Need advice on new mobo for a PIII-800eb Coppermine

**Llew** · January 10th, 2002, 04:44 PM

Hi all...

Well,it's been a year now that I've been fighting to get my silly system to stabilize and develope into the comp I dream of just before dawn

It's not looking like it's gonna happen...after about a 1000 attempts to get this machine running smoothly and predictably,I'm still getting weirdness,like suddenly dropping out of games and aps during normal function,crashes and freezes during normal mouse movements and right clicks,drivers working one minute and all crossed up the next,performance that never repeats itself twice,settings not being recorded and maintained consistantly,constant breakdowns of IE while online,average of 2-3 per day,etc,etc...if I had a cent for every bluescreen with an invalid page fault in module <unknown>,I wouldn't have to work...

I have literally yet to experience a single day online without IE freezing,crashing,dissappearing,loosing windows...<grrrr>

Not to say I'm not pleased with all I've learnt about comps during the time...that's the reason I wanted to build my own system anyway,lotsa learning took place...I'm just finally to the point where I have to declare my mobo defective,and get a new one...I'm sorry I ever decided to try saving $50 by foregoing an Intel board for a Soyo 7VCA2,with a Via chipset.

Anywho...does anyone have a good current suggestion for a mobo for a PIII-800eb?

The rest of my system is a GForceMX-400,a Maxtor 20Gig,7200rpm HD,an SBLiveValue sound card,an Aopen 56K modem,an Acer 36x CD-Rom,an Acer 77e monitor...and that's about it,fairly basic stuff...

I like proven tech over the latest thing...things with a solid track record and mature drivers...

Let me know what you fav manufacturer and model are?

Thanks, Llew

ND · January 10th, 2002, 07:28 PM

I'm sorry I ever decided to try saving $50 by foregoing an Intel board for a Soyo 7VCA2,with a Via chipset.

So what about going with Intel mobo now ?

I personally had good experience with Asus CUSL2-C, it's newer TUSL2-C revision also suppots new Tialatin core processors.

**Llew** · January 11th, 2002, 01:39 AM

Thanks ND...the CUSL2 was just the board I was looking at a year ago,then I took the sales guys advice and went with the 7VCA2...

...and you say the revision supports a Socket 370 PIII Coppermine as well as newer processors?

The Tialatin is a PIII also,isn't it?

While I'm on the subject...this just took place on my machine...and I'd like to ask WHY does it happen??

I was reading my mail in Outlook,with my usual dial-up Net connection active,and I clicked to open an IE window to TechIMO...and then clicked to read another piece of mail,while I let the IE window open in the backround...as soon as I clicked the other piece of mail,a blue screen came up announcing that a .VMM file had collapsed,and my IE window had collapsed along with it...no prob,I'm fairly used to that by now...I continue reading mail,and then go back to reopen my IE window...except nothing happens...I open another IE and click a fav site,again no downloading occurs...so,I now have a bad Net connection,I'll disconnect and reboot...I hit disconnect,and the closing of the connection literally freezes up half way thru...I've got a disconnected dial-up icon just hanging there...the cursor is still movable,and nothing on the machine will respond...so I hit reset,and wait for probably the 20th scandisk so far this week...

What the heck is causing this...???

I've done every diagnostic,changed every driver,reset every setting,cheked every connection,changed the straps,upgraded the fans,switched graphics cards,reinstalled over and over...everything cheks out...and it's the same blinking thing...one weird collapse after the next.

Happy to field any input,thanks, Llew

**crazyray** · January 11th, 2002, 01:45 AM

I'm running a PIII800EB on an ASUS CUSL2-C now. Works great.

**Llew** · January 11th, 2002, 01:50 AM

Thanks crazyray...I'm going to hit some price cheks on that board...sounds like a winner.

**swamp-fox** · January 11th, 2002, 01:55 AM

Have you formatted and reinstall window's (which version you have)? Maybe memory, mobo drivers, bios update, bad video card, You might get better answers later but saw you just posted and thought i'd make a few suggestion's before all the smart people wake up.LOL.
swampy trying to help.

**Llew** · January 11th, 2002, 02:19 AM

Hey Swampy,thanks...all input is gratefully accepted.

I have formatted and reinstalled Win98se at least once...and I've changed the memory,done all the latest drivers,reflashed the mobo Bios,changed vid cards...pulled alot of hair out...everything has improved performance,but not consistant stability...I still get the weird crashes and freezes...

Actually,I just tried one thing...I'd only heard of it being done once before...but so far there might be an improvement.

I went into MSConfig and disconnected the 2nd LoadPowerProfile in startup...I had already disconnected one of them...it seems Win automatically sets up 2 of them whenever it's installed...and disconnecting one definetly speeds and smooths the system...I had hesitated to disconnect the other,but at this point was willing to take a shot...just mabe,there was some kind of conflict in power management between Win98se and ACPI Bios...hmmm,I'll know in a couple of days.

**kcrispin3** · January 11th, 2002, 02:32 AM

i would second that asus cusl2-c. Any ASUS board based on teh 815x chipset is really stable with the socket 370 platform. Personally I like the ASUS CUBX based on the 440BX chipset. It supports up to 1ghz processor, and 133fsb.

As for your current problem, it sounds like you MIGHT benefit from a few change in options in your system BIOS. First and foremost, turn OFF IDE Block Mode. This causes the most amount of problems with windows. Second, try setting your RAM settings a bit more conservatively, if its the 800EB, it smost likely set to 133fsb eh, so try turning it down to 100mhz fsb and see if that helps system stability. Also try setting your CAS latency to 3, away from 2.

Disable Spread Spectrum, if any sort of data rate is set to Fast, set it to Normal.

In other words, modify your bios settings to a more conservative theme of settings. But in all and foremost cases, disable IDE BLOCK MODE.

What i found with most peoples' machines, is that they may have to reformat and reinstall windows on their machines when turning off block mode as windows just has fits when the machine is finally set the right way.

Good luck!

**Llew** · January 11th, 2002, 02:50 AM

Thanks kcrispin3...some good points there.

I have been very suspicious of IDE Block Mode myself...I'd originally turned it on,because I figured I had an up to date HD...but when I couldn't find any referance to it in the Maxtor manual...I turned it off,and things improved...I've always wondered if turning it off is enough thou,since Win98se had been installed with it on a couple of times...hmmmmm.

I've already done fairly well all of the other tweaks you mention...oddly nothing seems to help stability,just performance...the blue screens I get are all in OEs or VMMs or VXDs or MSHTML,COMCTL,RUNDLL32,KERNNEL32...it all seems to be data handling problems...possibly bad disk writes while Block Mode was on?

...at the moment I'm considering getting a new virgin HD and doing the cleanest install I can on it...and then set it to be the main boot drive,and if all goes well,just transfer over the data I'd like to keep,and reformat the old drive...

**kcrispin3** · January 12th, 2002, 03:50 PM

YOu are right to be suspicious about Block mode. In fact, Block mode itself is considered a very obscure issue. In the past, it used to be tied in with 32 bit transfer back in the pre-UDMA hard drive era. However the only OS that liked Block Mode to be turned on was DOS itself, no other OS liked it. This would figure because that mode of transfer was designed for DOS anyway.. (back when people were using DOS as their main OS, where disk access was pitifully slow). So yes, again, leave it DISABLED, and it is recommended that you follow the final course of action that you describe there.

The only other thing i can imagine being a factor is drivers in the areas that count. Make sure that on your next virgin install of Windows, that you IMMEDIATELY obtain and install the LATEST chipset drivers. Afterwards, it will be safe to proceed as normal (installing rest of drivers, apps, software, tweak, personalize, etc)