Important Issues with AMD 1.4 GHz (266 fsb)

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Apparently, these mo/bo's seem to have a problem running these CPU's!!! What can you tell me about it? Confirm? Reviews state the board is stable, but a lot of ppl are complaining about instability with it when using a 266 FSB CPU with it (not necessarily the 1.4 one).

I need to know about this, my new PC has one of them boards

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

How long have you had them and have you had any problems?

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Well, they are being shipped on Monday, so I will have them by the end of next week

I'm just trying to figure out what, if any, problems I might run into...

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

Feel free to post to the tech support forum if you get any problems.

Is this the machine you bought from EBay?

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

I found this (large) piece of information.

FAQ 1.41 on K7S5A (M830) Data Corruption

CONTENTS:

PART 1: Overview

PART 2: First things to check

PART 3: The (suspected) cause and ?non-causes? of the problem

PART 4: The (best-known) solution

PART 5: Summary of testing and research

PART 6: Revision History

PART 1: Overview

Problem:

Some K7S5A (and M830) motherboards suffer from what appears to be a data corruption

problem when used with certain CPU?s. The problem is common with Athlon 1.4

GHz processors, and is occasional with various Athlon CPU?s above 1GHz. The

problem is much less common with Athlon XP processors. The problem has been

reported (but has not been confirmed) at speeds under 1GHz. The problem appears

to be limited to motherboards with the number 4 or higher on a small sticker

by the PCI slots.

Symptoms:

Memtest86 Errors, 133/133 failures and problems, Crashes, Blue Screens, Windows

Protection Errors, OS installation failures, corrupted CD burns, Windows Registry

corruption, general data corruption, etc.

(Note: It now appears that the CONFIGMG and ?Lost CMOS? problems are largely

unrelated to this problem.)

The Manufacturer?s statement on the problem:

Please read here.

PART 2: First things to check

Q: How do I know if I?m effected by this problem?

A: You may have system stability problems as outlined above. These can be hard

to pin down, so download and run the Memtest86 program. (www.memtest86.com )

If you can run through all tests without any memory errors, you should not have

the problem and you most likely have a rock-solid setup. When the K7S5A is working,

it works great. (In rare cases, problems can still exist when Memtest86 does

not report them. It is not yet known if these other problems are caused by a

bad motherboard, or by some other cause.)

Q: Memtest86 reports errors, but I still think my system is ?stable.? Do I really

have a problem?

A: It depends:

A suggestion has been made that Memtest86 may not correctly report errors. This

may be the case, or it may be that Memtest86 is just very good at finding errors.

This is still under investigation.

Most reports indicate that yes, this is a real problem if you have data on your

hard drive, or process data on your computer that must be 100% correct. This

pretty much includes anyone using the computer for serious work.

Still, some users have Memtest86 errors and don't find it to be a problem. So,

no, maybe it?s not much of a problem if you don?t have any data that is super

important to you, and don?t mind the possible risk of crashes or data corruption.

Also, if you only have a few errors (<100) your chances of data corruption may

be very small. For some users, this may be acceptable. For others, a system

with no known hardware errors is very desirable.

Q: Explain exactly how the system can seem so stable when data corruption is

occurring?

A: The data corruption appears to be ?pattern sensitive? which means that only

certain patterns of data result in corruption, and usually cause a single bit

of bad data. The patterns that cause corruption may or may not be written frequently

by the OS or applications. Even when they are written and corrupted, the corruption

may not crash your OS or application. Most applications are ?bit-error tolerant?

which means that a few bits of error in memory will not be detected right away.

This is why it is possible to have a computer that seems to be stable, and why

it may be possible to pass many typical system and memory tests.

The reason most OS and application software is ?bit-error tolerant? is because

programmers expect that the hardware will work 100% correctly and will not corrupt

the data. When data corruption is expected, methods such as CRC, Parity, ECC

and Verification are used to check and even correct the data. This does not

typically occur in normal OS and applications running in system memory.

Most popular CD writing software are good examples of ?bit-error tolerant? programs.

They will write a CD, but will not take the extra time to read back the entire

CD to verify that each file was written 100% correctly. They skip the verification

this because it can take as long to verify the CD as to write it, and on most

systems it will always verify correctly. (The problem was originally discovered

by CD writing software that would automatically verify the entire CD, and would

fail every time.)

