Brian Frank

I use what works well for me, and if that just happens to be Via, so be it. I've had problems from certain motherboard companies *cough*Abit*cough*, but I've run quite a few Via boards and be quite satisfied with them. I don't think it would be a good idea in any forseeable future to use anything outside of Intel and ServerWorks setups at work, but for home use Via is just fine. The systems run fine for what I do which don't really entail much real work, other than a few papers for school.

Did you just use the auto installers?

The reason, which I should've remember before, is because we've had skateboarders trying to get into some storage barns before. I personally don't give a rip about the skateboarders business, but I'm following work orders to kick those guys off the property. It's private property number 1, and for safety and legal reasons, we don't want them to be anywhere near those barns in the first place.

No, we didn't push them around. We've asked these guys, on many occasions to not skate on the property. I have nothing against skateboarders, but when we've asked them repeatedly to not skate here and they do, we're gonna start to get tough with them. These are like middle schoolers. Some littler kids (6-years old or so) spilled the names of the guys that keep coming over here. We all came out just as a sort of scare tactic alont with *calling the cops*. We have skateboarding parks in town, we've told these kids not to skate here, yet they still keep coming back. We figure, if we can simply scare these kids off, that's fine. I'm not going to push these kids around, for legal reasons, unless they phsyically attack me. I'll have to talk it over with my supervisor to see what we can do with the curbs and such. I've also suggested getting some signs put up too...

I will now list all the systems (or attempt to) in my residence. We all run XP Pro -Dad's rig- Asus TUSL2-C Pentium III 800E (100x8) 512MB PC100/133 SDRAM Maxtor 40GB ATA100 5400RPM HP 8100i 4/2/24 CD-RW Samsung 52x CD-ROM Jaton GF2 MX 32MB 3 port IEEE1394 card Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo Lite-On 10/100 NIC Uber durable keyboard MS Intellimouse Explorer AOpen mid-tower Antec 350 W PSU 19" Hitatchi Monitor -Little bro's rig-(he's the multitasker from hell;)) Tyan Trinity 400 Pentium III 650 512MB PC100/133 Western Digital 80GB ATA100 7200RPM Western Digital 40GB ATA100 7200RPM Maxtor 20GB ATA100 7200RPM Pioneer 16x DVD Sony 8/4/32 CDRW PNY Verto GF2Ti Creative Ensoniq PCI 3 port IEEE1394 PCI Promise Ultra ATA100 controller (Maxtor brand) Logitech Wireless kb MS Intellimouse Optical AOpen Midtower Antec 350W PSU 17" Digiview -Kid that lives with us rig- AOpen 440BX board Pentium III 450 384MB PC100/133 Maxtor 15GB ATA100 5400RPM Western Digital 80GB ATA100 7200RPM Philips 8/4/32 CDRW Samsung 48x CD Voodoo 3 3000 AGP SoundBlaster ISA Some 10/100 NIC we had lying around 250W AOpen PSU MS Intellimouse Explorer 17" Digiview -Dad's Laptop- Compaq Presario 1700 series Pentium III 800 w Speed step BX chipset 256MB PC100 20GB 4500RPM HDD 8x DVD/4/4/32 CDRW combo drive ATI Rage Mobility chip Ensoniq sound 14.1 TFT LCD

Woah! 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

Nice upgrade from where you were. I see you're still stuck with the 6 gig drive. BTW, FYI there's a thread over here that you can brag your rig.

I may have to in the future as I've heard very good things about them. Right now, I don't have a very good reason to upgrade, but maybe next time.

Okay, this is puzzling. A guy I know from work is having some serious problems anytime he tries to install any drivers under XP. It ends up sending him into an infinite loop. He's reinstalled XP several times, to no avail. His setup: -Abit KG7, latest BIOS -Athlon XP 1600+ -512MB PC2100 -Western Digital 80GB HDD -Plextor 12/10/40 -Radeon 8500 -SoundBlaster Audigy OEM -3Com PCI modem -400W PSU I'm rather stumped here and need major help to help him. Anythoughts? This is an AMD 761/Via 686B chipset combo, FWIW.

Yup. Tried a v/c switch...voodoo 3 2000 PCI, in case the AGP slot wasn't gonna play nice. Never could get past the first reboot. I told the guy to get something from Asus or MSI--because those boards work!

Another 75GXP down the crapper. These drives are notorious for failure. One guy I talked to had 5 out of 8 75GXP die so far.

I know lately 2CPU has had a lot of threads relating to the A7M266-D in the forums, so you might wanna check them out.

Nice setup.

Funny, I love Via. Now did I sell my soul to Via or Microsoft...

Too bad I couldn't complete a Windows install, tho...

Tyan is an excellent company. I wanted some OCing options along with stability, so Asus fit the bill, and now AOpen is doing just as well. The best motherboard I've ever had was the Tyan Trinity 400. Via-based, true, but the most stable board I've ever used. Abit is nice if you want to fool around with your system, but I want to have it work the first time, rather than play with it. As far as chipsets go, I never had good luck with the BX for some odd reason--and I wasn't overclocking either. However, the 815 chipset would be my pick if I were to get one based on an Intel chipset. I've been very impressed with my dad's TUSL2-C (815EP B-Step) for an Intel chipset. Here's mobo companies I'll buy from again: Asus, AOpen, MSI, Tyan. Here's mobo companies I'll avoid: Abit, FIC, Soyo. Here's ones I have no experience with: EPoX, Iwill, DFI.

UT is probably also in the running. I can run that quite awhile w/o crashing.

Well, I did change the RAM out with a stick of my own that's been running great in my own system. I took out his modem, Audigy, and Radeon and things didn't get any better. BSOD after the first reboot as well. I'll have to look into it, but I'm pretty sure this board is bad. I told the guy to get a different board as of lately, I've been reading about people having some serious issues with the board, including clutch. One local shop I talked to said they're dropping the KG7 for it's problems. Lovely, as I could've used the info a few weeks ago before the system parts were ordered.

A reputation that has been over hyped in my experience. They're okay, but I have other vendors I'll take any day over Abit. I just haven't been very impressed with Abit's efforts for Intel or AMD, and I think I'll be avoiding Abit from now on.

Nope. Couldn't even install Windows even with switching out everything. I told him to get a board by Asus or MSI...I've never had trouble from any company I've used save Abit. That's the last straw for Abit. The KG7 is apparently a very bad board overall.

The 23.11 drivers would be nice, but he has an ATI Radeon 8500. That's not an nvidia card last time I checked.

Thanks. Hopefully, I'll have better luck getting this mobo to work than you will.

Just gotta love them jumpers;)

There is a reason for these wonderful (yeah right) object we call "computers". Run Linux on that, DUH!

AFAIK, the variations between the versions of NTFS aren't huge, so Win2k can read/write to it w/o a problem. If it's workfine, just leave it be. No sense in doing work if you don't have to;)