VIA 133A rookie needs help! Can't enable fast writes in the bios without system locking up.

[bluezebra1098]

The only way to really purge any drivers is to go into safe mode and see if any of the cards or multiple installations are still there.
If there are any multiple entries for the video card delete them all and reboot and let windows re install the driver for the video card.
Video drivers are really funny. I decided to upgrade the drivers on a ATI Rage Fury once. Everything was working fine with the current drivers, but I figured what could it hurt?....Well I installed the new drivers and BAM...after it would finish booting my screen would go black. I called ATI and they had me do all kind of foolishness but I could never get those drivers to work. I went back to the earlier drivers and everything is fine. I gave that card to my nephew when I went with the GeForce.
The 300 watt idea was just in the event you could find one to borrow and try it out but I don't really think that's the problem. If you were using an Athlon...well yes but not a celeron.

 

[Quick1]

bluezebra1098
By "delete them", I assume you mean go into control panel/system/device manager and remove them? How much of a performance increase should be expected? Going from AGPx2 to AGPx4?

 

[koeizen]

performance increase. it may buy you 1fps more. seriously i don't know but the gain is minimal (no game seems to take advantage of it).

actually your 3dmark will go up by a nice amount but other than that...

 

[bluezebra1098]

Yes, I'm talking about deleting them in SAFE mode.
Reboot and hold down the left CTRL button and then select Safe Mode.
Colors will get real funny but when it boots to Safe Mode. Go into the device manager the same as in windows. Click on the Video Card and see if there are multiple instances of the drivers in there. The information that shows up here is different than in the device manager in windows. Delete the devices in safe mode and then reboot as if you normally would. The computer should reinstall what you deleted if the drivers are installed in C:\Windows\System. If not you will have to put in the CD. Deleting in the regular device manager will not always remove the hardware completely. Sometimes the device is still there and Safe Mode will always show you what is still lurking about. When you reboot you may have to rearrange your icons as Safe Mode usually makes a mess of things on the desktop.
2X or 4X is not much of a difference unless you look at benchmarks; however, let's get you stable first before worrying about the finer things in life!

 

[Quick1]

bluezebra1098
When I went into safe-mode there were two cards listed. "nVidia GeForce 2 GTS" and "standard VGA adapter" in that order. I deleted the second one and rebooted to the bios, enabled AGPx4. I then tried to run Diablo 2, NFS/Porshe and 3DMark2000. All program locked up after about a min or two. The sad thing, is that Diablo II runs in 640x480 resolution! I was running NFS at 1024 and 3DMark at 1280x1024x32. I guess this confirms that even the lowest resolution (640x480)is not stable! The only thing left to do is blow away the 5.30 drivers and try the 5.22!

 

[bluezebra1098]

Try different drivers but before you install any new version first delete the drivers in windows. Now go back into Safe Mode and let's do some serious house cleaning.
Delete all video cards. If you left the drivers in Windows\System when you boot up it will re install the old drivers so that's why we deleted them.
While in Safe Mode go through the entire device manager and look for duplications especially with the sound card. Make sure none of your hardware has multiple installations. If you do, the best thing is to delete all of them and let windows re install them on the next boot up.
While you are in Safe Mode you may look around for the remnants of the old motherboard drivers. These may be conflicting with the VIA drivers. Pay close attention to the items in System Devices and look for anything related to the old motherboard and delete. Don't be afraid to delete as it will be reinstalled.
I'm pretty sure now your problem is the remnants of the old motherboard. When you change the mobo you should have gone into SafeMode and deleted everything in the device manager except the Dial Up Adapter and the new board would have been installed and there would be no old drivers, etc. to conflict with the new board. If you know what mobo you had before you can go into the device manager in SafeMode and look; for instance, the chipset numbers and delete them. Most of the VIA stuff will be marked VIA.
Poke around in the device manager in Safe Mode and tell me what you see. If there are a lot of old motherboard drivers left over then I think we've found your culprit. If you can't clean out the old stuff you may, as a last resort, have to delete all the hardware in Safe Mode and reboot the computer and let it install everything, including the mobo drivers this time. But first see if you can clean all the old stuff out manually.

