Compatibility problems with Biostar M7VKD. Need opinions.

[Jakalpkmn]

I am having major problems with my system.

It was originally:
Windows 95
Biostar M7VKD
Duron 900
256 MB Crucial PC133 SDRAM
256 MB Kbyte PC133 SDRAM
PNY Geforce2 MX400
RealMagic Hollywood+
Sound Blaster Audigy X Gamer
TTGI 330Watt dual fan power supply
Western Digital 80Gig with 8 meg cache

This was rock solid until I tried to added a PCI Network Interface Card. I tried 3 or 4 cards, after installing the drivers, the OS would not load. The Microsoft MN-130 NIC finally worked. It took about 5 minutes to boot, and it became horribly unstable, but it at least sort of worked. This wasn't acceptable, so I tried to install Windows XP Home, hoping it would be more stable, but it would only boot after installing, and then the OS wouldn't ever load again.

So, I stripped the system down, to just the videocard, and it still wouldn't boot. So I took out the video card, and replaced it with a Venus Virge DGX4 (a really old PCI video card with 4 megs of ram). Then it successfully booted. I then added the NIC, and it still loaded. I was convinced it was an incompatibility between the video card and motherboard, but then I tried installing the sound card. It didn't boot.

At this point I'm pretty convinced I need to find a new motherboard. Does anyone have any other ideas? Also if this is the case I need to find a new (hopefully more stable) Socket A motherboard that takes SDRAM. I can't seem to find a good board on sale, most motherboards on sale now only take DDR RAM. Any suggestions on a specific motherboard?

 

[SubKamran]

Why not spend an extra $100 for a decent mobo and DDR ram?

 

[NoisySilence]

ECS K7S5a or the ASRock K7VT2 should do just fine.

 

[Jakalpkmn]

NoisySilence, thanks.

SubKamran, I've thought about that. I'm planning on waiting until 64 bit processors come down in price a bit to upgrade. With the new Athlon 64 with 512KB cache already available for a couple hundred dollars I don't think I'll have to wait long, but for now I just want my desktop to work as something besides a file server.

 

[SubKamran]

Nothing is ready for 64-bit yet. That won't happen until a long time, hardly anything supports it fully.

But, it's your choice If I were you, I'd just by a Barton and OC it and then wait until faster 64-bit processors come when software actually supports it.

In some case, 64-bit actually slows down your computer...

 

[Didou]

Originally posted by SubKamran
In some case, 64-bit actually slows down your computer...

I have yet to see that happen with an Athlon64(-FX). It's possible for an Itanium to run very slow in 32-bit, since it's done via emulation but Intel is working on some new emulator software to improve performance. That's just about the only situation in which 64-bit could be a slowdown.

 

[boetard]

I have used this motherboard with network cards and haven't had any problems. The os used was Win98se and WinXP Pro. CPU used - AMD XP1600+.

 

[Didou]

Sometimes it's simply a BIOS upgrade that's needed. I used to have a similar problem with my A7V ( kt133 ). If I installed a R8139 NIC, my sound card would disappear. I had to flash the BIOS to make everything work fine.