Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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 Posted: Wed Sep 17 2003 21:54
VIAKT333 - AMD - problems |
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Hi
I recently updated my motherboard to (KT3 Ultra/VIA KT333),CPU (AMD 1900), and RAM. I updated without reinstalling windows.
I`we had problems with my system in general but lately Madtracker freezes, and Ctrl/Alt/Delete doesnt help. It seems closely related to the 686b bug as my system suffer the same symptoms.
A known hardware problem on my system is: an exclamtion mark on the "PCI universial serial BUS" in device manager. I cannot find a driver for this device. I`m suspecting that it has to do with the USB ports but I`m not sure.
My system is well patched/updated, and I have tried different drivers from VIA :the latest, and the recommended 4.35 for win 98SE. I have also tried to reinstall madtracker, of course.
I guess my question is if I can use the same solutions as is outlined for the 686b bug, or if any of you guys may have some other tips - I`m particularly interested in the Latency Patch that were described in the bugfix.
Any hints would be appreciated! 
Martin |
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Inge
Man-At-Arms
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Nieuw Lekkerland @ Holland
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Posted: Wed Sep 17 2003 22:42
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Probably you'll need to reinstall windows. Although non-nt4 versions of Windows can handle a chipset change, stability can't be assured in such an environment. See below for an alternative, although I strongly advice you to reinstall windows. Backup all vital data to another partition or cd, format your c to fat32, and reinstall Windows se.
From what I've read, all mainboards *below* the kt400A suffer from a flawfull pci bus controller, so the bugfix will get you started in a usefull way. You can use the following summary:
-get latest drivers for all your hardware (chipset (hyperion 4.49), graphic card, soundcard etc)
-put acpi on 'off' in your bios (this may require a new windows installation if it is on 'on' now, but you can try it without problems)
-latest official bios
-latest windows update
-proper usb port installation (should be in the hyperion drivers, or you should have a hybrid chipset (via southbridge, amd northbridge)
-no conflicting devices (if so, assign specific irq's in the bios to pci ports (if possible), or else change the location of cards (first uninstall the card, then relocate, then a new installation of the hardware)
Let me know what you choose to do, and how it works. I'm interested to hear.
Inge |
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Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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Posted: Thu Sep 18 2003 15:09
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Thanks for your tip. I did try just about anything execpt from reinstalling windows, without results. The next step will be to reinstall windows which is kinda what I wanted to avoid - so when I have to do the job anyway - I`m installing XP to a new harddisk and get a fresh start.
Thanks, though!
- Martin |
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Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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Posted: Tue Sep 23 2003 01:18
still having problems |
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Hmm - I have installed winXP and my system seems stable - however I`m still having the same problems with Madtracker 2.30 It freezes a few seconds after start. Its a bit strange because my system seems to be running normally otherwise.
I`m a bit at loss of ideas now - so any further tips will as usual be greatly appreciated.
 Martin |
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Inge
Man-At-Arms
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Nieuw Lekkerland @ Holland
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Posted: Tue Sep 23 2003 09:55
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This is going to be rather tough, but let's see how far we can come
1: download the latest bios for the kt3 ultra at http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=11
2: flash your bios in accordance to your motherboard manual.
3: reset your bios by loading 'safe/fail defaults', set your fsb to 133 and your memory to it's proper speed
Preferable bios settings:
APIC - enabled
Internal cache - enabled
Dram timings - by spd
AGP fast write - enabled
AGP aperture size - identical to your amount of DDR memory
ACPI - yes
Plug & play aware OS - yes
PCI latency timer - play with that one. Try different settings, and see if the freezing of MT occurs faster or slower
Spread spectrum - enabled
(leave all other parameters as they are)
4: download the latest VIA chipset drivers from http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300 and install them completely.
5: perform a complete windows update via Internet Explorer - Extra - Windows update.
6: get the latest drivers for your soundcard (I would like to know what soundcard you got btw)
7: (optional) if you got a soundblaster (live, audigy or whatever else), install the via hyperion 4-1 drivers *again* after reinstalling the soundcard. There's a patch in the hyperion-drivers that will only install itself if it detects an installed soundblaster card.
8: get your latest videocard drivers (I would like to know what videocard you got)
9: disable and remove all things you don't use. Disable onboard sound, firewire, raid, lan and modem if not needed. You can also try temporarily to disable USB completely, since it increases the instability of your pci bus on the southbridge.
10: disable programs in the background that you don't need for MT. Try disabling your virus scanner, firewall, and other useless but not vital apps.
11: install the VIA latency patch from http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/dl03.asp?FILE=vlatency_v020_beta21.exe and see if it makes a difference.
12: (optional) if you got a soundblaster live or audigy, install the specific VIA-SB patch from http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/files/creative_patch_v010.zip
13: remove all PCI cards except your soundcard, and see if it works now. Remember to remove all drivers and software before you unplug anything.
14: try your souncard at different pci slots (and uninstall the card before moving, and reinstall the card afterwards. Furthermore, as said above, reinstall the via hyperion drivers after reinstalling the soundcard if it is a soundblaster)
15: use more buffers and slower latencies, and try the different settings of audio config in MT.
That's all I can think of right now. Let me know what the results are.
