VIA 4in1... which ones for Win2k?

[dZeus]

(for a flatmate's abit kt7a pc) currently tried:

- 4.26 : corrupted the whole hdd after some time
- 4.28 : wouldn't run in UDMA mode
- 4.29 : corrupted (some) files when pc returned from standby

does _anyone_ know a 4in1 version that works with UDMA in win2k, AND also DOESN'T corrupt any data on the drive???

[Gurm]

For the ABIT KT7? no, sorry. I wouldn't trust that motherboard any further than I could throw Andre the Giant. Which is to say... not at all.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[EchoWars]

Gurm...

Now THERE'S a helpful answer

Bottom line...don't load the friggin' VIA Busmaster drivers.

KT7 is a fine board...but VIA is still learning how to write software. Tread carefully...and don't load shit just because you can.

[Nuno]

KT7 is a fine board if you´re lucky enough to pick the 1 in 10 that works

[DentyCracker]

WooHoo!!! I got the 1 in 10

[dZeus]

Echowars: not loading the 4in1 drivers is just as useless, as you can't use UDMA without it... PIO mode is completely worthless for a modern hdd...

[Nuno]

Now talking serious (No wait: Lucky you DentyCracker, I picked up one of the remaining 9 ), are you overclocking Frank? I mean, it´s not a common complain to have hdd data corrupted because of via drivers. I would look elsewhere.

You could try to use Microsoft Windows generic IDE Via drivers, though. You can enable dma in the HDD´s but not in cdrom´s and DVD´s. Try that for troublrshoot.

I use 4.29, but I never had any problems with Via drivers. But I have my Hdd´s on the promise ATA 100 controlers...

[SCompRacer]

DentyCracker, I must be the second of twenty then. No doubt this board goes from one extreme to another, as Nuno has said. They either work or they don't, depending on how they are configured or who is doing the configuring.

The popularity of this board seems to be for the gee-whiz RAID and the overclockibility. Problem with that is many of the users that post problems in forums devoted to this board probably shouldn't put a PC together in the first place. Then again there are smarter ones that do have the problems.

Anyhow, did you try just the ATA100 fix from MS?
Try Paul's FAQ for the KT7 MB. You may find something useful there. You could wander over here but if I may borrow from a Biblical statement, you may have to do alot of sorting the chaff from the grain so to speak.


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ABIT KT7A, Two RAID 0's * 900MHz Athlon T'bird, 133/33 @ 7.5 for 1000 * 256MB Crucial 7E PC/133 RAM * Win2000SP1/Win98SE * The Rest

[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 02 April 2001).]

[Nuno]

I could get my KT7-raid stable with either winME and win2k. No problems at all. Except that my usb scanner didn´t work. I reinstalled windows, tried several bios available, and always the same. Every time I tried to use it, in whatever usb port, it would hang. Of course, if I didn´t had a usb scanner, or even that brand, there would be a chance I would be using the KT7 now.

As I had the oportunity to exchange it for an Asus A7V, I did, and guess what? No problems.

The most annoying part of the KT7 are I/O ports. I am a friend of the hardware shop owner where I buy from, and he stoped selling Abit on a regular basis(too much compalains). He says that the board is too picky about the hardware you use with it. Sometimes it´s the serial port, modem doesn´t work, some times is the printer that doesn´t print and nobody realizes why, sometimes usb doesn´t work.

[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 03 April 2001).]

[SCompRacer]

I've only got two USB devices, a printer and a digital camera and so far no problems. Your post sums up alot of the problems you read about in forums.

Since I have a working KT7A RAID, I may capitalize on it and sell. I just ordered some Crucial DDR memory, may head that way with an ASUS A7M266 board.

[Indiana]

The KT7 works well here in both, Win2k and 98SE - with the RAID in use. And I have a scanner and a printer (Epson), both connected to the USB working without problems in both OSes. Ah yes, a moden is connected to one of the serial-ports while the other is used by the Palm Hotsync station.

So I guess I'm the third lucky one out of 30...

P.S. the RAID does quite well even though it's an oh-so-bad HighPoint:
<img SRC=http://www.indiana.claranet.de/HDTachRAID.png>

[SCompRacer]

Indiana, did you ever run ATTO bench? PC SCSI Version 1.63 is the file to DL.



HD Tach 2.61 only tests the first 8GB and it freezes up if you select the Advance Size Check with RAID.


[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 03 April 2001).]

[Marshmallowman]

Get the 4.29(a) version.I have had good results on epox 8kta3+. (KT133A)
(the (a) bit refers to a AGP fix I think)
(also works well with socket 7 chipsets, can you believe it I actually now have a stable SS7 k6-3 550!!!!!!!)

Note: if you are using win2k there a whole bunch of pre Sp2 updates to fix AGP,UDMA 100 and duron/athlon "issues".

The UDMA patch is one to increase speed on the via UDMA 100 channels, but it does not give you full ATA100 speed..yet.

haven't tried the onboard raid yet, have been using software raid on 2 UW SCSI's

I think I am have screwed up the cluster size (I aset to 4k), I think larger would probably work on a pair of striped drives.

what cluster size do you other RAIDers use?

[dZeus]

Nuno: not overclocking at all (thunderbird 850 @ 850).

Actually, the HDD wouldn't go into UDMA mode with the default VIA drivers in Win2k (and that's the whose reason 4in1 IDE drivers came into play).

I think the 4.29a drivers worked quite all right, untill the flatmate who's computer it is, tried to go to standby... it corrupted various files on the HDD (btw hibernation also didn't work properly).

I know there's a fix for UDMA/100 in Win2k, but I don't care a single bit about the so called 100 in UDMA/100, since no current IDE drive has a throughput higher than about 38MBps, let alone the +/- 58MBps that UDMA/66 can achieve....

[mad99]

I've just reinstalled Via4in1 4.25 because of some trouble I had with the newer versions (4.26-4.29)(e.g. some "hick-ups" where the desktop is frozen for a second).

As far as I can say for now, 4.25 is fine.

I am not using a raid configuration, only a single drive on the Highpoint controller and a cd-rw and dvd-rom on the standard ide-port.