ASUS A7V333/Leadtek Ti4600 compatibilty problems

[woodwindman]

Hi there,

SETUP:
A7V 333
XP2100+
Alpha 8025 + 80mm Yi-Tech
leadtek Ti 4600
Enermax 431
Liteon 16X48x DVD ROM
2X 80 GB Maxtor HDD(133)
2X 256 MB PC2700

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
I had numerous weird and varied problems involving data corrupting , Win98 random error messages, the BIOS changing its settings on it's own accord , BSOD, problems booting and sometimes no video on POSTing, Floppy Drive corrupting disks when it should have been only reading them etc etc
Over a few weeks I had been checking , re-checking and re-re-checking jumpers and settings, changed components with my other systems including all leads , DVD-ROM, floppy, RAM , PSU , Graphics Card, tried each of my HDD's seperately etc etc and through the process of elimination got to the stage of taking my Mobo off and prepared to send it back . Having read of the problems associated with the Asus A7V333 , I assumed that I was just another statistic of its failure rate. This thought had begun to grow in the back of my mind from the first few problems I encountered until I had conviced myself that the mobo was faulty.
Finally, by following up a lead from another thread, I discovered that the solution to the problem appear to lay simply in having NO jumper on the Slave device . Both the label on each hard drives and in the manual clearly state to put a pair of drives in the conventional Master/Slave set up -COMPLETELY different to that which actually works!!!! However, changing to this setup still did not initally work even after formatting both HDD and reinstalling windows. I only acheived success by first sanitizing both HDD's by using Easy-Tec's Disksanitzer (http://www.east-tec.com/dsksanit/download.htm) . I then formatted the drives as normal , whacked on Win98 and Hey Presto !!! ---- all the problems seem to have gone EXCEPT ONE.

CURRENT PROBLEM:
Both my ATI Rage Fury and Geforce 2 GTS cards appear to work fine on my new ASUS A7V333 setup and none of the problems listed above seem to appear.Also, when I use my new Leadtek Ti4600 on my older systems these systems also work perfectly. HOWEVER, when I use the Ti4600 on my new setup the following occurs. Probably 1 boot 30 results in being able to SEE the POST and loading of windows as expected. If this occurs the system works perfectly. However I am usually just left with a black screen but can always hear windows loading in the background i.e opening music etc and once the HDD's have stopped I can get the system to re-boot by Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Sometimes the screen does appear just prior to the stage of where the windows desktop usually comes in. If it cuts in at this stage the system appears to works fine. On a couple of occasions I was confronted with a 'New hardware found - unknown monitor ' box then a 'New Clock Settings' box.
This problem occurs when the system is not overclocked and set to least aggressive settings(or even underclocked). I have a Enermax 431 PSU.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

[This message has been edited by woodwindman (edited 05-06-2002).]

[saphalline]

Ah yes, the Asus & Leadtek compatability problem! I have this one myself, tho with an Asus A7V266-E & Leadtek GF2 Ti (slightly older than your hardware ). The problem is that some of the Leadtek driver parts overwrite some of Asus' mobo drivers. The results can be plainly seen by anyone who installs drivers "normally", aka first mobo drivers then vid card drivers.

In this case, I was forced to follow Leadtek's advice in the manual (I got my Leadtek retail so I don't know if this is in the OEM version) and installed my Asus mobo drivers except for the AGP ones. Then I installed up my Leadtek drivers. Then I went back and custom installed the Asus AGP drivers (where you choose which sections to install) and I had to exclude some part of them. I can't remember exactly, I'm not home right now, but it was all in Leadtek's manual and it works a lot better than it did.

Originally, I had problems like yours but now my boots are up to regular Windows par (as usual there's still a few dud boots). I would think that Leadtek would have that info on their website, check there first if it's not in your manual. Needless to say, I will avoid the Asus/Leadtek combo from now on. Good thing I need my graphics card upgraded at least once a year !

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Windows 95: A 32-bit extension of a 16-bit overlay for an 8-bit OS that was originally designed for a 4-bit processor by a 2-bit company that can't produce 1 bit of good software!

[integral]

You might try using Nvidias Referance drives. Check the Nvidia site for the latest Detenators. I am using them for all of my Nvidia cards.