posted February 15, 2001 10:49            

I have got a KT7Raid Athlon 1Ghz, 128&256Mb 133Dimm and ASUS V7700 Delux - wont go through the other components as they're not even being used. I have major problems getting my computer to POST. I've tried all the things that people have suggested here and other forums as well (bios settings, nothing else in computer, seating AGP card etc). I believed it could be a power problem, so I bought an Enermax EG451P-VE 431W power which provides 44A at 5V and 35-40A at 3.3V.

Computer works fine with a Voodoo3 2000PCI and also a Voodoo3 3000AGP. But is a dead duck with the Asus V7700. The Asus works in a P3 computer ok.
Occasionally it would boot and run ok - resets would be ok, but as soon as shutdown that was it - no more computer. Tried switching on / off / pressing reset / pulling power cord multiple times but nothing, so I decided to investigate the voltage regulator circuit.

I believe that the MB has linear voltage regulator. The chip on mine HIP-6301CB, inbetween the 4 capacitors just up from the AGP slot, controls the voltage regulation (that is what is behind the voltage settings in the BIOS). This in turn with the 3 HIP-6601CB, the 6 MOSFETS and capacitors and bits make up the voltage regulation circuit.
The only thing that I've found that will make my PC POST is to CAREFULLY short out the pins on the 6301 (never bothered with the 6601's) and also the 6 MOSFETS with a screwdriver. I ONLY do this with the power switch on the PSU switched OFF or cable removed as there will still be current there with PSU in soft power down. After this I can boot up. If I could I'd prefer to short the capacitors but not easy to get to the underside of MB. This suggests to me that my problem is coming from the voltage regulator system / AGP card at startup.
If the regulator is a linear one as I expect, then the power output from it can be a problem. This is what caused the problems with the Gigabyte boards and the Voodoo3 cards not booting some time ago.

If someone from ABIT can verify that it is or is not a linear regulator circuit please do.

The equivalent ASUS KT133 MB has the voltage regulator circuit on a seperate header and from the pictures I've seen on web sites, it looks like it is a switching regulator. I much prefer this method as it give the facility to upgrade the regulator circuit separately but it will cost more to manufacture hence not so common.

Switching regulators are better as they are more efficient, can give higher current outputs and do not generate as much heat.

I reckon that the regulator circuits on each motherboard could have slightly different tolerancies as well and slight differencies in graphics cards as well, so changing the motherboard / graphics card could bring things into line a bit more and computer will boot. It could also explain why some systems are unstable when extra cards are inserted. If the AGP card is very near the limit of the regulator, it would explain why sometimes it can boot and also people with the 50/60/70/80% success rates at first time boot.

Incidently there is also an HIP6004CB and two mosfets next to the DIMM sockets. I'm just thinking that some unlucky people cannot get 3 256Mb dimms to work either.

What is really annoying is that I specifically purchased the components to build a fast stable system and I've got more chance of building a stable computer from an old 386 and some wood. I've not managed to buy the parts from the same supplier which never helps the supplier I got the MB from only had MX cards in stock. So each supplier will play against the other one - The video card works fine in the test system of one supplier and the MB can run certain AGP cards as well, so I'm going to be a bit stuck with it.

Any ideas, comments anyone please.(especially if the shorting pins trick works for you - its the only thing that will work for me)

I do not work for ABIT or ASUS or any other computer manufacturer, so why am I having to decode problems at the hardware level myself to get my computer to work ?
Why is there a great many people with the same/similar problems ?

enermax - www.enermax.com.tw
PDF files for the HIP voltage regulators - www.intersil.com
site detailing linear/switching regulator differencies - www.rason.org/Projects/swregdes/swregdes.htm
www.datafilen.dk/support/switch.htm

posted February 15, 2001 18:29            

Thanks for the information. We will check about it.

posted February 22, 2001 18:42            

Please read this...
http://www.insanehardware.com/articles.php?i=00003

It seems that there is a general problem with the PWM on not just ABIT boards and the voltage detectin on the GF2 reference design..

