Older ASUS board - RAM + CPU problem

[Doug Leal]

Hi all ASUS users..

I don't suppose anyone has tried to ressurect an older P2B-F board?
I'm assembling a clunker from spare parts and have accumulated a P2B-F (rev
1.0) board, a PIII 600EB Slot 1 CPU and assorted pieces of PC 100 SDRAM.
totalling 576 MB

The problem is getting the sytem to recognize the correct CPU with all the
RAM.
If I set the jumpers as indicated in the manual, the BIOS will report the
CPU as a PIII 450.
If I fool around with the frequency multiplier/bus frequency jumpers so the
system reports the correct CPU speed, it will only see 320MB RAM
It should be 100Mhz x 6.0, but that will only give me 450Mhz!!?
RAM is all double-sided PC 100 and tested OK.
BIOS is the latest from ASUS for that model......(113A I think)
By tweaking the jumpers I'm able to get it to recognize the CPU as a 515 MHz
processor with all RAM recognized - and that's it.
It actually runs not too bad. It's usable, even with XP PRO, but the fact
that there's another 85 Mhz going to waste is annoying.

Anyone know of a fix?
Cheers

Doug

 

[Bob Knowlden]

The 600EB uses a 133 MHz FSB (front side bus), and runs at 4.5X133.

I don't know about the P2B-F board, but some mainboards using the 440BX
chipset permit setting the PCI divider to 4. Set the bus frequency to 133,
and the divider 4 sets the PCI bus to the normal 33 MHz. (The AGP bus
divider can't be set to the proper number, so it's overclocked at 89 MHz.
That's OK for some graphics cards, like a Geforce 4200.)

If you want the maximum performance, you'd need PC133 RAM. If you're using
256 MB DIMMs, they must be low density. (All of the low density 256 MB DIMMs
I've seen used 16 chips, but I don't know that is required.) It may also be
possible to set a memory ratio so that PC100 will work at its usual
frequency.

If you don't wish to mess with all that, find a CPU with a 100 MHz FSB.
You'll still need low-density DIMMs, though.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Daniel Mandic]

Hi all ASUS users..

I don't suppose anyone has tried to ressurect an older P2B-F board?

You must be joking.

I'm assembling a clunker from spare parts and have accumulated a
P2B-F (rev 1.0) board, a PIII 600EB Slot 1 CPU and assorted pieces of
PC 100 SDRAM. totalling 576 MB
The problem is getting the sytem to recognize the correct CPU with
all the RAM. If I set the jumpers as indicated in the manual, the
BIOS will report the CPU as a PIII 450. If I fool around with the
frequency multiplier/bus frequency jumpers so the system reports the

As Bob said, you have the FSB133 Katmai.
BX is maximal FSB100. Officially.

correct CPU speed, it will only see 320MB RAM It should be 100Mhz x
6.0, but that will only give me 450Mhz!!? RAM is all double-sided PC
100 and tested OK. BIOS is the latest from ASUS for that
model......(113A I think) By tweaking the jumpers I'm able to get it
to recognize the CPU as a 515 MHz processor with all RAM recognized -

Would do well for XP.

I actually use (for other purposes) a P3B-F with an old P2 Xeon at
300MHz and 100FSB. I tried XP too, to see how it do and it if is fast
enough with 300MHz. Well, a Xeon is a very special CPU, I know now.
Sometimes I when I copy from one partition to the other, seemingly
nothing happens, but it does

and that's it. It actually runs not too bad. It's usable, even with
XP PRO, but the fact that there's another 85 Mhz going to waste is
annoying.

Anyone know of a fix?
Cheers

If you are not in need of the latest 3D things you could use a PCI VGA
and clock the system with FSB133. But I think you will get troubles
with your RAM.
PC133 Cl.3 is just working up to 112MHz at Cl. (The same goes with
PC100 Cl.2), otherwise you would have to buy some new SDRAM´s :-(

More otherwise, it would also be a waste not to use the new AGP drivers
shipped with XP SP2.



Best Regards,

Daniel Mandic

usin ASUS P2B-F Version 1,0; 786MB PC133/3, Matrox Millenium G450 at
68MHz AGP
Intel Pentium III-S 1400MHz Tualatin (solid stable!?)

Doug

P.S. I´ve tried a 4200ti Gfx, whew.... thats BX power - snappy like
californian fruits.
Outperformed a Palomino XP1800 with the same GfX (ATARI NwN) in a
second. No jerking, no dazzling anymore. Even while loading from disk,
thats quad-pumped!

 

[Daniel Mandic]

Whew, I think I did not wake up very well.



sorry, made some errors.

Probably you have a Coppermine P3. 133x4.5. I thought to a 450 Katmai...

"You can clock the AGP with 89MHz, using a GeForce......"