 

[Quick1]

bluezebra1098
I think you may be on to something! My old M/B was an ABIT BH6 1.01 which is a BX440 chipset if I'm not mistaken. The BX and VIA drivers are conflicting. And doesn't the BX chipset only support up to AGPx2?!Anyway, I'll take a look in there and let you know what I find. Thanks!

 

[DeadlyKnight]

well im here to tell you thats theproblem i did the same thing had a asus p3bf and then went to tha p3v4x and i had hell installing my ddr wow i reformatted after backing things up and all it GREAT!!! 4x 2x whatever i want fast writes, sba you name it ! and i went thru the same exact thing you are i went from a tnt 2 ultra to a new video card and a new mb WOW you live and learn have fun bud im using the 5.22 vidoe drivers and the 4.03 fix with mine and the 1003 bios not real sure about the 1005 bios yet and ive got her overclocked like a bitch .once you get that running you can get better memory prformance with h-oda s program something credit (temp) and the get the permenat version make a 60 -80 incresae in memory throughtput

 

[Quick1]

bluezebra1098
There were two "BX" items in the system devices folder so I deleted them both but the system was still not stable. Then, I got CRAZY and deleted EVERYTHING in the system devices folder. The hardware wizard found everything on start up without a problem EXCEPT when it went to install the VIA CPU to PCI driver, system would lock with garbage on the screen. Well at that point I'd had enough, and I promptly formatted the damn C: drive. I know this was all caused due to the fact that I was too lazy to do a clean install! DeadlyKnight is right, you live and learn. All I had time to do last night was a clean install of 98SE. The install went fine and the afore mentioned "VIA Cpu to PCI" driver installed without any problem. Big surprise!(sarcasm) I haven't loaded the mouse, audio or video drivers so I have a long way to go. And, I have to download the 4.03 driver and try "turbo mode" again. Thanks for all your help and I'll keep you posted!

 

[DeadlyKnight]

sounds like me when i got done tired and exhausted of that stuff

 

[bluezebra1098]

I was afraid it would come to that; however, installing a new motherboard usually results in two things (1) an attempt to install it and saving the hard drive and (2) formatting.
I really think if you would have deleted everything in safe mode before installing the new motherboard the chances of a clean swap would have been more successful. Not guaranteed!
I went from an Intel board to a VIA doing it that way and after a few tweaks with drivers, etc. Everything is working OK.
Now you don't have to worry about anything old causing conflicts and that fresh format will do a world of good.
If you are using Win98SE you're not supposed to have to install the 4 in 1 drivers so I would just install the 4.03 AGP and also the VIA USB drivers and see what happens. If you have problems install the 4 in 1 minus the AGP.
As Charlie Brown used to say on the pitcher's mound.....
Grit your teeth and show your determination......

 

[bluezebra1098]

Quick1.........where are you?

It's been two days and...silence...

Are you alive?

 

[Quick1]

bluezebra1098
Sorry, been out of town for a couple of days. Some people just don't understand the need to spend 8+ hours a day on your PC! Oh Well! After my clean install and some IRQ swapping Win98se runs great, except AGPx4 is STILL not working!!! I have verified that the 4.03 viagart file is installed and x4 boots into windows fine but it is still not stable during 3D apps. I did reinstall the 5.30 drivers as they have much better support for FSAA then the 5.22. I will try them next. Also I have ordered a generic 300watt ATX power supply for $30 from "fleaBay" which should be in by the end of the week. Hey, it's only money, RIGHT?! The drivers and the power supply are the things left. I've got a bad feeling it's not going to be the power supply, I hope I'm wrong! I'll keep you posted.

 

[bluezebra1098]

Drivers could be the issue but I have seen some cases with the GeForce where a simple installation of a 300watt Power Supply caused 3D to stabilize.
Beyond that I think it's time to call the video card people and throw it in their lap and see what they can do.
I'm running out of ideas....
other than thinking bad video card (some early GeForces did ship with bad memory on the boards). If you haven't already see if you can borrow another video card, preferably a 4X card and see how it does.
It would be a pain in the butt changing cards but you need to identify the exact cause. If another card works then..bingo you know it's the video.
I've also seen several times where opening up the AGP aperture in the BIOS to 256 (irregardless of the RAM amount) would correct video problems.

