A7V Classic - Win2K install: hardware detection hangs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Centurion
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Centurion

Hi All,

I'm resurrecting an A7V with 1GHz Athlon T'bird for my wife (her PII-233
finally died....7 years old :P). However when installing Win2K it hangs or
gives a STOP error during the hardware detection phase. The stop error
simply mentions "IRQ NOT GREATER OR EQUAL TO" (Sorry, didn't scratch down
all the numbers - may bad).

BIOS is an official ASUS v1010. Hard drive is an 80GB Samsung job, master
on primary IDE (not the Promise controller). CDROM is master on second
IDE.

I've reset the BIOS too default, RAM running at 100MHz, everything "AUTO".
I set the "PnP OS = YES" and it got a little further through the detection
but now just hangs (no STOP error). Sometimes the hang will be accompanied
by the hard drive light (IDE LED) on solid, but after 15min the HDD spins
down (per the BIOS power settings).

Last time I installed Win2K on this MOBO it was running BIOS v1007. I can
roll it back, but would rather nut this out. I've seen some references on
Google about Vcore being too low by default causing hangs during the H/W
detection phase, but these refer to the A7V133, not the A7V "classic".

Any thoughts?

James
 
Centurion said:
I'm resurrecting an A7V with 1GHz Athlon T'bird for my wife (her PII-233
finally died....7 years old :P). However when installing Win2K it hangs
or
gives a STOP error during the hardware detection phase. The stop error
simply mentions "IRQ NOT GREATER OR EQUAL TO" (Sorry, didn't scratch down
all the numbers - may bad).
Click to expand...

For the archives:

Turned out having the DWL520 wireless PCI card in slot 1 with the SB Live!
in slot 2 was causing grief. System would detect hardware properly with
either card but NOT BOTH.

Simply got the system install without the SB Live! card, then once all the
drivers/patches etc were upp to the latest revisions, I re-installed the
sound card and everything was happy again.

Is there some weird IRQ sharing between PCI slot 1 and 2??

BTW - wifey is VERY happy with the speed improvement of the 1GHz Athlon with
1GB RAM over her old PII-233 with 64MB!! :P Funny that. Full spec list of
new system (including slot layout):

Asus A7V "Classic" (rev BIOS 1010.
1GHz Athlon Thunderbird
1Gb PC-133 RAM (2 x 256, 1 x 512)
Samsung 80GB PATA (Promise controller)
Sony 52x CDROM (Master, PRI IDE)
Sony 32/10/4 SCSI CDRW (SCSI ID4 on Advansys controller - internal)
Matrox G400Max (AGP)
Dlink DWL520+ PCI Wireless card (PCI 1)
SB Live! (PCI2)
Advansys Ultra SCSI (PCI3)
"Dolphin" Firewire card (VIA OHCI chipset AFAIK) (PCI4)
All on-board USB ports enabled.
Serial 1,2 and on-board Parallel ports DISABLED.


Anyway, thought this might help someone else.

James
 
Not to nitpick but you might also want to consider the 1011 or 1012
beta bios. And getting Win2K, SP4 and the VIA 4-in-1 should be bare
minimum before you add any hardware to the system (other than video
card, obviously)
For the archives:

Turned out having the DWL520 wireless PCI card in slot 1 with the SB Live!
in slot 2 was causing grief. System would detect hardware properly with
either card but NOT BOTH.

Simply got the system install without the SB Live! card, then once all the
drivers/patches etc were upp to the latest revisions, I re-installed the
sound card and everything was happy again.

Is there some weird IRQ sharing between PCI slot 1 and 2??

BTW - wifey is VERY happy with the speed improvement of the 1GHz Athlon with
1GB RAM over her old PII-233 with 64MB!! :P Funny that. Full spec list of
new system (including slot layout):

Asus A7V "Classic" (rev BIOS 1010.
1GHz Athlon Thunderbird
1Gb PC-133 RAM (2 x 256, 1 x 512)
Samsung 80GB PATA (Promise controller)
Sony 52x CDROM (Master, PRI IDE)
Sony 32/10/4 SCSI CDRW (SCSI ID4 on Advansys controller - internal)
Matrox G400Max (AGP)
Dlink DWL520+ PCI Wireless card (PCI 1)
SB Live! (PCI2)
Advansys Ultra SCSI (PCI3)
"Dolphin" Firewire card (VIA OHCI chipset AFAIK) (PCI4)
All on-board USB ports enabled.
Serial 1,2 and on-board Parallel ports DISABLED.


Anyway, thought this might help someone else.

James
Click to expand...

-GV
 
GlassVial said:
Not to nitpick but you might also want to consider the 1011 or 1012
beta bios. And getting Win2K, SP4 and the VIA 4-in-1 should be bare
minimum before you add any hardware to the system (other than video
card, obviously)
Click to expand...

Agreed. I haven't upgraded the BIOS yet (but will). I usually build
systems with only the CPU+RAM+Video then, once the OS is installed and
patched, with the core drivers (like the VIA 4-in-1), I start adding cards
one at a time. It takes longer, but eliminates the guess work :) This
time, I was so familiar with each of the components, I thought I'd just
wing-it.....famous last words :P

Turns out the root of the problem was the combination of the Dlink DWL520+
and the SB Live! They don't play nice together - regardless of slot
positions, IRQ/memory reservations in the BIOS etc. After spending several
days researching the problem on google and various forums, the problem is
not Via-specific as such, but a problem with this particular mix of Wifi
and sound cards.

Anyway, rather than persist with instabilities and frequent lock-ups/BSOD's
etc, I just ditched the SB Live for a spare PCI "Vortex" sound card. It's
a step backwards, but my wife doesn't seem to mind. This system is a
stop-gap until I get my tax-return ($$$) to get her a shiny new system
anyway :)

James
 
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