M-Audio & Via chipset

[mbbda]

I am looking at buying an m-audio card possibly a delta 66 or 1010, but i've heard there can be some problems with via chipsets.
My motherboard is a gigabyte GA-7VAXP which has a Via kt400 chipset.
Is anybody using a Delta card with this motherboard or another with via kt400 chipset?
What are the problems/solutions ?
Thanks in advance.

[Brain21]

I am not using this chipset. I *was* using the Asus KT133A chipset (VIA) and had LOTS of problems!!!! I researched and researched and tried EVERYTHING. BIOS settings (disabling USB plug & play & numerous other things), various drivers (M-Audio drivers, MB Bios Updates, VIA 4-in-1 drivers, etc.) All to no avail.

I saw many drivers posted on the M-Audio site that claimed to have fixed the problem. It got better, but they were never fixed. Ditto with the VIA drivers. I tried reverting back to older drivers, etc. the whole 9 yards. Nothing worked.

I tweaked my audio applications, downloaded demos of other audio applications to see if they would fare better, nothing. THe best I ever got was using NuEndo where I would get periodic minor crackles in the audio. Sonar and Samplitude were unusable!

I turned off virus protection, killed every single unnecesary service and process running on my PC (running Win2k, BTW), etc., etc., etc.

You know how I solved the problem? I got a motherboard with no VIA chipset!!!!

If you don't decide to go the over-priced Intel route, get a MB with a SiS chipset instead of the VIA chipset.

I replaced my AMD 1.33GHz/Asus A7VKT133A with an AMD 1800+/ECS K5SA (I think that that is the model #) MB with the SiS735 chipset. No more problems. AND I can also now use USB since I don't have to disable it anymore! The whole thing (CPU & MB together) was right around $100. CHeaper than replacing my sound card. I put that old MB/CPU in another machine that I now use in my entertainment center and for home automation.

Now, having said all that, this WAS the KT133A chipset. It is POSSIBLE that the later VIA chipsets do not have this problem. Personally I wouldn't risk it, but that is just me. Search around and see if you can find anywhere else if this VIA/M-Audio combo still has these problems.

Brain21

[seiji-san]

i have a A7V8X (kt400) and a omni studio with delta66. unfortunately they are sitting at home in boxes and i have not been able to try them together yet. http://www.audioforums.com/forums/frown.gif
however, i think VIA _may_ have fixed the PCI bus interrupt problems with the kt400, and they may not have. however, from my understanding it is a hardware misconfiguration by the motherboard manufacturers and not actually a hardware problem. some registers have to be reset in the motherboard. in case your interested, there is a forum with programmers under contract from VIA to fix problems like that at: http://forums.sudhian.com/categories.cfm?catid=19
there is a lot of discussion about your particular motherboard, but i dont think any reliable KT400 information is published in regard to this problem. this is what i gather from reading this forum, and thats all. my advice, if you have not yet bought a KT400 motherboard, get something else. but if you already haveone, the patches made available on this forum may give you more PCI bandwidth, e.g- less crackling.
of course, you must also understand, i dont know what the hell im talking about...

[Daniel Smart]

Done to death - do a search and you'll get both answers to your question. KT133 chipset had PCI bandwidth problems - sorted in later chipsets. Early Delta drivers had problems with VIA chipsets - sorted in later drivers. Your board should have no problems with the delta cards (and my KT266A works fine with my Delta).

That said if you haven't got the mobo yet, I think people are getting better performance with nForce2 but depending on your application this may make no difference at all.

-Daniel