Via admit sort off that there testing over the sblive wasn't strong enougth

[The PIT]

A sort of admission anyway.

http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1519

Now can Creative do a bit better.

[Dr Mordrid]

hehehe...

Excessive PCI bus loading with VIA and the SBLive 'eh? Gee, wonder where I've heard that before

At any rate those fools just admitted what a lot of us have known for a long time: that VIA (and Creative) have lousy QUALITY CONTROL in the design process. That's what "testing procedures" comes down to.

We'll see what comes of this. Hopefully the VIA P4X & P4X266 PC133/DDR Pentium4 chipsets will have some of this nonsense fixed.

Dr. Mordrid

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Re: Via admit sort off that there testing over the sblive wasn't strong enougth

Originally posted by The PIT


Now can Creative do a bit better.

well they're bringing out a new card so people may well quickly forget this problem if there are no problems with the new card & the via chipset!

[ALBPM]

I also feel that even the Hardware manufacturers are getting tired of commiting too much time and money on trying to patch drivers to work with the VIA bugs.

Sure Creative has their problems but don't blame the sound card or graphics card manufactures for all the problems associated with VIA systems.

Paul

[The PIT]

I still wish Via would admit that the problem also occurs when there isn't a SB fitted and sometimes even when the machine doesn't even have a soundcard fitted.
Usb and zip problems again aren't mentioned.
As has already be mentioned and written elsewhere AMD should support there own processor more. I wonder if AMD would have come in more strongly if Intel hadn't followed the Rambus trail so hard.

[Wombat]

Paul,
I'm not saying that VIA has a good design, but from my understanding it's also Creative's fault. From what I've heard, the Live doesn't properly follow the specs for PCI bus mastering.

[rugger]

Works for me

At least my SB-live value works fine on my VIA motherboard (evil laugh). I was cheap, and bought a board with the 686A southbrigde

Anyway, I feel sorry for all the people who:

1) Buy Abit boards (sorry, just couldn't resist)
2) are having problems with their sb-lives on via 686B boards

I think VIA should be kicked for not producing well tested chipsets, and then trying to do an Intel (with the P5 floating point bug) and cover it up. I think Creative should be kicked for being too slack and idle, and not producing smp-compatible drivers, and not producing liveware 4, and being a prick to the PCI bus, and driving its competitors into the wall via lawsuits.

Anyway, I am actually very happy with my sb-live value. I think it was a bargin, and the best $120 AU I have spent on my computer.

[The PIT]

Hiya Rugger

1) I've got an Abit BF6 II and this works fine the only crash ever was when one of the case fans got disconnected and poor thing got a little hot. Yup I'm overclocking. However I've an Abit KT133a Raid and this is pure shit even pigs wouldn't lie on it.
2) The shitty Abit is so finniky it will even wipe out a hard drive without a soundcard fitted.

I had a tyan motherboard with a 686a and never had any trouble with it. Creative need more competion at the moment most reviewers give either sblive or the santa cruz best marks. The Santa Cruz seems to be the only other option.

[Helevitia]

I have an original SBLive! Value and I've been using it wit my A7V since the day it came out. What sort of problems are people having? I've not really read up on it since I feel I dont have any problems.

Dave

[rugger]

Abit and things

The PIT,

Abit just seems to be a bit of a crapshot to me, sometimes you are lucky and get a good board, sometimes not. The problem with motherboards though is that they are fairly complex and if there are any manufacturing faults in it, then it may not show up for some time (until you get a new soundcard, or USB device). This is why I wouldn't trust an Abit board as far as I could throw it.

As for Tyan boards, they never seem to fail.

I use an Aopen AK33 board in my computer. It hasn't given me any problems so far.

[The PIT]

Anyone who wants to know what problems poeple are having with soundcards zip drives usb just go over to
http://bbs.pcstats.com/viahardware and have a laugth.
The plague of trouble goes like this

1) Abit loads of shit
2) Msi/ Asus not much shit but then maybe they don't sell as much as Abit. Msi getting more common.
3) Epox very rare but still screw up
4) Iwill chaintech etc hardly any comments. Can't sell many or do they all work?

Rugger. I chose the Abit becuase of how good my other Abit was next time I' ll do more research.

[rugger]

A7V is 686A

Helevitia,

The A7V has the older 686A southbridge in it, like mine. It is also made by asus, a decent motherboard maker.

So, just sit back and ignore all the hassles people with Abit boards and 686B southbrigdes are having

[rugger]

Abit went south at bad time

The PIT,

Its a shame when motherboard makers stop caring about quality. It makes it hard to buy based on previous experence.

I personally like Aopen, Gigabyte and Asus boards. I am not too sure about Aopen's new KT266 board though, looks like it needs more work. I typically don't buy computer components based on overclocking ability and extra features, but try to focus on stability, performance and price. (I can always add the extra features via expansion cards)

[Wombat]

Some MB manufacturers definitely produce better boards / better average quality than others. However, the statistic that I always remember is that, on average, 5% of all motherboards are defective out of the box (to the point where RMA is immediately obvious). With some manufacturers that number is over 10%.

[birdy]

you have got to remember that ABit sell LOADS of boards. Probably more than anyone else because they are cheaper than Asus and have loads of features. Then you have to factor in that many people who use ABit are likely to be overclocking their system or generally fart arsing about to get them as fast as poss.

I am on my 14th ABit board. The only problem i had was the dual celly BP6 coupled with an SBlive (smp probs obviously). Every other board has been superb including the 3 Via boards, (1*kt7, 1*kt7 raid,1*kt7a raid).

I like em so there!