 

[Quick1]

bluezebra1098
I tried two things tonight. First tried the 5.22 drivers, no change and I tried something I read at a GeForceFAQ site. They suggested turning down graphics performance one notch in Control Panel/System/Performance/Graphics. That didn't work either. I already have tried the 256MB AGP setting with the 5.30 drivers. Sometimes system will boot, other times it will hang before Windows starts. My power supply should be in Friday PM. However, I will be out of town til Sunday PM. I will install it Monday and let you know how it goes. If I still can't get AGPx4 enabled then you may be right, might be a hardware issue. Lucky for me I bought it from a local "Mom & Pop" shop. Unfortunately they don't speak very good english! Thanks for the input!

 

[BlueDeathscreen]

lol

 

[Phabus]

Hey Quick1 its you soundcard doing all the problems...it usually shares the same IRQ as the video card...I had the same problem and resolved it by changing the IRQ

 

[Quick1]

Phabus
Win98SE system tools/system Info/Hardware Resources/IRQ's reports:

IRQ 5......NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS
IRQ 5......ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering

IRQ 10.....Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
IRQ 10.....Vortex AU8830 Multifunction PCI Platform
IRQ 10.....ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering

I have verified on boot up that this is the case. Man, I WISH it was that simple!

 

[DeadlyKnight]

after i freed up my irq s abit my ddr went to irq 5 also its been on 10 or 11 for the longest time and the other were fighting for an irq now it changes damn computer cant make up its mind ....

 

[Quick1]

Mine was also on IRQ 10 conflicting with the Vortex sound card before I moved it from PCI slot 4 to slot 2. At that time I assigned it IRQ 5 in the bios and it hasn't moved since.

 

[LocutusX]

At first I couldn't get FW enabled + AGP4x + Byte Merge all to work at the same time either.

But then I went on a tweaking spree and by the end of it, my system can handle a FULLY tweaked out BIOS without any problems, in both Win98SE and Win2K.

I'm not sure which one of these things did it, but:

Upgraded BIOS from 1003 to 1005
Upgraded ASUS 6800 Dlx BIOS from non-SBA version to SBA version
Upgraded ASUS video drivers to latest beta (5.22 / 3.84e) on asus.com.tw FTP site
Tweaked out my memory settings to the max using WPCREDIT

Everything is A-Okay now.

 

[Quick1]

LocutusX:
My ASUS M/B is already flashed to 1005 and I've already tried both 5.30 and 5.22 drivers with no success. I've also tried the most conservative memory settings 3/3/3/6 and the most aggressive 2/2/2/5 with no success. My memory is rated up to CAS 3 @133mhz. Right now I'm running the memory at CAS 2 @100mhz. Now I have not flashed the chip on the vid card. I didn't think it was needed seeing the card is less than a month old. When my system boots up here's what I see, less the copyright BS:

ASUS AGP-V7700 2.15.01.07
32MB Ram

I guess this is the bios version of the chip on the vid board. Where can I check to see if it's the latest and greatest! Somebody throw me a link!

 

[LocutusX]

Uh, ASUS.Com's download section?

 

[bluezebra1098]

I keep fearing a bad video card.
See if you can borrow,beg, or steal one and see what happens. You need to isolate the issue and I just got a feeling it's that card before you start flashing it.

 

[cdave]

I have an Asus v7700 32mb Pure and the P3V4X & I can't for the life of me figure out how to get either 4x AGP or sindebanding enabled successfully, either.

One thing I did notice is that whenever I have Asus' Tweak Utility installed the system hangs on windows boot every time. I've moved my RAM around from bank to bank, it seems to work best in bank 4. I've tried working with both Asus' V series drivers and with NVidia's Detonators. I'm currently using Asus 5.16d rc2 drivers.

