VIA Issues – IDE and SoundBlaster Live FIX !

[Richard_Cranium72]

http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT042201222938

[golfcart]

Hey Doc, Im not sure i would call that a fix, but it is definiatley worth reading if you do any system building at all. Great info to know. Thanks http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Harold7]

Just curious, I have 2 WD ATA100 drives hooked up to the Promise controller as master and slave on Promse IDE 1 and my DVD and CD-RW on Promise IDE 2 as well as an SBLive! X-Gamer 5.1 on my A7V133 board and have experienced no problems of corrupted data transfers when moving large files (1 GB or more)from one HD to another.

Is this a Via chipset/SBLive! problem primarily with the on-board IDE contoller used on A7V133 boards or are others experiencing this problem when using the Promise controller? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Bovon]

Harold, there dosn't seem to be that many ppl reporting anywhere that are using controller cards instead of raid boards. What few I have seen reporting, do not appear to be having the problem. A lot of ppl believe the problem is with the 686B southbridge, while others say it is a Creative Labs glitch. I have seen a couple of problems, using SB Live! on other boards, not just VIA. I read recently where one guy thats running a BX board has the same thing the VIA users are having.

I know of one guy that had an Iwill KK266-R, and had all kinds of headaches. He decided to RMA that board, and got a KK266, and stuck his HPT controller card in it...problem solved...go figure.

[Bovon]

Just ran into the following thread over at the Hard forum. interesting.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=133897

[Harold7]

Interesting indeed, Bovon.

According to SiSandra my PCI bus speed is 34 MHZ, maybe that's why I'm not experiencing any conflicts with my SB Live! 5.1 and the rest of my system, I don't have any idea how to adjust the PCI bus speed (may be something in the Bios), so I have no idea why it doesn't read 33 MHZ.

BTW I don't use a Promise controller card, I use the on-board Promise PDC20265 Controller... I don't have anything connected to the boards IDE 1 or 2 connectors at all.

If the SB Live! card is the problem (most boards I've been to seem to think so) what are some other good quality sound cards which offer Dolby Digital 5.1 and S/PDIF capability? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Richard_Cranium72]

golfcart
I didn't see a "fix" either in my scan of the article.

However, the headline was a C&P of the article, their words, not mine..

[golfcart]

Hey Doc, don't take my comment the wrong way. My intent was not to knock you or your judgement. I think it is a great link no matter how you title it.

[NDD]

The whole thing isn't just about SB Live! + 686B, it's about some inner problem with the bridge, which causes problems with HDs. All this supposed to be fixed via BIOS updates, pay attention to all the readme.txt files when you're flashing new BIOS.

P.S. KT7A-RAID (mine) still hasn't http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

Best Regards ...