I have ordered some new components for my computer (ABIT KG7-R mobo, 256MBs ECC DDR ram, AMD XP 1600+) and since I have always had problems building a computer for myself and never with the computers that I build for everyone else I am wondering if anyone knows about any problems with this mobo and processor combo other than the fact that I have to either manually set the clock speed in the bios or have the latest revision installed. I should get the parts in the mail by tomorrow so I will probably be asking a ton of questions about why it wont boot etc. etc. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

Matt....

Here's a pretty good Link for the KG7. Paul's KG7 FAQ.

http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kg7kr7/bios.htm

Another good link for an Abit Mboard.

http://www.amdmb.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=7



Just take your time. Most of us shoot ourselves in the foot by getting in a hurry.

Good Luck.



------------------
....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........

[This message has been edited by ranchdog (edited 12-27-2001).]

OK, first problem. Windows installs without any problems. After installing Windows (98 1st edition) I install the drivers for my video card (Diamond Viper V770 Ultra) There are no problems that know of up till this point. But once I tried to install a DVD program I get the blue screen of death. If I try to updated DirectX I get the blue screen of death. Well, I decided to install my sound card (SB live X-gamer) and for the most part that installs up until it tries to update DirectX. Well, after a while I got it to completely install onto the compter. After that I tried to install my network card (linksys 100Mbit) and it kills the dos drivers for my sound card due to an IRQ conflict. Well, it is all downhill after this. Now I cannot even get my computer to boot into Windows... I had gotten a wierd error reporting that my Video card was incorrect and it went back to 16 colors... Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

First problem has been fix... I have changed the order in which I install the drivers and NO MORE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!! But now my network adapter and sound card dos drivers are fighting over the same IRQ... Also, I had to install version 8 of Direct X to get direct draw to work.

Do you absolutely need the DOS support for your sound card?


Or you can try the "slot shuffle" to try and get the NIC and the soundcard to play nice....

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Well, I don't need the dos drivers, as soon as I can fix the video card I'll edit the autoexec.bat file and remove all the dos driver information. However, right now I am losing all my resolution options except 640X480. If I install an older driver for my video card I regain all the resolution settings but I lose a good deal of speed in 3D-games. Here is exactly what happened:
1. I installed the Video card, sound card, NIC, USB expansion addon, Dxr2 decoder board. In that order.
2. I installed the newer driver for my video card (from the diamonmm.com site, and I restarted my computer. Everything was normal, I did not lose any of my resolution setting. However, when I shutdown my computer for the night and restarted it in the morning I lost all my resolution setting!!

Matt

Walk away from it for awhile.
Take a deep breath.
Have a Dew.

Do you have ACPI inabled or no in BIOS?
Have you loaded the Mboard chipset drivers?

Is this Diamond vid card an AGP card by any chance?
Check this link and see if there are some better drivers
available for your vid card. www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com)
On the front page it's Drivers/popular/video/Diamond.

Abit is famous for IRQ issues but they can be worked out.
It's a matter of PCI card placement mostly.

Luck.



------------------
....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........

OK... I found one of my problems, when I try to install the Zoran DVD software onto my computer I get a bunch of blue screen errors and it seems to be downhill from that point. After getting everything working on my computer I tried to install it again... and again I got the blue screen of death... However, it didn't seem to kill the install of Windows so I am going to see how long I can run my computer on the current install. Also, I finally got the IRQ problems fixed, I did have to play musical chairs with the PCI cards until I got my NIC to work. I ended up switching my serial ports off to free up two IRQs. Heh, but even though I have had all this trouble getting my computer running it was worth it. Going from 400 MHz to 1400 MHz is a HUGE difference! Oh, and the MOBO does support ECC ram. ( some people were telling me that the chipset Abit used did not support the ECC function)
ranchdog: I am not sure if I have ACPI installed or not, turned out that I had to install new monitor drivers to get the updated video card drivers to recognize that my monitor supported resolutions about 640 X 480.

It is an AGP card (currently running in 2X mode until I can find some jumpers) Thnx for the link.

just out of morbid curiosity; why in the heck are you running this old dinosaur?!

..After installing Windows (98 1st edition)..

That's more than likely part of your install/BSOD problems right there!



------------------
iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain

I know... I know.. Windows 98 is getting a little old.. but I still think that it is better than Windows ME and while 98 2nd edition is better I am not going to spend any money on that upgrade since I will probably end up buying XP sooner or later... but for now I am sticking with 98 since Microsoft does not require that I register with them every time I install the OS. Heh, besides, the only way I am going to run that OS is if I get a hack to bypass that crap... Of course I am going to pay for the OS. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

I am now going to switch my video card to 4x mode (just found the jumpers that are needed) however, I am not sure how I should go about doing this... Should I set the bios to 4x mode first or should I first set the jumpers?

I would set the BIOS first, when rebooting after saving the changes, power down instead and then change the jumpers on the card......

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

That is what I thought I should do. Well, so far so good. Now I only have to figure out why the computer freezes when the HDs power down (via Windows) and why I get garbage on my screen when windows turns off the monitor....