Need help making my system stable

[jmsazul]

Hello there, I have:

Abit KA7 (no raid)
3d Blaster Annihilator2 MX (upgraded from ATI Rage 128 Pro VIVO)
128MB PC133 Cas2 Crucial memory
CL Live MP3+ Sound Card
Linksys NIC 10/100
Adaptec SCSI card
15Gb Maxtor DiamondMax 40Plus HD
HP 9200i burner (internal)
Pionner 10x/40x DVD
Antec 300W PS
Win 98SE

Problem: simple, how do I get it stable?
First when I had my ati card this system used to lock up once in a while, I've heard many people having complaints about this mobo/vid card combo, so I upgraded the video card. After upgrading the card it would crap while surfing the net (browser would crash just surfig). Tried different settings, new nvidia drivers as well as VIA patches (no IDE though). BIOS settings, you name it, tried messing with memory, Fast,turbo,cas2-3, etc. (one interesting thing though was that I used the CPU decode setting from fast to normal and the monitoring system would give me some strange I/O voltage readings), now I'm down to cas 3 setting, no fast write, cpu decode setting in normal, 6.34 drivers, DX8, VIA AGP 4.04d(I think) and system would be stable, but except while playing games (they would freeze from time to time).

Does anyone know anything that I need to change or I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

 

[Mem]

There have been quite a few reports like yours,anyway all I can think of is have you tried going down to 2xAGP in BIOS,there have been reports of problems with KA7 & Geforce cards so I don`t know what else to suggest.If you can keep PCI slot1(next to AGP card) empty this might up.

 

[jmsazul]

Thanks Mem, I do have PCI slot 1 next to AGP open. As far as AGP 2x I will try that next I guess it wouldn't hurt as the card is not able to take advantage of AGP 4x anyway. I bought another stick of 128Mb and going to see if anything changes as well. Did't this mobo suffered from voltage problems to the AGP slot too? Don't know anything else but rumors.

 

[Technonut]

Have you looked at the KA7 FAQ Site? If not, it may help.

 

[jmsazul]

Thanks guys, I've tried the FAQ KA7 page long ago, great page by the way. No luck, but they do talk about AGP driving control, I guess this is one the settings that many people have overlooked, to me it makes a lot of sense, it controls signaling to the video card, to bad no one has done any testing as far a what settings are the most stable for a specific vid card in this mobo.