The unofficial "Official A7V266-E Thread" !

[XCrodo]

Is anyone having any kind of problem with the board? I mean every other mb thread was populated with DOA tales, but so far I haven't read one negative comment on this board! Mine is by far the most stable board I've had, I couldn't say that of my KT7-RAID. This might be the "King of the KT266A"

 

[UsandThem]

<< Is anyone having any kind of problem with the board? I mean every other mb thread was populated with DOA tales, but so far I haven't read one negative comment on this board! Mine is by far the most stable board I've had, I couldn't say that of my KT7-RAID. This might be the "King of the KT266A" >>



Asus boards generally have less major problems than a lot of other board makers. You get what you pay for, except for Abit

They might not always be as loaded with features as some other boards or might run Quake III 5 FPS slower than others, but you get the best quality and stabilty bar none.

 

[Assimilator1]

I've got probs with the onboard sound being distorted ,only happens after 3-5 secs of Windows being loaded ,my modem is now giving me a BSOD when I use it ,but I don't yet know where the fault lies........

Other than that its great!

 

[bobatk]

I brought up WinXP on my A7V266-E last night. I have an Athlon XP 1700+, and an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon graphics card.

I find I am having two problems:

1) some percentage of the time, the system fails to boot at 1466 MHz/133Mhz. The bios reverts to its 'safe mode' (I'm running jumperless) at 1100Mhz/100Mhz, and things procede fine.

2) With 100% repeatably, whenever I try to do a system restart from Windows the thing wedges with frozen video. Pressing reset on the box then reboots just fine.

Bob

 

[NICKCARTER]

This weekend i gonna build my new rig:

A7V266-E
TwinMOS 256MB
XP1600+
Aopen hq08
Sony cd+fdd
V8200 DeLuxe
IBM 60GXP 20GB (raid 0 later)
Win 98 se

Cant hardly wait.......

 

[afireinsideme]

<< With 100% repeatably, whenever I try to do a system restart from Windows the thing wedges with frozen video. Pressing reset on the box then reboots just fine. >>



The fine people over at amdmb.com asus forums figured out that in the bios if you diable "plug and play os" you can shut down 100% off the time everytime.

 

[Thresher]

Regarding problems:

Everything installed fine. The only new parts were the mobo and Corsair PC2400 RAM. It ran fine for 5 days, then crapped out. I kept getting BSOD'd to death when I would start the computer. I kept getting a PFN_LIST_CORRUPT error. The MS KB is more or less useless, but it indicated the following:

1. Bad RAM
2. Bad cache on the CPU
3. Bad Mobo
4. Possible BIOS problem.

Since the CPU was working and the computer was launching initially, I figured it was either the mobo or the RAM. Got some RAM today, and everything seems to be okay at present. At least it's up and running. Cross your fingers.

I've never seen RAM go bad like this, so I'm hoping there isn't some other problem that I'm not aware of, like a defect on the motherboard that's burning up RAM or a Power Supply problem.

 

[tazdevl]

Have a RAID 0 question. Getting my board tomorrow and first time I'm setting a array up. Thought I'd leverage some info from folks that have already set one up.

1) Where do I set stripe size? BIOS? Can it be changed once the array is set up?
2) Do I set up boot order-> Floppy, SCSI, XXXX?
3) Have 2 60GXP's for the array, I assume I set one as master and the other as slave?
4) Do I hook them into 1 RAID channel, my 30GB WD backup in primary IDE and CD/CDRW in the seconday IDE?
5) Once I start to install XP, hit F6/8 and load the drivers... then proceed correct?
6) Will XP see the RAID drives as one big one (RAID 0)?
7) Can I use the XP disk defragmenter or will I have to use something else?

Any other tips?

Thanks... trying to edumacate myself.

 

[bluesky]

One question.
How's the sound quality of onboard audio?
Is it comparable with Live Mp3+?
If it's so, I'd like to get rid of the card.
Thanks.

 

[Freejack2]

Interesting. Mine is line none of these boards.
This is the picture from newegg, which is what I have.
If that capacitator was the only thing blocking the cpu then I might be able to get an alpha 8045.
Or is it something else that prevents the 8045 from mounting?

Also wouldn't mind knowing if the Cmedia CMI8738 audio is worse, comparable, or better to the sb live?

Edit: Apparently this audio chipset is over 2 years old. :/
Edit2: Found this at lostcircuits.com
Only one week ago, we complained that practically all VIA KT266A-based mainboard use the VIA AC97 Audio Codec. Since audio is a part of multimedia experience it is somewhat inconceivable why it is not possible to provide a rounded solution to begin with. This is where Iwill's KK266 Plus made a big entrance, simply because, everything else being equal, a good quality sound is a very good selling point. ASUS is using the CMedia 8738 6-channel audio chip on the A7V266-E and deserves some major kudos for that.
Edit3: Found a review for the mx version. Near as I can tell only difference between the LX on the Asus and the MX is the LX has the spdif/zvport.
The site is down right now but here's the link:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/zoltrixpro6/index.html

 

[SweetLou]

 

[SweetLou]

Alright let me try this again....

Regarding the PAL8045 and the A7V266-E, Here's what I've found ( I have my Alpha in, waiting for MoBo so I have a vested interest )

- Per Asus "tech" support, on this board, 8045 is obstructed by a Cap.

