I am using the A7V Rev 1.02 with the 1003 Mod BIOS. I want to run my V7700 in AGP 4X mode with stability. What should I set the drive strength to in BIOS? DA?? Thanks in advance.
Asus A7V, AGP 4X Drive Strength
- Thread starter Citadel
- Start date
Actually, I tried setting it to auto and setting the BIOS to "Optimal" which should set the AGP to 4X but it runs unstable during D3D games such as Unreal Tournament. So, I was looking for a work around because BIOS Ver. 1003 Mod does allow you to manually set drive strength. Other than that issue, I am very happy with the A7V now.
I'm having a similar issue with my A7V and Creative Annihilator2.
Unfortunately the only solution I've succeded with is setting the bios from Optimal to Standard, which runs the AGP at 2x rather than 4x.
phronq@porkclocktower.com
Unfortunately the only solution I've succeded with is setting the bios from Optimal to Standard, which runs the AGP at 2x rather than 4x.
phronq@porkclocktower.com
This is obviously VIA's poor implementation of AGP 4X because I had the same problem with my CUV4X which is the Apollo Pro (694X).
On my Leadtek Geforce 2 GTS 32 MB, I have my AGP drive strength set to 'C' and 'E' respectively. 'D' and 'E' are also very stable. Actually, this is the only way I can have a stable AGP 4x/fastwrites enabled system under Win2k with my A7V. Under WinME, AGP strength to Auto is fine. Hope this helps.
Aha!
Now it works.. here's what I have, and here's what I did to get it to work:
Asus A7V rev 1004D, Athalon Tbird 900mhz
SB Live w/ latest drivers from Creative
Creative Annihilator2 w/ latest drivers from Creative
Windows ME
Bios settings:
System Performance: Optimal
4X Drive Strength: Auto
Fast Write: Enabled
I used the VIA 4-in-1 1427v and installed the AGP VxD in Turbo Mode.
I'd previously tried with the VIA 4-in-1 1425 package and had no luck, and I'd tried putting in the AGP VxD 4.04 by itself.
Edit: As an addition to this, I've had no lockups while gaming with Mechwarrior 4 or Q3 for a few hours... though I did have one lockup this morning with Internet Explorer 5.5..
Now it works.. here's what I have, and here's what I did to get it to work:
Asus A7V rev 1004D, Athalon Tbird 900mhz
SB Live w/ latest drivers from Creative
Creative Annihilator2 w/ latest drivers from Creative
Windows ME
Bios settings:
System Performance: Optimal
4X Drive Strength: Auto
Fast Write: Enabled
I used the VIA 4-in-1 1427v and installed the AGP VxD in Turbo Mode.
I'd previously tried with the VIA 4-in-1 1425 package and had no luck, and I'd tried putting in the AGP VxD 4.04 by itself.
Edit: As an addition to this, I've had no lockups while gaming with Mechwarrior 4 or Q3 for a few hours... though I did have one lockup this morning with Internet Explorer 5.5..
After three crashes while using IE 5.5 with my above-mentioned setup, I took two more steps:
1) Got the latest IE patch
2) Installed the nvidia Detonator 3 drivers
No more lockups since then.
1) Got the latest IE patch
2) Installed the nvidia Detonator 3 drivers
No more lockups since then.
Looks like I spoke too soon.
With all the work I've done, gaming works fine with AGP 4X and Fast Writes,
however, I'm getting occasional lockups using 2D applications, such as IE and Windows Media Player (go figure).
For now, as kludgy as it is, if I'm doing anything important in 2D, I'll set the System Performance to Normal, when gaming, I'll have to reboot with it set to Optimal.
I may consider updating to the most recent BIOS revision later tonight as well, just to see if that has any effect. Failing that, I suppose it's just a situation where I'll need to sit on my hands and hope the next VIA 4-in-1 drivers solve any remaining issues.
With all the work I've done, gaming works fine with AGP 4X and Fast Writes,
however, I'm getting occasional lockups using 2D applications, such as IE and Windows Media Player (go figure).
