Paul:
Well, at least you're up and running. FWIW, I have a Creative Ensonique
ES1371 card that works. It's a low end card with few features other than
its price -- about $25 or so. From what I've read at the VIAHardware
site, it doesn't appear that all of the problems have been sorted out
yet, although it may just be a case of getting the VIA drivers and the
BIOS changes in sync. Further confusion may be found at:
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit
Be aware that this is a very active newsgroup, and it has its share of
flamers, trolls, and ads for warez, viagra, and porn. (Ah, the joys of a
moderated mail list! Thank you, PCBuild.) Nonetheless, there are some
success stories, so give it a try.
Good luck,
Carroll Grigsby


Paul Anderson wrote:
>
> Alright I took out my sound card and I have had my system on two days straight without locking up. It's great finally having my system working, but now I have no sound. The newest VIA drivers are supposed to fix the problems, but they didn't work for me. I have the newest drivers for everything and even flashed the bios, but to no avail. So I guess I'm going to see if I can get a refund on my sound card. I have always used Creative sound cards, so are there any other brands any one reccomends? Thanks for everyones help, you guys are great... you will probably get lots more problems from me:)
>
> On Mon, 2 Jul 2001 12:15:59 -0400, Carroll Grigsby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >Paul:
> >As you may be aware, there are problems with many motherboards (such as
> >the Abit KT7A) that use 686B Southbridge chip that is part of the VIA
> >KT133A chipset. A discussion of the current situation can be found at:
> >
> >www.viahardware.com/686bfaq.shtm.
> >
> >Note that systems with Creative SBLive cards are particularly
> >vulnerable. When this mess first hit the fan in May, it was felt that
> >the SBLive was the culprit; it took a while for some of the other
> >problems to surface. The worst of these occurs when transferring very
> >large files (>100 mb) from one drive to another -- your disks can be
> >trashed.
> >
> >Based on what I read in this and other articles on this site, and other
> >postings at other sites, combined with the rapidity with which new
> >"solutions" are announced, I don't have a warm feeling that the problem
> >has been resolved. FWIW, Mandrake has modified the installation routines
> >for Mandrake Linux 8.0 that disable UDMA modes on systems using these
> >chips because of the potential for catastrophic data loss.
> >
> >For those of you using the earlier version (KT7) of this board, this
> >appears to be a non-issue as those boards use the 686A Southbridge. If
> >it helps any, my KT7 has been quite stable since I installed it last
> >fall.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Carroll Grigsby

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com