Is there a dirty little secret to getting a super 7 system stable?

[OS]

Cause they seem to be more of a pain in the ass than necessary. I'm working on an ALi based super 7 system and it isn't stable under win2k. It blue screens left and right. Suggestions? This is an ATX. k6-2 400, 128 megs of sdram, ATI vid card, LT winmodem, 6 gig hd, etc.

 

[flambus]

have you tried using win98se. I have a FIC 503+ with an AMD K6-2+ 450 at 500 (mvp3) system, and so far no crashes.

is there a reason for using win2k?

 

[OS]

It's a prebuilt system that my friend sold me, it had win2k preinstalled

 

[flambus]

is the crashing the reason your friend sold it to you. did he tell you that. or is this something new that has been happening since youve hooked it up?

 

[OS]

well, he said that it was stable under win2k, unstable under win98. I guess he didn't thoroughly try out the system under win2k. He's already said though that if I can't get it stable I can get my money back, but it will be a good deal if I can get it to work.

I've since added a yamaha sound card, a cd writer and a zip drive. Those don't sound like the usual problem spots though. But computers can be finicky about anything/everything.

 

[flambus]

does it crash will doing the same tasks or is it random?

this is gonna sound like a pain in the ass, but try taking one of the components out at a time and run the system. who has the time... right.

 

[OS]

Random crashes, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between the blue screen messages. One time it will be IRQ not equal to whatever, next it will be the kernel, next it will be ntfs.sys, etc.

 

[Adul]

assuming it is this chipset.

ALADDiN 7 Chipset (M1561)

http://www.ali.com.tw/eng/support/drivers/aladdin_7_driver.htm

 

[flambus]

i am not the expert on win2k, but i remember someone saying that service pack 2 is available for it. have you looked into that?

 

[SuperT]

there seems to be some other underlying issue, i have ran win2k on a abit mobo (super socket 7) w/ a p233mmx w/ complete stability. have you tried sp2 or will it not stay up long enough to d/l ?

 

[OS]

yeah I already installed those drivers, I've had two super 7 systems before this one They are always a pain in the ass at first, but are ok once you get everything nailed down. Which takes more time than I like.

 

[Duvie]

have you done a fresh install? Maybe a good idea...

As for the super 7 as being a pain in the ass at first...I don't think so...I had one for 2 years at home and have one at work right now. Both of them I built and intsalled and have had little problem...little workhorses they were or are. I installed many things to my one at home 2 fresh installs in those two years. one to full 98 and another to new HDD. still chugging along today playing dvds and acting like a stereo for mp3s and tv with tuner card for a buddy...

Sorry I couldn't help you out here...

 

[OS]

Well, this install of win2k was supposed to be clean.

I guess I've never really had luck with super 7 then

 

[flambus]

maybe you've tweaked your system????

maybe try some different ram or maybe change your bios settings to be more conservative.

 

[Jeff7]

Do you have the latest chipset drivers from ALi? Also, as usual, update any drivers that you can. Maybe a BIOS update too?

 

[OS]

I think it was AGP card, took that out and I haven't had problems yet. Yeah I installed all the latest AGP/IDE/everything else drivers, but that didn't help. I could use a bios update, but I can't figure out who made the damn thing.

 

[OS]

well, took the mobo out with the hope of figuring out who made it, but no go. All it says is Rev A01 all over the thing. It does say PWB, but I have no idea if that's a brand.

 

[Jeff7]

Motherboards.org has a search engine on there somewhere - you enter in your BIOS number string that shows during the POST screen, and it looks up the motherboard model and manufacturer.

 

[sandorski]

The only SS7 ALI mobos that were any good were the Asus P5 series. My bro bought an MSI for a customer once and it had the same problems you are having. He eventually had to give the customer his P5A.

SS7 was very good stability wise when a decent mobo was used. My Epox mvp3g-m was an easy setup and rock solid.

 

[drewski]

Are you doing any overclocking on this system? Or are all the bios settings within spec?

 

[StormRider]

The only SS7 ALI mobos that were any good were the Asus P5 series

The Gigabyte GA5AX rev 5.2 motherboards used the Ali Alladdin V chipset and I've heard lots of good things about them. I have one and it's been really solid for me.

 

[Duvie]

I will concur with sandorski both of those SS7 mobos were asus p5a...

 

[acexg1]

I find SS7 mobos are usually the most stable when unplugged...
Did you try a fresh install yet?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

A last resort - if the other things posted earlier don't work:

try to slightly underclock the CPU, (like putting the multiplier at 90, instead of 100...), and see if it works. That's what I did in my original AMD K6-2, and it has been stable ever since.

 

[OS]

Thx Jeff, motherboards.org told me who made it.

Everything is pointing towards the video card now, tried a PCI card and no crashes thus far. Put the AGP card back in and all hell breaks loose. Super 7 systems were never known for their robust AGP implementation though. I guess it's time to get another V3 to drop into the system.