K7Tpro2A << K7Tpro?

[jpprod]

A K7Tpro motherboard died on me, so I picked up this K7Tpro2A mobo, because I had heard it was even better in stability than K7Tpro. However, I've ran into a strange issue.

Instability, random crashes, weird errors. That's what happens if I try to put more than two DIMMs into this motherboard. Weirdest thing that in games system's completely stable with all DIMM slots populated, but a certain movie file completely crashes after a minute of playback if there's three DIMMs there.

Have any of you come up with this issue? What kind of RAM configurations are you all using on your K7Tpro2A's?

 

[Flash]

Never had problems with instanility. Usually I`m running 128MB Infineon CL3 in Slot1 but also I never had probs using all 3 memory-slots at same time. This was the Infineon + 2 64MB moduls from Micron and Samsung. Even running my 32MB Micron PC66 @ 100 MHz are no problem.

 

[bluesky]

I didn't have any problem with 3 dimms, and with manual or automatic settings in bios.

 

[jpprod]

Some more testing revealed that removing a DIMM only dramatically reduced the number of BSODs during movie playback with Windows Media Player. Another thing, using integrated audio instead of SBlive also dramatically reduced instability, but it remains. Disabling DMA mode on all hard drives has made my system stay up for about a hour of movie playback now, but I fear it's just slightly more stable now, not completely so.

What on earth could this be? Here's the lowdown:
- more DIMMs -> less stable
- SBlive over integrated audio -> less stable
- disabling DMA mode on all hard drives -> no crashes so far

I'm seriously dissapointed with this motherboard, since everything worked so well with my MSI K7Tpro. Until it died, that is

 

[jpprod]

I think I've got it! Upgrading to latest Win98 miniport IDE drivers and lowering hard disk access mode to UDMA/66 from UDMA/100 allowed me to watch through the whole movie.

 

[Mem]

jpprod,Sorry to hear about your problems,I must be now one of the few Members left with the original MSI K7T Pro board(Still rock solid).

 

[SuperSix]

you have installed the latest Via 4-in-1 patch correct? If not, grab it from here: Via Hardware

 

[jpprod]

SuperSix: Of course, a GeForce wouldn't work very well without it.

It was a problem with the IDE controller, I'm certain of it. Disabling DMA mode transfers was the only thing I figured out which completely seems to have ended the rain of random BSODs.

 

[undertaker1]

hi
i was wondering why my kt7pro2 didnt post with my duron 700 at 800 when its runing hot and i restart it but it seems that u also has the same prob. id like to know if any of u knows why my duron 700 dosnt run stable at 900 at 1.8v (bios 1.8) since ive seen ppl that claims to reach 1gh whith the same processor.
can u also tell me why does it always post at 700(default) but at 800 when the system processor is cold (below 35/36ºC) it posts but above that sometimes it does and other it doesnt! at 800 i have 1.6v and in w98se its rock stable the only problem is that it sometimes doesnt post nor 800 nor 808,816 etc but if it is cold it does!
my normal temp for the system when its hot is 39/40ºC cpu/system with a BIG heatsink/fan from Spire!
thanks anyway!!!