Trouble with Via chipsets and Soundblasters?

[mlg]

I'm curious about this-I've seen it referred to, but not explained in detail.

I'm a newbie, looking to build my own computer for the first time. I'm looking to buy a KT133A mobo this month. I'll be using the onboard sound for a while, but I want the option of upgrading to a good soundcard.

 

[Acts837]

I have heard this several times myself. I have a VIA chipset in my Abit VT6X4 mobo. I have used the onboard sound before; my current setup is a Creative SB Live Value. I have had no problems with either setup. The SB does sound cleaner though.

 

[loosbrew]

i dont think its specifically via and soundblaster, but i could be wrong. i think what the problem usually is that creative hasnt really done any updating of the hardware for a few years so it doesnt handle irq sharing as well as most other newer pci cards around these days. especially in win2k. also the drivers that creative releases with thier cards kind of blow. i have had many clients run into stop errors in win2k at specific times due to the soundblaster drivers. for instance one user wanted to get cbs or abc? news online and everytime he would click onto the Real Media link , real player would open but as soon as sound started the computer would either freeze with a cd-skipping type sound, or it would blue screen saying that a KMODE_ECEPTION_NOT_HANDLED in emu10kf1.sys(cant remember the exact file!) had occurred. this is obviously a soundblaster driver issue. soundblasters can be tricky. I tell ya, if you have the option now, meaning if you didnt buy one yet, look into other sound cards that have a better driver support and hardware support than creative, but thats just my opinion.

loosbrew

 

[nealh]

I am using an A7V133 based on KT133A via chipset ...with no problems and I ran the SB live in both pci slot1(with no agp card) and pci slot 3...

 

[GregRad]

VIA chipsets have HAD problems in the past. Everyone remember the IRQ routing driver for the IRQ 11 issue? The newest chipsets, for AMD based MB's, are pretty much about as stable and compatible as you can ask for. I build primarily with the Epox and the Abit boards and have used some of the oldest, junkiest sound cards (amazing how much people will spend on a rig and then use a 16 bit Yamaha SC...) and have not encountered any problems. I personally use the Live card and also Real Player, no problems. Drivers are not an issue and I use Win 2K. I previously had 98SE and that also ran as stable as Microsux will allow.
Whatever board you buy, I would go with the Live. Spend a little dough on the ears. They are a great card. As for on board sound, go with the Epox KTA3. There is a glitch with the sound on the earlier versions of this board where sometimes you have to disable, in the bios, all the on board sound options prior to OS install. Then, on a reboot, enable the sound. I had this happen on the + and the 2. Slightly annoying.

 

[Mem]

I use the MSI K7T Pro(VIA KT133 chipset)& have had no problems period with my SBlive,the only problems some people have are IRQ`s with the card,I have everything enabled including SB16 Dos emulation which works fine with no problems as previously stated.

 

[petes28]

i'm running an sblive! on an iwill kk266, had it in pci6, and was getting the random freezes. moved it up to pci2, and haven't had problems with it since then. something about the hardware irqs..

supposedly people are liking the onboard sound on the kk266, haven't tried it myself tho

 

[BIGGDOG]

Hello I have found out alot in the past few weeks. I have a Kt7 Raid, Kt7A Raid and a MSI K7t 2-Pro. MSI I have not had a single problem using the onboard sound or the SB live Value card. My older KT7 Raid I have also no problems with a SB Live Value. My KT7A Raid I have had nothing but troubles with the sound card. I called Creative to find out what gives. They told me that it is a problem with DMA and 16 bit emulation. Apparently this driver conflics with the onboard Raid Controller. We tried for an hour to get it to work to no evail. Creative says to turn off the Raid controller until they get a patch for it. I went another rout and bought a Promis Raid controller to use until I can get this resolved.


PM me if you have any other questions.

 

[darksith55]

Hello. I recently built a system using a Shuttle AK12 with the VIA KT133 chipset. I also have a Soundblaster LIVE value. This has been very frustrating. When trying to load games with the Soundblaster LIVE the computer would freeze, or reboot during the install process. Finally got a couple of games loaded and running. One game, Rogue Spear, just doesnt want to work. Starts out fine, then I get a humming noise and game freezes. I have looked at everything. Drivers, Direct X problem, IRQ conflict. Can't seem to figure it out. When I use the onboard sound on the motherboard, everything runs smooth. Looking for any suggestions. Thanks.

 

[RobsTV]

I've been using SoundBlaster PCI cards for years, with many different VIA motherboards, and never the slightest bit of compatability issues ever. I do however always set up the card to use IRQ10 and make sure nothing is sharing that IRQ. But, current system, Abit KT7A, is sharing IRQ10 with the soundcard and my second video card, (Canopus Total3d128V PCI), and still zero problems or issues with either Win98se or WinME.

If a problem is inherent in the chipset, then ALL that use the chipset would have the problems. That is not the case.

When I had a FIC 503+ and a FIC 503A, I did read a lot of VIA problems in the Soundblaster newsgroup, but many with boards like mine, reported no problems. This leads me to believe that the issue is not so much a VIA issue, but instead one created by the motherboard manufacturer. Kind of similar to complaints about nvidia's 2d. It's not nvidia's fault, when some companies don't have the 2d problem.