On tweak3d.com I saw in their v7700 review that they used the Asus drivers but they used the Prophet tweak utility to set the card's speed. How did they do that? can anyone tell me?

If anyone could also tell me any ideas on getting 4x and/or sidebanding going I'd appreciate it.. I apologize in advance for a long post but I thought some of this info from Sandra could be useful...

My machine is:
P3 550E @ 733
128mb Micron PC133 (runs CAS2 or 3)
V7700 Pure
SB Live! Platinum
SuperMicro SC760A 400w Full Tower Case

-------------
Sandra says:
-------------

General System Information
Class IBM PC/AT
System Bus(es) ISA(16-bit), PCI(32-bit), USB, AGP(32-bit)
Fast Windows System Yes

System Mainboard
Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
MultiProcessor Support No
Model P3V4X
Version REV 1.xx
Serial Number xxxxxxxxxxx

Extended Mainboard Data
Model ASUS P3V4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1005

System Memory Controller
Location Mainboard
Error Correction Capability None
Number of Memory Slots 4
Maximum Installable Memory 1024MB
Bank 1 - DIMM 1 Empty
Bank 2 - DIMM 2 Empty
Bank 3 - DIMM 3 Empty
Bank 4 - DIMM 4 DIMM Synchronous DRAM 128MB/72

System Chipset
System Chipset VIA Technologies Inc VT82C691 Apollo Pro System Controller
Front Side Bus Speed 134MHz
CPU Speed Multiplier 5.5x
ACPI Support Yes

Logical/Chipset Memory Banks
Bank 6 Setting 64MB SDRAM 6-1-1-1R 4-1-1-1W
Memory Bus Speed 134MHz

AGP Bus
Version 2.00
Bus Speed 68MHz
Current Data Transfer Rate 2x (136MHz)
Side Band Enabled No
Side Band Support Yes
Fast-Writes Enabled No
Aperture Size 128MB

PCI Bus
Version 2.10
Bus Speed 34MHz
Speed Multiplier 1/4x

LPC/ISA Bus
PIIX Chip VIA Technologies Inc VT82C596/A/B PCI to ISA Bridge
Speed Multiplier 1/4x
Bus Speed 9MHz
DMA Speed 5MHz

CPU & BIOS Information

System BIOS
Manufacturer Award Software, Inc.
Version ASUS P3V4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1005
Date 06/12/2000
Plug & Play Version 1.00
SMBIOS/DMI Version 2.30
ID No. FC 01 00
(EE)PROM Size 256kB (2Mbit)

Processor(s)
Processor Intel Pentium III 737MHz
Co-Processor (FPU) Built-in
Type Standard
Performance Rating PR884 (estimated)
Class 6x86mmx/sse
Model Information P6C (Coppermine) Pentium III E(B) 500-1000 1.6/1.65V
Revision/Stepping 8 / 1
Stepping Mask cA2
Internal Code Cache 16kB synchronous write-back (4-way, 32 byte line size)
Internal Data Cache 16kB synchronous write-back (4-way, 32 byte line size)
L2 On-board Cache 256kB ECC synchronous ATC (8-way, 32 byte line size)
L2 Cache Multiplier 1/1x

CPU Socket/Slot Upgradeability
Type SLOT 1
Upgrading Slot 1/A
Maximum Supported Speed 800MHz or more
Supported Voltages 2.9V

CPU Features
Co-Processor (FPU) Built-in Yes
Virtual Mode Extensions Yes
Debugging Extension Yes
Page Size Extension Yes
Time Stamp Counter Yes
Model Specific Registers Yes
Physical Address Extension Yes
Machine Check Exception Yes
Compare & Exchange Instruction Yes
Local APIC Built-in No
Fast System Call Yes
Memory Type Range Registers Yes
Page Global Enable Yes
Machine Check Architecture Yes
Conditional Move Instruction Yes
Page Attribute Table Yes
36-bit Page Size Extension Yes
Unique Serial Number No
Cache Line Flush Support No
Debug Trace & EMON Store No
ACPI Support No
MMX Technology Yes
Fast Float Save & Restore Yes
SSE Technology Yes
SSE2 Technology No
Self Snoop No

