VIA, SBLive and latency - is it still an issue?

[Palek]

Hi. I am a now disgruntled owner of the once believed to be wonderful Abit KT7-RAID and the fairly respectable SBLive! 5.1. For almost 18 months I had no issues with my machine, and I found it rather odd that the problems associated with this combination of hardware that I read about so often on the net did not surface. And then the latency issue reared its ugly face a few months ago. Needless to say, I do not like my motherboard so much anymore. I have been wanting to upgrade for quite some time now, the only problem is that I find it hard to make up my mind about my next mobo chipset since, while nVidia chipset-based motherboards are reliable, they are most often lacking in the features & performance department, and VIA seems to be the exact opposite. I said seems to be, because I was not able to find any articles that either confirm or alleviate my fears concerning the stability of current VIA chipsets.

So, my question is: is the latency problem a non-issue with the KT-266A and the KT-333? Can anyone confirm or dispel my suspicion? Should I wait for the next nForce (815 or something)? I certainly do not want to wait for Hammer...

 

[Palek]

B
U
M
P

 

[Palek]

BUMP!!

 

[Peter]

The latency problem isn't as much a problem as it is a chipset configuration choice.

If a particular board's BIOS engineer didn't bother optimize the settings for throughput, you can install VIA's "PCI performance patch" to do that for them.

The SB!Live 5.1 series also don't have the PCI signalling issue that made the original SB!Live break VIA systems. So I'd say go ahead.

But keep one thing in mind: Pretty much everything you do today makes the 32-bit/33-MHz PCI bus hit the ceiling - so don't be too disappointed when you find you can't do everything at once. There simply isn't enough bandwidth.

regards, Peter

 

[oldfart]

Lots of good info on this issue on this thread Look at the last couple pages.

 

[birddog]

An easier, cheaper, and better option for you is to go with a different soundcard. Go with a Turtle Beach or one of the Philips cards. The problem is not a 'VIA' problem, but a problem with the soundblaster card. VIA came up with a patch to minimize creative labs problem. If you remember back a year or so ago, this problem was also reported on AMD 760/761 boards also. I for one, stay away from the soundblaster live cards.

 

[tazdevl]

Actually it is a Via probem. They didn't adhere to an Intel bus parking spec. PCI component manufactuer's did... fault is on Via.

I do agree TB Santa Cruz is a great idea.

However, I have yet to have a problem with my Audigy which I've had since it launched. If you put it in a slot that doesn't share IRQ's or set it up so it has its own... all will be well. Also don't install anything other than the drivers. All that other crap that comes with the drivers is poorly written software.

 

[Palek]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I will check my machine again to see if my SBLive! is sharing an IRQ. I did install the VIA latency patch thingie that was floating around the web but it did not make a difference.

I'll read that thread you recommended, oldfart!

Thanks again!

 

[Peter]

tazdevl, you have no clue about the PCI debate, or do you?. There is no such thing as an "Intel bus parking spec". Read the other thread for the truth about PCI specification and public perception.

 

[Palek]

Update:

As it turns out, my problem was a driver issue (compounded by the VIA/SBLive! latency mess). After a few hours of card-swapping, BIOS-tweaking and whatnot, I just got fed up with the whole thing and decided to reinstall my entire Wink2k system. So I booted back into WinME (which I keep for gaming purposes), popped in the Win2k CD, but just before I started the install, out of curiosity I started up Winamp in WinME. To my surprise there was no stutter and cracking, nothing. At that moment I knew I had a driver problem, so I felt all the more motivated to go ahead with the reinstall.

I really do not know why - probably because of the inherent distrust I have towards VIA now - , but I instinctively chose NOT to install the latest 4in1 drivers, I just left the chipset drivers at whatever version the Win2k CD contained. Guess what? No sound issues. The system was running just fine, in fact perfectly, with the old VIA drivers. I did have a little issue with my soundcard, but I sorted that out quickly.

As it turns out, Creative managed to release a buggy driver set for the SBLive! 5.1 . I think these drivers were dated April of 2002. If you log out and then log right back into Win2k without rebooting (well, in my machine anyway), a little executable called devldr32.exe hogs the CPU and the entire system, making it almost impossible to even shut down. I could not find anything on the net related to this issue apart from a page that simply mentioned the existence of the problem. I manually removed the drivers, then went back to the year-old drivers I was using before, and the lock-ups went away.

So, for anyone who has a VIA KT133 mobo and an SBLive! 5.1 card, stay away from the latest Creative drivers, and unless you have stability issues, do NOT touch the latest 4in1's!!!

 

[NicColt]

>They didn't adhere to an Intel bus parking spec. PCI component manufactuer's did... fault is on Via.

simply not true.