GHackmann

I don't own one (I've got an Athlon rig) but somebody on my floor does. (2 x 500, I think.) It gives him nothing but trouble -- games lock up hard after only a few minutes. But then again from what I hear he's in the minority.

I haven't had the chance to try it out yet in 3D games, but I do offer one warning. I had to disable PowerStrip or PSTRIP.SYS would give me a BSOD on bootup. You might want to do this *before* you apply the fix (unless you like gettings BSODs, that is). So far the rest of the computer (i.e. everything but 3D acceleration) seems stable enough, and I'll report back on how 3D games went once I try some.

WinDVD does not work properly at all under Win2K, even though they say it's Win2K compatible. Like cryptix I kept getting BSODs that forced me to do clean reinstalls. I just got PowerDVD off of the Internet (heck, that's what they PROMISED would come with my DVD drive anyway!) and it works fine. Highly recommended.

I'm a college student who cannot afford the space for a dedicated TV. So, I'd like to get a TV tuner card and use that for my TV. (Quality isn't a big issue here since I don't watch much TV -- gotta have time to study!) My needs are pretty simple: 1. It has to work under Windows 2000 (of course). 2. It has to have a program that lets me record TV programs onto my hard drive. Better yet, it should be programmable to go off at a certain time if I'm not there (assuming my computer is on). (I can't afford a VCR either. ) 3. If possible, it should get stereo sound. The ATI TV Wonder looked perfect, but alas no Win2K drivers yet, and knowing ATI I'm not holding my breath for them to release them on schedule . . . Any recommendations?

I'm getting the same BSOD sometimes when I start games, except that it tells me that they were caused by emu10k1f.sys. Something tells me this is indeed caused by a bug in the SB Live! drivers.

This is probably the stupidest possible solution for fixing SB Live! sound crackling problems, but it worked for me. Open up your volume control, and mute PC Speaker. As soon as I did that, the crackling faded away and never came back. I'd like to know if this works on other computers, or if mine is smoking crack.

What video card do you have? Sometimes using COMMAND rather than CMD (or vice-versa) and running it full-screen (Alt-Enter) before running the program can fix the problem. It works here on my GeForce DDR.

Quote: Originally posted by Xiven: a) ACPI is NOT the problem with regards to SBLive screw ups. The sharing of IRQs under ACPI is intentional and should never cause any problems unless you are using some EXTREMELY old and obscure bit of hardware in one of your PCI slots (read some of the technical documents on it if you disagree - you'll find loads on the subject in the Microsoft Knowledge Base). "Should" is the operative word here. It seems that the SB Live doesn't play well with other PCI cards on the same IRQ, despite the fact that it's *supposed to* because it's a PCI 2.1 card. If it works at all, it can be very unstable (especially when combined with a GeForce) and can completely kill performance. My framerate drops from 45 to 5-15 in Unreal Tournament when I enable ACPI and EAX and someone fires a weapon, and this performance loss is apparently due to IRQ sharing. (It runs fine when EAX is disabled and/or when ACPI is disabled, and when I disable ACPI and put my GeForce and SB Live on the same IRQ on purpose I get the same performance loss.) Incidentally, from reading the CL newsgroup posts, it seems that their attitude towards these issues is to build your computer around their sound card rather than them fixing the problems. If their sound card doesn't work right with ACPI's IRQ sharing, then they want you to disable ACPI. (Same goes for MVP3 chipsets, SMP, EAX problems, etc.) This is a load of garbage -- if their product doesn't work right with the rest of my computer (which incidentally is a pretty vanilla Athlon box, no SCSI or anything remotely unusual in there), then the answer is _not_ to disable or replace my computer's components! Sheesh.

