Will old A7V upgrade to 1.3mhz Athlon

[Joe101]

I have an old A7V with PC133 memory. Could I exchange my 1000mhz Athlon
with a 1333Mhz Athlon ???? _______

I want to stay conservative....... NO overclocking desired. Besides I
understand that newer Athlons have locked speed.

The manual says A7V has a 200Mhz FSB (front side bus) and the BIOS lets me
set the CPU frequency to 200, but I would stop at 133 to match the CPU and
PC133 memory.

BIOS help says PCI clocks at 1/4 of CPU so that would be a safe
133x0.25=33mhz PCI speed.

The for $40 I can purchase Athlon P1333Mhz to increase my speed 33%.

Thanks Joe101

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

I have an old A7V with PC133 memory. Could I exchange my 1000mhz Athlon
with a 1333Mhz Athlon ???? _______

Yes, but at exactly no speed gain. You'd need a 1300 or 1400B MHz TBird,
with a FSB of 100 MHz (instead of 133 MHz).

Stephan

 

[Pug]

I managed to get my old A7V upgraded to a 1.4Ghz but that was nearly 2 years
ago and that processor was in short supply here at that time so I'm not sure
where you'll be able to find one now.

 

[gdp]

I have an old A7V with PC133 memory. Could I exchange my 1000mhz Athlon
with a 1333Mhz Athlon ???? _______

I want to stay conservative....... NO overclocking desired. Besides I
understand that newer Athlons have locked speed.

The manual says A7V has a 200Mhz FSB (front side bus) and the BIOS lets me
set the CPU frequency to 200, but I would stop at 133 to match the CPU and
PC133 memory.

BIOS help says PCI clocks at 1/4 of CPU so that would be a safe
133x0.25=33mhz PCI speed.

The for $40 I can purchase Athlon P1333Mhz to increase my speed 33%.

Thanks Joe101

At www.a7vtroubleshooting.com they have many discussions in the forums,
and notes or info on some pages on what you can do. If you can "unlock"
the 133 MHz front side bus processor, you can run it at 12.5x100 (or
1003 or 105 or 108) but not 133 as the classic A7V couldn't overclock
the front side bus much and still be stable. Also make sure you have a
later BIOS version flashed. From that site:

"On A7V : My CPU is shown with less Mhz than it should have (eg.
Athlon1000 is shown as Athlon750)"
The classic A7V only supports 100Mhz Front Side Bus (FSB). Many Athlons
are supposed to run with 133Mhz FSB and thus have amultiplier of 7.5 for
100Mhz (133*7.5=1000). If you have such an FSB133 Athlon it will only
run with a part of it's rated speed on the A7V. Either get a Athlon
meant for 100FSB, or unlock the CPU and set the Multiplier by hand.
Thiscurrently only works for Multiplier up to 12.5! (Note: FSB100 is
often referred to as FSB200, and FSB133 as FSB266. This is due to the
Athlon having a Double Data Rate DDR CPU interface which transfers 2
data words per clock cycle. Effectively this makes 200Mhz from 100Mhz)

 

[Joe101]

At www.a7vtroubleshooting.com they have many discussions in the forums,
and notes or info on some pages on what you can do. If you can "unlock"
the 133 MHz front side bus processor, you can run it at 12.5x100 (or
1003 or 105 or 108) but not 133 as the classic A7V couldn't overclock
the front side bus much and still be stable. Also make sure you have a
later BIOS version flashed. From that site:

"On A7V : My CPU is shown with less Mhz than it should have (eg.
Athlon1000 is shown as Athlon750)"
The classic A7V only supports 100Mhz Front Side Bus (FSB). Many Athlons
are supposed to run with 133Mhz FSB and thus have amultiplier of 7.5 for
100Mhz (133*7.5=1000). If you have such an FSB133 Athlon it will only
run with a part of it's rated speed on the A7V. Either get a Athlon
meant for 100FSB, or unlock the CPU and set the Multiplier by hand.
Thiscurrently only works for Multiplier up to 12.5! (Note: FSB100 is
often referred to as FSB200, and FSB133 as FSB266. This is due to the
Athlon having a Double Data Rate DDR CPU interface which transfers 2
data words per clock cycle. Effectively this makes 200Mhz from 100Mhz)

My ASUS A7V manual says 200mhz FSP aand KT133 chip set. I flashed to 1008
2 years ago and motherboard is marked Rev 1.02

I ordered .........
AMD266-1333OEM ATHLON (THUNDERBIRD) P1333MHZ SOCKET A (266Mhz BUS) 256K L2
on die cache, 0.18micron ..................$40.00
from www.spartantech.com late last friday along with some other parts.
They are not open on weekend....should I call early monday and cancel the
above Athlon?????????
thanks Joe101

 

[JF]

KT133 chipset supports 100fsb (referred to as 200fsb). The KT133A
supports 133fsb (referred to as 266fsb) which the A7V-133 has, not the
A7V classic. The highest i could ever get my classic A7V and be stable
was 107 fsb. I also had an A7V-133 and could get it to 142fsb before it
became unstable.
JF

 

[Joe101]

I'm beginning to understand...as follows:
1) AV7 manual advertises 200FSB (double clocking - rise and fall of clock),
but in reality is physically a 100mhz clock generator.
2) The KT133 is really rated at 100mhz (and dies on your system when you set
FSB switches to about 107mhz).

