The board is alittle over a year old and was replaced by FIC awhile ago. I sent it back to them again because it didn't want to work properly with a AGP TNT video card and a 3com network card installed. It wouldn't go to higher graphics settings until I remove PCI NIC card. They said it was ok with these cards and after installing their 3 in 1 drivers for the VIA chipset the video higher resolution seemed to work ok with a AGP and PCI NIC card. FIC said not to use the 4 in 1 drivers. I am running an Adaptec 64 NIC card and an Elsa Synergy II tnt2 video card instead of the TNT video and 3Com NIC. I had some registry problems, 332 orphans and system errors. So I wipe and reinstalled win98se thinking these were the cause of the long bootup and possibly the system errors. Problem now is I still get random system errors on programs but the long boot up is gone. Testing it with Rogue Spear since games task the system/processor. I have only the win98se operating system install and drivers for the video, mouse and NIC card. Just Rogue installed for testing no other software. I do have an isa sound card installed. AMD K6-3 400 processor in installed. This is an extra machine not my main computer. I have to do further testing to see if removing the NIC card affects the errors. I have updated the MIC card, video card and mouse to the most rescent drivers. Although I did suspect and older video driver may have worked better but I have to test further to tell. Thing is testing requires playing the game for awhile to see if it will error and give me a blue screen on the program. Any input will be appreciated.
503+ motherboard help needed
- Thread starter rsales
- Start date
I have a 503+ and it ran good with a TNT1 but I had to install the AGP
from the CD that came with the motherboard. It was slow with unreal
and I use it for email now, are the error messages the same with a different video card? also are there updates from Elsa?
from the CD that came with the motherboard. It was slow with unreal
and I use it for email now, are the error messages the same with a different video card? also are there updates from Elsa?
I installed the 3 in 1 drivers for AGP, bus mastering and ? from the disk that came with the motherboard when FIC sent it back after testing it. I don't remember the exact messages just that they are blue screen error messages about the program creating an error. Before I wipped and reinstalled operating system I could get it to give me the error with Regclean. Now I am testing for it by running the game Rogue Spear. Now I am running different newer AGP video card and different NIC card. I a suspecting something with the mother board related to the AGP and the NIC card. Just a feeling. Going to test and see if it will error with new drivers I have install for video and nic then remove NIC card and see if it won't error.
lastest testing show it kicking me out of the game to Win98se desktop and not giving me a blue screen error.
Mine did that when direct X 5 or six came out, pull your sound card and see if it still does it.I had some problems when I had a banshee
installed . but I think it was the sound card, one of the two caused it to do that. make sure to use a good sound card like a creative.
installed . but I think it was the sound card, one of the two caused it to do that. make sure to use a good sound card like a creative.
the via503+ was one of the first amd k6 -2 motherboards, it has bugs in it. I'd get an intel mobo for games if you could.
The sound card is a Creative Labs ISA sound card. It is an older one. I do have a newer PCI Creative Labs sound card. The newer one is a lower end one but it is a PCI. I have been wondering if I should try the PCI card. Then I would have no ISA cards in this computer.
This is the third computer and I was tring to salvage it if possible. Only one that's AMD. It's currently my second fastest and I was hoping to use it for Office 2000 and games. Nice to have two computers to do all your basic needs. That way if someone is using one of them you have the other to use.
This is the third computer and I was tring to salvage it if possible. Only one that's AMD. It's currently my second fastest and I was hoping to use it for Office 2000 and games. Nice to have two computers to do all your basic needs. That way if someone is using one of them you have the other to use.
(This *might* have something to do with it):
FIC mb's have problems running video cards with 16mb of ram or more. If you read their website (http://www.fica.com), you can find that there are significant problems with the ATX equivalent of your mb (the pa-2013). The problem has to do with the AGP port and supplying power to the video card. The AGP port is in spec. but really good video cards like GeForce & Voodoo3 3000/3500 draw too much power through them. This causes the port to break damaging the mainboard. Subsequently your mb will stop working well with your agp video card.
FIC mb's have problems running video cards with 16mb of ram or more. If you read their website (http://www.fica.com), you can find that there are significant problems with the ATX equivalent of your mb (the pa-2013). The problem has to do with the AGP port and supplying power to the video card. The AGP port is in spec. but really good video cards like GeForce & Voodoo3 3000/3500 draw too much power through them. This causes the port to break damaging the mainboard. Subsequently your mb will stop working well with your agp video card.
