Very Computer

 Alright folks, I went cheap on this one....
I bought a Directwave system, with a TR-4 MB, which supposedly has a 430 hx chipset.
I have an OPTI 82C930 soundcard, and a trio 64 (Diamond Stealth 64) video card.
I have a quantum sirocco 1700a hd, 48 meg o' ram, and a P166, running kernel 2.0.25, and rh 4.0.
Here's the symptoms:

1. Whenever I try to compile triton support into my kernel, the machine crashes unpredictably in X.
2. Even without triton support in the kernel, when I try to play a sound in X, and it does not have
anything to do with the cdrom, that is, I try to play an .au, or a wav, the machine locks up tighter than a drum.
3. The Trio 64 complains of not being able to use its linear framebuffer, and when there is triton support, even
when I make sure that dma is enabled with hdparm, it still gives dma disabled messages on /var/log/messages.
4. I used rh 2.1 before this, with kernel 1.3.20, and it was stable, but slow without pci support, or triton, and
it wasn't as nice without sound.
5. If I try to play a sound in a terminal, there is no problem unless I switch to X in the middle.
6. No problems otherwise. If I don't touch triton, and avoid the .au and wav files like the plague in x, then I
never have a problem at all, and am rock solid.

A friend (Simon Karpen, among the first 20,000 linux users in the US) suggested that it is a dma fault in my
motherboard. However, Win 95 (so shoot me, I don't care) has no problem with my triton or the dma, or the sound. I
just want a second opinion before I decide to wrestle over warranty work with Directwave (the manufacturer), or go
out and buy a new motherboard. Tell me what you all think, and tell me if there's an easy fix.

Thanks in advance,

Vic
--

Yes, yes, I know they always go down and I'll pay more for any
system than I would a few months later.

I just want to know if anyone who actually follows the market knows
whether one of those particularly large price drops will happen
after the holidays.

I'm about to buy a whole new system. If I wait because prices are
about to go down, then I'll never buy anything, but I'd wait a
while if a particularly big price drop was coming.

        Brian

-James Rogers

AFAIK, Intel's MMX Chip due to be released Jan'97 will, I hope, bring
ALL OTHER PC prices crashing through the floor.
IMHO: DON'T BUY NOW!

...unless you're a real sucker for Marketing Hype ;-)

REF:
<http://www.chipanalyst.com/report/articles/mmx/mmx.html>

Quote:> > I'm about to buy a whole new system. If I wait because prices are
> > about to go down, then I'll never buy anything, but I'd wait a
> > while if a particularly big price drop was coming.

For CPU's, I heard that AMD's K6 is the ultimate; and Intel MMX has
very poor performance on multitasking systems.  FWIW!!

I am so happy with my P120; I have no need whatsoever to upgrade.
I have plenty of QuakeStones  8^)

Mark

| I just want to know if anyone who actually follows the market knows
| whether one of those particularly large price drops will happen
| after the holidays.
|
| I'm about to buy a whole new system. If I wait because prices are
| about to go down, then I'll never buy anything, but I'd wait a
| while if a particularly big price drop was coming.

I would expect the price of fast Pentium and PPro systems to drop a
few hundred between now and April. The MMX chip is coming, Intel is
supposed to drop prices, and the holiday buying frenzy will be over,
letting the channel fill again.
--

  What do you mean I shouldn't do thing like that at my age?
  At my age if you don't do things like that you might die of natural causes!