Oh, and another thing that may/may not be related.

I downloaded an sfv file checker,
took a large directory of sequential files and made an sfv of them
ran the checker on the file that had just been created,
and it reported one file as being corrupt, somewhere around no 30 of fifty files

Running the program and testing it again and again, I watched as the location of the corrupt file moved slowly down the list of files. Very bizarre.

Maybe the error has something to do with HD controllers or something like that?

Richard

I recently purchased this bored and it will be the death of me. I have been having a lot of trouble with windows xp setup. When I first boot from cd it freezes after its done loading those drivers. I've tried everything I could think of. Switch DIMM slots, unplugging IDE cable, Changing out power supplies, Using different cd rom, updating bios to F9. I don't know what to do anymore.

Specs:
Athlon 2100+
7VAXP Mb (duh)
Evil Xabre 128mb DDR 8x AGP Video Card
512MB PC3200 DDR RAM

this board ghas nearly been the death of me and my new computer. Thankfully set the ddr to 333 and diasable top perf and spread spectrum. Seems to be working alot better. Had all and more ofd the problms above , tthey should be ashamed to sell such a piece of junk!


gigabyte rev1.0
athlon 2400
pc3200 ram
radeon 900 128 meg pro (hope this will work)
xp and win200pro (neither have been happy)
via 4in1 4.43
2 new modems (had real trouble with these)

any ideas on a better board ?????

thanks

Yea I tried disabling that spread spectrum and top performance and under clocked the memory and the processor. At first I did not screw the mb onto the case properly which might have shorted something out. That may be why my computer keeps freezing up when I try to install any Windows.

I have an interesting system...
the new parts I bought:
2000+ XP
GA-7VAXP Rev. 1.1
Kingmax 256Mb PC2700
300W PSU
60Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8

old parts I'm using:
AOpen Midi Case
20Gb Seagate ATA-66
SB Live Value, Pioneer 10x DVD, DiamondData 12x8x32 CDRW
Diamond V770 32 Mb TNT2 Ultra (a veritable relic!)

I've recently made this major upgrade after some intensive research... my limited finances meant I had to overlook things like a new case, sound card, and video card! I think it's best not to get a new card right now anyway, what with the new ATI and nVidia cards due out soon.
A few notes about my experience. Firstly, although I've been using PC's since the 486 days, this is my first time ever upgrading or building a PC. But I have had absolutely zero problems retro-fitting all my new and old components together. Many thanks to some great web resources (hardocp, anandtech, tomshardware, extremetech, hardwareanalysis etc). Another aspect of good system building seems to be just good preparation, and being patient. I daresay some of the problems might be caused by rushing things, and not being cautious enough in general.
Another factor: use quality, name-brand components. This is expecially important with RAM. Please shell out a few bucks more for Kingston/Kingmax/Samsung/Corsair. I know I've suffered with previous systems because of faulty memory, and these problems are often the hardest to detect. An aside: the DiamondMax hard drive is beautiful! fast, and due to 'liquid bearing' technology, it makes virtually no sound!
Anyway about the mobo: the 7VAXP is great. It's got great features, design, layout. Dual BIOS is a great backup feature that no other mobo manufacturer has. Plus it's cheap!
I'm having no problems with it at all. Everything works fine, out of the box.
The onboard audio is okay... SPIDF OUT is great for digital recording, etc, but unfortunately it's sound quality isn't as good as the SB Live.
It's running at "Top Performance", which i think means slight automatic OCing. Just one thing - the northbridge fan is kinda lame. I thought it was prety cool at first, but no other mobo mf'er puts them in. Just a heatsink would have sufficed, I think.
Several other issues: heat and noise. I never realised just how noisy AMD systems could be. I definately need to replace the hopeless stock AMD cooler which makes my processor run at nearly 60 degrees C... maybe a Volcano 7+... i need something quiet but cool - any suggestions? Also need a new case and PSU, 400W atleast. Anyone know a good quality, quiet one?
Lastly, if there is one problem with my mobo, the northbridge fan makes a loud whining noise sometimes when it starts booting... then it goes away after a few minutes. I was alarmed at this at first... Can't explain it... any help?