FAQ on FIC site says the 503+ is fully tested and compatable with AGP TNT2 graphics card.
After reinstalling so far no errors on Work or Excel. Just get kicked out of Rogue after awhile. I did see you have to reinstall the AGP driver for VIA chipset after you update the video card drivers and I haven't done that yet. Maybe doing it will correct the game problem.
After reinstalling so far no errors on Work or Excel. Just get kicked out of Rogue after awhile. I did see you have to reinstall the AGP driver for VIA chipset after you update the video card drivers and I haven't done that yet. Maybe doing it will correct the game problem.
rsales- Possibly the CPU is heating up in the game and not in the weaker Apps. such as Word and Excel? More/Better cooling?
Also, is Rogue a D3D game or OpenGL game? Do you have a couple of other games that use either D3D and/or OpenGL? Possibly it's just the one game that's giving you problems.
Also, it is important that you install the patches (and drivers) in the correct order on the MVP3 based Mobo's. Perform a fresh format with just the vid. card in and try the following: For you (Win98SE), I'd just install the IRQ Routing driver, reboot, the VIA INF driver, reboot, the AGP driver, reboot, the video card drivers, reboot, DirectX 7a, reboot, re-install the AGP driver, reboot. If you do this, you should have no stability problems. The IDE Busmater driver is not needed in 98 or 98SE unless you are running into IDE specific problems.
In direct answer to your questions: Yes, download and install the new -39 BIOS. Yes, goto VIA's website and download the VIA AGP Driver (agp403.zip), the IRQ Routing Driver (virq13aw.exe), and the VIA INF Driver (inf102.exe). Make sure to reboot (after the installation of each, it will most likely prompt you to do so) after each step I listed above.
Try using the 5.22 or 5.30(?) driver releases that are floating around the 'web for your vid. card.
Hope this helps!
Chuck
P.S. Drop a line back here and let us know how it works!
Also, is Rogue a D3D game or OpenGL game? Do you have a couple of other games that use either D3D and/or OpenGL? Possibly it's just the one game that's giving you problems.
Also, it is important that you install the patches (and drivers) in the correct order on the MVP3 based Mobo's. Perform a fresh format with just the vid. card in and try the following: For you (Win98SE), I'd just install the IRQ Routing driver, reboot, the VIA INF driver, reboot, the AGP driver, reboot, the video card drivers, reboot, DirectX 7a, reboot, re-install the AGP driver, reboot. If you do this, you should have no stability problems. The IDE Busmater driver is not needed in 98 or 98SE unless you are running into IDE specific problems.
In direct answer to your questions: Yes, download and install the new -39 BIOS. Yes, goto VIA's website and download the VIA AGP Driver (agp403.zip), the IRQ Routing Driver (virq13aw.exe), and the VIA INF Driver (inf102.exe). Make sure to reboot (after the installation of each, it will most likely prompt you to do so) after each step I listed above.
Try using the 5.22 or 5.30(?) driver releases that are floating around the 'web for your vid. card.
Hope this helps!
Chuck
P.S. Drop a line back here and let us know how it works!
This mobo is full of bugs.
It has many confusing setting in advanced chipset setting
and Intergrated setting too.
I couldn't get everything to run right in windows at all
I try flashing the bios to latest.
Didn't do anything different, maybe add more bugs?
Its a so so mobo, or more like headaches.
I have a hard time constantly setting the jumpers
cause it so confusing, poor manual layout.
Try going with ASUS, OR DFI
ASUS is as I heard, very good overclocking board and very stable.
DFI decent overclocker due to 100mhz limit, and has dma/66
and are easy to set cpu speed due to DIPSWITCH
I would choose DFI, but I guess you can't go wrong with either of these 2... I can't convince everyone to buy DFI only cause I know alot of
people that love either of them but not both.
It has many confusing setting in advanced chipset setting
and Intergrated setting too.
I couldn't get everything to run right in windows at all
I try flashing the bios to latest.
Didn't do anything different, maybe add more bugs?
Its a so so mobo, or more like headaches.
I have a hard time constantly setting the jumpers
cause it so confusing, poor manual layout.
Try going with ASUS, OR DFI
ASUS is as I heard, very good overclocking board and very stable.
DFI decent overclocker due to 100mhz limit, and has dma/66
and are easy to set cpu speed due to DIPSWITCH
I would choose DFI, but I guess you can't go wrong with either of these 2... I can't convince everyone to buy DFI only cause I know alot of
people that love either of them but not both.