For now, as kludgy as it is, if I'm doing anything important in 2D, I'll set the System Performance to Normal, when gaming, I'll have to reboot with it set to Optimal.
I may consider updating to the most recent BIOS revision later tonight as well, just to see if that has any effect. Failing that, I suppose it's just a situation where I'll need to sit on my hands and hope the next VIA 4-in-1 drivers solve any remaining issues.
I'll get heat for this I'm sure but here goes.
If I'm correct and you have an Asus card, goto your readme.txt from the drivers and in there it will probably say that if your intalling this on a VIA chipset install the vgart in normal mode. Normal mode means 1X AGP. It's been widely debated that VIA is not that compatible with 2X4X agp, and for some reason more so with Asus cards. I'm not saying it's imposible I'm sure someone got it working but the question I ask is why?
There is no great benefit enabling 4X AGP you will get much more benefit and stability if you increase your ram to CAS 222. Even by installing the 4-1 4.27 will give you better performance gain. It's just now worth it.
Edit: forgot to say that you can check out the article here but you'll need a translator. It's quite a good read actually on 1X2X4X AGP and CAS memory.
If I'm correct and you have an Asus card, goto your readme.txt from the drivers and in there it will probably say that if your intalling this on a VIA chipset install the vgart in normal mode. Normal mode means 1X AGP. It's been widely debated that VIA is not that compatible with 2X4X agp, and for some reason more so with Asus cards. I'm not saying it's imposible I'm sure someone got it working but the question I ask is why?
There is no great benefit enabling 4X AGP you will get much more benefit and stability if you increase your ram to CAS 222. Even by installing the 4-1 4.27 will give you better performance gain. It's just now worth it.
Edit: forgot to say that you can check out the article here but you'll need a translator. It's quite a good read actually on 1X2X4X AGP and CAS memory.
I know that the difference isn't that drastic. I'm just irritated that I'm sold something that claims to be able to do a thing that it apparently can't do well.
I've gone the furthest with this that I'm willing to go. I've updated my A7V to BIOS rev 1005B (at http://www.athlonmb.com ), set System Performance to Optimal and the Drive Strength to Auto. Fast Writes are disabled, and it's working with loss of about 1 frame per second as compared to a 10 frame per second loss (according to Q3 Timedemo) when I had it in 2D mode.
After letting it run wild with Q3 and Mechwarrior for a few hours, I checked out the 2D issues I'd had before. After testing for a few hours, nothing had locked up. Looks like it's as good as it'll ever get.
I've gone the furthest with this that I'm willing to go. I've updated my A7V to BIOS rev 1005B (at http://www.athlonmb.com ), set System Performance to Optimal and the Drive Strength to Auto. Fast Writes are disabled, and it's working with loss of about 1 frame per second as compared to a 10 frame per second loss (according to Q3 Timedemo) when I had it in 2D mode.
After letting it run wild with Q3 and Mechwarrior for a few hours, I checked out the 2D issues I'd had before. After testing for a few hours, nothing had locked up. Looks like it's as good as it'll ever get.
Is there any chance the latest Video Card BIOS from Asus will help? (you do have an Asus card, no?) Also, does Asus have any customized drivers of their own for the video card or even for the AGP driver?
Sometimes in the past Asus has been able to make up for what Intel and VIA have lacked. Such as with their 815 chipset boards, which are the only ones that run all three dimm slots full at 133 without crashing. Unfortunately since this is an AMD product you may have their B-team of engineers again, since Asus doesn't seem to support AMD as enthusiastically as they do Intel.
With the delay in the release of a lot of KT-133A boards let's hope VIA takes a little extra time to fix their AGP 4X implementation. They've gotten their frontside bus up to speed apparently, now maybe they'll work on this issue. (I know AGP 4X is not really that great. But I agree with Phronq, I hate getting a product that says it will do something it won't. That's just poor business practices.)