I would think that I could set my A7V for (jumper enable), set my FSB
switches to 100mhz, and set my multiplier to 12.5 to get 1,250 mhz to the
CPU, and that underclocking a 1333mhz Athlon would be OK.

Similarly I might be able to slightly over clock my KT133 chipset with FSB
switches set to 103mhz or 105mhz and still use the maximum clock multiplier
of 12.5 to get CPU speed of 1287Mhz or 1312Mhz respectively.

I understand that AMD put some over clocking jumpers/resistors on the back
side of the Athlon to prevent overclocking, and they can be cut if one knows
what to do. That is not my intention as I will get the right CPU speed,
but will they underclock, say I have a 1333 Athlon at 1287mhz.

But look at the CPU I am purchasing. It say it is a 1333mhz with 266mhz
bus. Does this mean it really needs to be fed 133mhz and internally (and
with those on chip speed jumpers) does a X10 multiplier to get 1333mhz.

I think I'm going crazy.....Joe101

 

[Joe101]

After reading www.a7vtroubleshooting.com and re-reading all the help
everyone has given me here, it looks like the Athlon 1333/266 I have ordered
will run at slow speed unless I can unlock the CPU's FSB as well as the CPU
itself. Does anyone know if "unlocking" replacing the 4 L1 bridges will
unlock both the FSB as well as the CPU speed? If I can do this I will
switch set FSB to 105MHz and set multiplier switches to 12.5 for 1312MHz
processor speed.

Comments please.....Joe101

 

[gdp]

The 1333 may be multiplier locked or it may not. It depends on the
stepping and when it was manufactured. If not locked, you should be
able to do as you wish with the 12.5 multiplier. If locked, you need to
find instructions for unlocking the multiplier of the Athlon/Tbird.
They should be out on the net somewhere, perhaps detailed in some of the
old forum posts at www.a7vtroubleshooting.com

Interesting in the forums there that some of the A7V people are getting
the unlocked XP2400+ and Bartons to run at over 2 GHz using modded BIOS.

Good luck.

George

 

[Joe101]

For $40 I am going to take my chances and order the Athlon 1333MHz (133FSB).

If I get the CPU unlocked, I will test it by trying several different FSB
speeds and look to see if the BIOS reports changing CPU speeds. I realize
that I need to flash the latest BIOS in an attempt to get BIOS to report
correct CPU speed, but even than I may still have a reporting error and will
just have to rely on the calculated FSB times the multiplier (like 105 X
12.5 for 1312Mhz)..

I also assume that a 133MHz rated FSB CPU will run fine at a lower FSB
speed, say 100 to 105mhz.

Anyone see holes in this logic? For those just tuning in........my ASUS A7V
has a limitation of a 100Mhz rated KT133 chipset...I wish to upgrade my
Athlon 1000 (100MHz FSB) to an Athlon 1333 chip but the only Athlon I can
find in a 1333 w/133Mhz FSB...thus I need to unlock the on chip multiplier
and push FSB slightly over 100 (to 105Mhz which the KT133 should take).
I'm not trying to overclock, I just cant find an old Athlon with 100Mhz FSB.

Thanks again for everyone's help. Joe101

 

[gdp]

I had a 1.4 GHz (10.5x133) Tbird (factory unlocked) in my Epox 8KHA+
that I upgraded to an XP2400+. When I did that, I sold that CPU to a
friend with an early A7V (he had an 800 Tbird). He's been running it at
12.5x105 for a year and a half. So, no, the fact that the processor is
specified for a 133 MHz FSB system does not restrict you from using it
in a 100 MHz FSB system.

Good luck. Hope the 1333 MHz CPU is unlocked. If not, I'm sure you can
find instructions for unlocking it.

George

 

[dgk]

I had a 1.4 GHz (10.5x133) Tbird (factory unlocked) in my Epox 8KHA+
that I upgraded to an XP2400+. When I did that, I sold that CPU to a
friend with an early A7V (he had an 800 Tbird). He's been running it at
12.5x105 for a year and a half. So, no, the fact that the processor is
specified for a 133 MHz FSB system does not restrict you from using it
in a 100 MHz FSB system.

Good luck. Hope the 1333 MHz CPU is unlocked. If not, I'm sure you can
find instructions for unlocking it.

