ASUS A7N8X - PCI Master overflow

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:08 am

Well I was very happy with my new mobo and XP2600 processor, but now it seems I have run into a problem.
I get the PCI master overflow error with this project I'm working on at the moment.
The project is at about 75% DSP load, and contains STM16/32, 4 stereo delays, a masterverb, Kickme!, Celmo amp modeller, and some Vinco's and Vintage Eq's.
When I load the project there is no problem, but when I start up Cubase, I get the PCI master overflow message. Although it doesn't always happen. When I remove Masterverb it works, and then I can add it again without getting the message....

System specs:

ASUS A7N8X
AthlonXP2600
512MB ram
Radeon9100
Pulsar I (IRQ 18 - not shared) + Powersampler (IRQ 17 - not shared) in slots 3 & 4
Windows XP in ACPI/APIC mode
All on-board stuff deactivated except USB I have deactivated USB as well to see if this was the problem but it didn't help) and parallel port (for my Cubase dongle and printer).

So maybe I should reinstall in standard PC mode? I've read good and bad things about it (performance-wise) so what do you reckon?

Help! Me! Please!

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[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-07 06:10 ]

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:56 am

didn´t I already say Don´t buy asus in several topics here? Learn from your experience.

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 9:01 am

Well I did post in the tech forum asking if this would be a good setup and people seemded to think it was. I had ASUS before this as well (CUSL2-c) and no problems with that. So far, apart from this it doesn't have any problems, and I can load 6 masterverbs

Which board would you recommend?

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[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-07 10:03 ]

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 9:21 am

I agree, I have an ASUS A7n266-C and 9 DSPs and I've filled them up with Masterverbs with no overflows. The nForce 2 is supposed (according to experiences in these forums) to be better for PCI throughput than the nForce1 so I doubt that there's something with the underlying technology, 'cept maybe a defective board that could be causing those issues.

ASUS makes fantastic boards, and are generally the most stable motherboards outside of the server world. Obviously mobo making is a precise art, and they have made boards with chipsets like the KT266, so bad experiences are certainly possible, but this is a general constraint of anything in this world.

If it seemed to happen out of nowhere, I'd check your IRQs, ACPI/StandardPC settings, BIOS settings, etc. There's been plenty of discussion about how to look into each issue at length, so the search link may be a quicker way to get answers for you. If you find that none of that helps, give us some more info about how your system is configured.

Hope that helps,
Sam

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 9:50 am

obviously I tried the search, but I eliminated most possibilities that came up in those topics: USB, IRQ sharing etc...

My system config is in the first post. What more can I say about it?

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 9:59 am

Damn! It seems to be getting worse as well.
This morning I could still open 6 masterverbs before the PCI overflow, not I get the error with 2 masterverbs!

Submarine · Post by **Submarine** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 11:04 am

Well everything is now faster and better only the PCI Bandwidth is the same everywhere.
I have a ASUS CUV4X (VIA Chipset)and i had the luck to find here a wonderfull tip about a Patch for this MObo , and now a didnt have a PCI Masteroverflow since one year.:-8(and i use the 24/48 Mixer!)
Maybe its outthere something similar for your
MOBO:Goodluck.
Hey guys common :I wish me an ASUS!Is the finest on market.
Regards

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 12:28 pm

btw. How do know which revision of the A7N8X I have? Is it somewhere on the PCB?

btw2 even though my system shows no IRQ conflicts, I'm going to try switching the CW cards to other slots to see if this affects performance in any way.

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-07 13:29 ]

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:22 pm

Yes, it's printed on the pcb, in small text, right next to the A7N8X text between two of the pci-ports.
It also is displayed during boot-up in the 1st screen.

I have a A7N8X Deluxe rev 2.0 and can do 13 masterverbs.

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:23 pm

Hmmm, I think mine is 1.06 or something like that...
Would that make a huge difference in PCI performance?
Also, are you running standard PC or ACPI mode?

...I switched the pulsar to slot 2 and the PS to slot 4, but now the Pulsar shares IRQ with the videocard, which is not good. Still the same error anyway...

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 8:23 pm

I have my Pulsar2 in slot one, Pulsar1 in slot 4, and PS in slot 5.

I run standard pc-mode, and only Pulsar2 and PS are sharing IRQ.

PCI-slot 2 shares with video-card yes (irq 7), and this slot is not really a good one.

The difference between revision 1.xx and 2.xx i some small fixes, might be some pci-fixes too, I'm not sure, but the main difference of the two, is that rev.2.xx has DDR 400mhz support, and a 400Mhz FSB to run those xp3200 Athlons..

Post by **garyb** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 11:50 pm

one from the peanut gallery:do you have the latest bios?

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 9:14 am

yeah, my BIOS is version 1.004
Switched the cards around again. Pulsar in slot 1 and PS in slot 4. Now there's no sharing anymore but the problem still remains.
I'm gonna do a standard PC install and see how that works out....

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:44 pm

Well, installed in standard-pc mode now and although I can still only load about 5 masterverbs in an empty project, the problem with the PCI error in a "normal" project seems to have been resolved.
Pulsar is not at IRQ 5, not shared, but the PS is at IRQ 10 which is shared with the NForce PCI System Management. I'll try relocating the PS to fix this later...

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 5:35 pm

damn, actually the problem is still here...
It's just pretty unpredictable. One time it happens, another time it doesn't...

Anyone have any more idea of what could be causing this? It seems like most people have good experiences with this chipset (13 masterverbs!) but I seem to be not so lucky

Karma · Post by **Karma** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:02 pm

I had a similar problem with an Athlon 1.4GHz and MSI K7TPro2.... never could resolve it and actually ended up just living with the problem for two years.... in my case I put it all down to the VIA chip, which to my knowledge has caused many problems and especially PCI overflows. I sometimes got them with an almost empty project. Anyway, I hope you have better luck resolving it than I did!

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:17 pm

thanks

I hope so too. I'm pretty much out of idea's myself though

The thing that drives me crazy is that others seem to have great performance with the very same board!
I don't think I could live with this for 2 years! I'd rather buy another board (if that turns out to be the problem).

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[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-08 19:50 ]

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 5:54 am

more switching around boards, took out my firewire card as well... - no luck either.

Could this be in any way power or heat related? It seems my system is running rather hot and my powersupply is pretty old and only 235 watt. Then again, the system is perfectly stable in every other way so it would be strange if that was to blame.

Can anyone think of anything else to try?

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 6:45 am

OMG!! 235watt??

AMD says NEVER use anything LESS than 250Watts on their CPU's!!

This might actually be your problem, there is simply not enought power to run the pci-bus properly!

I have a 550W PSU btw...

From AMD:
"For a minimally configured low power-consumtion system, you can use any of the approved power supplies listed on out website. A 250-watt power supply is the minimum but you need to estimate the system requirements to ensure system stability. Minimally configured means: 128-Mbyte RAM, 16-Mbyte AGP graphics, internal V.90 modem, 10/100 NIC, Flopppy drive, CD_ROM or DVD and 5400-RPM harddisk."

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content ... ef_faq.pdf

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 7:00 am

Okay I'll be buying a new case with Powersupply today then. Most cases seem to come with 300 watt power these days, would that be enough? Or should I get a seperate PSU?
I'd like to get a new case as well though...