Asus A7V - why so many problems?

[dmw16]

I just got an Asus A7V motherboard, like several other people it would seem(looking at all the posts). I love Asus boards, always have, but why so many problems with this one? Dont get me wrong, Im gonna ride out the hassles and Im sure it will be worth it. But Im just wondering why there are so many issues.
thanks,
-doug

 

[office boy]

I don't know what the dilly is, I see so many people posting about problems, but I didn't have any...
What kinda trouble are you having?

 

[dmw16]

God, it never ends it seems. Everything was wrong the other day. I had installed the Via software and I had so many problems with that. So I reformatted and only installed the drivers for the promise controller. It works alot better now, all but one error is gone and I know how to fix it. I just need a Sound Blaster card and I should be set. It is just weird all the problems that are happening with it. I think alot of it is IRQ related. The Promise controller uses one, and there is an on-board audio codec but no audio ports, so that could be it too. Who knows. I really think not installed the Via software..the 4in1 stuff really helped. I think Im seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now tho<knock on wood>.
-doug

 

[office boy]

Yes... installing drivers for your chipset is recommended.... What OS are you using?

 

[vi edit]

Well, at least you got your OS installed with yours :frown:

I couldn't even get that far.

 

[dmw16]

Couldnt get past OS install. Damn. What OS are you installing? Look around in the BIOS very very throughly. It is not really defulted very well, it has odd things enabled, maybe you can find something in there. Wish I had more/better advice.
-doug

 

[vi edit]

I was trying to get NT 4.0 running on it. Even the the tech at the RMA center was stumped. I never did get NT running on it. Hell, even Win98 took about 2 hours worth of tweaking to get it to work.

I got sick of it and sold the board for a BX Chipset. I didn't have time to mess around with chintzy hardware.

 

[AdamK47]

I never had a problem with my A7Pro. It's like the A7V minus the Promise ATA100 controller. I didn't need the controller since I already have my RAID board. I'm also using a 1 Gigahert T-Bird overclocked to 1161MHz. It's very stable, but FSB overclocking with these boards kind of sucks compared to other KT133 boards. I even did a fresh install of WinME after setting it up. It only took 15 minutes. RAID rules!

 

[Sunner]

The only problem I had with mine was the problme with the disa&aring;earing secondary IDE channel in Win2K, which was solved by a simple BIOS update.

And I have far from an ideal computer setup.
230W non AMD aproved PSU
192 MB of noname, non AMD certified cheapo memory, two different brands.
GF DDR, OC'ed.

Since the BIOS update, everything has been fine, used to tripple boot Win2K, Linux, and ME, now just dual booting Linux and 2K, got sick of that vile crap ME.

Some people are lucky, I guess this is first time to be one of them.
Or it could be that Im just too damn good at this stuff

 

[Renob]

heres what you do install your OS then you MUST instal the 4in1s next before anything else......

 

[rmblam]

I think the first big barrier (new users) with the A7V is the ata100 channel. If you didn't know ahead of time that the channel does not work until the OS is installed and the promise drivers installed then that could lead to some frustration. You must use the ata66 channel to install then you can migrate the HD over to the ata100 channel. The mobo has 4 ide channels. I doubt any other manufacturer can implement that without some &quot;issues&quot;.

Second: In the manual it shows what slots share which IRQ's. This is readily overlooked. SLot 1 shares with the AGP port. Some vid cards don't share well with other devices. Solution? Don't use slot 1 if you have video instability or try a different device in it. I can use my modem and NIC in slot one just fine.

Slot 2 shares with the promise controller. If you don't like corrupt file transfers and neverending reboot cycles then I suggest you avoid using slot 2 if you plan on using the ata100 channel. Disable the Promise controller and use the ata66 channel if you really need to use slot 2.

Slot 3 - highly recommended to use for SB sound cards. It is the only unshared slot on the A7V without onboard audio.

Slot 4 and 5 share with each other and the USB. That can get ugly if you fill both slots and use USB devices. DIsable USB if you don't use USB and you'll free up some IRQ's.

Disable the com ports in bios to free up two IRQ's.

There are a lot of bios settings to influence also. Don't ignore them. Write them down if you are not sure. We can help.

There are a lot of little issues with the A7V but I don't think it is any worse than any other mobo. They all have their quirks.

You need to be more specific with the issues you are having. All you are saying is &quot;I am having hassles and issues&quot; but you aren't being specific. In that case you are only complaining.