Kind regards,
Inge |
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Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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Posted: Tue Sep 23 2003 10:46
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Hey Inge!
Thank you very much for taking the time to give me such an extended answer! I really appreciate it. I will continue to seek a solution for my problem, using your comments.
My soundcard is a Soundblaster Live! Value (which is known to cause problems so I might have to change it) My graphic card is a PCI Geforce Nvidia MX 100/200.
I have disabled all onboard periphials on my mainboard execpt the Universial serial BUS which I cant disable, but I`ll try the settings that you recommended. I currently NOT running the "high performance" settings wich allow for greater speed.
Also I`m having some difficulties with Mr Bill regarding a produckt key, guess I`ll have to do as the man says. 
I`ll keep you posted, thanks again Inge!
Martin |
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Inge
Man-At-Arms
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Nieuw Lekkerland @ Holland
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Posted: Tue Sep 23 2003 12:33
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I haven't referred to high performance settings. These will increase your memory timings, but that factor should be irrelevant in this issue. Just adjust the speed of the memory (in mHz), and define all other memory settings by using 'by spd'. If you use 333 memory, try running at 266 instead of the possible speed. Via boards actually perform better and more stable when cpu and memory speed are identical (and your cpu works at 133 x 2 = 266).
You can disable your usb ports via 'integrated peripherals' -> 'usb controller' -> 'disabled'.
Try borrowing an AGP videocard. Using both a sb live as a videocard on your pci bus is quite hogging, and it might influence the freezing phenomenon.
Try using KX drivers (http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php) instead of liveware. These drivers approach your sb live on another way, and it might help. It makes the bandwidth usage of the card much lower.
Let me know how things turn out. After you've tried all steps, completely remove all software and drivers for your soundcard (might wanna use regclean for that purpose), remove the card itself, and try the onboard soundcard (enable it in your bios, get the latest drivers from internet and install it with these). Changing soundcards didn't work for me (I tried three of them), but different solutions tend to work in different environments.
Kind regards,
Inge |
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Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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Posted: Tue Sep 23 2003 15:13
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Thanks again for elaborating on your suggestions for a solution to my problems. I`ll work a bit with trying to find a stable solution and let you know how it turns out!
Martin |
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Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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Posted: Thu Sep 25 2003 14:13
It seems to be working! |
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Hello Inge
I`ve just flashed my BIOS and it seems to have cured my problem. I was a bit reluctant to flash BIOS as I hadn`t done it before, and I was afraid to ruin my mainboard completely. Well I read a bit about it and found out that a flashing gone bad can be recovered - so I tried it out and it seems as i said to be working.
Thank you very much for taking the time to write such extensive and insightfull suggestions to my problem!
 Martin |
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Inge
Man-At-Arms
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Nieuw Lekkerland @ Holland
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Posted: Thu Sep 25 2003 15:14
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Good!
The problem can still occur though. Let me know if it re-occurs, okay? If not, enjoy MadTracker
Inge |
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Inge
Man-At-Arms
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Nieuw Lekkerland @ Holland
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Posted: Sun Sep 28 2003 22:59
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And, if anyone is interested to feel very happy for me: the last two days I've upgraded and re-installed my computer, leaving my with a sis-chipset based Asus a7s333/amd2000+/512mb ddr 333. For the first time *ever* I've been able to run MadTracker fully stable, resulting in a Inge with Winamp that has been playing MT's for hours now, while he could open a thousand applications at the same time.
Time to do a good VIA raping; I never knew that life without buggy chipsets would be this nice
Inge
ps: yes, ofcourse, win2k sp4. Let's all spit on XP! |
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Martin
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Norway
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Posted: Sun Sep 28 2003 23:37
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hehe!
I`m very happy for you! I can definetly relate to your sentiment - being a very happy tracker myself these days
Martin |
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Sunbuster
Registered User
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Finland
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Posted: Mon Sep 29 2003 10:02
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| Inge wrote: |
And, if anyone is interested to feel very happy for me: the last two days I've upgraded and re-installed my computer, leaving my with a sis-chipset based Asus a7s333/amd2000+/512mb ddr 333. For the first time *ever* I've been able to run MadTracker fully stable, resulting in a Inge with Winamp that has been playing MT's for hours now, while he could open a thousand applications at the same time.
Time to do a good VIA raping; I never knew that life without buggy chipsets would be this nice
Inge
ps: yes, ofcourse, win2k sp4. Let's all spit on XP!
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Let me get this straight, you killed your SiS based mobo and upgraded to a VIA based mobo, or you killed your VIA based mobo, and upgraded to a SiS based mobo?
Either way, the joy on your behalf shall be visible on my face for many hours from this moment on  |
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Inge
Man-At-Arms
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Nieuw Lekkerland @ Holland
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Posted: Mon Sep 29 2003 10:08
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Sis is the way to go from now on. Via has been left and burned. And transposing dutch sayings to English doesn't always work that properly
Inge |
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Jesse Moore
Registered User
Joined: 18 May 2003
Location: Tipp City, Ohio, USA
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Posted: Mon Sep 29 2003 14:05
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VIA chipsets:
Been there. Done that. Went to SIS based board too. Great minds think alike Inge ) |
"The world would be a dull place if there were no Idealists" |
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