Athlon 1.4 Ghz Problems

[yavuzj]

Hi,

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by xterling:
Your Mobo features the AMD-766 Bus Controller, are these drivers properly installed and utilized on your system?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No. I had tried to install the drivers that came on ASUS CD though if that is what you mean. Right now, I am using. nothing else than what WinME installed on my system. Where did you get this info. Or even better, where are the drivers you are talking about?
I really appreciate all you guys for taking the time to help me out.

Thanks

[xterling]

Mmmmmm, this crow sure tastes good...
Apparently after downloading the manual for your Mobo, I realized that Asus wants you to use the Via drivers on the CD that came with your M/B. Sooooo, I was wrong in assuming that you were being given wrong advice on those. I have the Abit KT-7A, and what I did after purchasing my Digi was to Re-format my Hard Drives, install Win98SE, and let Win98SE install it's drivers from the Win98SE CD, then I went to the Via Website, and downloaded the latest 4-in-1 drivers and installed those instead of the ones from my Mobo CD. I've had no problems whatsoever, and I fly thru the torture test. I think I've been stumped by your problem. If I may venture to offer any more advice, I'd say, find out if anyone else is successfully utilising your Mobo with Digi, and if not, consider getting another Mobo that is known to work with it. Sorry for my prior (pretty much worthless) advice, but keep on trying. Believe it or not, it's actually half the fun of owning these damn machines. Or maybe I'm a masochistic fool. C-Ya!

[yavuzj]

Hi,

I went to amd site and found some info.

I actually thought of trying one of the driver packs

Check here and tell me what you think.
http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/bin/amddrvpk_120.txt

On the other hand, I do not know anyone using my MOBO with on board IDE. As I mentioned earlier, the preconfigured Drastik Solutions PC Systems on their site has Promise Controlers. ZNelson (who has same MOBO is using SCSI for audio). Vtasyn said it was working but he did not take Dave's test. In that case, mine is working as well when recording with a lot less plugs.

So, I was getting ready to install the AMD Pack however, after your mention of the manual, I am not so sure. Do you think I should give it a try?

I can also tru my Promise ATA66 controller.

Or keep using my firewire. However, this issue became like a math problem which I was very good at during college. So it is challenging.

[img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[xterling]

The AMD driver pack looks like it may do the trick. It definitely sounds like the right way to go. Besides, what have you got to lose? You mentioned in an earlier post that Win98SE did NOT work. Was it worse, or better than ME? Are you re-formatting thru every attempt? Eventually loading, and unloading all these different drivers will give Windows a stiff neck. I know it's time consuming, but may save you grief in the end.

[pcvsmac]

http://www.audioforums.com/ - lots of good info here on setting up and building your DAW.

I've got an Asus A7M266. I also have a Koolance case (yum!). I have the Athlon 1.33GHz. My temp never gets above 103, usually sitting around 97. Whisper quiet. Worth every penny. Not very difficult to put together.

If you go Koolance, get the CPU, Chipset, and Hard drive cooler. If you've got a Matrox G450, you won't be able to use the video card liquid cooler (I learned the hard way and had to send the case back for another). The hard drive cooler also reduces drive noise and can cool 2 drives at once, if you can rig it. Just remember not to mount the MOBO until after you put the chipset cooler on! I found out the hard way after unscrewing the MOBO twice! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] The chipset cooler on the A7M266 is not glued on, but you need a pair of needlenose pliers and a tiny phillips to get the fan off and put the liquid cooler on. Just take your time and go over all the steps before you start and it's easy. Don't forget that the new Athlon chips are very fragile - you don't need to screw the CPU cooler on that tight.

Start off by only putting the required cards in your computer, which means just your graphics card to start with. If you're not using the COM ports, disable them in the BIOS to free up IRQs. If you're not using the USB ports, disable those in the BIOS, too. Each USB port hits the CPU 1000 times per second when idle, and they take up IRQs (and usually good ones!).

Get yourself a copy of 98lite from http://www.98lite.net. Best $25 you'll ever spend. If you need the Win95 explorer files to do a Sleek or, since it is a dedicated DAW, the Micro install, please email me and I'll send them to you.

