Let me start by saying I own two KT133 systems. I recommended the purchase of Via based systems to both my brother-in-law and a friend. Well they all had problems. Since I bought my Abit KT7-Raid there have been problems with heavy network activity and copying large files across the network.

Well low and behold, this PCI Latency Fix has seemed to clear this up. I won't say it has fixed it... yet but it has made it better. So let me ask, how can something as vital as PCI bus control get screwed up!? Isn't that one area that should be bulletproof? Now nearly 1 year after the release, the KT133 chipset is finally stable!?

With the KT133 and KT133A chipset I tried to defend Via but this is the last straw. Sure they are a great system for someone playing around at home but they are not a professional solution. If I were an IT manager overseeing 100 PCs I would NOT buy Via chipsets. Hell every other week you'd be updating Bios or 4 in 1 drivers!

Thank goodness AMD my finally be realizing this. Maybe AMD can ramp up it's production of the 760 and 760MP. Heck if they could make the 760MP affordable, who wouldn't put down another $200 bucks for that second CPU? Maybe NVidia will be able to produce a good chipset.

Bottom line here is that Via has always been shakey when it comes to their stablity. Who here has had a cyrix machine? (sorry). Via is a great solution for the value minded. If your running compiles all day long and doing mission critical, you'll still buy Intel because they are more stable. The 1.13 and 820 were both recalled / fixed. Via has a hard time admitting the PCI controller issues that EXIST on their chipset. Everyone makes mistakes, It's how we recover from those mistakes that define our character.

AMD makes a great CPU. Now they need a great Chipset. Via isn't it.

Any thoughts?

Join the ANTI VIA NVIDIA ARMY- They have your back. I am not a member but I respect their might.

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

I hear what you say, but for my experience it doesn't add up - for me.

I own 2 via boards, both Asus. 1 uses the PZ133 chipset, the other KT133A. (CUV4X and A7V133)

Possibly I have benefitted from your bad experience with the KT133, and that VIA have fixed the issues ready for me and my board, by both my systems have been noting other than stable since I bought them.

Pete



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As much praise as I have for AMD releasing their powerfull processor technology, I have as of about 1 year ago given up on using an AMD system for this reason, but am open to going back in this direction as new chipsets become available. But I will never trust VIA. Maybe the Crush will fair better.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

I had one heck of a problem getting my KT7A Raid board working when it comes to chipset problems. First is was IDE problems trying to hook up a zip drive. That took me about a week to figure out. Then I had problems with a sound card because the bus wasn't working, interrupt problems and such. I never did get my original modem to work and bought another one.

It was a bad ride. And then to top it off I could run all of this hardware on my ASUS P2B board with an Intel chipset.

It is all working now, but I have to say I am not impressed by the Via chipset manufacturer. I was also told buy the "USB man" on the internet that via is aware of their compatability issues (especially with the USB bus stuff) but continue to do NOTHING about it.

Anyway, my thoughts on this topic...

Later

<font color=blue>You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind.</font color=blue>

Is this a VIA issue or a board issue?

I heard that AMD were withdrawing recommendation of the Abit KT7A because of stability and compatability issues.

I use the same chipset on a Asus A7V133 and have had no problems at all. I print, MP3, camera, flash reader, keyboard etc. all by USB.

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Hi, I just upgraded 3 system to the Asus A7V133 using the KT133A VIA chipset and the majority of my USB devices work fine accept my Epson Stylus Color 900 printer which I cannot get working properly. It is unstable at best printing occasionally and half pages or none at all. Communication between the pc and the printer is the problem. I have the latest VIA USB patch which was a pain to install as well as the latest 4-1 drivers. Who is the USB Man and can he help me? I was going to clone my main system to the other 3 systems using the same motherboard but they all use the same printer so I want to solve this issue first. I have tried using the PRN port but get the same problem. Epson has put me off saying it is not the printer and I should call MS or VIA etc.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!

You are indeed correct about VIA's problems concerning very large files and networking - and it is one of several reasons that companies stick with Intel based machines for their servers.

VIA has 2 things going for it - cheap and fast.

I own a KT7 Raid... it's in my gaming rig. It's been perfectly stable, overclocks like a dream, and I've never once had a problem with it. VIA is good for hobbyists and gamers because... well... they're cheap and fast.

Extreme Stability has never been VIA's strongpoint in anyway, but I've been happy with the VIA products I have purchased. 'Cause I got 'em cheap and they were plenty fast

I have a system based around an A7M266 motherboard which uses the AMD 761 Northbridge in conjunction with the VIA 686B Southbridge. Although I've only had the system for 3 months I've not experienced any problems so far, and I have a Soundblaster Live 5.1 card which I've read can have problems in systems with the VIA 686B.

As you rate the AMD 760 chipset, do you know of any motherboard that uses the 761 Northbridge and the 766 Southbridge ?
All the motherboards I've read about that use the 761 seem to combine it with VIA 686B, rather than use the AMD 766.

Hobbit: If you want to check out the USB MAN web site, here is the link. It helped me figure out some of my USB problems on the KT7A Raid Board. Good luck... (you'll need it!)

(Remember, got mine to work, so you should as well)

Here is the link

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/VIA Tips and Tricks.htm


Later

<font color=blue>You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind.</font color=blue>

I figured out my LPT1 issue but cannot get my printer to work with USB. I have purchased the Belkin F5U006 recommended at USBMans website. Only paid 32 shipped from staples. Anyhow, after exhaustively working on the LPT1 issue since USB was impossible I got lucky. I compared my newer bios to an older bios setup defaults and found one difference for the LPT1 setup. Changing a number from 1 over to 3. Now my printer works lol. Epson tech support couldnt help with either USB or LPT1 they said in the end call MS or VIA. K7V133 is my last VIA motherboard. My other USB devices work fine. MS Natural keyboard Pro, Explorer Mouse, Webcam 3 etc. DC280 doesnt though. Kodak free of charge sending a memory card reader that will. What a pain. Running stable TBird 1.333GHZ at 1.5GHZ. I have found also that if you OC that Asus A7V133 to high your system will not boot up. Asus provides no tech support for this issue. If you have an Abit version of this board all you have to do when this happens is hold down the insert key and it will automatically reset the bios to defaults and boot up. The Asus board wont boot up again. I have found if you let it sit for a long while it will though after may attempts to start up. But the best methode that works is if you pull the power cable and then the motherboard battery and let it sit for an hour then you can boot. If you try right away it wont work. Somehow the motherboard bios retains the setting without the power cord and battery for about an hour. Weird. Anyhow all this information is for the benefit of anyone looking for answers and finding this post.

Balls, said the Queen if I had them I would be king!

Hobbit:

Ya, I had problems with my printer too. I fixed it also with some change in the Bios. THe printer port can be set to various settings. I just set it to the simplest, lowest tech one on the list and it worked with no problems.

THe problem was it took me about 6 hours to figure out what the heck was wrong.

Later.

<font color=blue>You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind.</font color=blue>