A few A7V Questions
MBS
questions before I start.
1.) The A7V is supposed to have support for 7 USB ports. Where do you get
the optional hardware to do this and has any done it? Does it work?
2.) The promise site has a new driver for the Ultra 100. Version 1.60 build
32. Is this the correct driver to use for Win 98 and 2000. I have seen some
messages about build 33, where did you get it?
3.) The VIA site has new drivers, the 4 in 1 driver, IDE busmaster, AGP
Driver, IRQ routing driver, and USB driver. Which of these drivers are
needed with Win 98 and Win 2000? Could you give a brief of what these
drivers are for?
4.) What is the best type of memory to purchase for this board? I purchased
corsair 256 mb - 133. I hope this was correct.
5.) The Asus website also mentions optional Realtek 10/100 support. Is this
integrated with the MB or just a network card that they recommend?
I know I'm asking for a lot of information but I think others could benefit
from this also.
Thanks in advance.
mbs
cwh...@ecs.soton.ac.uk
a couple of quid) - I have great performance on this board
Install all the drivers you mention.
I would use biuild 25 of promise controller.
the via 4in1 is essential for reliablility and performance
MBS
<cwh...@ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:3A3A3C24...@ecs.soton.ac.uk...
> Just buy the board (it comes with 5 USB ports - extra headers aare only
> a couple of quid) - I have great performance on this board
Where do you get the extra headers?
C3hammer
> 1.) The A7V is supposed to have support for 7 USB ports. Where do you get
> the optional hardware to do this and has any done it? Does it work?
5 ports come with the board. I suppose you go buy the other two ports and
plug them onto the board next to the three port one.
> 2.) The promise site has a new driver for the Ultra 100. Version 1.60
build
> 32. Is this the correct driver to use for Win 98 and 2000. I have seen
some
> messages about build 33, where did you get it?
I use 1.60 build 25 with bios 1003e2 and it has been virtually perfect with
Win2k. Boot time is about 30 secs. Data rate with Maxtor ATA100 drive is
about 30 meg/sec and 10ms seek according to SiSoft Sandra and Nero CDburner
speed test. ATA100 is not all people said it would be, but it works very
well.
> 3.) The VIA site has new drivers, the 4 in 1 driver, IDE busmaster, AGP
> Driver, IRQ routing driver, and USB driver. Which of these drivers are
> needed with Win 98 and Win 2000? Could you give a brief of what these
> drivers are for?
From the Via 4 in 1 4.24 install:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
VIA Registry (INF) Driver is to be installed under Windows. The driver will
enable VIA Power Management Controller.
VIA AGP VxD Driver is to be installed if you are using and AGP VGA card.
VIAGART.VXD will provide service routines to your VGA driver and interface
directly to hardware, providing fast graphical access.
VIA ATAPI Vendor Support Driver is used to fixed the compatibility issue for
IDE devices.
VIA PCI IRQ Miniport Driver is to be installed under Windows 98 only, it
will
fixed PCI IRQ routing sequence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Only the INF and ViaAGP driver are installed with Win2k. I have upgraded to
Via AGP driver 4.04 separately from the Via 4 in 1 drivers. I believe that
4.04 is the same as in the new 4 in 1- 4.25a.
> 4.) What is the best type of memory to purchase for this board? I
purchased
> corsair 256 mb - 133. I hope this was correct.
I don't think this mobo cares what memory you use. Many here will argue
with that. I can attest to the fact that any functioning memory will work
with bios 1003e2 and possibly 1005a. Nothing works with bios 1004x IMHO.
> 5.) The Asus website also mentions optional Realtek 10/100 support. Is
this
> integrated with the MB or just a network card that they recommend?
Board rev. 1.02 does not have any integrated devices other than the Promise
Ultra 100.
> I know I'm asking for a lot of information but I think others could
benefit
> from this also.
> Thanks in advance.
>
> mbs
I hope it helps. I've had great luck with the A7V after my first week of
hardship. Bios 1003e2 (http://members.tripod.de/Juggernaut/) solved all my
issues after installing the latest drivers. My machine has not locked up
once in three months now 24/7. I have 4 of the 5 pci slots filled and three
of the 8 ATA 100 / IDE sockets. I use the machine for CAD/CAM machining, 3D
graphics, Digital Video (DVRaptor IEEE1394 card) and general business apps.
What more can you ask for?
--
Regards,
Pete Carney
c3ha...@verts.com
A7V, GF2MX, Supramax 56K, SB128, OvisLink 10/100 NIC, Canopus DVRaptor.
Win2k, Office2K, FrontPage2k, Photoshop 5.5, Premiere 5.1c,
Surfcam2000, Quick Books 6.0, Winfax10
nVidia 6.47 & 7.17, Promise 1.60 b25, Via AGP 4.04, Win2k SP1, IE5.5SP1,
DX8
Peter Eisenlohr
> Just buy the board (it comes with 5 USB ports - extra headers aare only
> a couple of quid) - I have great performance on this board
>
> Install all the drivers you mention.
>
> I would use biuild 25 of promise controller.
No, better use Build 33. 25 had problems with data consistency on
Maxtor drives. Build 32 did fix the consistency problems, but
reintroduced a long boot delay. 33 seems fine now, except that it
slows down on large files. (at least on my machine and some few
other's who have reported this problem).
cu,
Peter
Ekkehard Ebert
Without those I was not able to install W2000P ( yes I used the F&
option) on an IBM DTLA 307060. After the mb and promise update all
former problems disappeard.
regards, Ekkehard
Dave
Dave
Oliver Jackson
headers for a couple of dollars. Anywhere!