What you want to do is install Win98SE fresh inside the 98lite program. The directions for doing so are in the read me file that comes with 98lite. Are you remembering to format your audio drive (not your OS/prog drive) using the /z 64 flag?

Your audio drive should not be on the same IDE channel as your OS drive. IDE can only "talk" to one device on the channel at once. Put your CD drive on the same cable as your OS drive if you have to.

After you get the basic system up and running (mine had 98% resources free), install the VIA 4in1 drivers. After that, install the video card drivers. Once you get your basic desktop up and running, install your PCI cards one at a time, checking for conflicts as you go. You already figured out the best configuration, apparently, so stick with that order.

I'm using a Promise TX2 Fastrak ATA-100 controller with 2 IBM 60GXP 7400RPM DMA-100 40GB hard drives.

Hope this information helps. Do yourself a favor and head over to http://www.audioforums.com and search through the archives for more info. DS_Sultan is the resident expert on 98lite on those boards - very helpful.

Which USB MIDI controller are you using? Those are terrible unless you get proprietary ones and use the matching software, like the eMagic AMT8 and Logic. The latency and CPU drain are enough to make you cry.

[ July 11, 2001: Message edited by: pcvsmac ]

[yavuzj]

Hi,

I am reformatting and doing a clean install.
I like WinME better sofar.

I spoke to ASUS and they said VIA is controlling the IDE ports. So he recommended to install the latest 4 in 1 drivers WITHOUT the AGP driver. So it is like 3 in 1. He also recommended that I should seperate my drives to different cables. Since I have the CDRW on the other port this is not possible without installing my Promise controller. I think my next step is to install and configure Promise controller. I may even put both drives on it. I have to tell the BIOS to boot from SCSI. However, I am sticking with WinME for now.

[pcvsmac]

And just to say so - installing Windows off the hard drive instead of the CD is SOOOOO MUCH FASTER. I mean, I installed 98lite MICRO Windows in about 5 minutes off the hard drive.

[yavuzj]

Hi pcvsmac,

I have built a system with P3 500 2 years ago and had Win98 and Win98Lite on it. I did not notice any performance issues. I just don't believe in win98lite. The windows explorer works fast though.

I am sticking with WinME. It has some features that I Like a lot. I will try and install Promise Controller tonight.

As far as USB goes, I have used it successfully with my P3 850 system so why not with a faster system? Usb is important to me. I have a ZIP, USB ethernet and a MIDI controller. Whenever I am going to make music i just unplug everything except MIDI. I might get 1 or 2 plugins less. However, I still do GREAT with my firewire. I kind of like Mark's approach on this since I am similar. I think everything will work when configured correctly. In my case, VIA drivers may not ork well with WinME but I think the promise card will.

However, I do appreciate your tips about the Koolance case. It is a "YUM". I will wait for their rack-mount case though. It is supposed to come out in late August.

Thanks and stay cool with your Koolance Case
[img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[ July 11, 2001: Message edited by: yavuzj ]

[JPS]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by yavuzj:

I could do 16-18 tracks on Dave's test. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have noticed quite a bit of difference in results depending on what drive the OS is on and what drive I am recording to. I have a GA-7DX with the AMD760/VIA686B chipset with a Promise PCI raid card. So my PCI card is setup with a 2 drive raid. My worst result was 17 tracks when recording onto the drive on IDE channel 1. The OS/programs were on the Promise FastTrack Raid PCI card. When I moved the audio storage off the IDE and onto the Promise PCI card, the results jumped immediately to 24 tracks + 5 Aux at H/w 1024, and 24 tracks + 8 Aux at H/W 256!! SO all i/o functions were on the promise card.

Looking at your results and some others, it seems there may be some problems recording to the IDE channel to get maximum results.

Recently, I have changed my system around. I took WinME off the Promise card and put it on IDE channel #1. My audio storage is still on the promise PCI raid card. With this setup I get 24 tracks and 4 Aux at H/W 512, which is maximum performance. However, if I try to record the audio to IDE #1 (the same drive as WInME/programs) I can only get 15 tracks at H/W 1024.