James
Sydney, Australia

Oh yea I forgot my mb is a 7vaxp rev 1.1. I still don't know what's wrong with it. Could off brand ddr ram cause it to freeze, even if I under clock it?

Check out q-technology PSU's , very quite. I am also looking for a quite AMD cooler. ZALMAN and NEXUS are two that I know off but not offically supported by AMDso beware of frying the chip.

Teh fasn supplied is rated at about 40dBA which is pretty bad but accetable by AMD's standard.

Will thik about trying out one of the others soon.

ALso , NOrthbrige fan. HAs anyone tried it with just a heat sink???

Regarding the large file download errors, I don't think it's a network problem. Using the machine through the same router as my E-Machine 500MHz PIII (God bless it's soul, it's still alive and running circles 'round my new machine), I've downloaded the same file twice w/ no problem. I transferred the file over to my vaxp machine, and blamo, still corrupt. I've only been able to install WinXP a couple times, and that was underclocking it to a 1500+ (from a 2200+ cpu) by using a 100MHz FSB setting and shooting my RAM ALLL the way down to 200MHz DDR. I read something in this message board about possibly using too much thermal paste that could bridge some circuits or whatever, it's a possibility since I took off the heat sink and noticed a lot of paste splatter around the reflective chip on the top of the processor... tried to clean it up, but made it worse I think, now I'm getting a host of new errors. Good lord I hope I didn't damage the processor.

I still have a hinting suspicion that my RAM is behind most of these lockups and errors... should have been smart and gone with what's on the approved list on the giga website. The problems just seem to be that it can't handle running files through the system, whether it be an install of XP, or a download, something is getting severely corrupted whilst in transfer. Tried installing with a different HD but still nothing, I'm sure it's the RAM. Upgraded to F9 last night but didn't make any difference. I'm going crazy, nice to know at least that I'm not the only one though! Any suggestions, as always, would be appreciated...

-Neil

Okay, as someone mentioned before, seriously, what are some GOOD boards out there? I've just about had it with this thing, it's been about a month on and off that I've spent trying to get it up and running in a semi-runnable state, and it just hasn't been going good for me. If I can't get it working by trying out some different RAM (about all I have left to troubleshoot), I'm done with the 7vaxp. Calling it a loss, and moving on to something a little more stable. I don't care about RAID or onboard this n' that, I just want something fast and stable, like we all do I'm sure. Any suggestions??? Thanks all.

-Neil

It is always a good idea to use recommended ram by the board manufacturer.

I also am a first time builder, and am happy to say that this board has performed exactly as I had hoped.

Athlon XP 2200+ (at 1998 MHz)
2 x 256mb PC2100 ValuRam
80 GB W.D.
Albatron Ti4200

Anyway, I'm looking into further oc'ing (fsb @ 148, voltage up 5% to prevent reboots, temp 45-48*C). I was reluctantly debating whether to void my warranty and unlock the cpu when I came across the post above saying that it's already unlocked. Is this true? I can't find a multiplier setting in the Bios, and EasyTune won't save my settings or allow me to change the multiplier. Of course, the jumpers only go up to 12.5, so that's not an option (need 14 or more).

What's the skinny?

Thanks in advance.

Neil: It could also be the hd controller on the board. The only way to test this however is to stick the drive in a different system and copy the file using the same router/cable/network card. As for other good boards I'd check out the Asus A7V8X And I know Soyo just released a new one I don't know the name of. (my boss was shouting out numbers and apparently it's quite a bit faster than the 7VAXP).

Cling:
Other than increasing the fsb some more (and thus increasing the ram/pci slots) I don't really know, I've never been an overclocker. But you may be able to find something at http://www.ocworkbench.com good luck!

"Anyway, I'm looking into further oc'ing (fsb @ 148, voltage up 5% to prevent reboots, temp 45-48*C). I was reluctantly debating whether to void my warranty and unlock the cpu when I came across the post above saying that it's already unlocked. Is this true?"

