Abit KA7-100 and G400 MAX...MELTDOWN!!!

[kenjura]

Meltdown is the only way I can describe this error.

I'm trying to install a new machine. I have a new install of win2k on a brand new IBM Deskstar 45 GB hard drive. I have a Matrox G400 MAX Dualhead, an SB Live! Platinum, a Realtek something-or-other NIC, a Maxtor 27GB DiamondMax hard drive, a Creative DVD-ROM 6x, an Athlon 950, 128MB PC100 RAM (temporary), and, most importantly, an Abit KA7-100 motherboard.

The most stable motherboard ever, huh?

Excuse my language for a moment.
**** YOU, ABIT, AND YOUR LITTLE REVIEWERS TOO.

This mainboard has brought me nothing but pain.

Its total inability to function with the G400 MAX is more likely Matrox's fault, but I try to appreciate Matrox's great cards.

And AWFUL, HORRIBLE, NIGHTMARISH DRIVERS!

20 seconds or so after booting win2k, without fail, the display goes PSYCHO. Random pixels fill the screen.

This may be attributable to my Sony CPD-200ES monitor, but that's a good, name-brand monitor that gave me NO problems at ALL with the G200 in my last system.

<sigh>

What the HELL is going on? This card has been out for some time, and so has windows 2000. Why aren't there ANY certified drivers, or ANY drivers that don't HORRIBLY FAIL?

I don't even want to THINK about this fabled "AGP 4x problem"...I don't have the luxury of worrying about that yet.


-Kenjura

kenjura@home.com

[Pasi Lepola]

Huh I found answer from Paul's unofficial KA7 & KA7-100 FAQ! http://www.casema.net/~howland/ka7faq/ka7faq.htm
Here is beta KA7 bios and iprovements:
Version RY (beta)
-Delay DRAM read latch - fixes kinmax memory module issue.(Advanced Chipset Features)
- MD driving strength: Lo- fixes V-TEC memory module issue.(Advanced Chipset Features)
- Supports AGP 4X Fast writes (Advanced Chipset Features)
- K7 CLK_CTL select ptimal- Optimises K7 CPU parameters. (Advanced Chipset Features)
- CPU L2 cache id - L2 cache devider (Softmenu III)
- Fixes SCSI CD-ROM booting fail issue on Adaptec AHA2940 series and other SCSI cards.
- Problem with Matrox G400 fixed

It works fine in KA7-100 but there is unofficial RY bios too with ATA100: http://www.bxboards.com/BXBoards_KA7100_RAID_Pack.zip

Check too: http://www.casema.net/~howland/ka7faq/faqgraphics.html
here you can find:
- How to enable AGPx4 with my Matrox G400.
- How to improve the stability of my Matrox G400 card?

[paulcs]

That BIOS on Andy Drake's site is actually the leaked version of ver. RY with hidden RAID functionality.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[valentin_nils]

Hello,

please read my posting carefully I have spend two weeks researching the problem and I finally got it working. We are talking about ca. 18 Bios settings which need to be set correctly (especially when installing win2k pro).

there were a lot of postings earlier here on the matroxusers site. the best so far was from 27 may from miachael doering.


Please read ALL links enclosed as they contain conplementing information to each other. http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/008664.html http://www.au-ja.de/review-g400s-eng.html
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/008782.html
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/008782.html

the main important thing is that you download the latest bios ( at the moment the beta ka7_ry.boo) from the abit ftp site otherwise you waste your time.

You may also directly download from these ftp-servers:

ABIT FTP Site in Taiwan:
ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/

Mirror in Australia:
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/abit

Mirrors in Europe:
ftp://ftp.univ-lille1.fr/pub/abit/
ftp://ftp.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/pub/mirror/abit/ ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/general/devices/abit/


Mirror in Poland:
ftp://ftp.veracomp.com.pl/pub/drivers/abit/
ftp://ftp.abitech.pl/vol2/mirrors/ftp.abit.com/pub/


Mirror in Russian:
ftp://ftp.abit.com.ru/abit/

Mirrors in Taiwan:
For TANET users:
ftp://ftp.cis.nctu.edu.tw/Vendors/ABIT http://salebios.tiger2.net/vendor/ABIT

For NETO corp. and other TWIX/TWNAP-peer ISPs' Users
ftp://ftp.neto.net/pub/Vendors/Abit

don't forget to craete an emergency disk with the previous bios before updateing ( just in case)

O.K now lets start. I assume you visit the links which i enclosed and ALL related links from this pages as otherwise gets to much for this posting.

I will just explain my bios settings as found out the rest is explained at the links enclosed.

make sure you ENABLE this settings in your bios:

PNP OS installed
USB Controller
AGP driving value DA
AGP Aparture size 128MB

make sure you DISABLE this settings in your bios:

Auto ESCD
ACPI
SDRAM interleave
RESET Configuration
Virus warning
p2c/c2p currency
fast r-w turnaround
pci master 0 ws write
agp master 1 ws write
agp master 1 ws read

dram delay NOT AUTO, anything else
agp drive control value: manual
cpu L2 cache id :default
video off- always on


also install the follwing drivers ( best stability)

via 4in1422
agp 4.03
usb version 108

for win98 g400 driver version 552
for w2k g400 driver version 503

make sure each device has it's own IRQ shown in the start up table before win98 or w2k loads. you may have to swap cards to make sure each device has it's own IRQ

sorry for this awful form it's 3am right now and I am a bit tired.

However let me know if the info was useful.

Main point is get the beta bios version from the abit ftp site or you are wasting your time.

best reagrds

nils valentin

valentin_nils@hotmail.com

[valentin_nils]

Hello dzeus,


thanks for the tip. for a moment I honestly forget about it, that it is possible to delete the message ( perhaps to long in front of the machine ;-) ).

anyway hope I could help

best regards

nils valentin

valentin_nils@hotmail.com




[This message has been edited by valentin_nils (edited 06 July 2000).]

