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Brushfire
01-24-2000, 09:22 PM
Well, i recieved my Athon stuff today.
Asus K7M
Athlon 500 w/fan
Full Tower ATX Case w/ pp-303x 300w PS

Anyways, all assembled, i first power things up. I encounter first problem - It doesnt detect the Viper v770 ultra before post, and i get the notorious series of beeps. I think "Oh great, i trashed the vid card". So i put in a different AGP vid card - A Monster Fusion. Same thing. Put in another random AGP card i had sitting around - Same thing. I think "this is bad....". So i try a 2 meg PCI trident. Boots to post...

This is where i encounter 2nd problem. I look @ the memory indicator, seeing 64 megs (128 meg pc133 dimm is in). I think "ok, ive heard about these boards being sensitive...". I put a 64 meg pc100 dimm in. It reads as 32 megs. Its hard to describe how annoyed i was at this point. I decide to leave it, and try to see what else is wrong/causing the problems.

I enter the bios, and everything seems ok. All this time, i remember seeing little news updates on sites about new k7m bios. I think "that must be it, just a bug, so if i update the bios, it'll be great". So i go to another comptuer, make a bootable floppy, put the necessary files on there. Go back, and start up the system, with the floppy in.

This is where i encounter the NEXT problem. Upon booting from the floppy, the system promptly freezes while playing the beep, causing a loop of half beep sounds, which only add's to my growing headache. "More bugs, i think." So i try to boot to a cdrom - and it WORKS, switch to the floppy, it works too, then begin the flash process. It FAILS halfway thru. So i try it again, praying. It works... "hrmm. that was weird, but everything should be ok now". AGP still doesnt detect, memory still mis-reports, and the system still freezes upon floppy boot.

This is where i was about 20 minutes ago. I had two options. Put the p3 500 back together, or pull a Gene C. Shotgun dealie on this new stuff. I decided that i needed to get online to try to find something. So i shove the v770 ultra and everything back into the p3 500, and fire it up. The video doesnt detect the ultra again (which was working like 3 hours ago), and i get real pissed. I put the Monster Fusion in, and it boots. I get online, and try to figure this out.
This is where i am now.

I have contacted Diamond for the Ultra, and the place i have bought it for the board. Any ideas or creative ways to destroy this board?

Brian
Aka Brushfire
(whoo--- long post.)

CMonster
01-25-2000, 01:22 AM
I'm sorry to hear about the mountain of problems you are having with that motherboard. I have heard about some problems with the K7M being very memory specific. It still sounds like a memory compatibility problem, and until that is ironed out I doubt whether your AGP is going to want to fire up either.

When memory is incorrectly detected it almost always means a compatibility problem with that specific brand or type of memory. However, you may have one of those rare cases where it is the motherboard.

I think flashing the BIOS is a very bad idea if your memory is incorrectly detected - who knows what kind of errors may occur.

Believe me, I know how you feel - I've been there a few times - and it's even worse when it's someone else's $h!T and it's due back to them in a couple of hours. Don't shotgun the board - return it for a refund. You may want to purchase another brand of board (Microstar/FIC)and give that a try. It might also be advisable to get the system going and error free using a PCI card, and them switch over to an AGP.

Regarding your Viper v770; there is a very remote possiblility (since is didn't work anymore when you put it back in the other system)that you somehow wiped the BIOS on the card - it may be possible to reflash it. I had a TNT that I managed to corrupt the BIOS on - it would do 2D but no Direct 3D or open GL - I had to reflash the card using the latest BIOS updates from Nvidia.

Good luck

Brushfire
01-25-2000, 11:35 AM
Well, i would try that, but i cant get any bios on any motherboard that i own to detect it.

It wont do anything.

Warranty Time, i have otehr cards i can run off of.

As for the Board, i am going to try to get a replacement. If that doesnt work, then im going to get a coppermine setup.