This is true of the t-bred core athlon XP chips (not t-bird or palimono). They are facotry unlocked when used in a kt400 board. The problem is that the the multi is only adjustable with those stupid dip switches to a max of 12.5x. You wont find it in a CMOS option, because it isnt there. But if your willing to open your case and mess with them dam switches you can change the multi up or down (If you have a t-bred core). Like i said the best i can push my xp 1800 is 1.94 and thats at the most aggressive 333 memory timings. My memory can only OC to about 420mhz in ddr 400mhz mode, and wont run at 12.5x155 @ ddr 400 mode. So I like many here am looking for a better board, i got a good stepping (Aiuga 0241) and i know i can hit 2ghz from this chip. I might not be ditching this board because of sttability issues (resolved the minor audio problem i was having), but i should have looked more closely at its OC options before i bought it. As a first time system builder (and OC'er) im still quite pleased with my 400mhz increase without having to unlock the chip or mess with any settings - other than set top preformance mode and then set the memory timings even to be even more aggressive (and i did that because i can)

Nope don't have that board, but had to comment on Sisoft Sandra memory scores. Take the comparison scores with a grain of salt. They show the SiS 645DX board with PC2700 in the mid 2900's

I run SiS 645DX 2x Corsair XMS PC3200 at 177x 2 memory bus speed.
CL2 6,2,2 1T and the best I got was 2660/2663 which is still very respectable. But no where near what they ran at 166x2, and supposedly CL 2.5 to boot.

Okay... so I seemed to have figured it was that RAM module that was giving me the headaches with installing XP and all that mumbo jumbo. I went out to Microcenter today and was just desperate so I ponied up retail for the PC2700 512MB module which was $50 more than what I paid for the PC3200, but guess what? I guess you get what you pay for, since I've been running tests with just the ddr333, the ddr333+ddr400 module in at the same time, and of course the ddr333 does not cause any problems. I was attempting to download the Quake III demo, and three times with both the modules in, I got a bad CRC check on the file. Took the ddr400 out, and it downloaded perfectly and installed & played perfectly as well... NOW, I do have a problem. Can't seem to get the AC 97 onboard sound working _at all_. WinXP keeps telling me that it's attempting to install the driver, and then it pops up with a "invalid data" or something of that nature after it attempts to copy the driver files. Any help? Do I have to block out a certain IRQ or something in the BIOS?? Not sure what to do here... do I have a bum onboard audio chip? I've tried installing about 5 different driver versions, been playing with the BIOS settings, but no luck as of yet. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks all.

-Neil

Hi all,

I have a little problem : no boot after POST.

Sys : XP2000+ , DDR 333 (512Mo), ATI RADEON 9000 PRO,
Brand new HD 80Go.

desc : The retailer have installed my CPU, and pre-prepare the card with RAM, CPU Detection, CPU Fan.
Hope all of this is correct.

=> I have tried so many times to boot the computer that I am fed up with it. It always stop after a short bip (assuming all BIOS and POST are correct) and then freeze with a dark screen (only a blinking cursor, top left)

=> I think all cables, frives are correct (seen in BIOS, correct desc aso)
=> I think the CPU is well detected

=> I should now have a message error somewhet like "not a bootable device" when I only put the brand new HD.

It doesn't come at all.

I have tried to boot from Floppy (DOS 6.0 / Win 95 / Win 98 bootable disks), Already bootable disk (the old system I want to upgrade), from CD-ROM from Windows 98 / Windows XP ....

no way. Always Dark Screen with this silly blinking cursor.

Where am I wrong ?
Anybody knows.
If contact needed : lavoirs@free.fr

Jean Noel
Paris, France.

Thnks in advance

Set the Front Side Bus jumper (see page 9 - both switches off) to 133 of it's not. They may have it at 166, and that won't work. Then try 100.

Neil, did the sound work at first? Have you installed the drivers from the CD, or just from online?

FYI - I'm now at FSB 151 with the voltage back down to 1.65. Stable as can be. That puts it at 2.04 GHz, with Kingston ValueRam, PC2100.

I recently purchased this mb and it will be the death of me. I have been having a lot of trouble with windows xp setup. When I first boot from cd it freezes during the blue drivers loading screen. I've tried everything I could think of. Switch DIMM slots, unplugging IDE cable, Changing out power supplies, Using different cd rom, updating bios to F9. I don't know what to do anymore.

Specs:
Athlon 2100+
7VAXP Mb (duh)
Evil Xabre 128mb DDR 8x AGP Video Card
512MB PC3200 DDR RAM Offbrand- May be the problem