VIA chipsets, and my doomed machine

[kenjura]

"they suck!"
"they're great!"
"I hate them!"
"I love them!"

I don't have the luxury of such an opinion at the moment. I have an Athlon 950 CPU. This thing cost me a pretty penny. I refuse to use Rambus, because I want to have enough RAM to properly run all the things I do. I'm stuck with an Athlon, and a Slot A Athlon at that. I can't wait forever for the Socket A motherboards.

<sigh>

I don't have a choice. I can't find any good motherboards based on AMD-750. VIA KX133 is the only option. I want the IDE RAID that can be squeezed out of the Abit KA7-100. Screw your opinions, the facts only matter here. The facts are, the Matrox G400 MAX utterly fails in this motherboard. I do all the stupid little things (set this BIOS option to that, use this driver, stand on your head and chant a voodoo mantra). The only thing voodoo I might consider to get this machine working is a voodoo 5. This is $5500 worth of computer that can't get off the ground because of an alleged piss-poor motherboard and a Matrox G400 MAX that has yet to have a certified driver.

I don't have a choice. I need this motherboard, or I throw away my hard drives, mainboard, RAM, CPU, and start over. What a stupid idea. I thought I was spending profusely just buying this. Now I ship the parts back and go buy a non-VIA motherboard? Yeah, right.

I think I'll have to go GeForce 2 or Voodoo 5. There aren't boards full of people screwing with this option and that one to get the basic requirements for the card to work (such as AGP 2x, possibly 4 for the voodoo 5). This is...so wrong.

I don't care who is "at fault" for the failure of my Matrox card. The fact is, the Matrox G400 MAX does NOT work in my system.


I'm already $150 in the hole to upgrade to a card on par with the G400 MAX, assume full refund for this "non-defective" product. Please don't throw "you're abandoning Matrox" or some such loyalist thing. If you have helpful advice on getting this setup to work, please offer it. I'm at the end of my rope.


-Kenjura

[JohnT]

kenjura -

I don't have a KA7-100 but I do have a KA7 and a G400Max - working well with a triple-boot setup with W98, NT4, and w2k.

My first suggestion is to go read all of the material at this un-official but information filled FAQ site:
http://go.to/ka7faq

As a general observation, if you indeed stuffed $5500 worth of parts into the case and tried to make it work - that was your first mistake!

After confirming your case has an Athlon approved power supply, install only the cpu, video card, memory, and hd first. Then flash the ka7_ry.b00 BIOS before doing anything else.

Now, assuming the hds are properly recognized, you are ready to install the OS of choice.

Then you are ready to do the following:

Install Via 4in1422, reboot

Install Via AGP4.03, reboot

If using W98, install the latest version of DirectX, reboot,

Now, you are in a position to successfully install the drivers for the G400Max. I use 600 for W98, 445 for NT, and 510 for w2k.

At this point, add one card at a time, install its drivers, and check operation before adding any others. When satisfied, it's okay, add another until all are in and working.

If a card doesn't work properly, it may be an irq sharing problem - try another slot for the problem card. Since there are six PCI slots on a KA7(-100) plus an AGP slot, an USB controller, and the ATA-100 controller (on the KA7-100), it should be obvious that slots must share the four PCI irq pin assignments (see the faq for a further explanation).

Good luck!

JohnT

[Brian R.]

Do you think you'll get twice the quality of responses with two topics? With a rant also? Good luck

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 05 July 2000).]

[kenjura]

Sorry, John T...I'm not that stupid. I put in only the mainboard, CPU, hard drive, and one DIMM. I did make the mistake of putting in the SB Live!


Question....

*where* am I supposed to get the fabled kay_ry.b00 bios? And those other drivers? Where? They sound like the end-all to everything. Where?

<dies>


-Kenjura

[kenjura]

WHITE FLAG


I surrender. The card is going back to Matrox.

Screw it all.


ka7_ry BIOS has debilitated my machine such that I cannot boot win2k in any mode.

this is stupid.

goodbye, Matrox. See you when the G800 comes out. No, actually, see you a year later when there are drivers for it.


<doesn't let the door hit his ass on the way out>


-Kenjura

[Kruzin]

"I surrender. The card is going back to Matrox."
I somehow doubt that'll hurt their feelings.
But out of all of your ranting I have not seen you post what Matrox Tech Support had to say about all of this. What was their reply to your issues on their forums, or by their e-mail support? Surely you've contacted them....?

"ka7_ry BIOS has debilitated my machine such that I cannot boot win2k in any mode."
Uh huh. And your faulty leaked beta mobo bios couldn't possibly be at fault. It must be the video card, cause God knows VIA has such a great reputation for chipsets, drivers and BIOSes.

I dunno...I guess you logic just somehow escapes me. "I flashed my mobo bios, and the problem got worse...must be the video card". That's like saying "I put a new carb on my car, and it doesn't run now...must be the tires".

Try replacing the truley substandard part in your system (hint:it ain't the G400). There ARE other boards out there that will run that processor.

"this is stupid."
Yes, it is.
And the most stupid part of it is how you have treated the users here who have tried to help you. You showed up whining and crying about your problems, and instead of torching you, these people tried to help out. Not once did you thank any of them for the time it took them to try and help. In fact, you where rather rude to several of them. Then you just whined louder. At this point, I can't imagine why anyone would bother trying to help you again.

I suggest you go to the other thread you started on this same problem, humbly thank those who obviously spent a great deal of time linking you to possible sollutions, get a grip on reality, and move on. Good luck with whatever you choose next, though I somehow doubt that all will go flawlessly with that card either as long as you are using that mobo, and that leaked bios.

This thread is being closed for being a duplicate topic. If you wish to continue (in a more adult manner than you have shown us so far), do so in your other thread.
And while you're at it, take a look at the "Forum Survival Guide" posted on every topic page. I'm amazed you're not a crispy critter yet.