The BIOS for these motherboards does not have an option to turn on/off the CPU

Cache ECC, so its possible influence/impact is unknown.

Also, the number of errors can vary over time. The problem appears to be primarily

related the driving impedance of the CPU and/or the actual impedance of the

motherboard and/or the actual behavior of the CPU. All three of these can change

slightly over time and temperature. Because many motherboards seem to be ?just

on the edge? of working correctly, the number and type of errors you encounter

may change significantly with time and with relatively small changes in CPU

temperature.

Q: OK, I downloaded Memtest86, made the floppy disk, and I have the problem.

Is my motherboard bad? What should I do?

A: It?s possible that your motherboard is "bad," but you must first check several

other important components of your system before you can be sure -- you must

check your BIOS Settings, Memory, Power Supply and CPU temperature. See below.

Q: What BIOS and BIOS Settings should I use?

A: Be sure your memory timing is set to Normal or Safe.

Leave all other memory settings at their defaults. If you?re not sure, use the

clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard to reset to factory defaults. Then, set

your CPU speed to 133/133 (or 100/100 for a 200FSB processor) and try again.

A few users have reported improvements with the 011016 BIOS although this has

not been confirmed by any controlled tests. Still, you may want to try this

BIOS version.

IMPORTANT: You must have a stable system configuration before you update the

BIOS or you could end up with a corrupted BIOS that may not boot. Try setting

your CPU speed to 100/100 and use Memtest86 to see if your system is OK before

you update. If you still have errors, go into the BIOS and turn off the L1 (and

L2) CPU cache. This will make your computer slow, but should allow you to update

without error in most situations.

Q: I get Memtest86 errors at Fast and Ultra memory settings, but not at Normal.

What does this mean?

A: This means your motherboard is working correctly. The Fast and Ultra memory

settings are made for very fast memory chips, not normal chips. If you can only

run at the Normal setting, it means that your memory operates at normal PC2100

or PC133 speeds. If you want to run at the Fast or Ultra settings, try some

higher quality memory.

Q: How do I know if my Memory is OK?

A: It is expected that true ?bad memory? will show errors at the exact same

addresses each time you run Memtest86. If you have a wide range of error addresses

that change each time, the problem is not likely to be in you memory itself.

It is usually easy to confirm that your memory works properly by changing your

processor. At this time it?s hard to say what kind of processor will work for

sure. The best chance is to try a slow Athlon/Duron (1000MHz or less) or an

Athlon XP/MP processor. Be sure to use the same 133/133 CPU speed settings if

possible. If you continue to have the same problems in Memtest86, check the

Power Supply and CPU cooler, and try your memory in another computer, if possible.

If you don?t have access to another processor, just try setting you CPU clock

to 100/100. This will allow you to test your system at a lower speed that just

might pass the test. Many ?bad? motherboards still cause errors at 100/100.

If you still have errors at 100/100, you might have low-quality memory, a bad

motherboard, or some other problem. You?ll have to keep testing to find out.

Be sure to use high quality PC2100 or PC133 Memory. If possible, get memory

from the approved list in the manual or on the web site.

The problem has been confirmed with both PC2100 and PC133 memory, but is generally

less severe with PC133 memory.

Q: What Power Supply do I need? Should I really buy a 350W or 400W super supply

for $$$?

A: You need a good power supply that can provide 5V with enough current to run

your motherboard and all other components:

The best option is to buy an ?AMD Approved for Athlon 1400MHz? Power Supply.

Note that just ?AMD Approved? is not enough, because it might only be approved

for some slower Athlon (like Athlon 1000) and that?s not going to work if you

have a 1400/1333/1300 processor. AMD?s web site (www.amd.com) has a list of

every power supply they have tested and approved. There are plenty of units

that support the Athlon 1400, and they can be found on the Internet for under

$40. If you don?t have an AMD approved power supply, get one.

In general, you will not need to get a super 350-400W power supply. Unless it

is rather expensive, one of these is often not AMD approved at all, or is not

as good as a basic 300W AMD Approved unit. The possible exception where you

may need to spend the $$$ on an AMD Approved 350W+ supply is when your system

is loaded with other power-hungry items like a super fast Video Card (or two

for dual monitor support), multiple 7200-10000RPM hard drives, multiple CD-RW

drives, SCSI cards, etc.

Q: What CPU temperature is OK and what CPU Cooler do I need?

A: The Athlon processors at 1GHz+ are rated to operate correctly at temperatures

up to 95C (about 200F!). Typical CPU coolers and case setups will keep the temperature

of the CPU in the 45-65C range and this is very acceptable. If the BIOS reports

a CPU temperature above 65C, you should consider a better CPU cooling system,

and/or a better case cooling system, and make sure you have a good thermal grease/thermal

pad on your heatsink where it touches the CPU.

Q: What CPU voltage is OK?

A: The Athlon processors are specified to work between 1.65V and 1.85V. The

BIOS should show the Core Voltage within this range. 1.74-1.76 is the most common

and is ideal. If your voltage is less than 1.65V or more than 1.85V, you may

have a problem of some kind related to the CPU power supply.

Some users have noticed that the reading for the Core Voltage jumps between

different levels in the BIOS. This can happen even on good motherboards and

is not a concern unless the voltage jumps are .1V or more (i.e. if the voltage

jumps from 1.66 to 1.76 to 1.66 to 1.76, etc.)

PART 3: The cause of the problem and ?non-causes? of the problem

Q: I have checked and double-checked everything in PART 2 of this FAQ and everything

looks good. What?s causing the Memtest86 errors?

A: Most likely, a ?bad? motherboard.

Q: What exactly is wrong with the ?bad? motherboards?

A: The exact problem is not known, but currently two things appear to be issues:

1) 99% of the problem: The ?ZP issue? (Driver Impedance).

Testing has found that ?bad? motherboards do not work correctly because of the

way they ?program? ZP, the AMD bus driver impedance for the CPU. These ?bad?

boards program the CPU to approximately 56 Ohms. Changing the motherboard?s

ZP resistance to a value closer to 40 Ohms is thought to make the signals stronger

and has fixed the problem in several dozen confirmed cases and in several dozen

additional reported cases. So far, there have only been a few reported (and

no confirmed) cases of changes to the ZP resistor that did not result in a complete

correction of the problem. (Naturally, there are other possible problems and

this fix doesn?t fix everything!)

In addition to the ZP resistance, the actual board impedance may vary, as does

the actual driving characteristics of each CPU. This means there are at least

three variables in this ?ZP issue? equation. If you get a good match on all

three, your setup is likely to work pretty well. If you have a bad match, you

may have many errors.

Overall it appears that ?bad? motherboards are right on the edge of working

correctly. This is why the problem has been so hard to identify, and some boards

actually work quite well, while others are really quite bad.

It appears that boards with 0, 1, or 2 (maybe also 3) on the sticker by the

PCI slots usually have 40 Ohm ZP and ZN resistors on the board. Boards with

4+ usually have 40 Ohms for ZN and 56 Ohms for ZP. This change seems to approximately

coincide with the approval for Athlon XP processors. Although the reasons are

not known, an AMD document has been circulating that states motherboards designed

for XP processors should use 56 Ohms for ZP as a starting resistance.

Most fixed board testing has been done with 200 Ohm resistors placed in parallel

with the 56 Ohm ZP resistor on the board, bringing the effective resistance

to about 44-46 Ohms. This seems to work well for both Athlon and Athlon XP processors.

2) 1% of the problem: Noise.

Although usually not a problem, the Power Switching FET?s and Diodes in the

CPU power supply circuit generate large amounts of noise. The motherboard has

a ?leak path? that passes this noise directly onto the 12V power line. Typical

boards have 3-4 volts of ?bursting high-frequency? noise on the 12V line that

might be the cause of occasional data corruption or other problems. This is

still under investigation.

Q: Are there some versions of the Athlon Thunderbird or Athlon XP CPU?s that

don?t have the problem?

A: Generally, the Duron processors, Athlon processors less than 1GHz, and Athlon

XP/MP processors seem to work much better. Apparently, all versions of the basic

Athlon chips, "A4-A9" show signs of the problem. Please note that the behavior

of each CPU can be different, even of the same model from the same date code.

This can mean that the same Motherboard with its specific ZP resistance and

board impedance may work with one CPU and not with another CPU of exactly the

same specification.

Q: Why do some Memtest86 tests pass and others fail?

A: Memtest86 will typically find errors in Test #3, #4, #5 and #6. These tests

seem to be more sensitive to the problem.

