Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 03:41:32 +0100
To: enduser.support@ecs.uk.com
From: Mike Coppins
Subject: problem with P6BAT-Me mobo

Hi, I'm hoping you can help me with a problem I'm experiencing, 
which involves a motherboard you produced, the model P6BAT-Me, 
with CPU Slot 1 support.

There are a couple of problems really, but I think it may be 
down to the same cause, so bear with me :)

I've tried a couple of graphics cards in the motherboard, 
and get the same issue, which is that there are strangely 
long delays in console mode for screen update.

For example, if I go into the BIOS setup, and try to use 
the cursor keys to navigate the menus, it takes a second 
or two to change options.  This is a minor issue, but 
irritating.  The same kind of thing happens in Windows 
(98 or NT4 fully patched) if I get up a command prompt.

The second problem is far more annoying.  I've tried using 
a Riva TNT AGP graphics card and a GeForce 2 MX200 (32M SDRAM, AGP card), 
and attempting DVD playback is dropping significant amounts of 
frames, no matter what the display card/BIOS config is.

Both cards I've tried are both firmware patched up-to-date, 
and the drivers I'm using have been both the latest, or a 
set of known-reliable drivers for the cards.

With DVD playback, I'm using a IDE DVD drive I know which 
works properly.  In Windows 98 (fully patched), if I use 
PowerDVD 2.55 (the only software I know of to reliably 
handle hardware acceleration from a graphics card), and select 
hardware acceleration, I get major graphics corruptions.  
If I untick the acceleration option, CPU usage saturates 
during playback and frames are dropped.

Hardware:

P3-550 Katmai (I know this CPU to work properly, playback 
of DVDs, etc, to work fine);
128M SDRAM
GeForce 2 MX 200 32M SDRAM AGP 2x
using integrated audio

Windows 98 or NT4, both fully patched

PS - when I say 'hardware acceleration' for DVD playback, 
I don't mean a dedicated hardware for doing that.  I mean 
the MPEG-2 decoding capabilities that the GeForce 2 can do 
in hardware, so CPU usage sits at around 25% even with a P3-550.

Any help would be much appreciated.  I've sanity-checked 
BIOS options and they seem ok.  Mobo BIOS is fully patched, 
it's the v1.x model mobo.