- I had read were some had success using this combo, so looking at the board with the CPU socket towards top left ( orientation is longer top-bottom ), there are 2 large black insulated electrolytic caps by the top left corner of of socket.

*** But notice, there is actually a site for a Third Cap Site right by the two that is NOT populated.

I f you notice on the NewEgg picture, the two caps that are populated in this picture along the edge of the MoBo, thus leaving room for the 8045 and all is good.

You look in the ASUS User's Manual for this board and inspect the picture that's in it.....the Cap nearest the CPU is populated and not the one by edge, thus interfering.

SO....which board will I (others) be getting..."Nice Cap" one or the "Bad Cap" one.

Will find out Monday...

 

[tazdevl]

My Newegg 266E will be here tomorrow. Will post compatibility if someone will answer my questions about RAID 0 setup.

 

[jaeger66]

1) Where do I set stripe size? BIOS? Can it be changed once the array is set up?

In the Promise BIOS, and no you can't change it after.

2) Do I set up boot order-> Floppy, SCSI, XXXX?

Depends on what you want.

3) Have 2 60GXP's for the array, I assume I set one as master and the other as slave?

No. Both masters.

4) Do I hook them into 1 RAID channel, my 30GB WD backup in primary IDE and CD/CDRW in the seconday IDE?

See above.

5) Once I start to install XP, hit F6/8 and load the drivers... then proceed correct?

Yes.

6) Will XP see the RAID drives as one big one (RAID 0)?

Yes.

7) Can I use the XP disk defragmenter or will I have to use something else?

That will be fine.

 

[Freejack2]

Finally found an official answer about whether the Alpha8045 will fit the A7V266-E.



<< anam:
I have been told that there is a sticker on the A7V266-E boards; if it says B06, capacitor positioning will prevent large heatsink placement. If the sticker says B08, large heatsinks WILL fit, no modification needed. So, it could be that later "revisions" of the board have this modification. >>



Apparently the B08's like mine have the capacitators along the top of the motherboard instead of going down and consquently can take the 8045.

 

[Sapilas]

Can you please mate send me an email with the values of voltages you have at the bios hardware monitor?

cause I bought the same asus mother but something is wrong :|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:| . . . .and doesn't work right....

please send the voltages table at sapila@bigfoot.com

cheers..

 

[Swanny]

Well, my board and CPU came in today, but not the HSF

Anyway, that THEMCPU jumper, does the 1-2 position give you the internal diode reading or does the 2-3? The 2-3 says reserved in the manual so I don't know what it does.

 

[hito]

Swanny, here is a link for you to read regarding your question

Click Me

 

[UsandThem]

What are other A7V266E users with Athlon CPU's 1.3 Ghz and higher getting for CPU temps?

I have a 1600+ with a Taisol cooler and I get 50c/122f idle, and it goes up 54c/129f at full load. I know in the past some Asus boards reported CPU temps higher than they actually were.

My cooler is rated to cool Athlons 1.4 Ghz and higher and is AMD approved. I use Artic Silver II and have a XP version copper spacer.

 

[dan44129]

I believe I have read somewhere here recently that this batch of motherboards also have problems of correctly reading the CPU temp.

There should be an update soon but I had also read the current beta bios hasn't fixed the problem.

 

[Assimilator1]

Update on my problems ,I moved the modem up aslot to slot 3 & that cured the BSOD probs & is ok now ,I guess it didn't like what it was sharing the IRQ with

Re sound probs ,I updated the sound drivers from the latest drivers available at Cmedia & the sound now works fine.Btw Asus do not have any recent drivers avialable at their website atm!
As for the sound quality ,its ok but its not as good as my old Creative AWE 64 that I had ,whilst music sounds fine some sound effects sound slightly disorted ,hard to explain exactly how!

Swanny
The reserved setting is supposed to be for XP's & there thermal diodes but there is a problem with it ,nearly all users I have seen report temps say they get between 49-50C constantly regardless of load(me included) ,hopefully a future bios update will sort this.For now I have set the jumper to Athlon & I now get varying temps with varying load,though it is fairly slow to respond ,so it would seem it is now using the external cpu sensor.

With a GW FOP 32 I get max cpu temps of 48C with a case & room temp of 25C ,this is with my XP 1500 o/c to 1.45GHz

 

[bluesky]

Well, it worked few hours, then it's not posting anything.
Yes, video card is good, and checked all the cables.
Basically computer is running, but it's not sending any signal to mornitor.
Any thought?

Question?
Can anybody explain how to reset cmos from motherboard?

 

[Assimilator1]

If you've checked that the vid card is OK and is properly seated you want to check the same with the RAM

Btw after a little use of this machine I have noticed that some sounds are clipped ,looks like I'll be buying my self a sound card in the near future.

To reset the CMOS ,place a jumper on the CMOS pins for about 3-5 secs ,make sure you've unplugged your mains supply( or turned it off).The instructions in the Asus manual are back to front!:Q

 

[bluesky]

Thanks.
I have 3 sticks of ram, I can't think of all 3 of them go bad.

I can hear it is initializing the chipset, and all system indicators lighted, just no video.

 

[Assimilator1]

re RAM ,maybe 1 isn't seated properly? ,I was thinking more of that ,btw ,
1 stick going bad would be enough to cause problems