Q: What are the errors that Memtest86 is reporting and why does it find them?

A: Memtest86 usually reports pattern errors and block move errors in large quantities.

These problems are thought to be caused by the degraded signals that result

from the impedance mismatch.

It is important to note that the "problem" is _not_ in the memory itself. Instead,

the problem appears to be caused by the motherboard's interaction with the CPU

and/or memory. Other memory testers may not report memory errors, because the

memory itself is generally OK. Memtest86 just happens to do pattern tests that

end up in corrupted data. Since it is a memory tester, it reports corrupted

data as "memory errors" even though the errors are not caused by bad memory.

In this sense, Memtest86 is not the best utility to find a "bad" motherboard,

but it is the best utility available at this time.

Q: I pressed ?c? in Memtest86 and turned the Cache memory to OFF. Then all the

tests passed, why?

A: This is not fully understood. Maybe the cache is sensitive to the problem,

or maybe it?s just that turning the Cache memory off makes Memtest86 run fewer

tests.

Q: Does this mean I can just turn off the CPU cache in the BIOS and the problem

will be fixed?

A: Possibly, but don?t bother. The system will be slow like a Pentium 100 (or

worse) with the cache turned off.

Q: Does anything else in the system have an effect on the problem? What about

my video card, hard drives, OS, etc?

A: As far as testing can determine, nothing else has any significant impact

on the problem.

Q: Could it be the clock speed? My system shows 1394MHz instead of 1400MHz and

that?s not quite right.

A: The motherboard actually runs at 99.5% of the standard 133.33MHz. This is

caused by the limited clock options built into the ICS clock chip used on the

board. This chip has a 133.33 setting that is used by the motherboard, but there

is a -.5% speed variance at that setting. Other settings, like 133.9MHz have

a +/-.25% speed variance, but would result in the CPU running a bit too fast.

Q: I got the CONFIGMG errors while using DDR memory, then I switched to PC133,

and the problem went away. Doesn?t this mean that the problem is with DDR memory,

or at least my stick of DDR memory?

A: No. Running the motherboard with PC133 memory usually reduces the number

of errors, and this helps make the CONFIGMG error less frequent. Extensive testing

has found that almost all bad motherboards that have errors with DDR memory

will also have errors with PC133 memory. The reduction in memory errors does

not appear to be directly related to the different memory, but the motherboard

behaves differently when using it.

Also, the CONFIGMG error appears to be caused by a bug in the BIOS that sometimes

detects two memory modules, when only one is installed. This cause of the problem

is not related to the data-corruption problem, unless it is the data corruption

that makes BIOS think there are two memory modules installed.

Q: Could it simply be that the 1400MHz processor takes too much power and that?s

the cause of the problem?

A: No, the motherboard has no problem supplying the power for 1400MHz. This

has been verified by careful measurements with a high speed oscilloscope. In

addition, additional power loads of 14W (equivalent of about 200MHz in additional

CPU speed) have been added to the core voltage while running an Athlon 1400,

and the motherboards have no problems with that either.

Q: What about the theory about different power FET?s on good and bad versions

of the board?

A: Not correct. Both the IR and NEC power FET?s used on different versions of

the boards are able to handle the power requirements with no problem. Testing

has found that the noise signature of these two types are a little different,

but special motherboard changes have been made to greatly reduce their noise

(at the expense of more wasted power) and the noise does not appear to be related

to the problem.

Q: Can I just raise the Core voltage to 1.85V to solve the problem?

A: Generally, no. A higher core voltage usually makes the problem worse not

better. Feel free to try if you?d like, the processor is designed to work at

1.65 to 1.85 so it shouldn?t hurt anything.

Q: So, is there some kind of clock quality problem?

A: No. The ?spectral signature? (FFT) of the clocks on good motherboards match

those on bad motherboards.

Q: Even if it?s AMD approved, couldn?t it still be some problem with the Power

Supply?

A: Not likely. A bad power supply can definitely cause problems, but no power

supply can fix the data corruption problem. Testing on more than 8 power supplies,

and testing with lab quality power sources has confirmed that there is no power

supply solution to the problem.

Q: Why isn?t the problem just bad memory? It?s Memtest86 that finds the errors

and it says they are memory errors.