Sometimes in the past Asus has been able to make up for what Intel and VIA have lacked. Such as with their 815 chipset boards, which are the only ones that run all three dimm slots full at 133 without crashing. Unfortunately since this is an AMD product you may have their B-team of engineers again, since Asus doesn't seem to support AMD as enthusiastically as they do Intel.
With the delay in the release of a lot of KT-133A boards let's hope VIA takes a little extra time to fix their AGP 4X implementation. They've gotten their frontside bus up to speed apparently, now maybe they'll work on this issue. (I know AGP 4X is not really that great. But I agree with Phronq, I hate getting a product that says it will do something it won't. That's just poor business practices.)
I think everyone is to blame for this, Microsoft with DX8, nVidia with beta drivers, Game companies, Asus with their bios's and VIA with the AGP vgart, the AGP port standard, and of course the card manufacturers. Until they all abide to very strick standards 4X or over will never work perfectly or it will take time to implement. they would rather work on faster GPU's than a strick AGP 4X+ standard. Just my opinion.
I probably should have purchased the Asus GeForce2 GTS card, then I could at
least narrow my field of blame
I've got the Creative Annihilator 2 card. I don't believe they've offered any really new software other than the a minor update Blaster Control update and a similar update with Windows drivers. I'm using the Detonator 3 software now anyway.
I've got to agree with Nic. Straight across the board, people aren't doing enough to keep to strict specifications. If they were, this sort of hassle wouldn't be necessary.
I'm still running with my A7V updated to BIOS rev 1005B, Detonator 3 drivers,
Via 4-in-1 1427v, AGP 4x, fast writes disabled. I've had no lockups, but I do occasonally get a really nasty GPF at the end of shutdown ...but then, I'm shutting down anyway, so I can deal with it.
least narrow my field of blame
I've got the Creative Annihilator 2 card. I don't believe they've offered any really new software other than the a minor update Blaster Control update and a similar update with Windows drivers. I'm using the Detonator 3 software now anyway.
I've got to agree with Nic. Straight across the board, people aren't doing enough to keep to strict specifications. If they were, this sort of hassle wouldn't be necessary.
I'm still running with my A7V updated to BIOS rev 1005B, Detonator 3 drivers,
Via 4-in-1 1427v, AGP 4x, fast writes disabled. I've had no lockups, but I do occasonally get a really nasty GPF at the end of shutdown ...but then, I'm shutting down anyway, so I can deal with it.
Here's something I was going to try:
Set agp driving strength to default in the bios and use wpcredit to see what value the bios is using. Then use the bios to try higher settings manually.
Set agp driving strength to default in the bios and use wpcredit to see what value the bios is using. Then use the bios to try higher settings manually.
I am running an A7V bios 1003 with an Asus V6800 Geforce. Hadall kind of problems until someone on this board told me to uninstall the Via ATAPI driver. I did this, downloaded Direct X8, set AGP to auto (4x) and all is well. No crashes, screen freezes, etc. I am using the standard drivers that came with my card and have not tried any of the new Geforce drivers. Try it you will like it.
Dulanic
Diamond Member
- Oct 27, 2000
- 9,957
- 581
- 136
Here is one of the best combos for the A7V....
Win2K... VIA 4.26 WITHOUT IDE Busmaster drivers, NVidia 6.47, MS VIA AGP Win2K Patch, BIOS 1005.
Win98... VIA 4.26 (Havent tested 4.27), Nvidia 6.34 or 6.47, BIOS 1005.
BIOS 1005 is by far the most stable BIOS out there. I run AGP 4X, fastwrites, optimal, 800@1060, 106FSB, 256MB CLS2.
Win2K... VIA 4.26 WITHOUT IDE Busmaster drivers, NVidia 6.47, MS VIA AGP Win2K Patch, BIOS 1005.
Win98... VIA 4.26 (Havent tested 4.27), Nvidia 6.34 or 6.47, BIOS 1005.
BIOS 1005 is by far the most stable BIOS out there. I run AGP 4X, fastwrites, optimal, 800@1060, 106FSB, 256MB CLS2.
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