The 503+ 1.2A in one of my PC worked fine with a 16mb TNT agp, k6-2-350. Now it is with a 16mb Sagage4 apg, and k6-2-500.
I think I had some problems with it, but not too hard to work around. Try add the cards one by one, and once everything is working, make backup of the c drive with Norton Ghost.
The board is fast among the S7 boards once it is setup. I only hate the jumper setting and the slow RAM testing at bootup.
I think I had some problems with it, but not too hard to work around. Try add the cards one by one, and once everything is working, make backup of the c drive with Norton Ghost.
The board is fast among the S7 boards once it is setup. I only hate the jumper setting and the slow RAM testing at bootup.
Well it was working ok except for kicking me out of a game after awhile. It didn't like the 4 in 1 drivers for VIA chipset. I'll try Chucky's suggestion tonight. Might just do it.
Chucky2,
Maybe I should also install the drivers for the VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset that's on VIA's web site. Or is that in Win98se?
Maybe I should also install the drivers for the VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset that's on VIA's web site. Or is that in Win98se?
I had similar problems with a 503a board. Tried different video cards, both AGP and PCI with no results. The computer had a cable modem attached which is what I think was causing the problem. You might try moving the NIC to a different slot to see if that helps. (My computer is being returned to me, customer baught a different unit.)
rsales- Yep, I'd try the drivers from VIA's site. You can find them at: http://www.via.com.tw/drivers/index.htm
Download agp403.zip, virq13aw.exe, and inf102.exe. Extract the .zip file onto a floppy, copy the other 2 directly onto their own seperate floppies.
Also download the "Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement" which can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp. Put this on its own floppy.
Shut the computer down and make sure that only the HD, CDROM, Floppy, and Video Card are in the computer. Format the hard drive. Re-install Win98SE. Upon the first fresh boot into Win98SE, install the Shutdown Supplement. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the IRQ Routing driver. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the VIA INF driver. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the AGP Driver in Turbo mode. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the video card drivers. Preferably the 5.22 or 5.30 series, as they are the newest. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, shut it down and physically install your modem. Turn the computer on and install the latest drivers for it. Configure your Internet access. You are doing this now so you can run Windows Update. Run Windows Update and install DirectX 7.0a only, nothing else. The computer will need to reboot, let it do so.
When Windows comes back up (DirectX setup may need to restart the comuter again), re-install the AGP driver in Turbo mode. Reboot the computer and you should be ready to install everything else like usuall.
Sorry for the long and drawn out post, but like I said earlier: A specific process needs to be followed to get everything working correctly.
Let us know how it all turns out.
Chuck
Download agp403.zip, virq13aw.exe, and inf102.exe. Extract the .zip file onto a floppy, copy the other 2 directly onto their own seperate floppies.
Also download the "Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement" which can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp. Put this on its own floppy.
Shut the computer down and make sure that only the HD, CDROM, Floppy, and Video Card are in the computer. Format the hard drive. Re-install Win98SE. Upon the first fresh boot into Win98SE, install the Shutdown Supplement. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the IRQ Routing driver. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the VIA INF driver. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the AGP Driver in Turbo mode. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, install the video card drivers. Preferably the 5.22 or 5.30 series, as they are the newest. If it doesn't prompt you to reboot, do so.
When Windows comes back up, shut it down and physically install your modem. Turn the computer on and install the latest drivers for it. Configure your Internet access. You are doing this now so you can run Windows Update. Run Windows Update and install DirectX 7.0a only, nothing else. The computer will need to reboot, let it do so.
When Windows comes back up (DirectX setup may need to restart the comuter again), re-install the AGP driver in Turbo mode. Reboot the computer and you should be ready to install everything else like usuall.
Sorry for the long and drawn out post, but like I said earlier: A specific process needs to be followed to get everything working correctly.
Let us know how it all turns out.
Chuck
Well Chucky 2,
I sat down Sunday night and decide to take you list and install Win98se on the VA503+. Then I said hey why not try Millennium? So I installed it and it found and installed under system the VIA cpu to pci, cpu to agp bridges and power management. It has a yellow ! on the pci to isa bridge. Thought it might be interesting to try ME. So it's late and work tommorrow. So which driver is for the pci to isa bridge since it looks like ME needs help with this one. By the way all win98 drivers should work with ME. I'll try it Monday after work.
