Abit BE6 owners please help !

[Dennis1]

I have a Abit Be6, P3 450, 128MB SDRAM, G400 DH 32 MB, Sblive (liveware 2.1), a teles 16.3 isdn card, network card.

Above configuraton works perfect with a Celeron 366@458, no problems in any of the software I was running.

Then I replace my celeron with a P3 450 MHZ, and suddenly most games don't work anymore, it's like this: the game loads for example Unreal then just when you expect that the game finished loading it pops back to my desktop in a different resolution.

My vannilla G400 DH 32 MB does currently not share a irq with a other device it is now on Irq 5 with my SBlive on Irq 4. This is the things I tried so far with no succes:

- Removing SBlive card
- Use powerdesk version 5.25
- Underclocking my p3 450 to 4.5 x 66 MHZ
- Disabled Bus mastering
- PNP OS enabled en disabled in bios

The only thing that had some succes was to was to change the AGP aperture size in bios from 64 to 4, some things runs again with this setting but it is much slower then when I had my celeron installed.
The only games that I have no problems with are Quake2 and Q3test with default opengl, TurboGL crashes back to desktop. I don't know what to try know anymore, I have read that the G400 needs a IRQ 9(=faster ?) or higher to work properly I didn't try this because I don't know to get the G400 on a higher irq, but then again why does my configuration work with a Celeron and not with a P3 450 ?.

Thanks Dennis

[Scytale]

You're right about the IRQs. To change the IRQ for the G400 you have to change the P_IRQ0 BIOS setting. Set it to either 11 or 10.

[Dennis1]

Thanks Scytale, must I set in bios PNP OS yes or no ?, and I have read Jordan reply in an other thread to set Agp aperture size to max sometimes helps ?.

Thanks Dennis

[ALBPM]

Hi Dennis1,

For the AGP aperature try 128 and 256. Also in your Soft Menu settings, make sure the multiplier is set to 4.5 and the L2 cache is set at 8 ( default is 8 for a P3-450)

Paul

[Zwisch]

as I said before :


ohhh.... one of these BE6 Mobo... hmmm, I simpathize budy!
First, there are several issues with this Ultra DMA66 on this board. Try putting your drivers on the Ultra 33 and disable the ultra 66 in teh device manager to see if it helps.

Then for this mobo :
-PCI slot 1 shares it's ressources with the AGP
- PCI slot 2 is ok (houra!)
- PCI slot 3 shares with the Ultra 66
- PCI 4 and 5 shares together...

So all hail bus mastering on this boards!!! Abit also says that they have major issues when USB is sharing with the Ultra 66...

So better check these settings first!

Z

[DuRaNgO]

I did not find any problems with the ultra 66, try reinstalling windows over it self, sometimes that does it
jim

------------------
PIII-500mhz @ 620! with an Abit BE6 mobo
128mb pc-100
Mill G400(YAHOO!!!) 32mb @ 165/205 with MGATweak), PD 5.30 & bios 1.5-22
Maxtor 14.3 gb Uata66 hdd
SB Live!
Winblows 98se & DX7
32 lbs. of fans, heatsinks and aluminum ductwork
3DMark Result 5954.69 3DMarks
Synthetic CPU 3D Speed 9325.69 CPU 3DMarks
Rasterizer Score 2791.72 3DRasterMarks
Game 1 - Race 65.07 FPS
Game 2 - First Person 54.89 FPS
Fill Rate 268.79 MTexels/s

[ALBPM]

Just disable the Primary IDE in the system Bios. I'm using both ATA/66 channels on my BE6 and it's working great.

Paul

------------------
P3-616(112x5.5), ABIT BE6, 256MB PC100, MILL G400 MAX-32MB on BNC, Quantum3D Obsidian2 X-24 on D-sub, IBM Deskstars 18GB ATA/66 and 13.5GB ATA/66, 21"Trinitron, SCSI CDR/RW, SCSI ZIP,SB Live!Value,USR Voice Faxmodem Pro(USB Ext),Epson 1520 printer,Umax1200S scanner,WN98 all in a Addtronics 7896A case and a (Very Messy Desk) ;-P

[Dennis1]

Thanks ALBPM, I will try this later. the problem is while I was messing with the IRQ settings my isdn card failed so I have to check this thread at my work , hoppefully the things that you guys adviced will work.

Thanks Dennis

[ALBPM]

Ok let's look at the rest of your Bios settings.

Here's a Notepad file with the Bios settings left blank. Print it for a record.
HTTP://home.att.net/~albpm2/be6bios.txt

And here are the settings which I'm using. I am using two ATA/66 Hard Drives on my system. So the Primary IDE controller is disabled also both Serial ports are disabled.
HTTP://home.att.net/~albpm2/be6current.txt

So now you can cut and paste the sections in question.

Paul

[paulcs]

Someone give Paul a medal for that last post. That looks like a lot of work, and it was about as informative as you can get.

I opened the Matrox G400 Tech Demo and summoned the Matrox Fairy. She sends a big wet one to Paul for typing all his BIOS settings.

By the way, I found disabling ACPI helpful, as it was sharing an IRQ with my board, and Windows doesn't report this information.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 23 October 1999).]

[ALBPM]

Thanks Paulcs

Hey!!!! She is a natural blonde....LOL

Paul

[Dennis1]

Thanks very much guys, I will try this evening to get the card working, and ALBPM I have printed you're current settings for reference. I have tried PIRQ0 setting on 11 but my G400 remains on irq 5 in windows, am I missing something ?. The only setting that makes some diference is the AGP aperture setting if I set it lower as 16 some games works but slower. The one thing I want to mention again is that I only replaced my Celeron with a P3-450 MHZ and the problems started. Thanks very much so far and I will let you know If I can get it working

Dennis

[Scytale]

Then you may have to go to the W98 Device Manager (Display Adapter->G400), and there change the IRQ manually too. And FYI, my BIOS PNP OS setting is set to No (primarily because I'm running both NT4 and W98).

Since the CPU is the only thing you have changed, here's another question: Are your SoftMenu Settings okay? Is your AGPCLK/CPUCLK ratio set to 2/3?

And ALBPM... many thanks for the BIOS text files

[Dennis1]

Thanks Scytale, I did try to change the IRQ in the W98 device manager but changing the IRQ there is not allowed by win98 (perhaps I must set PNP OS to yes in bios to do this ?).
Softmenu settings are properly set, I have even tried to underclock my cpu with a 66 FSB setting but no succes.

Thanks Dennis

[Scytale]

Not allowed? Did you check the 'Use manual settings' (something like that) first?

PNP OS to No is fine. Works for me.