Load (Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2 Internet Explorers) = 36-7*C
Under Gaming Mode (After 3 hours straight of gaming with Tony Hawk PS2 or BG II) = 42-5*C


__________________
Thank You!
Keith O. McKeever, Jr.
System
Super Power Mid Tower Case
Sparkle 300W Power Supply w/ 2 High RPM case fans & 1 PCI card cooler
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD T-Bird 850 MHz 200 FSB Processor w/ GlobalWIN FOP-38 Cooler
768 MB CAS 2 Crucial RAM (1x512 MB, 1x256 MB)
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM UATA-100 Hard Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Jaton GeForce 2 MX 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
LinkSys 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card w/ WOL
AOpen 56K v.90 K56Flex PCI Modem Card