The infamous G400 / Live! bug!!!

[ChickenSoup]

Does anyone have a surefire workaround for this problem? It will work sometime for a little while but will then start pausing the whole system for about a second in 3-4 second intervals continuously until I reboot the damn thing. Drivers don't fix it.(for either one) and swapping pci slots dosen't help much either. and switching IRQs around doesn't seem to do anything either. Does anyone have anything???

If not does anyone know if this problem exists in the newer versions of the Live!, like the Live! x-gamer and mp3+.

thanks all!

--My System--
AMD K7 700Mhz
Epox EP-7KXA mobo (Award BIOS)(VIA KX133)
128 MB PC-133 (Crucial)
Matrox G400 Max
SB Live! Value
Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder
Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 Speaker system (Dolby 5.1!!)
3COM Etherlink 10/100 NIC (3C905C)
Toshiba 5x DVD
Kenwood 52x TrueX CdRom drive (fast and quiet!)
IBM Deskstar 13.6 GB (7200 RPM-ATA 66)
ViewSonic PS-775 17" Monitor

[RoGuE]

I have never had any problems with my G400 Max / SBlive! combo since last summer when I bought them. This is with the original Live! drivers, LiveWare2 and 3. No problems.

[HedsSpaz]

What you are describing actually sounds more like the bug in the 5.41 PowerDesk. Many many people have experienced this. With PD 5.41 and above there appears to be a bug that just causes the system to slow down every couple of seconds.
Try dropping back to the 5.30 PD just to see if the problem goes away.

HedsSpaz

P.S. Where the heck did you manage to find a 7KXA? I've been trying to get my hands on one for several weeks now with no luck.

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System Specs
K6-2 350 @ 400
Asus P5A
256 MB PC133 SDRAM
Matrox Mill G200 AGP PD 5.41/5.30 hybrid
SBLive value LiveWare 3.0
13.6 GB 7200RPM UDMA33 IBM HD
8.4 GB 5400RPM UDMA33 WD HD (Dead, still trying to rescusitate)
45X Acer CD-ROM
Win98 se
Red Hat 6.1
Win2000 (to be added soon)
Soon to be
Athlon 650 (got it! YEA!!)
128 mb PC133 SDRAM (got it! YEA!!)
Epox 7KXA (sigh don't got it)

"Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic." --Arthur C. Clarke

[ChickenSoup]

Well I went to pricewatch and ordered my 7KXA at a place called Paragon Technology in California. I was delayed about a week but i got one. I put my order in the first day they we advertising its iminent arrival. And I got one

I will try the older drivers to see if that does it. The thing seems to run fine with the live value not plugged into the system though. Is there a way for me to use the 5.30 Powerdesk with the 5.52 drivers?

[This message has been edited by ChickenSoup (edited 08 March 2000).]

[HedsSpaz]

Indeed there is a way to mix the older PD with the new drivers. Extrct both drivers to different folders. Copy all of the PD files from 5.30 to 5.52 or whatever version you use. It should be fairly obvious which files they are, I think all of the PD files have "pd" somewhere in the file name. Then just run setup like you normally would and it should install normally.

If your system keeps slowing down after that then you may want to try over on the Matrox tech support forum and see if one of the "real" techs knows what might be wrong.

As for the 7KXA, I saw that Paragon had them, I was actually going to order from them but they didn't have any in stock. I think I may wait for either the Tyan or AOpen board anyway. It depends on how impatient I get.

HedsSpaz

[anid]

This is a problem with the Epox mobo, I have seen some info on it posted several places. Unfortunately, since I don't have a KX133 (or even an Athlon), I didn't pay too much attention. I think the solution was to enable the 15-16MB Memory Hole in BIOS - I'm not positive, but I do remember thinking it was something absurd like that. Check around some, I think I saw info on it in an Anand news post a few days ago.

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"I wrestled with reality for 27 years and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it."

[ChickenSoup]

The older drivers had no effect on the problem. I'll try the memory hole thing.

[Pace]

Don't want to state the obvious but have you tried it without the Live! in? My system incidentally has no problems with this combination (P2-350, SuperM BX, G400, SBLive, 3C905B-TX, Advansys SCSI)

Anand had a review of your board last week you might want to check it out.

Paul.

[ChickenSoup]

The Momory Hole fix doesn't fix my problem..... And yes it runs fine without the Live!... But what is the point without any sound then. A guess if all else fails the Aureal will work in my system too... But I really want live

[Rags]

Have you installed the latest drivers for your chipset?

[Livius]

I had a terrible problem once with an Expox VIA Appolo Pro based mobo. I simply could not make it run with a G400 and a Live! at the same time. The Live! ran with any other videocard, and the G400 ran with any other soundcard. But not together. No IRQs were shared, AGP was forced to 1x, the G400 had a high priority IRQ, etc. To make everything even stranger, the same two cards did work on a VIA MVP3 mobo (by Soyo).

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Celeron PPGA 400 @ 540
Soyo 6BA+ IV, 128MB PC100, G400 16MB SH, SB Live! Value, Maxtor Plus 6800 20GB 7,200rpm

[Damien Green]

I agree, I think that the problem is down to the motherboard. I had problems with the SB Live card on a Iwill BS100 - the problems were restricted to the SB16 msdos emulation - machine rebooted everytime the dos driver loaded. Fortunately, I kept my SB AWE32 with Yamaha DB50xg daughterboard - which prevented the emulation from running. Eventually the motherboard was swaped for an Abit BE6 then an ASUS K7M - no problems since, but after all I am now running Win 2000 - Dos not included - thank god!!!!!!!!!

[Damien Green]

I agree, I think that the problem is down to the motherboard. I had problems with the SB Live card on a Iwill BS100 - the problems were restricted to the SB16 msdos emulation - machine rebooted everytime the dos driver loaded. Fortunately, I kept my SB AWE32 with Yamaha DB50xg daughterboard - which prevented the emulation from running. Eventually the motherboard was swaped for an Abit BE6 then an ASUS K7M - no problems since, but after all I am now running Win 2000 - Dos not included - thank god!!!!!!!!!

[The PIT]

Works fine for me too in both 98 and NT. Thats with the orginal drivers to the present. More likely it's the via chipset causing problems. Look at Via's website and Epoxs for possible patches and solutions.

[This message has been edited by The PIT (edited 08 March 2000).]

[Beezer]

Here's a thought: I have had somewhat similar problems with delays and sound looping freezes -- not exactly what you're getting, but similar. My system is an Intel based chipset (PIII) with an ABIT BE6 mobo. I've tried so many different things and still have not solved my occasional problem.
However, I do notice that we both have a Kenwood 52X TrueX CDROM (plugged into a SBLive), and I'm beginning to think the problem may be related to the CDROM. Just something to think about.....

[This message has been edited by Beezer (edited 09 March 2000).]