PCI hell on my KT7A-RAID

[sluDge]

My first post so Hi!

My trouble is adding PCI peripherals to my previously stable Win2000 system. I just bought an Adaptec 2940U2 PCI host adapter and 2 x 9Gb cheetah drives and a tape drive. Now I cant get a stable system without lock-ups, hangs, freezes and BSODs.

My system is the following:
Abit KT7A-Raid
Athlon 1000@1400 (10.5x133)
512Mb PC133 Ram
3 x IBM 40 Gb IDE drives - 2 in a RAID 0 array
Plextor IDE CDRW/Samsung DVD
Sound Blaster Live! DE 5.1
3Com 3C905B-TX NIC
GeForce 2 GTS AGP 32Mb
USB enabled
Highpoint Raid controller enabled

So the problem is with the PCI devices, as adding more than the existing SB Live and NIC causes havoc. I want to boot off the SCSI drive. I tried adding a Matrox millenium II too as a second vid card causing the same thing. Tried changing the NIC to an Intel Pro 100b - same thing.

I have tried the following:
1. Swapping which device goes in which slot (I know which slots share irqs)
2. Upgrading BIOS to 3R
3. Complete re-install of Win2k - with ACPI enabled
4. Disable ACPI and reinstall again
5. Disable com2 and set irq for usb to disable - reinstall

So even when things aren't sharing irq's they still crash - can anyone give advice, or are any 2 of the 6 pci slots the only ones that actually work

Thanks in advance
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif

[Whyzman]

I would first check and see if the Adaptec is on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) with Microsoft. Win2K is still a bit fussy about what it likes and doesn't.

Don't know about the inner workings of your MB, but I suspect that there might be some shared hardware resources going on (slot sharing). If you have your manual handy take a look at the Interrupt Request Table and see if there are any devices which are slot sharing. This is different from IRQ sharing and would most definitely BSOD you if the devices hog resources.


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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[mjc]

Have you tried the latest VIA 4 in 1 drivers?

Install them before adding anything else to the basic setup.

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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.

[Paleo Pete]

Athlon 1000@1400 (10.5x133)

No way to tell what's causing trouble until you set it to run at the 1000 MHZ it's designed to run, to prove or disprove it's the CPU being overclocked that's the problem, or not. What you describe is typical overclocking instability problems. Until you try it when it's NOT overclocked, you have no way of knowing whether or not that's actually what's causing it.

I would suspect problems related to the CPU still, since it could have been damaged by either heat or voltage issues related to being OC'd...

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