ASUS A7V owners.... Does your computer freeze up? Must read this...

[Whitedog]

I have had my A7V for about 2 months now and have been trouble-shooting random freezes the whole time. I've recently discovered what the problem was, but before I say, let me tell you the hardware I've swapped out/replaced in this long event.
I'm talking about windows just "freezing". No nothing. Mostly happened when I started playing a game (in D3D) so I suspected it being a video problem. However, it would still randomly Freeze up during normal crap, like surfing and stuff.

I swapped out the ASUS V7700 card with ASUS TNT1 card.. still locked.
I swapped out all memory chips.. still locked.
I took ALL cards but video card out.. still locked.
Put a new 400W power supply.. still froze.
Formatted Hard drive, loaded different OS.. still froze..
Changed Video drivers (as many different ones I could find to download).. still froze...

Starting to sound frustrating? IT was at this point.

OK, I stumbled into what the problem a few days ago. Are you ready? AGP4X!!!!!!!!!

Yup, I went into the Bios and Changed AGP from "Optimal" (4X) to "Normal" (2X) and WALLAH! System has been running Rock solid ever since! :| :|

So, if anyone has any information on this as being a known problem, I'd sure love to see some links, info, whatever...

Plus, if anyone is having any trouble with your A7V (or KT133) platform being unstable, I suggest turning AGP to "Normal" and see what that does for you.

Thanks and hope this saves someone a lot of headaches...

 

[Mem]

I don`t see why you cannot run in AGP4x mode there are alot of owners out there doing thatwith the same board,I also have had no trouble running my ex-TNT & now Geforce2 MX in 4xAGP mode on my MSI K7T PRO board,btw it could be just certain cards with certain boards thing, anyway I`m happy you were able to fix it.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

I heard about people doing that also. I messed around and shut off the fast write and that worked also.

 

[Dulanic]

It is not related to AGP 4X.... Optimal also changes memory settings.... switch to 1003 BIOS and Optimal will work fine..... this has been known about for quite some time All you had to do was ask.

 

[Whitedog]

Dulanic, are you saying that BIOS 1004 is crap? hehe... uhmmm.. I'll buy that.
I wonder why I didn't find that on ASUS's website. oh well, I don't need AGP 4X right now anyway (no games I have would benifit from it I don't think.. Deus Ex?), my system is running happier than it ever has and I am not in the mood to do anything else with it...
I'll just wait for the next Bios (1005?) and give it a try.

[edit]BTW, I did ask. I posted several messages about this and got the usual "garage techies" responses... like "video drivers" "Format" "buy new hardware"... and was desperate enough to do all that too! lol

It's just sad it took me so long to fix this myself. I mean, I've been doing this for a living for 5 years now! :|

Oh well, on the bright side! I've got a BRAND NEW 400W Power supply! (it rox!) and a pure copper Heatsink (rox 2), and a new Q500 Tower!

 

[Whitedog]

<<It is not related to AGP 4X.... Optimal also changes memory settings.... >>

Oh, I meant to ask. In the Bios, there is a seperate setting to change memory settings (timings), so, what memory settings does &quot;Optimal&quot; change? Memory settings on the Video card?

[edit] nevermind, I went and RTFM. hehe [/edit]

I have a few questions about what I read in the manual about &quot;system performance settings&quot;
Can someone explain the following to me? I want to know what they mean.

DRAM Bank Interleave: (This sounds like the same concept as &quot;striping&quot; hard drives?)
4K page: (have no idea)
Burst Refresh: (have no idea)

Optimal enables these, what happend when you are running Normal mode?

Also, more BIOS questions..
AGP Drive Strength P Ctrl (range 0-F, [C] default): what is this range, and should I mess with?
and N Ctrl. (range 0-F, [E] default): same as above.
AGP Fast Write: Diabling this affects performace How?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm the &quot;I need to know&quot; kinda guy.

 

[Gogga]

I also had to use AGP2x to get it stable with Bios 1004. Bios 1003 is the best so far and I run AGP4x with it, but I still had problems with it. The AGP 4.04E AGP patch solved all my problems and my computer is simply rock stable now!

 

[Whitedog]

Gogga, is 4.04e a Video card Bios update? cool. hmmm, I might just do some flashing this afternoon.

Oh, if anyone could answer my bios questions below, I would be grateful.

 

[NoreagaCNN]

Hmm I used to have these constant freezes but disabling AGP SideBanding removed it, I still run at AGP 4X, so I think it might have to do with something else.

Peace,
Nore

 

[Whitedog]

AGP Sidebanding? Are we talking about A7V mobo here? Where do I find that setting at? I looked through the bios and don't see that.
Is it similar to anything else?

 

[pillage2001]

Whitedog: Do you tend to mean that your computer freezes in both windows and games? I do have that problem too. After 2 hours or so, my computer will just freeze without and warning. I too notice some glitches in the graphics point of view. Almsot did what you did man but sicne it's pointed out, I'll just flah my BIOS to 1003 and run at optimal. . Initially I thought the problem was with overclocking and I tuned the system back to 800Mhz and it stil happens but not so often. So, I guess the 1004 Bios is not that stable afterall?