I sat down Sunday night and decide to take you list and install Win98se on the VA503+. Then I said hey why not try Millennium? So I installed it and it found and installed under system the VIA cpu to pci, cpu to agp bridges and power management. It has a yellow ! on the pci to isa bridge. Thought it might be interesting to try ME. So it's late and work tommorrow. So which driver is for the pci to isa bridge since it looks like ME needs help with this one. By the way all win98 drivers should work with ME. I'll try it Monday after work.
I'd install the IRQ Routing driver. That should take care of any problems your having with the PCI to ISA Bridge. The VIA PCI Bridge patch that VIA offers is built into Win98SE, so it should be built into WinMe. Other than the IRQ Routing driver, the only thing you should need to install is the AGP patch, the vid. drivers, and then the AGP patch again...Of course, I've never installed WinMe, so at this point I'm just guessing.
The absolute sh*tty thing about all this is that VIA has no order in which to install all these patches they have. If they did, then they'd have to tell you which patches you need for which OS. I've e-mailed VIA this 3 times (twice to Tech. Support, once to Sales) and nothing has changed. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just look at what OS you have, DL the patches you need, and install them in the order VIA tells you to install them in? There would never be this ridiculous search for every user to install patches on each motherboard that has a VIA chipset. After 3 years, I think it's time that VIA got off their *sses and gave us a flowchart on this.
Oh well...
Anyways, I hope that the IRQ Routing driver solves your problem with WinMe. If it doesn't, install Win98SE and patches in the order I posted and all should be good.
Good luck! (and let us know how it goes).
Chuck
Edit: Corrected typos.
The absolute sh*tty thing about all this is that VIA has no order in which to install all these patches they have. If they did, then they'd have to tell you which patches you need for which OS. I've e-mailed VIA this 3 times (twice to Tech. Support, once to Sales) and nothing has changed. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just look at what OS you have, DL the patches you need, and install them in the order VIA tells you to install them in? There would never be this ridiculous search for every user to install patches on each motherboard that has a VIA chipset. After 3 years, I think it's time that VIA got off their *sses and gave us a flowchart on this.
Oh well...
Anyways, I hope that the IRQ Routing driver solves your problem with WinMe. If it doesn't, install Win98SE and patches in the order I posted and all should be good.
Good luck! (and let us know how it goes).
Chuck
Edit: Corrected typos.
Ok, just had to check back and see if it was working . this computer I'm using for web,printing and email is my VA503+ w/amd300 k6-2
I think the blue cd that comes with it has the patch on it.
The patch will get rid of that ! exclamation mark you see. (if I remember correctly). It just says patch for chipset.You can probably download it , but if you don't have a copy of the CD let me know and I'll try to burn it for you..Its probably the irq routing patch chucky2 is talking about..
I think the blue cd that comes with it has the patch on it.
The patch will get rid of that ! exclamation mark you see. (if I remember correctly). It just says patch for chipset.You can probably download it , but if you don't have a copy of the CD let me know and I'll try to burn it for you..Its probably the irq routing patch chucky2 is talking about..
Well the ME experiment shows it seems to find everything ok of the VIA chipset except the pci to isa bridge. It says the computer is telling it there are two different types of ISAPNP.vxd bus types. None of the VIA drivers seems to solve the problem. Probably work find on any of the other Intel computers here but slight glicth with this one. Also tried both of the newer bios's, JE438 and Je439. Was running JE1537. Windows says check with the mother board manufacturer for newer bios. They usually don't have anything for new systems until after offical release. May just have to go back to Win98se until VIA patches this problem.
I suppose I could just take out the one isa sound card and put in a pci one and just ignore the isa for now.
I suppose I could just take out the one isa sound card and put in a pci one and just ignore the isa for now.
rsales- Bummer man, I was hoping that the IRQ patch would solve the WinMe problem. You shouldn't have any problems with Win98SE if you stay with that -39 BIOS. The -38 BIOS in my opinion had a bug: Spread Spectrum Modulated was always enabled. There was no way to turn this option off. They had the field to turn it On/Off, the only thing was when you went to the field, it turned into the AGP-2X Yes/No field. WTF?!
Anyways, stay with the -39 BIOS, make sure you enable USB support in the BIOS (even if you aren't running anything USB), patch in the order I posted before (using those drivers from VIA's website), and you should have a solid board.
Another thing to keep in mind is that PCI #3 is not Busmastered. This won't matter for some cards, but it will for others. For example, the only place I can put my Intel PRO/100+ Management NIC is in PCI #2. PCI #1 is shared with the AGP (putting pretty much anything there is a big no-no), and PCI #3 is not Busmastered. However, the Sound Blaster Live! Value I have in there resides happily in PCI #2 or #3. Go figure. Of course, this won't matter for that ISA soundcard. I was just mentioning it in case you had a cable modem or DSL.
