New cards, many problems

[bonz_dragon]

I have a PCChips M598 MB that after installing a new harddrive was unable to get the sound and video to work. Went to they're web site to download drivers to no avail. They keep coming back corrupt.
I installed a new video and sound card from CompUSA. The video card installed w/o to much trouble other than I can only get the screen to center above 800x600.
The sound card still dosen't work though everything seens to be there. Sense I installed the sound card I keep crashing and getting illegal operation and will shut down mesg.
I tried calling the tech # for the sound card but only could get a recorded mesg.
What could be wrong and how can I fix it?
Thanks, Kevin

[rangeral]

Try putting the sound card in another slot see what happens also give us full system specs brand names etc. Pcchips boards are a bottom end board not highly recommended if you can afford it get a different board, there too much trouble since you don't say what cpu your using can't recommend better board.

[bonz_dragon]

This is a PCChips 100 WITH A k6-3 350. WD 8 gig harddrive. 64meg pc100, Using Win 98 SE.
I have come to understand that this MB is a piece of s*** and there are better out there but when it comes to that I'll replace the whole thing! For now money is tight.
Kevin

[vonweber]

Hey bonz
I've had a pcchips M598LMR for a couple of years and on balance I'm satisfied. It was designed to be all-in-one with onboard AGP, Audio, LAN, Modem, USB, IR. It's not a good choice for someone who wants to upgrade.
My system benchmarks poorly in RAMspeed tests and checking the forums I found comments that even though Mem speeds of 66 & 100 are supported, the board may actually operate memory at only 66. My BIOS reports 95Mhz but a posting in a forum said that was a false reading.

All things considered it's been a reliable system and once I got DMA working for the ATA-66 drives the performance can be described is "snappy". I will NOT, however, install XP on this machine.

Suggest you get the manual for the board. You'll need it to locate jumper positions on the board and settings. If you don't have it, www.pcchips.com will have the 598LMR which is close enough.

Now, the board has 2 PCIs and an ISA. (My board is old, does yours have an AGP slot?). Jumper JP6 is LAN Enable/disable(next to IDE2). If it is enabled then PCI slot 2 is disabled ! ! ! ( see manual p.25 ) If your video is in PCI2 AND your 598 has onboard LAN (not all of them do) that might explain the absence of signal from the board. Also check BIOS PCI/Plug and Play Setup screen which has "Primary Graphics Adapter" which toggles the system between using the onboard AGP and a video card in PCI.

Sound card: There's more jumper joy coming on the sound card. JP8 will disable the onboard sound so your system should recognize the PCI or ISA sound card. Whenyou disable the onboard soundyou also lose the onboard fax/modem.

As a last thought, take a look at the specs for the Sound card and compare to your board. Depending on what you're doing the onboard may be adequate.

Same for the onboard video. If you're using a PCI video it will run slower than the onboard AGP anyway. The interface for PCI is slower than the 66Mhz nominal rate of the onchip AGP.

There are brackets available when using onboard sound, modem, lan, or video that have the connectors for outside the PC and cables that attach to sockets on the board.

[bonz_dragon]

This is a M598 board w/o LMR and also no JP6 jumper or JP8 jumper. In Device Manager it is still showing an icon for the PCI sound device with a ?. There are no drivers for this onboard sound which is why I installed the new card.
Can anyone give me a glue as to go into BIOS and disable this?
Thanks, Kevin

[bonz_dragon]

Did all that, came up disabled! Still no sound. Any ideas for now what besides trashing the whole system or motherboard?

[Rocketmech]

I took a look at the manual for this board the M598 here (http://ajz.8k.com.br/586_M5xx/M598_M599/index.html) and I dont see a jumper or setting to disable the onboard sound. BTW, this mobo has the SIS 530 chipset. To install the new card you will need to follow Wallijonn's advise to disable the o.b. sound, but try it this way:

1. Restart in Safe mode. Remove any reference to the new card and onboard sound, such as drivers and software in Add/Remove Programs . Also, in Device Manager remove all sound devices.
2 This step is an option to try , but must be in this sequence.
Restart, and enter Cmos Setup. Record the Cmos Setup settings. From the Main Menu select Load Optimal Settings. Save and exit. Do not boot to windows. Shutdown the pc and unplug from the wall for about 15 min.
3. Remove the new sound card from the system.
4.Restart, and enter Cmos Setup. Use the Optimal settings or change to the recorded values. You'll need to change the video settings if using a PCI card. Save and exit.
5. In Device Manager , disable the onboard sound device as mentioned before.
6. Install the drivers for the new sound card. Shutdown the pc.
7. Reinstall the new sound card in the system.Restart .
8. Windows should see the new PCI sound device and install the drivers, etc. You'll need to follow any additional instruction from the new sound card manual. Restart.
You might have to setup the sound device in Control Panel > Multimedia properties.

For more info on this mobo , look
here (http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q3998142-bin/cgi-bin/pccmb.sh)

If this does'nt work ...:confused:

[bonz_dragon]

Originally posted by wallijonn
when did you buy this mobo? do you have the manual? do you have the install cd? what version is the mobo?

you state that you had problems with the on board sound, so you went & bought asound card from Compusa. what type of sound card is it?

we need to look at your irq's. start -> programs -> accessories -> system tools -> system information -> hardware resources -> conflicts/sharing. please give us a list.

This board came in a system I inherated so I do not know it's age.
It came with a manual and CD which are the wrong ones, they are for a PCChips 100 M598LMR and the board is a M598. I have downloaded the manual but all the drivers come back corrupt or incomplete.

The new sound card is a generic PCI 32 bit Avance Logic from CommpUSA. SKU#272121

I took verything out and started over as I found it was trying to load it as a display adapter. Even put this card into a different slot! Now everything looks like it's in the right place and all there with no conflicts but still no sound.
Is there a way to test if the card is bad?
Kevin

[bonz_dragon]

Would like to thank everyone for the help! Everything is working fine now.
For the short story; After I took everything out to start over the whole system crashed, bad. Reformatted the HD and reinstalled everything but the sound card and Windows detected it all, video and modem. Loaded drivers w/o any problems and everything worked great. Reinstalled the sound card and it loaded fine but still no sound. Finally talked to a human at tech support to find that the only problem was with the speakers!
They didn't tell me when I bought the card that it needed speakers with an external power source. DOH! didn't state anything on the box either.
Thanks,
Bonz

[userserver]

Originally posted by Rocketmech
... Shutdown the pc and unplug from the wall for about 15 min....

If you trying to clear NVRAM this way you need to make sure the AC power cord is disconnected.