I hope that you can produce a BIOS which we can use to combat this fault.

posted February 23, 2001 17:00            

This link shows (go to the GeForce boot problem section) that ABIT are fully aware of the PWM and GeForce2 problem.... This still does not explain why my KT7A still has this problem...

ABIT, please can you tell me how you propose to solve this.

posted February 24, 2001 02:25            

Yes, I have the same problem, and I must be very unlucky or a large percentage of these mobos have a problem of booting. I have an ASUS V7700 and it's now my second motherboard which does exacly the same thing ie not booting (OK it boots up 1 out of 30-40 maybe). I've tried everything: I/O voltage, AGP driving strength, even core voltage, different power supply. Nothing. It boots up 100% with lower spec AGP or PCI cards (Dell GeForce 256 or AGP/PCI TNT based) although this second mobo seems to freeze within an hour running MadOnion's 3D benchmark with ANY AGP card (but not with the PCI!) using Win2k (using VIA 4.25a and 6.50 nVIDIA drivers and WW BIOS). The cause for the lockup might be that the core voltage although set to 1.75 shown as 1.83 in VIA motherboard monitor. I'm now testing with core set to 1.725 (now shows 1.8 - still freezes).

Two questions arose in me reading the postings and doing some experimenting:

1. Are other manufacturer's boards better (ie ASUS)?

2. Why does the same AGP card work with an Intel platform (I tested the card in a Dell PC and booted 100% - from which I borrowed the GeForce 256) - although I haven't researched Intel platform problems so I don't really know if there are or aren't problems?

Regards and good luck,

posted March 19, 2001 19:59            

i got the same problem with an Abit KT7A + Elsa Erazor X Geforce 256

if i got a VGA signal i cant boot from floppy or format ( like jcoigny )
if i press reset the screen is black .. but u can hear that the floppy boots *confused* ( i think its about the power issu )

yesterday i changed the Geforce device and installed a Asus V3800 deluxe ( TNT 2 ultra ) and the system worked quite well

i like this board ( KT7A ) except the f***** geforce voltage bug
but i need somebody who knows the way i have to go to set up my Geforce device

posted March 20, 2001 09:35            

I decided to start checking the voltages at different parts of the motherboard and as a 'test' connected the 3.3V line from the PSU directly to the same on the motherboard (held on by hand during for the test) and set the IO voltage to 3.3V in BIOS and guess what - it booted fine. Kept trying for some minutes with connection on and off. Each time it performed as I expected it would - booted with connection held on, beeped when unconnected.

I left my computer with my brother to attach the 3.3V from the PSU a bit more permanently (i.e. soldered on) and to let him test it a bit. I had been getting a bit fed up with it as well. He was a bit busy during this time and was only able to test it a few times, but it worked perfectly each time.
I've picked it up again and will give it a bit of a thorough testing to convince myself that it is completely stable (I believe it is 100% stable and bootable now, but after the intermittent problems, I need to convince myself a lot).

If this works properly as I believe it does, I will create a few web pages with detailed pictures showing what I've done to fix it. I will not give any more information just yet as I don't want anyone trying this without knowing more about it on the basis of this post alone (including the risk of completely breaking the motherboard).

The following statement is my own opinion.
It would seem to me that one of the devices (Motherboard/Graphics card) or both are not confirming to the AGP standard properly regarding voltage/current requirements. If the two devices were both confirming to the standards, there shouldn't be any problems and the 'fix' that I'm using would not make a difference. If the problem is the card requires more power than the AGP specification, then it should be equipped with an onboard power connector and an adequate voltage regulation circuit to supply it as with the high-end Voodoo 5000/5500 cards.
Here are a few observations that I've made - form your own opinions.

The graphics card (V7700 deluxe) works fine in two different P3 computers with different hardware/software configurations - reason different motherboard (yes obvious I know).