Let us know how that patch process works in Win98SE. I'm curious to see if that works for anyone else.
Good luck!
Chuck
Anyways, stay with the -39 BIOS, make sure you enable USB support in the BIOS (even if you aren't running anything USB), patch in the order I posted before (using those drivers from VIA's website), and you should have a solid board.
Another thing to keep in mind is that PCI #3 is not Busmastered. This won't matter for some cards, but it will for others. For example, the only place I can put my Intel PRO/100+ Management NIC is in PCI #2. PCI #1 is shared with the AGP (putting pretty much anything there is a big no-no), and PCI #3 is not Busmastered. However, the Sound Blaster Live! Value I have in there resides happily in PCI #2 or #3. Go figure. Of course, this won't matter for that ISA soundcard. I was just mentioning it in case you had a cable modem or DSL.
Let us know how that patch process works in Win98SE. I'm curious to see if that works for anyone else.
Good luck!
Chuck
I must be a moron, or I would've mentioned this earlier: Try increasing the Vcore setting by .1. For some reason, the board may not be getting enough current to the processor. I had to do this when I was running a K6-3 450 instead of the K6-3 400 I'm running now. 2.4 Vcore just wasn't enough for the 450, but as soon as I went to 2.5 Vcore, all blue screens (In WinNT 4 no less) went away. Even if you have retail cooling, an increase of .1 shouldn't make that much of a difference heatwise.
Another thing I've run across: It must be just me, but it seems to me that the 3COM 3C905B NIC just isn't stable. Maybe it's just because I've only setup a few Socket7/Super7 boards with it, but it absolutely refused to perform/operate in any of the boards I put it in. These included HX, TX, VP2, VP3 and MVP3 (VA-503+'s, ver1.2A) motherboards. Not one liked running the 3COM 3C905B NIC. Now, the 3COM 3C905 and 3C905C worked fine. But that 3C905B just would not work. Yet, slap in one of the Intel PRO/100+ Managements, and all those motherboards worked just fine. The funny thing is, this was back in the Service Pack 4 and 5 days of NT. I happened to be looking at the bug fixes that were in SP6(a), and low and behold, there was specific mention of a fix for the 3COM 3C905B NIC. The moral of this insane post: Your original post said you were having problem with your vid. card and your 3COM NIC. Was that NIC a 3C905B by any chance?
EDIT: Fixed typos and made post coherant
Another thing I've run across: It must be just me, but it seems to me that the 3COM 3C905B NIC just isn't stable. Maybe it's just because I've only setup a few Socket7/Super7 boards with it, but it absolutely refused to perform/operate in any of the boards I put it in. These included HX, TX, VP2, VP3 and MVP3 (VA-503+'s, ver1.2A) motherboards. Not one liked running the 3COM 3C905B NIC. Now, the 3COM 3C905 and 3C905C worked fine. But that 3C905B just would not work. Yet, slap in one of the Intel PRO/100+ Managements, and all those motherboards worked just fine. The funny thing is, this was back in the Service Pack 4 and 5 days of NT. I happened to be looking at the bug fixes that were in SP6(a), and low and behold, there was specific mention of a fix for the 3COM 3C905B NIC. The moral of this insane post: Your original post said you were having problem with your vid. card and your 3COM NIC. Was that NIC a 3C905B by any chance?
EDIT: Fixed typos and made post coherant
When I was first started using the 503+ it was with win95osr2 and it worked fine until I got an error I couldn't resolve. I was running a TNT and 3C905B. All my other computers have the 3C905B in them and no problem. The video didn't want to go to higher resolutions with the NIC card in and I sent it back to the company. They replaced it sent it back I still had trouble and I sent it back. They said it worked fine with the cards I was using. So maybe I was using the shared slot with the AGP or the one that wasn't bus mastered. I didn't see that info in the manual and I looked for that kind of information. Thanks for the addition information. I will keep it in mind when installing cards. Right now I am using the Adaptec NIC and the Elsa TNT2. I really appreciate all the information everyone.
Too bad WinME has the problem with the pci to isa bridge. It seems to have found all the other VIA stuff ok.
Too bad WinME has the problem with the pci to isa bridge. It seems to have found all the other VIA stuff ok.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 21K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter