Maybe it's an IRQ address problem?
With my pc and sound blaster connected, it was giving problems with the IDE controller, behaving similarly to your pc. In my case it was a shared IRQ issue between Sound Blaster and IDE controller.
Try unplugging any onboard (disable), pci, and usb peripherals you can do without. This frees up IRQ addresses and maybe the system allocates the sound blaster to a different address than the ide controller.
Otherwise you could try to assign the addresses manually yourself, but I'm not practical in this.

This issue is fixed by updating the bios. Ive been troubleshooting this damn motherboard for the past 2 days. The VIA chipset is garbage.

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-04, 03:37:

This issue is fixed by updating the bios. Ive been troubleshooting this damn motherboard for the past 2 days. The VIA chipset is garbage.

Seems like Asus issue, not VIA - same chipset on MSI boards no problem with Live!, nor Audigy 2 both W98SE and XP.

The Asus A8v MX's AGP chipset has signaling issues. For example, fast ATI cards in 2005 had issues where the chip set couldn't keep up with the graphic cards signals and the system would crash. Via chipsets or notorious in this era.

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-06, 04:16:

The Asus A8v MX's AGP chipset has signaling issues. For example, fast ATI cards in 2005 had issues where the chip set couldn't keep up with the graphic cards signals and the system would crash. Via chipsets or notorious in this era.

Via K8T800+VT8237R

The Radeon HD 2600 a fast enough graphics card, I think
Have you ever tried buying some decent hardware instead of Asus? 😀

shevalier wrote on 2026-09-06, 07:07:

Via K8T800+VT8237R https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=161272 The Radeon HD 2600 a fast enough graphics card, I think Ha […]
Show full quote

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-06, 04:16:

The Asus A8v MX's AGP chipset has signaling issues. For example, fast ATI cards in 2005 had issues where the chip set couldn't keep up with the graphic cards signals and the system would crash. Via chipsets or notorious in this era.

Via K8T800+VT8237R

The Radeon HD 2600 a fast enough graphics card, I think
Have you ever tried buying some decent hardware instead of Asus? 😀

First of all finding socket 939 motherboard that has an AGP slot is difficult enough in itself and when you do find one they're extremely expensive. At least for me shipping is insane where I live. The reason why I have the Asus board is because it's all I can get for a reasonable price.

Second , via chips have documented known issues. Just because it's working fine for you doesn't mean they're all great.

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-06, 10:39:

Second , via chips have documented known issues. Just because it's working fine for you doesn't mean they're all great.

I am only aware of one official errata from VIA.
SATA 2/3 on the VT8237
What others are there?

As for the later Socket A/754/939 platforms.

P.S. VIA did indeed have problems with Creative sound cards. This was about five years before the ASUS A8V-MX was released. By the time it came out, the manufacturers had long since released fixed VIA/Creative drivers and BIOS updates.

You DON'T NEED an AGP system. See my posts here. Save your money and get a PCIe machine with a GeForce 6xxx/7xxx and use the nVidia 77.71 drivers.

shevalier wrote on 2026-09-06, 11:13:

I am only aware of one official errata from VIA. SATA 2/3 on the VT8237 What others are there? […]
Show full quote

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-06, 10:39:

Second , via chips have documented known issues. Just because it's working fine for you doesn't mean they're all great.

I am only aware of one official errata from VIA.
SATA 2/3 on the VT8237
What others are there?

So for the A8V-mx motherboard specifically, I ran into the issue myself where I had downgraded the BIOS to the first original bios of the motherboard and it wouldn't post with creative sound card in any PCI slot. The system would freeze at the post screen and the keyboard would lock up. Updating the BIOS appeared to fix this issue.

The embedded via unichrome graphics on board video card integrated into the k8m800 chipset can output incorrect or distorted display resolutions.

Legacy via Hyperion chipset drivers are required for stable operation in Windows XP. If you try to install the newest supported via chipset driver it will cause issues and crashes.

AGP must be set to x8 in the bios, fast write must be disabled, V-link must be enabled, AGP calibration and DBI output must be enabled, or the system will crash whenever you try to run a 3D program.

Smartgart also disables AGP read and write as well as PCI read and write and you have to manually enable them or the system will be unstable.

If you try to set your AGP to X4 speed or alter any of those settings I mentioned, the AGP slot gets turned into PCI mode and won't run unless you disable AGP read in the smartgart settings.

There's also signal issues with AGP slot not being able to handle fast aAGP cards particularly the ATI ones like the x800 and radeon 9800. Unless very specific settings are enabled as I stated above.

If you go back and look on the forums from 2004 they're all kinds of complaints about these chipsets.

mockingbird wrote on 2026-09-06, 14:18:

You DON'T NEED an AGP system. See my posts here. Save your money and get a PCIe machine with a GeForce 6xxx/7xxx and use the nVidia 77.71 drivers.

I needed one because I had an AGP card I wanted to pair with my Athlon 64 X2 4200+.

We already have the socket 939 motherboard with PCI Express that works great but that's not what I wanted. I wanted something from 2005 with AGP that will take a socket 939 athlon64 X2 CPU. Obviously I'm seeking out this setup for a reason.

Why are you being like that?

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-06, 14:32:

Why are you being like that?

It's called being logical.

This will be my last post in this thread. I re-state here (as I inferred about at the thread I posted on and linked to previously) that PCIe boards like the Asus M3A78-EM (AMD 780G), coupled with something really cheap like a GeForce 6600 will blow AGP out of the water both price and performance-wise, and has none of the aforementioned compatibility issues.

mockingbird wrote on 2026-09-06, 14:43:

Sly_Botts wrote on 2026-09-06, 14:32:

Why are you being like that?

It's called being logical.

This will be my last post in this thread. I re-state here (as I inferred about at the thread I posted on and linked to previously) that PCIe boards like the Asus M3A78-EM (AMD 780G), coupled with something really cheap like a GeForce 6600 will blow AGP out of the water both price and performance-wise, and has none of the aforementioned compatibility issues.

Most people are aware of this but like me some people want a period correct machine so they want AGP and they want the experience of having that machine from that era or year. If I want to build a fast XP system I can do it no problem. But I want an AGP system from 2005. That's the point of it. That's the hobby! It's not hard to understand.

That's the whole purpose of this forum. People want to talk about this stuff and they want help with this stuff because it's fun.