I would say this is starting to look like a pattern with the AMD760/VIA686B chipset, but DaBasStRd has a straight 2 drive IDE system and gets 24 tracks + 4 Aux, so he looks to be the exception. So mabey DaBaSsTaRd should take his system apart and put it back together again to see what happens! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Short Summary:
WinME on PCI card, Audio on IDE=17 tracks
Audio on PCI card, WInME on IDE= 24 tracks + 4 Aux
WinME and Audio on PCI card= 24 tracks + 8 Aux

Interesting....

[Mark_Knecht]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by yavuzj:
Hi,

I am reformatting and doing a clean install.
I like WinME better sofar.

I spoke to ASUS and they said VIA is controlling the IDE ports. So he recommended to install the latest 4 in 1 drivers WITHOUT the AGP driver. So it is like 3 in 1. He also recommended that I should seperate my drives to different cables. Since I have the CDRW on the other port this is not possible without installing my Promise controller. I think my next step is to install and configure Promise controller. I may even put both drives on it. I have to tell the BIOS to boot from SCSI. However, I am sticking with WinME for now.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yavuzj,
I do NOT think your upset with me at all. I simply didn't want to be pushy. It's your system. I'm just here to help..

Just so you know, I am a chip designer and used to design South Bridge components when I worked at AMD. I now work on 1394 products for a start-up here in Silicon Valley. I've been around this stuff for a long time. I understand how it is supposed to work. I also understand every MOBO is like a lover - individual and sometime difficult.

Hurray! I hope you'll listen to the info you got from Asus! It's the same input I raised earlier. We are both telling you that your two disk drives need to be MASTER devices, and you can't do this if they're on the same cable. For the moment let's just forget the CD-RW drive and concentrate on make the system operate.

The way EIDE/ATAPI drives work is that the slave devices gets the IDE cable only when the master devices doesn't want it. Any time your system wants to talk to the Windows drive, it's going to knock out the audio drive. There are a lot of low-level Windows operation that go to the Windows partition in which you have no control, like memory caching. If one of these wants to happen, and your Windows drive has to do a seek, then you get delayed. During the whole process the audio drive is unavailable.

By placing the audio drive as a master on any cable, then no one has more control of that cable. Once this is done, you just have to worry about access to the PCI bus.

I think your concern about the CD-RW is valid, but perhaps a little overstated. It doesn't get used (in my system) when there is a lot going on. If I want to burn a CD, then that's all I do for 10 minutes, and mine is a SCSI. Doesn't matter, that's all I do. So maybe your solution is to put the Promise card in, put the CD-RW drive on it, and then put the audio drive on the old CD-RW cable as the master drive.

If you were game, the way I would tell you to approach this problem, as I have said to other people that have had similar problems, is to remove EVERYTHING from your machine except the Digi and your graphics controller. Bring the system up and make it work right. In your case this would include removing Ethernet, modems, CD-RW, everything except the absolute minimum amount of stuff that you need to run Digi. Having done this, if you can't make it work, then I agree with someone else who said get a new MOBO! I do not beleive that will happen.

Once the Digi is in and working well, then you add the other stuff back in and make sure you don't break any operation. At this point I'd stick your CD-RW drive on the other controller.

1394 - Peer to Peer operation means between two 1394 devices, not between the PC and the disk. To the PC your 1394 controller is just another DMA Bus MAster PCI device. 1394 devices can talk to each other without a PC. USB devices can't.

One last thing - measuring DMA performance is actually pretty easy. The most noticible way to do it, with something like hdtach, is to look at CPU utilization with DMA enabled and disabled. (Make sure you reboot when changing it.) If DMA is working, % utilization will be much lower. If you turn it off and on with no change, then something isn't right. On my system (A7V133/1.2G/Maxtor 30GB) I do about 10% CPU utilization to run hdtach with DMA (just did it while writing this long long post), while I use about 30-40% (I think, this one's from memory) to do Programmed IO. (Non-DMA)

This post is getting long so I'll stop now.

I wish you the very best of luck. I'm off to the mountains (Sequoia National Park) until Saturday night. I'll check in then. (If not later this evening.

With best regards,
Mark