A: Memtest86 is actually testing the CPU, Cache and Memory all at the same time,

and it can?t tell exactly where the problem is. If the memory really is bad,

Memtest will find errors at specific locations in the memory chip, and should

find them on any motherboard. When Memtest finds the same ?errors? on every

memory chip, but only on one motherboard and at one CPU speed, it points to

the motherboard and CPU as the problem.

Q: I?ve seen references to a Memory voltage adjustment that will move the memory

from 2.5V to 2.6V. Will this help?

A: Not likely. A higher memory voltage is really only good when you need the

memory to run faster for overclocking. Extensive testing with a range of memory

voltages has found that it has no impact on the problem.

Q: Is the problem that AMD only approved the board for the Athlon XP processors?

A: Not clear. Many boards seem to have trouble with both Athlon and Athlon XP

processors. Other boards work very well with both Athlon and Athlon XP processors.

Q: I see both K7S5A and M830LR motherboards for sale on the net. Both are listed

in the test setup in part 5 of this FAQ. Are there any differences between them?

A: There are cosmetic differences such as color of the PCB and in the printing

of the name on the board and heatsink. Beyond that, there are no known differences.

Both boards act exactly the same way and have exactly the same errors. Whatever

small differences there might be, none seem to impact the problem.

PART 4: The Solution

Q: So what can I do?

A: You can live with it, or try one of these three options:

1) Get another processor. Most "bad" motherboards will work correctly with a

slower Athlon (1000MHz or less) or with an Athlon XP processor. You might even

just try a different CPU of the same speed.

2) Get another motherboard. The exact value of ZP varies (testing on about 100

boards found actual ZP values from about 55 Ohms to 58 Ohms). In many cases,

55 Ohms is low enough to eliminate all or virtually all errors (depending on

the specific board and CPU), while 58 Ohms will generally cause huge numbers

of errors. Therefore, if you swap your board out for a new one, there?s a change

you will get a lower ZP resistance. You might even ask your dealer to check

the ZP resistance with a Digital Multi-Meter to find one that is around 55 Ohms.

3) Apply the fix . If you have steady hands, good eyes, and can solder small

parts, you should be able to fix your motherboard yourself, see below.

Q: Can I just set the BIOS to CPU speed of 100/100 to fix the problem?

A: Sometimes. Testing on a couple dozen motherboards has found that many will

work correctly at 100/100, and many will not. If you have good results in Memtest

at 100/100, your board should be safe to use.

Q: Is there anything I can solder/unsolder from the board that might make the

problem better?

A: Yes, but not easily. The ZP resistor on the motherboard seems to be the key

to this problem. Changing it to a value in the range of 40-50 Ohms seems to

fix the problem. Unfortunately, the resistor is small and hard to solder, unless

you have a fine-tip soldering iron, and a very steady hand. Plus, if you mess

up and get a little solder where it?s not supposed to be, you can short Vcore

to Ground and the motherboard might be damaged or destroyed when you turn the

power on. Fortunately, the resistors are easy to find, and are shown in the

fix guide . They are side by side, inside the CPU socket area on the corner

that is the farthest from the AMR slot. Note: If your motherboard has one or

both resistors marked 59X, it (they) are already be 40 Ohms and should not need

the fix. You will only need to reduce a resistor marked ?560? and adding a resistor

(180-220 Ohms recommended) in parallel.

Also, there is a small capacitor that causes a noise leak path from the CPU

power supply onto the 12V line. Inserting a ferrite bead (or small inductor)

in series with this capacitor can choke the noise down to around 1V on the 12V

line and can clean up any remaining errors that might persist after the resistor

fix above. This fix has been reported to correct other strange problems as well,

such as video artifacts on LCD flat panel monitors. Again, you?ll need a steady

hand, a small soldering iron, and you?ll need to find a surface mount ferrite

bead or inductor to install. The capacitor is located just off the corner of

the CPU socket that is closest to the AMR slot. It is a large (thick) surface

mount capacitor, right next to the two through-hole diodes that are right below

the through-hole 16pin power supply PWM control chip. One side of the Capacitor

is connected with a heavy trace right into the heart of the CPU power supply

circuit. If you unsolder the Capacitor, and then solder it in an upright position,

you can then solder the inductor in an upright position where the other side

of the capacitor was and bridge the tops of both together. It is also possible

to break the 12V trace right under the PWM chip and solder the ferrite bead

or inductor there with good results. See the fix guide.

