Funny. I've run numerous VIA motherboards without issue. From various manufacturers. There's only one I can name as a problem board, the Epox 8K3A+, which went belly up after a few weeks of purchase.

I've run:
Abit VP6 (Apollo Pro 133) (dual Socket 370)
Asus A7V (KT133)
AOpen AK77 (KT266)
Epox 8K3A+ (KT333)
Epox EP-MVP3-G5 (VIA MVP3)
Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Ultra (KT400)
MSI 694D Pro (694D) (dual socket 370)
Soyo KT600 Dragon+ (KT600)
SuperMicro P3TDDE (Apollo Pro 266T) (dual socket 370)
Tyan Trinity 133 (694D)

Except for the aformetioned one Epox motherboard, I've seen no reason to cite VIA as a problem. Keep in mind that a number of these have been used as the motherboard in my main box. The hardware isn't the issue. However, they're driver support has not been necessarily the best...although with the length of time it's taken nVidia to sort out their IDE driver issues, VIA doesn't look as bad in hindsight. Most of these I've sold/traded off in prime working condition. These are motherboard's I've dealt with over a span of about six years, and I've never seen an issue relating to hardware. I've seen issues related to stupid things I've done, but the hardware hasn't been an issue.

I've used VIA chipsets more than any other so far, and I've had no problems with them. I've had memory issues with 2 nForce 2 motherboards, I've had a horrid experience with an ALi Magik chipset board (Iwill XP333-R), I've even had a bad Intel 440BX-based board (Abit BE6). With the exception of ALi (and that's really due to disappearing from the chipset market and returning as ULi before nVidia bought them out), I've purchased motherboards with chipsets from the rest.

I'm not going to say that you don't have a hardware problem or that VIA is perfect (if you believe any chipset manufacturer is, you're fooling yourself), but I've used over 20 different motherboards over the years, so I am saying that I do know what I'm talking about when I tell you VIA is not the problem people make them out to be.