[dZeus]

you know.... it's possible to delete your double posts...

[kenjura]

I did as instructed...I flashed the BIOS to the latest version (RX) available by FTP, and I changed the CMOS settings as indicated.

When I loaded win2k again, I got the same utter failure. It said "hey, why not try updating your bios?"

So I switched back to the older powerdesk, from the latest beta. That loaded.

And I have the SAME ERROR. Absolutely no difference has been made whatsoever.

Good god.


You mentioned some other drivers for agp, via, and usb...where am I supposed to get these? Which Powerdesk are you running that works so well?

I have only so much patience. There are other video cards out there that work just fine with this motherboard.

<sigh>

This computer was too good to be true anyway.

-Kenjura

[The PIT]

Sigh poor Matrox gets blamed again. Check out all the threads on how to get the via working with the G400. Theres plenty to choose from.

[The PIT]

Have you checked the abit website to see if theres Bios update. Theres one from 22/05/00.

[paulcs]

With all this messing about with drivers and BIOS's, I think it might be time for a reinstall of your OS's. Before you do so, make sure you have the right version of the "ry" BIOS, ka7_ry.b01. At post, you should get a big "Not For Resale" message and it should say "ka7_ry.b01."

If you're on the Highpoint ATA-100 controller, switch back to the standard IDE controller and get things working at UDMA/66. Disable the Highpoint controller in the BIOS. You want to get your IRQ house in order before that particular component wreaks havoc. If you're not using USB or your COM ports, disable them in the BIOS. I believe I had to disable USB in two places. Disable Soundblaster Emulation both in Windows 98 and DOS. IRQ management on this board can be a little difficult.

I believe you should follow JohnT's advice about driver installation on your second thread.

Keep in mind, RAID functionality on this board is a feature the manufacturer practically refuses to acknowledge. The BIOS is at best leaked and possibly hacked. Both Dan from Dan's Data and Andy Drake from BXBoards had extremely difficult times getting RAID up and running.

Good luck.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

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

[paulcs]

I have a funny feeling ACPI might be giving you a hard time. If you're going to disable it, or anything else, and you opt to reinstall your OS's, you might want to do so before the reinstall.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Paradizer]

I just gotta say it rocks!

I'm using my KA7 with my MAX under W98SE and W2K and it just kicks ass! There are no lock-ups or any other stuff like that... K, it took a weekend from assembling the system till having it tweaked and perform stable. You are right there are quite a bunch of things you have to think about when using this components together - but hey...
I didn't even need those settings shown by valentin_nils. I´ve set any option of that nice RY-BIOS to it's optimum! The most important thing is that you have to buy high performance DIMMS! Personally i recommend those from Mushkin... Give it a try!

Regards, Para

(Any further questions are welcome!)


System:

Abit KA7(RY) (4in1422/4.03/1.08)
Athlon(A) 700@850 (2,9 themal compound added)
Matrox G400 MAX (6.00/5.10)
2x 128MB Mushkin CAS2@133
Innovatek TweakingDevice 2 (GFD)
Thermaltake Golden Orb (Titan Majesty IV)
Leadman LP-6100 (400W)

[JohnT]

While you can indeed run out and buy another video card, I seriously doubt that is going to solve your problems. Nor probably is going out and getting a different motherboard!

When you flashed the ka7_ry.b00 BIOS, did you load the conservative settings as recommended by ABIT? Did you check each setting to see if it was compatible with your installed hardware?

In this posting, you mention some generic PC-100 memory. Do you have very conservative memory settings to account for this? How are such things as memory clock, CAS, memory timing and interleave set in BIOS? A complete listing of your BIOS settings here would be helpful in trying to pinpoint what your problem might be. If you used aggresive memory settings up to this point, it would probably be wise to wipe the hd clean and try a clean install with the most conservative settings (set the memory clock to FSB - PCI [66 MHz]) - speeds may be bumped up later to find the limits of your particular components.

Since I know the G400Max works on a KA7 with the ka7_ry.b00 BIOS with all MS OS's, I also suspect your problem may be the HighPoint ATA-100 controller - there have been many complaints posted on the ABIT newsgroup about problems with it. Have you tried connecting a single drive to the ATA-66 primary connector and doing a clean install of the OS of choice, following the steps I outlined in my first post?

There are many other possible sources for problems. Do you have ACPI enabled or disabled? W2k will try to share all devices on one irq (or so it appears in the listing) if ACPI is enabled. However, if all you have in the machine is the bare minimum to make it work, irq sharing should not be the problem. Have you looked at the complete irq listing (under Computer Management) in w2k? Are these in line with what you expected? Are there any missing or some you cannot account for?

Have you carefully gone through all the listings in DeviceManager to see if they all make sense (no extras, resources as expected, etc.)?

These checks are necessary regardless of which video card or mb you are using when there are problems!

JohnT

[kenjura]

I went and bought a Creative Annihilator 2 (GeForce 2 GTS).

Upon plugging it in, I was greeted with immediate recognition by the OS. I was able to see this via the G200 from my old machine (which also works fine in the KA7). So I installed the drivers, and restarted.

It works great. No errors, whatsoever. Quake 1-3 and Unreal Tournament run smoother than ever. No driver errors.


Eh...maybe the $300 price tag was a bit much, considering I stand to get a maximum of $209 back for the G400 MAX (if they consider it "defective", which they probably won't), but...it was worth it for a card with built-in win2k drivers that are more stable than any powerdesk I've used. ^_^

Thanks all for your help, and expect me back when the G800 comes out. =)

-Kenjura