ABIT KA-7 100 w/700MHz Slot A Thunderbird

[macedawg]

I purchased this ABIT KA-7 100 and Athlon 700 Thunderbird and took all necessary static percausions installing them, and don't suspect I'm having any heat problems. Upon first boot, it went through POST tests no problem, but after the POST I got all kinds of garbled junk on my screen - just random characters. I managed to get Windows 98 installed, but get frequent lockups - sometimes at POST, but usually afterwards. I checked AMDs website and it appears that there may be an incompatability between the T-Bird and the VIA chipset. Anyone have any suggestions?

[dvdist]

i have same system!

also same problems!

i upgraded the bios to ry beta bios

and with win98 its ok but not completly stable

any help i can get please!

[macedawg]

It turned out to be a problem with the board. I returned it and got an ASUS K7V with a standard Athlon 750MHz and it's extremely stable.

[AuraEdge]

The thunderbird is not officially compatable with any KX-133 boards. However, both the K7V and the KA7 are KX-133 boards, so it will work sometimes. It is only supposed to be used with the AMD750 chipset and the Via KT133 Chipset.

[neo_otyugh]

i helped build a tbird 700 on a ka7, it was flakey at first, but runs great now. the only time it has problems is on a cold boot, but since it runs 24/7 it only needs to be restarted occasionally.

[Ruahrc]

Yea, the KA7-100 doesn't officially support the Thunderbird. I bet that is why you got all those problems. Let's hope so at least, because I just ordered a KA7-100 with an Athlon Classic 700!

Ruahrc

[OuTpaTienT]

The Abit board ought to give you no problems with a classic Athlon.

Here is a MUST bookmark for KA7 & KA7-100 owners:

http://www.casema.net/~howland/ka7faq/ka7faq.htm