Advanced CPU Settings
Advanced Settings Support Yes
L2 Cacheable Range 64GB
L2 Cache Grouping 1 bank(s)
L2 Cache Latency 0 clock(s)
Low Power Mode Yes
Data Error Checking Yes
Fast Strings Yes
In Order Queue Depth 8

PCI & AGP Buses Information

Asustek Computer Inc VT82C691 Apollo Pro System Controller
Device Information
Device Type Host Processor Bridge
Device ID Device 0h on bus 1 F0
Windows Device Name VIA Tech VT82C69x CPU to PCI bridge
OEM Device Name VIA Technologies Inc VT82C691 Apollo Pro System Controller
OEM Hardware ID FUN_0, VEN_1106, DEV_0691
Product Device Name Asustek Computer Inc VT82C691 Apollo Pro System Controller
Product Hardware ID VEN_1043, DEV_8017
Revision / Stepping M / 5 (196)

AGP Capabilities
Version 2.00
Command Queue Length 32
FW Transfers Support No
Over 4GB Addressing Support No
Side Band Addressing Support Yes
Data Transfer Modes Support 1x, 2x

VIA Technologies Inc VT82C598/686A AGP Bridge
Device Information
Device Type PCI to PCI Bridge
Device ID Device 1h on bus 1 F0
Windows Device Name VIA Tech 8598 CPU to AGP controller
OEM Device Name VIA Technologies Inc VT82C598/686A AGP Bridge
OEM Hardware ID FUN_0, VEN_1106, DEV_8598
Revision / Stepping A / 1 (0)

Asustek Computer Inc Unknown
Device Information
Device Type VGA Display Adapter
Device ID Device 0h on bus 2 F0
Windows Device Name ASUS AGP-V7700 DDR SGRAM v5.16d RC2
OEM Device Name Nvidia Corp Unknown
OEM Hardware ID FUN_0, VEN_10DE, DEV_0150
Product Device Name Asustek Computer Inc Unknown
Product Hardware ID VEN_1043, DEV_400E
Revision / Stepping K / 4 (163)

Power Management Capabilities
Version 1.00
Supports Clock Slow-down Yes
Supports D1 PM State No
Supports D2 PM State No
Supports PME# No
Supports PME Clock No

AGP Capabilities
Version 2.00
Command Queue Length 32
FW Transfers Support Yes
Over 4GB Addressing Support No
Side Band Addressing Support No
Data Transfer Modes Support 1x, 2x

Device Properties
Latency Timer 248 clocks
I/O Access Yes
Memory Access Yes
Bus Master Capable Yes
Special Cycle Recognition No
Memory Write & Invalidate No
VGA Palette Snoop No
Parity Error Response No
Address/Data Stepping No
System Error Line No
Fast back-to-back Transactions No
Detects Parity Errors No
Supports System Error Line No
Supports Parity Line No
User Defined Format No
PCI66 Bus Support Yes
New Capability List Yes
Device Select Timing Medium

Hardware Resources
Memory Address D6000000
Memory Address D8000000
IRQ Line 11
INT Pin A#
Dynamic Management Yes

ASUS AGP-V7700 DDR SGRAM v5.16d RC2
Video Adapter
Model ASUS AGP-V7700 DDR SGRAM v5.16d RC2
Total Memory 32MB (32MB Video) (112MB AGP)
Texture Memory 144MB
Supports DIME Texturing Yes
Hardware Revision 163
VESA PnP/DDC Support Yes

Current Video Mode
Video Mode 1280x1024 16M TrueColour (32-bit)
Vertical Refresh Rate 85Hz
Supported Refresh Rates 60,70,72,75,85,100,120,140,150Hz

Video Driver
Model ID anvdsp.drv
Version 4.12.01.516
Supported Windows Version 4.00
Plug & Play Video Driver Yes
Video Acceleration Yes, All Functions
Screen Saver Active No
Low Power Saving Active No
Power Off Saving Active No

Video BIOS
Release Date 04/26/00
Version 2.15.01.07