My Computer Vs. DV Capture Card

[andaval]

O wise and knowledgable sages of the mysterious electronic arts, I pray that thoust finds me worthy of thy time in aiding me in my humble quest to get my computer working...

My Rig: AMD 1.2 GHz 266 FSB, ABIT KT7A-RAID, ATI Radeon 64 MB DDR VIVO, SB Live! Value, Creative ModemBlaster modem, Toshiba 16X DVD, Lite-On 16/10/40 CD-RW, Maxtor 13 GB HD, IBM 40 GB HD, Zip 100. Enlight 300W C/PS. And just added a DV200 Pinnacle IEEE 1394 card.

I opened up my case, added the new PCI card and switched the SB and modem to different slots. I also reordered my IDE devices and added a new IDE cable to seperate them a little more. After trying to restart my computer, it froze repeatedly and "explorer.exe" was not responding. I took out the DV card and was able to get farther before a freeze, but still had problems trying to explore. Is the IDE cable bad? would this cause my other lock-ups? There are also problems with the DV card. One, it was slightly warped when I got it, i.e., after I inserted it into my mobo I noticed that the faceplate was not lined up my my case. I was able to screw it in by manually, but I had to push the faceplate into the right spot and hold it there. How bad is this? Should I RMA the sucker? Also, the DV card had an extra slot in the row of connectors (PCI 2.1?) It fits in my mobo, but will they be compatible? Here is my attempt at a graphical representation...
__ __
|________| |_______________| |________| DV card
__ __ __
|__________________________| |________| Mobo

To sum up, is my IDE cable bad, and could it be causing all of the problems, is the warp in my card OK, and will the PCI 2.1 work in my ABIT KT7A-RAID?? Thank you very much....

andaval

 

[andaval]

bump to save from page 3 oblivion...

 

[rmblam]

Did you uninstall the SB and modem before moving them to a different slot?

I suspect a resource conflict if not. The SB doesn't share an IRQ too well usually and I hear the same about some DV cards.

If all else fails, I would reformat and reinstall without any PCI cards in it; then install them one by one while paying attention to the IRQ arragement.

 

[Rickr]

If you are using Windows 98, then go into safe mode (press F8 while the computer is booting). Once in safe mode, go to the control-panel/system, and remove the modem, sound card, and DV card entries. Turn off the computer and remove all three cards. Now boot Windows normally. It should work now with no hang ups. If so, then shut down again, and add one card. Reboot, and get that one working. Continue until all cards are installed and working properly.

As for your second question, it isn't too unusual if a PCI card bracket doesn't line up exactly.

I'm not too sure about the extra slot on the PCI connector, but if the box says it is PCI compatible, then it should work.

 

[igowerf]

I would try reseating some stuff too.

 

[andaval]

Oops... I forgot to mention I'm running Win 2k pro. How does this affect IRQ stuff?

Thanks again...

 

[rmblam]

Win2k controls the IRQ's a little differently than w98 if using ACPI (all/most share one IRQ). You can force standard PC mode though (last resort).

Regardless, you should try booting into safe mode (as mentioned) and remove the devices you moved if you hadn't done so. After that reinstall them one at a time and test it to see if everything works ok. Uninstall the device and try a different slot if not. One at a time will help ID the problem child.

Start form scratch if it won't resolve.

 

[volfan]

If you messed with your IDE devices, did you change any Slave/Master jumpers that needed to be changed? Just another idea to throw in there.

 

[andaval]

I believe all the IDE jumpers are set correctly. My current hypothesis is that the new IDE cable I put in is faulty and that's why explorer.exe keeps locking up and crashing my system. I'll check that out when I get home.