AK31 irq problems.

[lucky43]

I have the shuttle ak-31 motherboard w/256 ddr ram
and AMD Athlon 1700 processor, 40 gig hd. My problem is, i can't run any games, i always get the black screen or nothing at all. I have the
nvidia geforce 2 mx 200 32 mb video card, with on board sound. I checked the system information and the video, sound , ACPI Holder for pci irq steering(3entries) ,VIA Tech 3038 pci to USB Universal Host Controller(3 entries). This is all on IRQ 11.I cannot run any games at all, they will load fine, but at starup i will sometimes get sound and no picture. I need help.
Thanks

First thing is get some of those devices off IRQ 11. Set them manually in the BIOS if you have to.
They are labled, sort of, to the right of the IRQ setting on the INT PIN Assignment. Change from [Auto] to an unused slot.Next thing is disable ACPI. You don't need it.

If you haven't updated the Via 4-in-1 drivers, you should be using the most up to date ones depending on your OS. XP users should be using 4.38, I think.

If that still doesn't work, try temporarily disabling the USB and see if that does it.

[lucky43]

Thanks for the info, i forgot to say i am a DIY
person. I put this system together and i was wondering what would you suggest for a video card?
Also the bios update, which one do i use? I am running Windows ME. How do i find out what version
do i have. I am kinda new at this so any help would be appreciated. This has been the best forum i have found so far. A person can learn a lot from here.
Thanks

Anything nvidia is great, but with that speed a processor, you can take advantage of even the Geforce 4. It all depends on how much money you have. ATI Radeons also are very high quality and both companies give great support.

Windows ME? If you don't mind killing 'system restore' 5 minutes after you install from an empty hard drive and you have lots and lots of memory, it's probably fine, but 98SE is a bit more stable. I've found 2000 Pro to be about the best of the lot. XP is probably fine too, but that hardware check scared me away.

For BIOS, I stopped at ak31s2ee, but you might have to go one more upgrade beyond that for your 1700+. BIOS version is displayed at the POST. If you want to freeze the screen to see it, just press the "pause/break" key next to scroll lock during the memory test right after power up or a reboot. Press any key to finish the memory test.