Messing around with the I/O voltage settings really helps a LOT like mello_j pointed out. But actually, bumping UP the voltage usually helps more than lowering it. Most motherboards default at 3.3V (which is what it is *supposed* to be) so unless the K7V is set differently by default then what he's suggesting is probably changing from 3.3 to 3.4 rather than the other way around. (I have a KA7 rather than a K7V so I can't verify this . . .) The only reason lowering the voltage should help is if your card is overheating -- lower voltage makes the card run cooler. In that case, though, you're better off going with more cooling than a lower voltage. Also try seeing what happens if you change the I/O voltage to 3.5. It doesn't always help, and sometimes it makes things worse (especially if you don't also raise the core CPU voltage), but it's worth a shot if 3.3 or 3.4 don't work. Also try using the new VIA AGP driver off of the GeForce FAQ page (www.geforcefaq.com). I have not tried it, but it is apparently not the driver from the 4-in-1 pack, and it's supposed to increase speed and stability.

Officially Guillemot is trying to buy Aureal. (See http://www.vortexofsound.com, News page. This is a reliable source, so this is probably not just a rumor.) Remember what they did for Hercules, so we might just see completed drivers someday, and maybe even the SQ3500.

It has something to do with the drivers' interface to EAX, I think. Some games (such as GTA2) don't work if you disable it, so you have to consider it part of the driver and just keep it running. If you're pressed for memory, then you're better off reducing the SoundFont cache size.

Why? Because in my experience most of the DSL installation people at SWBell don't know what they're talking about. Heck, they told me that using my HPNA (phoneline) network to share my DSL connection is possible but "we've never heard of anyone doing it successfully." Obviously they've never spent even 5 minutes browsing the message boards at DSLReports.com. Assuming you are not getting a regular PPP (i.e. not PPPoE) connection, then you're right; all you need is the modem, the router, and the NIC. My installation predated the self-installation, and they had a technician come by and install a POTS splitter, so I don't know if you need this done to avoid PPPoE. My guess is that either (a) SWBell doesn't know the proper TCP/IP configuration procedure for Win2K (they don't have it listed on their web site, just 9x and NT 4) or ( the NIC they give you doesn't have Win2K drivers. First of all, when they give you your NIC, throw it away; it's a piece of garbage. Use your own. That fixes the second problem. Second, tell them you're willing to figure out the TCP/IP settings yourself. If they won't budge, then boot to Win98, set it up their way, make sure it works, and then reboot to Win2K and set it up there. I can assure that it does work, because I am using a Win2K machine as my router for my own SWBell DSL connection.

I'm not saying it's not a strange way of fixing the problem, but I was mostly curious to see if anybody else could fix their crackling problems the way I did. Note: muting the "PC Speaker" in the Windows/SB Live mixer does not mean muting the SB Live's speakers. (I hope nobody thought that I was suggesting that muting their sound card is a great solution . . .) It means muting the SB Live's redirection of the PC internal beeper (which I never got to work anyway). Strange that muting it would fix my problem, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Hmm . . . I know very little about the drivers you're using, since I've got a KX133/IDE system. LiveWare 3 might help; at the least it probably won't hurt (assuming you don't get speaker crackling from ACPI IRQ sharing), and I'm sure newest SCSI drivers wouldn't hurt either. The culprit may be the Matrox card, since it's old and is likely not ACPI compliant. (I don't think ACPI even existed as a standard when it was created . . .) What CD burning software are you using? I know that Adaptec Easy CD Creator/DirectCD has caused problems with hibernating unless it's patched to version 4.02c.

Did you make sure DMA is enabled? Stupid question, I know, but a lot of CD burning problems (especially at 8x) are caused by not having DMA enabled. It also goes without saying that you need to be 150% sure that you have the newest IDE drivers.

I've tried 5.22, 5.30, and 5.32, and all work fine with hibernation. I think you've singled out the wrong driver. What is your computer's configuration?

