Help with elder mobo required

Polock · Mar 20, 2004, 07:50 AM

The time finally came for mt Abit KA7-100 mobo to go to that Mobo Heaven

I would like to find a replacement so all my RAM and hardrives (OS onmaster IDE and Raid for other 2) will fit right into p-lace, if it can be. Don't want to buy more extraes than I need.

Only exception would be a new CPU cause the Slot A is history. Good board for PC133 RAM and an onboard Raid setup.

Where can I find such a beast? Any vendors keep older boards aroud?

Any and all leads are welcome

Polock

Judas · Mar 20, 2004, 11:19 AM

MAN.. those were the best and first ever mobos to have ATA100 and Raid support (the later being unofficially supported)..... your looking at having to get a slot A mobo... but i think you may have a bigger problem..... you HAVE to unRaid your array before those hardrives will function correctly for another mobo to recongize.. enless the other mobo has the exact same highpoint controller (370? ).... also your using SDRAM being pc100 or 133.... agp 4x...... look at/for a ABIT KT133 RAID board or similare.. and make sure it used the highpoint controllers... the newer high point controllers should be able to see and take control of the HD's... (your have to do a repair on the array though)..... simply browse the abit motherboard products and all you need is the SDRAM support and Highpoint IDE... and you should be fine....

Judas · Mar 20, 2004, 11:21 AM

BTW,, did you check the capasitors on your mobo?...... the tops look a little browned or black and at the base... looks like black goo... the capasitors went..... and can be replaced... hopefull yours just didn't quit alltogether..might have taken something out...... as for my KA7-100 board..... i stop using it after i heard a few loud pops.... seems stable yet and ran..... but i wanted to keep the board and get it repaired)

FluffyChicken · Mar 20, 2004, 11:25 AM

Best bet, get something like the Epox 8KTA3+
Your RAID will fit there no problem (HPT370(a)), you'll get SocketA
It's a KT133a chipset and I just handed mine down.

Should pick them up cheap.
Overclocks well. Can run AthlonXP's don't know upto what speed or core, but the Palomino 1800+ was fine.

Else look at the Hybrid boards Ali/VIA that support both SDR and DDR memory. You need to stick to a HPT370/372 chipset for the RAID.

Judas · Mar 20, 2004, 11:38 AM

he's best to stay with the abit boards... less of a chance of more incapabilities

Judas · Mar 20, 2004, 11:40 AM

BTW.. this would be the Board of choice if you want to keep your SDRAM http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...ies=1&model=89

Polock · Mar 20, 2004, 02:27 PM

That shows to go ya why a novice is called a newbie. I spent all day searching and reading to come up with the same board to fit my needs...Abit KT7A-Raid

Guess it would be best to check my mail and/or back with my posts before taking off on a long trip. Today is not wasted gents cause I learned something

Where would be a good place to start looking fir this board? Ebay would be my last choice...

somebody from a forum is preferable.

And by the way, how did you know I would like to keep the raid in tact?

Polock

Judas · Mar 20, 2004, 03:05 PM

you'll need the raid in tact because if the current board you had died and you couldn't get the raid array disasembled via the raid chipset bios.... the drives will refuse to work .... the only reason i made raid a nessity.... i also figured since you had raid working.. you'd want to keep it....

Polock · Mar 20, 2004, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Judas
you'll need the raid in tact because if the current board you had died and you couldn't get the raid array disasembled via the raid chipset bios.... the drives will refuse to work .... the only reason i made raid a nessity.... i also figured since you had raid working.. you'd want to keep it....

Been there...done that, haven't ya?

It will be interesting to see if I can get them plugged back in

Worth a try and I might even learn a thing or two along the way.

Keep your eyes and ears open for one of them thar Abit KT7A-Raid boards

Polock

Judas · Mar 20, 2004, 10:12 PM

yeah... i had the issue of having my KT7-Raid board deside to completely disagree... all i did was set the mobo on the floor... hook up a power supply... a keyboard.. a monitor... put a cpu in it... hook up the HD's and slap a generic pci video card in.... power it up... get into the bios.. and delete the raid array.... volla... fixed it... IF you don't delete it.. you'll put the hd's in another machine without the same raid setup.. and it may.. or may not see the hardrive at all for starters... next... if you get passed the hardrive being detected... it might see it as 0 bytes on both.... or hd failure.. sometimes SMART will kick in and complain about an issue that later says theres nothing wrong with it... it's rather quite interesting to see... BUT i know one thing... i was NEVER able to fix the problem... even low level formatting wouldn't touch it... it just refused... (i didn't understand the low level format... figured it would have completely got rid of it... but i guess if it can't see any bytes at all.. it can't do anything)

Polock · Mar 21, 2004, 12:36 PM

Judas, your not paintin' a very pretty picture here

Guess the odds of me recovering the info on that raid array are about like getting struck by lightihuhhh?

Is it even worth a try? I love a challenge

Just not much knowledge to back it up.

