BIOS update data incorrect (P4B266)

[Hackworth]

I have a P4B266 motherboard (i845 chipset and 400 MHz FSB). I managed to get
my hands on a (damn rare) 400-MHz FSB Pentium 4 2.6-GHz processor (the
fastest P4 processor available for that FSB speed) at a good price. I popped
it into my system (replacing the old 1.7-GHz P4) and everything works
perfectly. But... I notice that this message now appears briefly during
POST:

BIOS update data incorrect. CPUID=00000F29

However, the system boots and runs just fine and the processor does of
course run at 2.6 GHz. The only thing I can think of is that the 2.6-GHz
CPU is not officially recognized by name, despite the multiplier and FSB
being set set correctly. Asus stopped updating the BIOS for this
motherboard two or three years ago, so there's really nothing I can do about
it and it's no big deal.

I just thought I'd check here just in case the message may mean something
else that I need to investigate. Any thoughts?

 

[Robert Hancock]

I have a P4B266 motherboard (i845 chipset and 400 MHz FSB). I managed to get
my hands on a (damn rare) 400-MHz FSB Pentium 4 2.6-GHz processor (the
fastest P4 processor available for that FSB speed) at a good price. I popped
it into my system (replacing the old 1.7-GHz P4) and everything works
perfectly. But... I notice that this message now appears briefly during
POST:

BIOS update data incorrect. CPUID=00000F29

However, the system boots and runs just fine and the processor does of
course run at 2.6 GHz. The only thing I can think of is that the 2.6-GHz
CPU is not officially recognized by name, despite the multiplier and FSB
being set set correctly. Asus stopped updating the BIOS for this
motherboard two or three years ago, so there's really nothing I can do about
it and it's no big deal.

I just thought I'd check here just in case the message may mean something
else that I need to investigate. Any thoughts?

That message means that the BIOS doesn't contain any microcode update to
load for that processor, so any CPU bugs addressed by the update won't
be worked around. Windows will load an update as well if it has one for
that CPU stepping, which it may or may not.

Is there no newer beta BIOS available for the board? Those tend to be
updated longer than the official released ones.

 

[Hackworth]

That message means that the BIOS doesn't contain any microcode update to
load for that processor, so any CPU bugs addressed by the update won't be
worked around. Windows will load an update as well if it has one for that
CPU stepping, which it may or may not.

Is there no newer beta BIOS available for the board? Those tend to be
updated longer than the official released ones.

Yes, indeed. I neglected to click on the "beta" radio button in the BIOS
download menu on the Asus site. There is a v. 1011 (beta ver. 3, which in
Asus parlance means "final") available for download:

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4B266&Type=BIOS

That fixed the problem, so now I have a happy 2.6-MHz 400-MHz-FSB P4 with
updated microcode. Thanks.

 

[Linea Recta]

Yes, indeed. I neglected to click on the "beta" radio button in the BIOS
download menu on the Asus site. There is a v. 1011 (beta ver. 3, which in
Asus parlance means "final") available for download:

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4B266&Type=BIOS

That fixed the problem, so now I have a happy 2.6-MHz 400-MHz-FSB P4 with
updated microcode. Thanks.

Unfortunately they don't seem to provide any information about this update.
And I'm not going to push my luck...



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regards,

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