Help Me! Frustrated and need assistance :-)

[ZurgDawg]

Ok, so I purchased an ASUS A7V266-E and have had SO many problems with it. I contribue this to several factors:

1. The asus board itself
2. Via chipsets
3. Amd boards

This is based on my research and troubleshooting, but I need to know if I have just had a bad experience! I am returning the asus board for sure. But my question is should I return the amd chip etc. too and go for a Pentium 4 chip and an intel chipset mobo? I know that AMD XPs give some better performance then P4s but I am sick and tired of all the stuff I have had problems with (Bios problems, IRQ problems, USB problems you name it). I have DDR ram and would keep that and get one of the new P4 boards.

Bottom Line: Should I abandon AMD? Or give them another try with an abit board or something.

 

[Buz2b]

Well, I will put this as politically correct as I can. An AMD system is no more difficult than an Intel system to build is today. Sure, there may be some additional drivers to load or there may be a patch that needs to be in place for specific uses, but those are things that should be easy enough for most, minimally capable builders. It's not rocket science; it's research and being thorough. Things like better cooling and power supplies fall into this category also. If a person has trouble with these type of issues then by all means they should stick with the lower performance Intel bases systems. Certainly the DDR based Intel chipsets are an improvement and can make for a decent system also.
However, you mention "need assistance" in the title of this thread. What you have asked for is simply opinions. Did you need some specific assistance with board setup or hardware installation that someone could help with? What type of problem(s) did you have with the ASUS board. They are some of the best on the market so if you think the problem is ASUS, you might want to think again. You might have gotten a bad board (every mfg has them from time to time) but ASUS has a decent rep for building a fine, if not a bit pricey, product. As to the VIA chipsets, see paragraph one. AMD boards; see paragraph one again.

 

[ZurgDawg]

Thank you for the reply and perhaps I was a bit frustrated in my original post. I will try to bring you up to speed as best as possible but there has been much frustration over all of this and it would take too long to describe!

Gear:
Asus A7V266-E
Athlon XP 1700 running under 48 degrees
Enermax 431W PWS
Windows XP Pro
IBM Deskstar HDD 10.1 GB & 40 GB (7200 RPM)
ATI Radeon 64MB VIVO
etc.

Problem #1: Tried to use onboard USB ran into significant problems when doing so. Whenever a device is plugged into the USBs, the computer blue screens for a fraction of a second and then restarts. If you unplug something from the USB, same thing. If you try to boot with anything in the usb, will freeze after post with HDD light and Floppy light on. Tried using the internal extra 2 usb ports ASUS offeres, exact same results. Installed Win98, ME, 2000, all similar if not same results. Read tons of info on VIA and USB support though ViaArena and other sites, no fix found except to purchase a USB PCI card, which I did. Same problems as before but instead of restarting I experienced lock-ups, weird information ie instead of finding "Epson Printer" finds "Ep$#on #$$nter" stuff like that. Then I run into IRQ problems which I believe are contributing to this (See Below)

Problem #2: Can not get DMA going on hard disks or XP. Read info on ViaArena and ASUS website, tried several ideas such as Miniport drivers, 4 in 1s, BIOS settings/updates, disable ACPI for windows XP and more. Still can not enable DMA. Put another board in (my friend's) and it detected it right away.

Problem #3: Can not change resource settings, IRQs etc in device manager. Like I stated earlier, ACPI was set to 'Standard PC' and yet was still configuring all my IRQs etc in the Device Manager 'automatically'. Windows keeps puting various USB drivers with other hardware and is causing problems such as lock ups, stutterin audio/video and more. Worked with MSFT techs to solve the problem to no avail - they said it was an ASUS Bios issue - but I can't find any information on adjusting ACPI in the bios. Using Bios 1006 Final.

Any ideas are welcome!

zurg

 

[Buz2b]

A quick question; did you do a fresh install of WinXP when changing the board or did you use the previous install? I know you mentioned trying different OS's but I was curious. Sounds like mainly USB question so I'll ask the obvious; did you load the USB filter/patch? Did you try the system without the external usb ports hooked up? Does the system boot normally without any usb devices hooked up?
There is an excellent source for ASUS at this site. If you haven't been there you should do it. There is even a looooooooooooooong thread on problems and fixes with this board. One individual in particular is a real "guru" type on ASUS boards. He started the previously mentioned thread (Klondikekit). You might want to go there. I hope this will help. LMK if you solve the issues there.

 

[ZurgDawg]

Hello again! I will try to answer all of the questions! Thank you for a reply!

- I have tried fresh installs of XP with and without ACPI, also fresh installs of 98, ME, 2k.

- I did install the USB filter patch, and used most all troubleshooting methods found on www.usbman.com If the system wouldn't boot due to a USB device, I would always switch to serial and reboot - works perfect with just serial devices.

- Have researched, read, helped out at amdmb.com quite a bit - I agree, a great resource for AMD boards! Also have done quite a bit of research though Via Arena and their forms and even though some MSFT tech support guys who are friends of mine.

I have been building systems for a while so I have experience with many troubleshooting situations. These problems that I have just keep coming back to me as a problem from the board itself. Like you said, could be a manufacturing problem because ASUS has always treated me well in the past (Although I had quite a bit of trouble with their A7M266 boards too).

zurg

 

[Buz2b]

Ok, well it is starting to sound like an RMA issue then. But I wouldn't condem them for one board. I have had a few with the latest being the very one you mentioned: the A7M266. I love the board! It was a snap to set up and has run pretty much 24/7 since May of last year with hardly a burp. Actually the only trouble I've had is trying to take the FSB too far. Running anything over 149 is unstable, but I didn't buy the board for it's overclocking ability. I just wanted stability and quality. I got both.
Perhaps that is all that I can offer for you at this point. It seems as though you have tried all the "tricks" and jumped through all the hoops. Probably a problem with the USB circuitry on that board. My wife has an ABIT VT6X4 board that has USB woes also. You can't get more than two ports working at any one time. Had to get a PCI/USB add-on card to accomplish that. But the board was too old before I found this out, so RMA wasn't an option. Turns out from research that this was not uncommon for that board. And it is an Intel based board. Just shows that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I wish you luck in your quest. On a personal note I would stay with ASUS but I can understand how a situation like this can sour you on them. However, I would definately stay away from ABIT. Too many RMA's. I have personally spoken with two fairly large system builder/retailers and ABIT has the highest average RMA's of all their boards. Hopefully I won't get flamed for that remark as I know there can be good and bad from all mfg's. There is just too much of a trend for me to ignore.

 

[ZurgDawg]

Definatley some great words of advise. I have been loyal to ASUS for a long time and have just felt like they have let the customer service and quality assurance slip out of their product in the last generation or so. I did get a few A7M266 machines running but had to return 3 out of 5 boards initially. Not the best ratio ;-)

I'll keep you posted on any new developments! I guess these situations are the best place to gain new knowledge and experience!