I did manage to find that board at a couple spots, but it don't look like no newegg

Cherrio,

Polock

Judas · Mar 22, 2004, 12:56 AM

.... well i'm pretty sure Highpoint tech could assist with some kind of bootable floppy or something to decontruct it..... but i'm not sure... i didn't dig to deep when i was able to get the old machine up and running good enough and long enough to remove the raid array setup.... (BTW... highpoint tech 374 might work to... i recall backwards capabilities)

FluffyChicken · Mar 22, 2004, 09:10 AM

374 doesn't (or shouldn't work with the 370/372) unless you lucky. That's from HPT themselves. It is a different chipset (the 370/372 is basically the same chipset though)

What HPT370 BIOS are you using ? That could be the major cause of problems, try update to the latest on your current motherboard (you can always downgrade)
May invole putting the newest into you current BIOS via CBROM32 or similar though (a bit of Hacking).

- Just a thought, figure out which BIOS the new motherboard is using for the HPT controller, THEN install them on your current motherboard and shut down, this will make sure Windows actually works when you connect it.
Have a WinXP CD handy (or whatever OS your using...)
P.S. WinXP will need reactivating though

But what's the worry, you have your current motherboard so if it doesn't work, just connect it to what you got noe (hey just but

As For the sticking with ABIT you don't have to, as long as it's a VIA chipset and HPT RAID you'll be fine. The 8KTA3+ has upto the latest BIOS availabel for it (HPT) and has no problems. There are other out there to try but hey, get what you can.

I can swap between a HPT370 and 372 no problem, both have the lastest HPT BIOS 2.3xx with my array

Polock · Mar 22, 2004, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by FluffyChicken
What HPT370 BIOS are you using ?

I was using the older v1.03b hpt 370 drivers with 98SE. The KA7-100 popped, flashed and quit.

I've been looking all over for a Abit KT7A-Raid board cause I thought I would have a better chance of plugging the drives back in. I had 98Se on a single IDE channel and a bunch of storage on the stripped drives.

Quote:

That could be the major cause of problems, try update to the latest on your current motherboard (you can always downgrade)
May invole putting the newest into you current BIOS via CBROM32 or similar though (a bit of Hacking).

I'm a little underskilled for to much hacking...but might try. I got nothing to lose

Quote:

But what's the worry, you have your current motherboard so if it doesn't work, just connect it to what you got noe (hey just but

I lost the board to some burned up caps, a little black chip and soldered connections. I think finding another board similar is my only hope.

Quote:

As For the sticking with ABIT you don't have to, as long as it's a VIA chipset and HPT RAID you'll be fine. The 8KTA3+ has upto the latest BIOS availabel for it (HPT) and has no problems. There are other out there to try but hey, get what you can.

That sounds very promising cause I'm having a difficult time with the KT7A-Raid. Let me do some searching for the Gigabit board.

Thanks for the input...I need all the help I can get.

Polock

Polock · Mar 23, 2004, 09:42 PM

Daaa!!!!! Searched for a Gigabyte board with the KT133A chipset and Raid and found one, but...

it had a Promise contoller instead HPT 370.

I found the wrong dood, so re-read FluffyChicken 's post again to find that I should have been looking for an Epox 8KTA3+

Back to the drawing boards,

POlock

Judas · Mar 24, 2004, 12:41 AM

lol.. polock.. i know the feeling when someone asks for something... you go find it... and find out that your either looking at the wrong brand... or off by a single model

Judas · Mar 24, 2004, 12:43 AM

you know.. i just had a thought... your looking for a Slot A mother board right?... or did i miss something... (you might have stated it before or something.... (i'm a confused little boy)

FluffyChicken · Mar 24, 2004, 07:23 AM

Looking for SocketA from a SlotA (which was the old board)

I only mention the 8KTA3+ as i know them well

Epox kept the BIOS upto date quite a while after it had gone out fashion

Chances are a second hand one (maybe put an add in the Buy and Sell are for these motherboards)

Polock · Mar 24, 2004, 08:23 PM

Hi guys...thanks for stickin' with this old newbie.

The board that went poof was a slot A (Abit KA7-100), but I'm limited with the slot A. I've really been in search of another Abit board called the KT7A-Raid that also has a HPT 370 raid controller. With a newer bios, I can get an Athlon 1900+ for a little more juice.

I'll bet I've read 500 pages in forums all over on this. That's cool

cause I can always stand to learn something.

I've got a lead on this board at a few obscure vendors and I'll know more tomorrow when I use the land-line.

Hope I can get this replacement just to get your creative juices going

Cherrio and send a prayer to the mobo gods,

Polock

PS: Epox is still an option.

Judas · Mar 24, 2004, 08:50 PM

So you don't need another Slot A mobo.... (socket A durons and whatnot are very cheap.. ..hell the barton 2500+'s are even cheap enough for me....)

Polock · Mar 25, 2004, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Judas
So you don't need another Slot A mobo.... (socket A durons and whatnot are very cheap.. ..hell the barton 2500+'s are even cheap enough for me....)

If I can get my 2 stripped drives connected on a socket A like the KT7A-Raid, that would be great.

Good news just in...I found one of those boards (KT&A-Raid) at a vendor that happened to end up only 90 miles away. The first part is done...it's ordered. Now to sit back with my fingers crossed that this vendor is on the up and up. Ordering fro someone new always gives me the occasion to tip a few

Compuview has only 12 reviews at resellerrating.com with a 6 month average of 3.75. Think I'll go get a lottery ticket to change my luck.

Cherrio

Judas · Mar 25, 2004, 08:33 PM

hope all goes well.. and that you have the best of luck.... I think Zardon has at one point that exact board......(might be wrong.. could be the KRA7-333R (or similare name.. can't quite remember the exact name)..... he liked it if i recall right....