133MHz RAM with Cl.2 is (SDRAM PC133 Cl.2, 16Mx8!!! High Density
structure) required for the FSB133. Double or single sided. Just watch
for 16Mx8, thats important.

Cl.3 I would not recommend you, better stay at FSB100 or little more
with Cl.2.
2-2-2 in the BIOS. And don´t forget to set DRAM Idle Timer to infinite.



Kind Regards,

Daniel Mandic

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

That's the last one:
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Slot_I/INTEL_Chipset/i440BX/P2B-F/with_Hardwaremonitor/1014f_03.zip
The crappy Asus website still seems to refer to 1013A as the "latest".

I actually use (for other purposes) a P3B-F with an old P2 Xeon at
300MHz and 100FSB.

I thought Xeons were Slot 2? Do these beasts really fit into a slot 1
board? And out of which hat did you pull the 300 MHz variant, Chris Hare
only lists 400+ MHz versions? Going by
<http://developer.intel.com/design/Quality/PentiumII/xeon/parts.htm>,
it's about impossible that you can put a Slot 2 CPU into a Slot 1 board.
The S-Spec for your "Xeon" would help...

Stephan

PS: Revived an old Gigabyte GA-686KDX yesterday, a i440FX based dual
Slot 1 beast with 6 SIMM (!) slots that'll only swallow Klamath core
PIIs. Now I merely need a floppy drive, a second processor with big
passive cooler, a nice ATX case and some help from my dad in making an
airduct with a nice big 120 mm fan at the rear side of the case - my
current third comp has a horribly loud PSU of 1991 vintage (with a
fairly high-rpm 92 mm Panaflo that still runs perfectly), in an unusual
antiquated form factor at that, no need to replicated this kind of noise
level. I do hope the board works with two CPUs installed. With
everything up and running, I'll probably get some more memory as well,
currently it's 80 megs with a mix of EDO and FPM modules. Or maybe the
wild mix will go into the "noize box" and I'll use its 2 128 meg FPM
SIMMs instead.

 

[Daniel Mandic]

I thought Xeons were Slot 2? Do these beasts really fit into a slot 1
board? And out of which hat did you pull the 300 MHz variant, Chris
Hare only lists 400+ MHz versions? Going by
<http://developer.intel.com/design/Quality/PentiumII/xeon/parts.htm>,
it's about impossible that you can put a Slot 2 CPU into a Slot 1
board. The S-Spec for your "Xeon" would help...

Stephan

Hi Stephan.


It´s a case like a P2/350 for example (big passive radiators on). But I
can clock it like I want. 150x2 or 100x3 and 66FSB, too. An open
multiplicator!
And, CPU-Z reads out, that the 2nd-level cache have a latency of 0
instead of 5, that a Deschutes (p2-350) have!! Like a Tualatin also
havin 0. But this copying from one Partition to the other makes me
annoyed, making it so fast!?
So I thought this fast beast must be a Xeon.

However, this system will serve me well, installed Windows95b. 3.5" and
5.25" Disk.
Adaptec, Soundcard (ISA off course), 256MB. XP was just for testing on
the sys. I think I´ll leave XP to the Ghz Tualatin. But Windows95 is
the only Sys which is fully compatible to the soundcard (Soundfonts
etc...). My AWE64Gold is really working amazing in XP with the P3-S
(3D-Pinball without any!! crackles!!!) but loading soundfonts is not
working anymore, even not with NT4 :-(. Just Win3.1 and 95.
A new soundcard with loading sounds from the MB-RAM is no thema for me,
as many modern hardware is only shit for me.

But thats not a problem. Win95 is so and so faster in standard windows
operations....



Best Regards,

Daniel Mandic

 

[Doug Leal]

Thanks to all who responded.
I've left it as is and it's now running at 515MHz with 576MB RAM.
It's stable and running suprisingly well.
I did upgrade the BIOS to ver 1014 - but of course it made no difference...
I tried all combinations of all jumpers and 515 is the highest it will run
with all RAM recognized.
I realize that I should have matched a CPU's FSB to the capabilities of the
board, but with freebies you can't be picky.

I have a P3C2000 board that is coming my way, so when I get it, I'll swap
everything over so I can use all 600MHz.

Cheers
Doug

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

I have a P3C2000 board that is coming my way, so when I get it, I'll swap
everything over so I can use all 600MHz.

The system may, however, not necessarily be any faster - the i820 with
MTH is restricted to PC100 operation and not exactly a speed deamon.
(According to old Sisoft Sandra memory benchmark results, it's about on
par with a BX at 66 MHz.) And then there's the buggy MTH, so don't be
surprised if the board has a tendency to freeze. If this weren't enough,
even some pure RDRAM i820 boards showed instability, apparently due to
grounding issues. (Tne P3C-D appears to be solid though.) This fiasco
was also called "Caminogate"...

Stephan