I have built quite a few machines over the last few years and the latest comprises:- AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1 Ghz, Elite MB K7VZA (KT133 chipset/686B supporting UDMA100). 128MB pc133 SDRAM, 40GB HDD,16x DVD, 32x8x4 Rewriter, Geoforce2mx 64MB graphics, SB Live player, 56K6 Modem. Latest Via 4in1 drivers, Win98. Right from the beginning I have had serious problems installing software from the DVD. After approx 16% of the installation the machine would lock up or crash. Any data transferred to the HDD would be totally corrupt. I contacted Elite Technical help and was informed that the problem was with the via 686B chip (UDMA 100). Wait for a patch!! A local computer hardware shop suggested installing both DVD and Rewriter on the secondary IDE and enabling DMA on just one device, (using trial and error to see what configuration worked). This actually enabled the DVD to install software....but the Rewriter now has the original problem! Surely this cannot be right? The other factor in all of this is that the HDD (connected with the appropriate UDMA100 cable) does seem to be very slow in Read,Write & Random seek operations considering the overall spec. I would greatly appreciate any help on this one, it seems to have defeated eveyone else I have approached.

Hi,

Are you sure that both the DVD and the CD-RW support bus mastering? (DMA Transfer)

I was just reading somewhere that enabling DMA on a device actually enables the whole IDE channel, so anything else attached to the channel is DMA transfer enabled as well. Sounds like one of your components does not support DMA transfer.

Either that, or tech support was right about the via chip, and that would explain the less than satisfactory performance from the HDD.

Sorry I couldn't be of further help. Some others will surely have an opinion or two. Hang tight. In the meantime, make sure each component does indeed support DMA transfer.

Good luck.

Big Blue 66


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Woe is me.

buddytod--- Give this a shot. Best to download 4and1 drivers from ViaTech themselves. Uninstall the present set you have and download again. Also while there check to see what patches they have available. The Southbridge chip controls the periphials you are having problems with. Do you have the Mboard manual? Got a feeling possibly couple things need sorted out in BIOS. And also, what do you have running in the background while/when this hang and crash takes place?

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"Lemmee Fix That Thing......."
-Beauty is only a light switch away.-

Latest Via 4in1 driver is version 4.32. You can get it at viahardware.com (http://www.viahardware.com). It helped some problems I was having with secondary IDE channel.

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He thrusts his fists against the posts but still insists he sees the ghosts.

Thanks very much for your input on this problem. Just to answer your suggestions to date:- Yes, both devices definitely support DMA. I do actually have the latest via 4in 1 drivers (4.32) from Via installed. Interesting comment regarding the Bios though, SiSoft Sandra reports a warning in the MOBO section which reads, "Warning...Disabled Host controllers are present....Check Bios. I cannot figure what this is actually relating to in the Bios. Since this is a somewhat grey area to me I tend to leave well alone! Could this be providing a clue to the problem? What do you think? Cheers.

I've seen this same error message.
If was in reference to the Onboard Raid controller.
With no drives installed on the channel it was disabled.
On another board it has the socket for the raid but it was not installed
and the bios reads it as disabled

Also In the Via4-1 drivers I have found that during the install it asks if I wanted DMA enabled and something about Turbo or high speed I don't recall exactly.
In every case I have installed it using the normal settings.
Then used device manager to control dma.

In a few cases I have also found that the drivers From the win98se disk work better and faster for hard drive control under the via chipset.

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To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !

Thanks very much for all your suggestions to date. In answer to these....1/ Yes, both devices definitely support DMA. 2/ I do actually have the latest 4in1 Drivers from VIA,(4.32) installed. 3/ Interesting comment about the Bios though. SiSoft Sandra reports a warning when diagnosing the MOBO. This reads "Warning....Disabled Host controllers are present. Check Bios. Since the Bios are something of a grey area to me, I tend to leave well alone! Could this be a clue to the problem? Any suggestions most appreciated as this problem is spoiling what is otherwise a very fast reliable machine. Cheers.

Check in your BIOS under " Intergrated peripherals " and make sure you have your primary and secondary UDMA channels set to auto, this will tell the BIOS to enable UDMA support. I've got a GA-7DX board with teh 686B southbridge and have had no problems so far-but if you don't enable the UDMA in BIOS you'll never get windows to properly run your peripherals.

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

At present you must have the HDD, DVD, and CD-RW all using the same ribbon cable. Please check your ECS Mboard and see if it doesn't have a Primary IDE connector slot (next to the RAM slots) and a Secondary IDE Connector next to it. We need to seperate the DVD and CD-RW. Means finding an additional ribbon cable and plugging either the DVD or the CD-RW into the Secondary IDE Controller slot. Runs in my mind those two shouldn't share the same ribbon cable. Good Luck and Smile.

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"Lemmee Fix That Thing......."
-Beauty is only a light switch away.-

Yep, UDMA options are set to Auto in the Bios. If your MOBO has 686B southbridge and it is working o.k I suppose it rules out a bug in the VIA chipset.
The story continues.................

Thanks Ranchdog. No the config I have at present is:- HDD is single master on the primary channel using UDMA100 cable. The CD-RW is master on the secondary with the DVD as slave. This config was recommended by a local pc build centre which they use on all their machines. I have actually tried every combination possible though, still with no success!

Timed out for an "edit" to my last but I might add.......In a 'round about way SiSandra is also trying to say this may also be the reason that your HDD isn't hummin' like it's supposed to. Sounds reasonable to me.

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"Lemmee Fix That Thing......."
-Beauty is only a light switch away.-

I don't know if you've check this out yet, so I'll post a link just in case.
686B (http://www.viahardware.com/686bfaq.shtm)

Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Comment heard from a Klingon programmer.

"Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!"



[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 07-19-2001).]

This looks really promising!!! Thanks to 'Ghost-Hacker' I have now discovered that there really is a known problem with the VIA southbridge 686B causing Data corruption. I am about to try the various remedys and I will post the results which I sincerely hope are positive!! Meanwhile, Thanks very much to everyone who took the trouble to offer help on this problem. Thankyou all.

ahhhhhhhhhh GH!!!!

da man!

(again)

hehe


http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)


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