FIC KA-6100 stability - Memory and USB

[KentB]

Hi...
Maybe someone has experience with this board...
I inherited this motherboard (FIC KA-6100) from a friend and
I want to make it work. It used to work before it started gathering
dust
when the HDD went...
Anyway, from what I can determine, the CPU is a 233 MHZ Pentium II
(deschutes)
overclocked to 350 Mhz. This system is unstable as hell !!!
Most of the time, it will hang at the BIOS screen...sometimes, if I'm
lucky, I will be able to work in VGA mode with Win 98 SE for a few
hours
before it hangs...
I have tried different video card (PCI, AGP), different RAM (PC100,
PC133)...
I am getting frustrated...
What is the best memory type I should use with this board ?
PC100 ? What about the BIOS settings ?
I tried different settings;usually put the RAM settings at the slowest
settings...
What am I doing wrong ?
Someone out there with experience with this board?

Another question...this board did not come with the USB connector
or PS/2 mouse connector. Right now, I am stuck with using a serial
mouse...
The header pins are not standard, to my knowledge.
It is a 5-pin header with one pin missing ( like this: |o ooo| )
Is this standard ?

Also, I was able to find a USB cable to find the board.
I am using Win 98 SE and when I connect a device to it, Win 98 freezes
up.
I believe I have installed the VIA 4-in-1 driver.
What could been causing this ?

I am using the lastest BIOS version.
BTW, I am unable to detect more than 33 GB from my 60 GB Maxtor drive;
I have to use a jumper to detect only 33 MB.

If you have any advice, please let me know

 

[nobody]

Hi...
Maybe someone has experience with this board...
I inherited this motherboard (FIC KA-6100) from a friend and
I want to make it work. It used to work before it started gathering
dust

Try to clean up rhe heatsink/fan, and then re-seat it with fresh
thermal paste

when the HDD went...
Anyway, from what I can determine, the CPU is a 233 MHZ Pentium II
(deschutes)

233 must be klamath, 66mhz fsb. Deschutes IIRC were 350 to 450, 100mhz
fsb.

overclocked to 350 Mhz.

That does it. Try normal speed

 

[Bob Horvath]

On 4 Dec 2005 18:34:39 -0800, Bob Horvath wrote:

FWIW, I don't know how old that board is, but about 2 years ago,
my FIC mb, which was about 3 years old at the time, developed a case
of "bad capacitors" which was a problem with those and other mb's of
different mfg's. Look at the caps and see if they are bulging and/or
have a type of residue on the tops of them. If so, that could be your
problem.
Your symptoms are exactly what I experienced.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Hi...
Maybe someone has experience with this board...
I inherited this motherboard (FIC KA-6100) from a friend and
I want to make it work. It used to work before it started gathering
dust
when the HDD went...
Anyway, from what I can determine, the CPU is a 233 MHZ Pentium II
(deschutes)
overclocked to 350 Mhz. This system is unstable as hell !!!

As someone else has stated, look for the bad capacitors. Common problem
for motherboards of that era.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Alex Zorrilla]

A Pentium II 233 Deschutes??? To my knowledge, the only P-II 233
processors produced were Klamath core (C0 and C1 steppings), which used
a 0.35 micron process and topped out with the Pentium II 300. If this
is indeed the case, no wonder the system is so unstable running at 350 MHz!

If you can get an S-spec off that CPU, look it up at
http://processorfinder.intel.com . That should tell you what you need
to know.

Now, if this same CPU was working before in your friend's computer at
350 MHz, it could be that the CPU is not getting cooled as well as it
was before. Check that the fans are spinning well, the heatsinks are
free of dust, there is good air circulation in your case, etc. At the
very least, I would make sure the system is working correctly at stock
speeds before overclocking it to 350.

The hard drive only working up to 32 GB is a BIOS issue. There was a
bug in the Award BIOS code that limited the addressable hard drive space
to 32 GB. This bug was eventually fixed by Award, but it was up to
motherboard makers to supply the fixed BIOSes. FIC never released an
updated BIOS for the KA-6100, but some enterprising individuals have
patched BIOSes themselves and put them up on this page:

http://wims.rainbow-software.org/

Please note that BIOSes on this page are completely unofficial, so use
at your own risk. Also be sure to download the BIOS that corresponds to
the revision of your motherboard (1.1 or 1.2).

Hope this helps you get started.