Seeking reassurance on BIOS setting...

[chriskorff]

Hi all,

I keep getting these bloody annoying PCI overflow messages, but having read the 'newbie pci overflow' thread, I'm pretty sure my problems have a different cause (not least because I only have one Scope card)...

First of all, I've got my PCI latency timer set to 96 - I seem to remember changing this from 128 when I first encountered these problems, but since it hasn't made a difference I'm thinking of setting it back to 128 so I can properly isolate the problem.

Secondly, and most important, I think, is that these problems appear to happen when I stream things from the hard disk (either using VST samplers, STS samplers or the SDS drum sampler). I'm pretty sure that's what's causing it, and having had a nose around in the BIOS, I discovered I've got 'PCI IDE Bus Mastering' enabled. Logic tells me I should disable this, ignore any hard-drive performance benefits it might cause, and leave the PCI bus to deal with Scope and as little else as possible.

Is this wise?

Cheers!

Chris

[Neutron]

I would say that is a good bet. give it a try, the chances are there may be a slight degradation of hdd speed.

[darkrezin]

It's worth a try but I don't think it will make any difference. It also *shouldn't* mess with your HDs but obviously make a backup first to be safe. I use Logic 5 myself and I don't remember any recommendations about this?

Is anything sharing IRQs with the Scope cards?

Also, the STS uses a lot of PCI bandwidth - it may be worth trying projects without this device if you have other alternative samplers.

Also what is your mobo - some boards just have bad design which means they can't move data around the board fast enough.

[chriskorff]

Sadly, I rather suspect my motherboard is one of those...

It's an ASrock 775Dual 880 Pro (which uses a VIA chipset). I tried disabling PCI IDE Bus Mastering, and it made no difference, so I turned it back off. Then I tried setting the PCI latency timer back to 128, and again, that made no difference. Then I tried a few other things (like disabling onboard LAN - which I normally have enabled in the BIOS but disabled on that particular XO boot's Device Manager), and they made no difference either. Then, foolishly, I reset the BIOS and it started locking up again, as per this thread:

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26215

Fucking fuckery. I've broken it! I'll try tweaking some more things, but I rather suspect, due to the consistency of these fuck ups, that my cheap motherboard is to blame. Can anyone tell me if this is likely to be the case?

Cheers!

Chris

(Now playing computer games, because I sure as shit can't write any fucking music on this piece-of-shit computer!!!)

[Fluxpod]

Via chipsets are the ultimate fuck up.I tried to install a p1 card 2 weeks ago in a amd pc with a via chipset...after trying out all 5 pci slots with randome errors freezes etc i gave up.Via is shit.Get another mb would be my advice..and its not expensive at all either.

[garyb]

yep.

i suggest all intel. that always works.

[darkrezin]

Yep, it's really not worth the aggro sticking with it... sometimes just spending £20-30 on a suitable board on ebay is the best option.

[chriskorff]

Bugger.

I think I've known for a while that I've needed to do this, but in all other respects this board works really well, so I've been putting it off and hoping I could fix it...

Shite. The good thing about the board I've got though, is that it's extremely upgradable - it takes either DDR or DDRII (though not at the same time), AGP or PCIe graphics cards (likewise, not at the same time), and has both SATA and PCI capabilities (which do work at the same time). Oh, and it takes Pentium 4 processors (which I've got), but also the early dual-core Extreme Edition processors - and I was hoping to be able to upgrade it to a Presler 3.46ghz EE processor, which would've maxed it out completely while still turning in a respectable performance. It was a really good concept for a motherboard at the time, basically allowing you to upgrade piece-by-piece instead of everything at once.

I shall start looking around...

Cheers!

Chris

[chriskorff]

In fact...

Can anyone recommend a replacement motherboard that will hold as much of the stuff I've already got as possible? That being:

2 x IDE optical drives

2 x IDE hard disks

1 x SATA hard disk

2 x 1gb DDRII 667Mhz RAM

3 PCI slots if possible

1 x PCIe slot for graphics

Pentium 4 HT 3.2gHz processor (though I'm guessing that this will be the first thing to go!)

Any suggestions, much appreciated!

Cheers,

Chris

[garyb]

intel d865perl if you want to keep the processor. you'll need to downgrade the ram, however.

if you want to get a new core2 processor and keep the ram, intel dp35dp, although you'll lose the two ide harddrives(it'd be easy to clone the old drives).

[Shroomz~>]

Why not keep that system as it is for games & internet? If it works great for those, then why not just set up a completely new system for Scope? You would even be able to rob the audio HD from that machine to use on the new one. Not having your Scope system used for games & the net makes a lot of sense to me. The Scope system I set up for our main daw here has no games, no net etc & we've honestly had absolutely zero problems with it in almost 2 years since it was last installed.

Mark

[dawman]

NForce 3 motherboards w/ AMD FX CPU's are incredibly stable also. NF4......?
But every DAW I have rented, owned or had built for me has never had a single issue other than my tinkering & good old fashioned human error. Intel chips and CPU's for sure these days.

I actually thought AMD built a better CPU, even when the Alpha's were available. Intel has regained the crown since the E series CPU that's for sure.

What killed AMD's popularity was always their chipsets chosen. They actually had a kick but combo back in the Tyan Tiger / AMD MP days where they made their own chipset logic and chips.


VIA stands for Very Inept for Audio.

[Neutron]

I'm sorry i didn't know you had a VIA chipset , if so i would have changed my reply to " "

[nightscope]

intel d865perl

I have Intel DG965RY. Is there anything that has come out since that is more suitable for using with Scope with 3 x PCI slots? I'll probably keep these Scope cards so a spare might be not a bad thing to get while I can get one. I keep havng these recurring bad dreams living in a world without PCI slots.

ns

[garyb]

why not use the d965ry? i'm pretty sure i've used that one quite successfully. as you know, Jimmy's dp35dp has been very good. others here have also had good experiences with it.

the d865perl works perfectly, and i still use one. if you're using a p4 478, i can't think of a more stable motherboard for twice the price...

i'd go for the core2 upgrade.