You really do need to replace the sound card even if you're not using A3D. From the EPoX web site: "''VIA Apollo KX133 System Lockup caused by A3D Audio Chip '' ISSUE Audio cards that use A3D audio chip causes KX133 system to deadlock when system traffic is heavy. SOLUTION A3D chip issues one memory read request cycle to North Bridge and expects a grant within 4 mico-sec of latency time. If PCI TRDY# is not asserted after 4 mico-sec, the A3D hardware will de-assert the FRAME# and REQ# to terminate the operation. However, the A3D audio software driver cannot acknowledge the termination and continues waiting for hardware response. Hence causes the system to deadlock. This issue will only occur during heavy system traffic when the North Bridge cannot grant access to A3D audio chip within the 4 mico-sec latency time. Source: VIA Application note Serial #AN137 Date 07/05/00. ADDITIONAL NOTES Since the above issue has no work-around on the VIA Apollo KX133 chipset EPoX suggests against using sound cards based with the A3D audio hardware with our EP-7KXA." Although this note specifically mentions EPoX's motherboard, the same warning goes for all motherboards based on the KX133 or KT133 chipset. If you're strapped for cash, and you're not going to be using A3D anyway, then you might as well use your motherboard's built-in audio, at least in the meantime. Heck, pick up a cheap ISA or PCI sound card; just don't use any Aureal-based cards. Retail AMD chips do come with fans and heatsinks, and OEM ones do not (though some sellers will include their own with the chip), just like Intel ones.

Turn off cursor shadows (Control Panel -> Mouse -> Pointers -> Enable pointer shadow). This will probably fix it.

1. Definitely go with the 300W power supply. With a GeForce and an Athlon, you might not even get it to POST with only 250W, especially with 4 disk drives (2 HDD + 1 DVD + 1 CD-RW) and 384 MB of RAM. PC Power & Cooling's power supplies are among the best power supplies money can buy, but they're expensive. Antec's 300W power supplies are also terrific, and (like the PCP&C ones) they are AMD certified, but they're significantly cheaper. Either is a good choice. 2. The only problem you have to look out for is that Aureal-based sound cards (like the S90) cause crashes. Unless Via or Aureal come up with a fix, you can't use one and expect it to be really stable. 3. It depends. Sometimes Windows uses its own chipset drivers, in which case it will simply disable the old ones and install the new ones. Other times, Windows uses ones written by the chipset manufacturers, which can cause major problems when switching computers. I'd personally do a reformat, but if you really want you could *try* a transfer, but you'd better cross your fingers on that one. 4. The recommendation to nuke the sound card is a wise one. Diamond isn't exactly well-known for stellar drivers, so you're relying on Aureal (the people who made the chipset in the S90) for drivers. Aureal's Win2K drivers leave a lot to be desired stability-wise (random BSODs are frequently reported), so I'd go with a SB Live!. (SB Live!'s drivers also leave a bit to be desired, especially with EAX, but they're less likely to cause crashes.) If you're not picky, then you could even use the K7V's built-in sound, but don't expect terrific sound quality. I would not, however, recommend ditching the MB and CPU for Intel ones. 95% of the problems reported by Athlon users could be fixed by installing new Via KX133 drivers or by moving the sound card to a different PCI slot so it doesn't share IRQs with something else. If you're really concerned about stability issues, then I'd go with an Abit KA7 or KA7-100 motherboard, which both are very stable, even at high clock speeds.

Did you try the newest beta BIOS for your MB? It seems to be more stable (ironically) than the release version. Also try looking at the unofficial KA7 FAQ for more information (http://go.to/ka7faq). (Why is it that unofficial FAQs are always more helpful than the official ones?)

I tried VDMSound (see NT Compatible front page) but it doesn't work on my PC. I tried a couple of games that are listed on the compatibility page (KQ4 and Willy Beamish) as working and they locked up (though Windows kept going). I also tried using MAME (which, when I disable sound, works with Win2K on my computer) but it said it couldn't find my sound card. I set the BLASTER variable to the appropriate values and also tried using different SB16 settings (IRQ 5, DMA 3) but to no avail. Has anyone gotten this to work, or is it a hoax? Pertinent system specs: Win2K Pro retail (not SP1) AMD Athlon 750 (@ 100 x 7.5) Abit KA7-100 128 MB PC133 SDRAM (@ 133) SB Live! CL Annihilator Pro DDR (@ 120/300)

Hmm . . . that's odd, because I used the very same program (KQ4) with the same sound settings (MT-32), same sound card (SB Live!), and same OS (Win2K) and it didn't work. Do you mind telling me what switches you used to get it to work? Or your BLASTER settings (if any)?