I have this same board. It worked ok for about a year and then started doing
the exact same thing as you describe. I bought a cheap Asus board to use
while I RMAed it. The Asus board worked so much better than the KR7A-R that
when I got the Abit board back I left the Asus in the machine. A year later
I decided to build a box to experiment with Linux and use the KR7A-R. I
first installed Windows XP just to make sure it would work. It did not. I
finally got XP loaded after 5 hours with random lockups. The next day I
tried to start the KR7A-R and it would not boot or give beeps. I contacted
Abit and they refused to do anything about it. Finally after 2 weeks of
hassle they did agree to RMA the board again. I don't have it back yet. I
bought another Asus board to build the Linux box. I just got it in today and
waiting for another processor. My suggestion would be dump the Abit board
and get an Asus. I know others will disagree but that has been my
experience. I built 7 other Abit systems in the last 5 years and the KR7A-R
was the only one I have had trouble with. I have heard that this board has
design problems and can never be repaired.


"Martin" wrote in message
...
Hi. I wonder if anyone here has the solution to the problems I am
experiencing with this motherboard?

When playing mp3 files, avi files or games, the system locks up after a
period between 20 and 60 minutes.
Sometimes it completely locks up and I have to cut the power.
Sometimes it reboots itself immediately.
Most times when playing mp3s, Media Player (or WinAmp, or Nero Showtime)
locks up and there is a buzzing, or rapid ticking, sound.
Sometimes it stops when I close Media Player, other times it continues.
Either way I have to reboot to get sound working again.

It does the above even with only one drive connected.

I have switched the memory around, using one stick in all 4 sockets. I
currently have them in 2 and 4.

I flashed to the latest BIOS.

I had problems with a Netgear ethernet card and swapped it out.

I had problems with a Geforce MX 400 card so I bought a 9600XT.

No known problems with sound card, and I am NOT buying any more cards!

I have now exceeded the permitted number of activations of XP Home with
all the hardware changes, and will have to ring Microsoft next time I
reinstall!

I have tried the VIA v443 drivers and the VIA IDE driver (apparently this
one is required to support drives over 137 Gb, not that I have any). The
latter seemed to make it worse.

Abit tech support reckon I should just use the XP drivers. I tried that,
no joy.

I've gone through the BIOS and changed settings to those recommended by
various parties, i.e. conservative settings for memory, disabled video
palette snoop, enabled wait states for memory etc.

Power options are set to always on, apart from the monitor which is set to
turn off after 20 minutes. Needless to say I have tried it with monitor
"always on".

I am about ready to set it on fire! I've spent the best part of 4 weeks
messing with it.

It did this occasionally under Windows ME, but under XP Home with SP2 it
is doing it consistently.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Also any recommendations for a replacement Socket A mobo with RAID,
bearing in mind I have five ATA drives...

Thanks,
Martin.

System:
ATHLON XP1800+
KR7A-RAID
BIOS version CX inc. HPT 2.34 RAID BIOS (from www.sudhian.com)
2 of Crucial 256Mb memory sticks (CT3272Y265)
ATI 9600XT AGP video card
Hercules Gamesurround Muse 5.1 sound card
RealTek RTL8139 Ethernet card
FSP Aurora 300w power supply
Lian-Li PC-60 USB case
5 of ATA IDE drives
All USB devices unplugged just in case
ACPI enabled

Drivers:
HPT v2.34
VIA Hyperion 4in1 v4.55vp1 (4.51 and 4.43 also tried)
VIA USB Filter patch
(VIA Bus Master (Ultra DMA) PCI IDE Driver IDE_MPD3014 - now uninstalled)
RAID performance patch rpp1.02