For those wondering about a ferrite/inductor to block the noise, I looked up

the parts I have been using: TDK part number HF50ACC453215-T. Their information

is here, and here: http://www.tdk.co.jp/tefe02/e9413_ACC.pdf

Q: My system is working fine, but I want better overclocking capability. Will

the ?fix? give me that?

A: Generally, no. There have not yet been any confirmed cases where an otherwise

100% working system has changed the overclocking abilities for CPU speed or

memory timings. Still, extensive testing has not been done, and you?re welcome

to try.

PART 5: Summary of testing and research on the problem

Just about every possible component has been switched on every motherboard in

every combination that makes sense. The problem always follows the motherboard,

and does not appear to be a problem with any of the added components.

On all tested ?bad? motherboards, the problem is completely eliminated (or at

least reduced by 99.9%) by adding a 200 Ohm resistor in parallel with the ZP

resistor to change the value to 44-46 Ohms. These boards then work with all

tested Athlon, Duron, Athlon MP and Athlon XP processors.

One ?good? Motherboard, a Rev 0 board, always works very well and is 99.9% solid,

passes every Memtest86 test with virtually every item listed below. This motherboard

has two 59X, 40 Ohm resistors. Since this is the only motherboard that came

with two 40 Ohm resistors, it's no surprise that it works perfectly.

With 1.4GHz processors, the 26 Rev 4/Rev 6 ?bad? motherboards fail Memtest86

at 133/133. About half also fail at 100/100.

With one particular Athlon XP 1800+, and one Athlon MP 1200 processor, all 27

motherboards (?good? and ?bad?) are 100% solid with every item listed below.

Testing on one ?bad? motherboards with 4 additional Athlon XP processors found

that 3 of the 4 do not work, while one seems to work fine. All 4 additional

Athlon XP processors were tested on 3 randomly selected ?fixed? boards and work

perfectly. All the Athlon XP processors worked correctly in subsequent testing

on more than 10 other ?bad? boards.

Different BIOS versions seem to have no impact on the problem.

Memtest86 usually finds errors in Tests #3, #4, #5, and/or #6 on ?bad? boards.

The Athlon MP 1200 runs rock-solid and passes all Memtest86 tests, even at 150/150,

on 5 randomly tested ?bad? motherboards. All DDR memory was tested at this speed

(300MHz) as well, and works perfectly on the ?bad? motherboards when using the

MP processor.

A stand-alone lab power supply was used to supply all power lines for the motherboard

to ensure that none were lacking from the standard ATX supplies. No voltage

variations on any power lines had any impact on the problem.

A stand-alone lab power supply was used to adjust the 3.3V and memory 2.5V/1.25V

on the motherboard itself, with no effect.

All the main clock and power signals into and out of the CPU were carefully

compared between the ?good? board and ?bad? boards. No conclusive differences

could be found.

Confirmed failure symptoms:

Memtest86 errors (of course)

CD-RW write corruption

Windows Blue Screens

Windows Registry corruption

OS install failure (Linux)

Windows Protection Errors

Windows lockups

Boot failure

Test Setup:

27 Motherboards: One Rev 0, two Rev 4, 24 Rev 6 boards. (some K7S5A?s and some

M830?s, appear to be identical and work with each-other?s BIOS)

19 CPU?s: Three Athlon 1400 266FSB, One Athlon 1400 200FSB, Two Athlon XP 1800+,

One Athlon XP 1700+, Two Athlon XP 1600+, One Athlon MP 1200 266FSB, One Athlon

1200 200FSB, One Athlon 1333 266FSB, One Athlon 1300 200FSB, One Duron 650,

One Duron 1000, Four Duron 750

19 Memory sticks: Two Samsung PC2100 DDR 128MB, Four Samsung PC2100 DDR 256MB,

Four Kingmax PC2100 DDR 256MB, Two Winbond PC2100 DDR 512MB, One Crucial PC2100

256MB, One Kingmax PC133 256MB, One PC166 256MB, One PC166 128MB, One Micron

PC133 256MB, Three generic PC133

3 BIOS versions: 010920, 010911 (OC), 011016

18 Power Supplies: One Sparkle 350W AMD Approved 1400MHz, One 300W AMD Approved

1400MHz ?Deer? brand, One 250W generic, Fifteen 300W AMD Approved 1400MHz ?PX-300W?

