With my usual talent for getting things wrong, I'll try this query for
the third time.
I'll send it to,
 PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List -
and not,
 [log in to unmask]
and keep my fingers crossed, although it's a mystery how Jun Qian saw
the original, but no one else (apart from the moderator)  it seems.
Never mind, I'll copy and paste my original ...........

" I remember seeing some discussion about the above; - thought I'd filed

the definitive answer somewhere, - and of course, can't find it again.
A Google search suggests that the manufacturers are/were blaming each
other !
My problem started this morning when trying to install a Soundblaster
Live Value PCI card on my ASUS A7V mobo with the VIA KT177a Chipset.
As a newbie, I missed the warning of problems, at first. The set-up
screen flashed by at the nearspeed of light, and despite my misgivings
and lack of experience, - thought that the install CD might fix any
problems.   Sadly not! - Windoze 98SE kept asking to reboot.

Many reboots later, I came to the conclusion that my soundcard was not
recognised in BIOS.
I've tried to solve the problem myself, and the best I've found is on
the Viahardware site where I found .....
                     Other Drivers
                     686B Bug Fix
                      1.0 - VIA's fix for KT133/A systems with
Soundblaster Live sound cards.
                      Should clear up any file corruption problems that
may occur with the           686B southbridge.)

Your experience and/or comments about all this will be much appreciated
by self, - and others in the future, I'm sure.
( PS:  The word, ' Should'  - worrys me a bit) .............

Since those few days ago, I've learned a lot, but not really enough to
help myself, or others like me, building their own.
The problem seems to be in the adaption of the ATA100 bus,
- there seems to be no common software (semi-hardware) standard.
- third party drivers claim to resolve the issue, - or else I've got it
wrong again!
- a simple swap of PCI slots helps a bit, but is not the full answer.
- counting slot 1 as next to AGP, then slot 2 is not recognised by PnP,
- by accident, I found that slot 4 is recognised by PnP, but not in
BIOS.
- Jun Qian recommends slot 5, I have yet to try that option, (too close
to my extra
   USB port, but that can be changed)

Once again, I welcome your input.

Kevin.
New Zealand.

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