Creative fesses up to SBLive vs. VIA problems

[Dr Mordrid]

Haig posted this in another thread, but I feel it's important enough to give it a banner of it's own. Quote:

"Hi guys,
I don't know if this helps but I just posted this on our forums:

http://www.avault.com/news/displayne...y=452001-11353

Creative Labs has admitted that its SoundBlaster Live! Series has problems when paired with a VIA chipset-based motherboard. As users of the SoundBlaster-VIA one-two punch are well aware, manifestations of this issue range from popping and stuttering in games to problems transferring large files. The good news is that Creative and VIA are collaborating on a solution. Jon Gatt of VIA has launched a message board thread in which he solicits information from users regarding their PC configuration and the nature of their problems. As expected, the thread is getting lo-o-o-ng.

Haig"

It's only been up since April 4th (yesterday my time) and already there are 6 pages of replies.

In the message thread listed above Creative mentions problems with the 686B, but it goes deeper than that. These problems have existed since long before this chip family arrived.

IMHO you can bet that any system with medium to high bus loading for one reason or another is at risk or running on the edge.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 06 April 2001).]

[KRSESQ]

It would appear VIA has a long-standing problem with producing stable DMA transfer systems. I had a problem similar to quite a few posted on the message board i.e I couldn't transfer large files or do large multiple-file transfers from my primary master to my secondary master (both Maxtors, 17 and 30 GB respectively), or especially from my CDROM (secondary slave) to either hard drive. (FIC VA503+, AMD K6-2 300, VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset.)

De-activated DMA for the CDROM and all was well, as some of the other postings reported.

Still haven't seen much to recommend PCI over IDE soundcards, unless one is doing professional-level audio recording/editing/mastering. For me, surround sound in my games is not sufficiently compelling. My system is currently running the best it ever has. Drop-free caps (Matrox MJPEG), good audio quality & sync, no buffer underruns when burning, no BSODs in a very long time. (forgive my crowing).

Kevin

[Dr. Mordrid]

IDE audio 'eh? That something new?

I agree on the VIA/Apollo problems, of course. I just find it interesting that although their chipsets have had these problems all the way back to the MVP-3/Apollo4 VIA has yet to fix the core issues.

Time to get on the stick....

Dr. Mordrid

[Vidgal]

Don't have a Soundblaster, but am having VIA problems. Thanks for the info about large file transfers, especially from CD-ROM. Boy have I been experiencing that. My drivers license could expire while I try to read, transfer back to C drive and organize my Olympus photos burned on CD. I will check on DMA status in BIOs.

Although it works great for video editing, my ASUS K7V133a is causing me so much instability and grief in other areas: start-up and shut down, file transfer, unexplained freezes -- I am just about to find a good AMD chipset board and put this thing up on ebay.

Should I give up or go another round?

[Dr Mordrid]

I'd have gone AMD from the get-go. Between VIA-itis and the Creative driver SBLive silliness I gave up on both long ago.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

[wkulecz]

Got to agree.

Even the linux folks are having trouble with some Via chipset revisions.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

That's sad since Linux will run on about anything with electrons scurrying about in it.....

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

[johnpr98]

For Info & probably nothing to do with this thread?

I was browsing through my Partition Magic 6.0 manual today, Page 111

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">
The DOS drivers for a SoundBlaster Live sound card may conflict with Partition Magic operations that require going into boot mode. Power Quest recommends that you unload the soundbaster drivers (by remarking them in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files) until you have finished using Partition Magic.</font>

As I said For Info

John Price

http://www.johnpr98.com

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 09 April 2001).]

[Dr Mordrid]

Yeah, I saw that in the manual when I got my upgrade. Says all that needs to be said, doesn't it?

Dr. Mordrid

[Vidgal]

Doc, what are the best AMD chipset boards for Athlon 1 gig -- in case I decide to deep six the Via board?

Thanx

[Dr Mordrid]

If I were going to nuke a system I'd go all the way and go for an AMD 761 based DDR system. The TBird 266's are out as is the memory that goes with 'em, but most of these boards can also use a 200mhz FSB Athlon as well.

The Asus A7M266 looks like a winner;

http://www.asus.com.tw/products/Moth...266/index.html

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

[Brent]

I noticed that after applying the latest ME drivers and Play Centre updates to my SB Live Value, the DOS drivers mentioned were removed. Now why could Creative not have given us that option years ago?

[Dr Mordrid]

I believe that option was in the Device Manager Properties sheet.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

[paulcs]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Dr Mordrid:
If I were going to nuke a system I'd go all the way and go for an AMD 761 based DDR system. The TBird 266's are out as is the memory that goes with 'em, but most of these boards can also use a 200mhz FSB Athlon as well.

The Asus A7M266 looks like a winner;

Dr. Mordrid</font>

Most AMD 760 motherboards use AMD's 761 North Bridge and VIA's newest South Bridge (686B?). These all sound to me like South Bridge related issues (IDE bus, PCI bus, etc.). If some of these issues are related to VIA's busmastering drivers, they might continue. Dr. Mordrid, I've been meaning to ask you about this for a couple of days. Any thoughts?

Paul
paulcs@speakeasy.net

[Snake-Eyes]

I'd definitely like to hear more too, as I've just received my Asus A7M266, which I'm planning to put into my new system. (It will be a little while before I can bring it up to play with it, since not all my components, including the hdds have arrived).

I'm going to be using a Hercules Game Theater XP with the new case, too, but this issue sounds like it's NOT a sound card issue so much as the via chipset (686B, in the A7M266).

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Ace. I'm like the Invisible Man- I'm here, you just don't see me that often.