 

[Whitedog]

Well, my system used to take a couple of hours before it froze, but the last couple of weeks, it would freeze as soon as I loaded Deus Ex. and doing normal stuff like surfing Anand would still freeze after a few hours (random)

I'm not going back to 1003 becuase of the ATA/100 issue they had prior to 1004a. I've been reading ASUS website and every case with the ATA/100 says to upgrade to 1004a.

I don't see any problem with running my system in &quot;Normal&quot; mode anyway. It's ROCK solid and Fast as he11.

Oh, about the &quot;disabling sidebanding&quot; ASUS Video bios has this disabled my default, and to enable it, you have to download a new bios (which I haven't done), so I don't think that was my problem. I'm still looking for other clues though

Pillage, I would just set the system to &quot;Normal&quot; and be done with it. Stability is Far more important than Speed. (especially when your computer is ALREADY fast as fuk) hehe

 

[pillage2001]

Whitedog: I'm curious of what the new BIOS(1004D) did to hang the PC, I've just flashed my pc to 1003. I'm running at 900Mhz now and I'll see how solid it is. No problem so far. As for ATA100, what are the issues? I'm running everything fine now.

As for others who use the 1004 BIOS, there are 4 types, 1004a, 1004b, 1004c and 1004d. I noticed that Asus took down the 1004d BIOS update which I had. Was it because of the freeze up issue that everybody was having? Who's using which BIOS? I'm curious!

 

[Whitedog]

I'm using 1004c. Have been since about 2 days after I had the system. The ata/100 issue was that it was taking about 3 minutes to boot up because it was hanging at the detecting ata/100 devices stage. 1004a added a new item to the bios to disable that.

Do you boot up with ata100 devices? I don't even have anything hooked to mine.

Another question. Does it work ok to hook ata66 hard drives in the ata100 slots? I'd like to do this to free up room on my ata66 slots. (cd burner, zip, removable hard drive caddy)

I currently have 2 ata66 hard drives (primary) and cd burner (secondary). I want to add the caddy and zip and move my hard drives over to ata100 if I can.

I have to have ata100 seek enabled in the bios for them to boot off them I know, but is it going to take my bootup back to 3 minutes? I'm booting in 45 seconds right now, which is fast for Win2000.

 

[pillage2001]

Hei friend, I'm still alive and the system is still stable.....hehe...

Alrite, bout the ATA100, it takes bout 20 seconds or less to detect the ATA100 drive. I think that once you flash it to a 1004a or higher version of bios, the Promise bios is flashed too. So, by flashing it back to 1003, I would still have the latest promise BIOS. I have a IBM ATA100 drive and it's smooth while detecting. Yes, you can hook up your ATA66 drive to the ATA100 ports. . I boot into WinME is less than 45 seconds. Cool huh? Talk bout speed...hehe...

 

[pillage2001]

Oh yeah, for those who are using 1003, I remember there was once where people are getting real funny temperature readings when using that BIOS? Is it true??

 

[velvtelvis]

I'm working on building a Duron system around an A7V as well, and have encountered all kinds of quirks. Is there a consolidated web-page or FAQ anywhere that deals with all the issues that might come up, the various bios settings, etc? I've tried the Asus webpage, but haven't found that much. Then again the page is so damn slow I ususaly give up and go back to just fiddling around to see what works.

 

[NoreagaCNN]

Sidebanding is not in the BIOS, I have a CL Annihilator 2, it comes with a program called Display Director that lets me take it off there, i'm not sure about other cards though.

Peace,
Nore

 

[pillage2001]

Was there a page where we can refer to at all?

 

[Dulanic]

Whitedog you can be a smart ass and mock me but 1003 fixes this problem for ALOT of people. Feel free not to try it your loss. In 1004 my temps where 43C idle 44C full load.... in 1003 my temps are 36C idle 44C full load... thats another issue with the 1004. Think what you want... but optimal DOES change memory settings. Do some freakin research before you dismiss what I say because everything I say IS true! Go read jaugernats A7V page. Changing to 1003 DOES work.... its worked for me and many others.


http://members.tripod.de/Juggernaut/index.htm

 

[Dulanic]

Also jaugernauts has a 1003 BIOS with the 1004 Promise BIOS that works great. Try it then see whos laughing. You think your so damned smart.... Ive had a A7V for nearly 3 months now and Ive been researching this problem the whole time.

 

[pillage2001]

WoH WoH........cool it man!!

 

[Dulanic]

Pillage I dont take kindly to insults... especially when they are telling me Im wrong when I have been researching this for months. 1004 does have problems on some peoples PCs with Optimal settings yet for most people 1003 works fine. The reason I also know its not AGP 4X is because I forced 2X without going to normal and it still locksup. However switching to Normal worked as did going to 1003.

 

[ModemMix]

my a7v with a v7100 at 4x and a duron 600 at 950 has been rock solid for a month. I wonder what the REAL underlying problem is with some of these systems. I think it all goes back to MS not providing proper agp support for via based chipsets.


ModemMix

 

[DOOPYLOOPY]

I had been having a lot of similar sounding problems. I ended up getting a new video card. Asus v7700 and after multiple reinstalls I haven't had it crashing at all since i got it back and I went to a very large LAN just after I got it back which should have shown up if there was still a problem.

I'll check those BIOS settings though. I was actually quite mystified too that my computer had been crashing out on me exactly the way you described it. I had tried everything and at the moment I'm not sure what is different besides the video card but I'm just happy it's working.