Different graphics cards (each taken from other working computers including the two above) including Voodoo3 2000 (PCI), Voodoo3 3000 (AGP), GeforceMX (AGP) booted fine with the KT7Raid Mobo.

The V7700 Deluxe has more 'stuff' on it than standard Geforce GTS2 cards (video capture, TV out, chipset monitoring) which all requires power. I remember reading a post from someone who had the add-on TV out card for a V7700 pure which booted once the add-on card was removed from the board.

I've read lots of posts from different people with different graphics cards (Hercules, Radeons etc) with same/similar booting problems with the KT7 Mobo (all flavours). Majority of posts do appear to be with the V7700 cards.

I will post again soon with web link if it keeps working.

posted March 21, 2001 03:36            

i cant even bot with PCI vido card somtimes, what could that be, right now running with ASUS V7700 32 MB pure, somited i just lose screen just when i am in windows

so what i think its more than just AGP slot and it happend with other video cards too as with V7700

posted March 30, 2001 20:16            

Abit said : change voltage on bios ... OK but there are funny .. it's so hard to enter bios features if you don't have access or screen !!!!!! ;(

posted April 30, 2001 02:06            

>Bye
.Kevin.[/B][/QUOTE]

Hey, Busted Computa!! Any more info?? I'm willing to try the modification regardless of consequences. I have a spare motherboard to try this on and am soldering skilled. Email me at [email protected] if you do not wish to post a public message here, thank you!

posted May 10, 2001 05:40            

Anyway, I've not had the booting problem since modifying the motherboard. So for me anyway, the problem was the computer not being able to supply enough current for the AGP slot on the motherboard. I can say this as the fix that I've done basically supplies more current to the graphics card using the Enermax power supply detailed in original post. I probably could have used my original power unit (300W). I've not tested with it and don't think I will try it as I like the Enermax one anyway.

Jcoigny, I liked your solution - buying an ASUS mobo instead. I've read a few posts from people that have done this and solved all the problems. I wonder if the ABIT Siluro Geforce2GTS card has problems with the KT7/A/RAID mobo.

Jani23, Were talking about different things here. The problem is with the graphics card/motherboard and not the CPU fan. I know about the fan sense on the 'fan1' connector and as soon as I upgraded to the bios version with this function, tried it out by connecting my CPU fan to 'fan2' to see if it worked - which it did. The problem myself and others have experienced appears to be with the higher performance cards ie gforce2gts, gforce2ultra, radeon etc. I could easily get it to boot with a PCI Voodoo3 2000 card but wanted something a bit faster. Thanks for the post anyway.

Hopster, I have started the web pages as I mentioned in email, but haven't got it ready yet. I will get it done as soon as I can. I am very interested in your results if you decide to undertake the steps.

Mjmeche, You are making us jealous with a working setup. Its not a driver problem and is not a bios settings problems (I've tried different settings for many things with no effect). It would be great if a setting appeared in a new version of the bios something like 'Fix AGP Graphics booting problem (yes/no)'. I don't think it will be that simple though. It could be that different tolerences in your mobo/gfx card means that you can run with no problems. Thanks for letting us know that someone out there has a Geforce card working with no problems.

Sticky, I will be completing the web pages detailing my problem and solution as soon as I can. The modification will invalidate the guarantee on the motherboard (and also the graphics card if they hear about them), so perhaps RMA'ing your card is better, especially if its all you need to do to get a stable system. Its up to you.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I will post address for web pages as soon as I can.

posted May 19, 2001 23:01            

I'm sure you've cracked it! I put a LONG post on the alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit forum -- and my conclusion is that all the messing about with BIOS won't help. This is a baseline hardware problem, and it needs to be fixed at the hardware level. In other words, unless you are handy with a soldering iron, you are probably stuck trying to find a video card that is more tolerant than most.

I think I'll try to take the board back.

Thanks for the thought and analysis.

posted May 23, 2001 21:34            

I'm having the same problem with 2 motherboards. And I was thinking of using your solution (soldering). So I was wondering, have you had the time to put up a website with the information.