Motherboard or Video card??

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c9-2001

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i have my new daw setup and it freezes sometimes... i don't know if its the board or the video card.. the video card came with the motherbaord and cpu(xp2000+)

right now i have:
ECS K7s5a motherboad(sis735 chipset)
ati/gigabyte rage128 pro, or something like that...

either way the system halts...do you think its the mb or the video?
 
If its any of the two my first guess would be the motherboard. The video card rarely makes things lock up. SiS chipsets are also not the most stable, although im sure some of them are good. Besides that, having an awesome motherboard will improve your performance x3 :). Trust me.


danny
 
Is this a hard lock? If so, I doubt it would be video related. Do you have the most recent BIOS for your mobo?
 
Video card should not make the computer lock. There are utilities out there to check what's going on with your MOBO, and try updating the BIOS from the manufacturer. :D
 
the bios are the newest..

i think the problem is the video card.. i just switched it out for a old matrox i had around here, and its not freezing....maybe i'll have to get a Nvidia gforce card
 
I'm really surprised your machine would freeze from any video card issue, but it's not unheard of. If you're thinking about a GeForce, go for it. Those boards can't be beat and they have excellent drivers and support. :cool:
 
Search back about six months and you will find a rather extensive post I put up about trying to upgrade to that very same motherboard.

Short version - after going through two motherboards, one fried hard drive, and a HUGE amount of grief, I decide that particular mobo was a buggy piece of shit. I got rid of it, have since bought two different Athlon boards which both worked fine.
 
RWhite said:
Search back about six months and you will find a rather extensive post I put up about trying to upgrade to that very same motherboard.

Short version - after going through two motherboards, one fried hard drive, and a HUGE amount of grief, I decide that particular mobo was a buggy piece of shit. I got rid of it, have since bought two different Athlon boards which both worked fine.
Click to expand...

to tell the truth.. it started smoking!!!!!!i'm talkin but thick grey smoke.. i was trippin.
the motherboard was smoking when i installed my xp2000+..but then it came on..WTF?? i've had it since last thursday.. it was a combo with the video card on ebay for 150.. i couldn't tern it away...

the video card is a AG32S-ATi RAGE 128 Pro

the computer is fast as shit, and my track count jumped..i've heard nothing but good things about the new asus boards(sis) and the msi boards that have Nvidia chipset. so i think i'll get a Nvidia.. i have a session at 8:30 so i was trying to get this computer stable to record.. the matrox is in right now, and so far isn't having a problem...
 
and my delta 1010 only works in pci 5.. i don't like this board. my old daw had a cheap pc chips motherboard with a sis745 chipset, it worked great..it was a 1800+, but i gave it to my dad as an ftp server and he does some stuff on it...
 
dethroned..

Actually the ATI Radeon 9700 is king of the castle for now.
If you don't mind spending 400 bucks :)

dlv
 
Also, the bang for the buck video card is the Radeon 8500LE, which you can flash to the non LE version. It looks like ATI has finally got their drivers straightened out.
 
ATI seems to get a bad rep because they are always updating their video cards. The perception, and perhaps sometimes reality, is that they push new cards out the door before the drivers are ready.

My take is that I am GLAD they keep updating their drivers. Too many othger companys drops support of old cards every time a new OS comes out. I support a building full of Rage XL equipped PCs running a variety of OSs and they are no problem at all. Yes, the Radeon chipset is newer and faster, but your Rage chipset is MORE than fast enough to handle any DAW duties. Unless you also play 3D shooter games on the same computer, don't worry about the video card.

The two Athlon motherboards I purchased were an MSI and a Gigabyte. The former is a game machine with a VIA KT133a chipset. The later was just purchased a week ago, it will be used partly for audio, partly general purpose. It has the VIA 333 chipset.

If your motherboard and/or cpu actually smoked, I would be very hesitant to trust them. Rather I would look for an excuse to return or exchange them.
 
darnold said:
If its any of the two my first guess would be the motherboard. The video card rarely makes things lock up. SiS chipsets are also not the most stable, although im sure some of them are good. Besides that, having an awesome motherboard will improve your performance x3 :). Trust me.


danny
Click to expand...

SiS used to have a bad rep but that has changed over the last 1,5 years or so. Especially the 735 chipset was excellent when it was released. Fast, stable and cheap. And the same goes for this particular motherboard.
This may just have been a bad one but these motherboards have one hell of a good reputation.

trust me :)
 
ok guys.. the board does have a short in it.. i guess thats where the smoke came from.. the cpu fan slot doesn't work.. at all.. right now i have my cpu fan plugged in the other slot so i can actually use the computer.
new motherboard.. i've heard nothing but good thing about Nvidia chip sets.. so how do you fell about the ASUS A7N266-E thats the board i plan on getting...keep in mind i have a delta 1010 too..
 
c9-2001 said:
ok guys.. the board does have a short in it.. i guess thats where the smoke came from.. the cpu fan slot doesn't work.. at all.. right now i have my cpu fan plugged in the other slot so i can actually use the computer.
new motherboard.. i've heard nothing but good thing about Nvidia chip sets.. so how do you fell about the ASUS A7N266-E thats the board i plan on getting...keep in mind i have a delta 1010 too..
Click to expand...
 
Tom's hardware had a story some time ago about the Nvidia chipset, the conclusion was that it was slower than VIA chipsets. But keep in mind that "slower" can mean a lot of things, it's probably not anything an end user could notice.

I have nothing but good things to say about ASUS motherboards. They are the gold standard of motherboards as far as I am concerned.
 
well this motherboard i have now has a sticker from top's hardware saying"this motherbard provides much better value than ANY amd760,ALiMagik or kt266 board can offer" i usually trust tom's hardware.. but not this time
 
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