Hi there,

it has been a long time since the last time i attempted to mess with my retro gaming rig 😁
Lately i have been modifying it a bit, and fixing some stability problems i had with it (it was a PSU issue)

That's my current config:

Win98SE
CoolerMaster Centurion 5
450w PSU
DFI p5bv3+ (mvp3)
K6-3+ 450 @ 550 2.0v with a thunderbird HSF
256mb sdram pc133 (2x128)
a maxtor 80gb hd
lg DVD-RAM drive (so much more useful then floppies with proper drivers)
Rendition Verite v2200 8mb AGP 2x
SLI 2x 3dfx Voodoo2 12mb (mismatched)
PowerVR PCX2 4mb
Aureal Vortex 2 (au8830) with 2048 drivers
An ISA 3com lan card

First things first:
- all the videocards runs fine, with the various D3d and ogl switchers everything works with no conflicts. SLI is working. No IRQs are assigned to the Voodoos, but looks like they dont mind.
- cpu is stable in prime95 with 36° max under load 😳 according to Sandra
- ram is working fine, heavily tested in win mem diagnostic and memtest (it took me a while to find dimms which weren't creating problems with that board)
- i cant get Write Combining to work, yet. Still working on it. No luck with setk6v3.

So, here's my problem:
the vortex 2 card is installed in the 4th pci slot, and is apparently running fine, but as soon as i start any demo or application using A3d it works only for 1 or 2 seconds, then it starts to produce weird sounds.
Sometimes it happens also when opening wav files straight away, but not always.

Following this FAQ:
http://www.quantexzone.com/index.php/vortex-o … a-compatibility

5.5 - Why doesn't this card work well with motherboards that use the VIA MVP3 chipset? […]
Show full quote

5.5 - Why doesn't this card work well with motherboards that use the VIA MVP3 chipset?

This problem is a result of the VIA chipset implementation on many motherboards (not all). It seems to stem from using an AGP video card and a PCI sound card (and is not limited to just those using Aureal Vortex products).

There are numerous core driver updates available on the VIA web site which should be downloaded and installed. They are:

VIA 4 in 1 driver 4.18a (Contains the latest IDE Busmastering driver, AGP driver, IRQ Routing driver, and ACPI driver)
VIA USB Filter Driver 1.07
VIA PCI Bridge Patch 1.6

If you don't want to download the 4 in 1 driver above, you can download three of the four components separately:

VIA IDE Busmastering Driver 2.1.44
VIA AGP Driver 3.59
VIA IRQ Routing Driver 1.3a

You might also want to check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if they have released any updated drivers or BIOS for your particular motherboard that may address these issues. Some companies using the VIA MVP3 chipset on their motherboards are:

FIC
Gigabyte
MicroStar MSI
M Technology
Soyo
Tyan

I installed all the related Drivers and updates: the lastest via 4in1 (4.46) for mvp3 + USB filter patch + Via Latency fix (it took me few days to find that one online) + PCI bridge patch
But still with no luck

If anyone here has an idea of how to solve this it would be great, i would really like to enjoy A3D sounds. 😁

Thanks in advance for the help!