Equipment:

Protek 506 4 digit Digital DMM

Tektronix TDS3034 300MHz digital oscilloscope

Various lab grade power supplies and other equipment

Software:

Memtest86 2.8

Windows 98SE

Windows Me

Windows XP

Redhat 7.1

Redhat 7.2

PART 6: Revision History

10/31/01, Original V1.0 release.

10/31/01, New V1.1 update ? Cause and solution found.

11/4/01, Update to V1.2 ? Small clarifications and corrections.

11/4/01, Update to V1.3 ? Athlon XP chips confirmed to have the problem.

11/9/01, Noted that "59X" resistors are 40 Ohm and don't need to be changed

if present

11/9/01, Update to V1.4 - Official ECS response

11/20/01, Update to V1.41 ? Various clarifications

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

That is excellent! Cheers for that!

I'm already crossing fingers and hope my board will be fine.

Btw, at the beginning of the post, there is a link to the manufacturer's statement; do you still have the url?

And yeah, it was bought on ebay.

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

I don't have the link to the statement but here is the link to the manufacturers site.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

I can't find the above article though

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

Hmmm... It's probably very old news. I guess they just point out why "The problem appears

to be limited to motherboards with the number 4 or higher on a small sticker

by the PCI slots.".

Bad day at the production line I guess.  

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

nah, if you read carefully, its because they messed up with the resistors. resistor is too strong. they changed the (previously working) resistor in order to allow it to work with the MP and XP AMD's. looks liek they shot themselves into the foot. pfff.

i dont think i can fix that problem though...i dont wanna start messing about with the mobo and start soldering it

and there is no way im gonna run @ 100/100 I payed for a 266 FSB 1.4 GHz with PC133 memory!! im not gonna accept a performance drag thing

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

I didn't bother to read the whole thing.  

You just have to hope that it doesn't have number 4 or higher on a small sticker by the PCI slots.

And the do-it-yourself-soldering reminded me of this:

Customer: "Where can I get a BIOS upgrade for by 286 computer?"

Tech Support: "The unit should have been shipped with the latest bios."

Customer: "Well, I upgraded the processor myself, and my computer doesn't seem to work."

Tech Support: "What did you upgrade the processor to?"

Customer: "I upgraded it to a 486DX-50."

Tech Support: "Sir...the 286 chip is soldered on the motherboard!"

Customer: "I know, I took out my handy soldering iron and took it out and put the 486 on myself."

Tech Support: "Sir, the 486 is bigger than the 286."

Customer: "I know, I had to use quite a bit of solder to solder the extra pins together."

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (R. Gerschwarzenge @ Jan. 13 2002,01:38)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I didn't bother to read the whole thing.  

You just have to hope that it doesn't have number 4 or higher on a small sticker by the PCI slots.

And the do-it-yourself-soldering reminded me of this:

Customer: "Where can I get a BIOS upgrade for by 286 computer?"

Tech Support: "The unit should have been shipped with the latest bios."

Customer: "Well, I upgraded the processor myself, and my computer doesn't seem to work."

Tech Support: "What did you upgrade the processor to?"

Customer: "I upgraded it to a 486DX-50."

Tech Support: "Sir...the 286 chip is soldered on the motherboard!"

Customer: "I know, I took out my handy soldering iron and took it out and put the 486 on myself."

Tech Support: "Sir, the 486 is bigger than the 286."

Customer: "I know, I had to use quite a bit of solder to solder the extra pins together."<span id='postcolor'>

That is quite funny

but my board WILL have a 4 or higher on it, because they said that it supports both Athlons and XP's...they even offered me an XP upgrade...but i went for the dvd instead

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

Well you just have to wait and see what happens. Of course you can sell the mobo and buy another. You might even make some profit with it.

I hope you won't have big problems with it.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Well, I have pretty much made my mind up.

Once I get the PC I will make sure it works (or not), and regardless of the outcome, I'll sell it and get another one instead. I most likely wont make any profit, cos ill prolly buy a very overclockable RAID board from...say, ASUS or something. I'll head over to overclockers.co.uk tomorrow and see what they have

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

That sounds like a good choice.

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Abit KT7a, ver. 1.3 sounds just like what i want

[SWT_Janowich 10]

I have to say your computer is pretty low poly, so expect some stutter and issues.

[Placebo 28]

Digging up an 8 year old thread?