I've been following the thread because I have a A7V133 (1.05 no dot)
that just will not play nicely with a 1600+ palomino. It isn't
supposed to so no big deal. I also have an A7V that I want to give to
a friend so I just ordered the 1.333333 and will drop that into the
133 and transplant the current 1200 to the A7V. Both of those should
work fine. I know the 1200 will work there because it did before I
moved it to the 133 a while back.

Now, what to do with at 1600+ ...

 

[Joe101]

For those following this thread...........My Athlon 1333/266 I ordered from
www.spartantech.com ($40) just arrived and it is UNLOCKED or at least the 4
jumpers at L1 are clearly closed. This weekend I will try to run at
105FSBx12.5=1312MHz on my A7V. I will post results here at a future date.

 

[Joe101]

UPDATE as promised -----> results of my work today
1) First I flashed my A7V with latest BIOS Ver 1011, and reset BIOS defaults
as suggested in AFASH's README.TXT
2) Installed the new 1333/266 Athlon
3) Set Jumper Free to [off ], so I could control FSB and Multiplier with
dip-switches.
4) New BIOS faithfully reports correct CPU speed.
5) Now------->I'm having difficulty Booting......BIOS goes to FAIL SAFE
(BIOS SETUP) about 1 of 5 boots...Red text BIOS SETUP Message indicates
that CPU or Memory is having problem with settings and falls back to 100MHz
Memory and 33MHz PCI. I progressively backed speed down to FSB=100MHz
and Multiplier of 10 for 1,000MHZ CPU which is where I started (the old
CPU's speed), BIOS still goes to FAIL SAFE just as frequently as when I has
it set to my initial target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz. As I am typing
this, I am at my desired target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz and all is
fine, I have many browser sessions open and lots of application open on my
desktop....Rock solid if I get past the BIOS FAIL SAFE.
6) Next I will remove one 256MB memory stick at a time to make sure it is
not memory related, I added another 256MBs, which could be the problem.
7) Then I will put the old Athlon 1000 back, just to check.
8) I'll remove all PCI cards (except AGP) to take load off the power supply.
9) I'm out of ideas if the old Athlon and both memory strips work without
the FAIL SAFE problem.
10) I could always hit the reset button when I get a BIOS SAIL SAFE halt.
As I indicated, the system seem solid at 1.391Mhz. I'll keep it at this
high speed to see how it performs over time.
11) I also checked the voltages using BIOS SetUp......and found
Vcore=1.78volts, +3.3= 3.49volts, and +5 = 4.00volts .....the VCore is still
set to the [CPU default]. Should I jack with the Vcore voltage??????
12) Anybody got any ideas?????
Thanks, Joe101

 

[dgk]

UPDATE as promised -----> results of my work today
1) First I flashed my A7V with latest BIOS Ver 1011, and reset BIOS defaults
as suggested in AFASH's README.TXT
2) Installed the new 1333/266 Athlon
3) Set Jumper Free to [off ], so I could control FSB and Multiplier with
dip-switches.
4) New BIOS faithfully reports correct CPU speed.
5) Now------->I'm having difficulty Booting......BIOS goes to FAIL SAFE
(BIOS SETUP) about 1 of 5 boots...Red text BIOS SETUP Message indicates
that CPU or Memory is having problem with settings and falls back to 100MHz
Memory and 33MHz PCI. I progressively backed speed down to FSB=100MHz
and Multiplier of 10 for 1,000MHZ CPU which is where I started (the old
CPU's speed), BIOS still goes to FAIL SAFE just as frequently as when I has
it set to my initial target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz. As I am typing
this, I am at my desired target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz and all is
fine, I have many browser sessions open and lots of application open on my
desktop....Rock solid if I get past the BIOS FAIL SAFE.
6) Next I will remove one 256MB memory stick at a time to make sure it is
not memory related, I added another 256MBs, which could be the problem.
7) Then I will put the old Athlon 1000 back, just to check.
8) I'll remove all PCI cards (except AGP) to take load off the power supply.
9) I'm out of ideas if the old Athlon and both memory strips work without
the FAIL SAFE problem.
10) I could always hit the reset button when I get a BIOS SAIL SAFE halt.
As I indicated, the system seem solid at 1.391Mhz. I'll keep it at this
high speed to see how it performs over time.
11) I also checked the voltages using BIOS SetUp......and found
Vcore=1.78volts, +3.3= 3.49volts, and +5 = 4.00volts .....the VCore is still
set to the [CPU default]. Should I jack with the Vcore voltage??????
12) Anybody got any ideas?????
Thanks, Joe101

For those following this thread...........My Athlon 1333/266 I ordered from
www.spartantech.com ($40) just arrived and it is UNLOCKED or at least the 4
jumpers at L1 are clearly closed. This weekend I will try to run at
105FSBx12.5=1312MHz on my A7V. I will post results here at a future date.

I also just got the 1333 for my A7V133 but haven't mucked with it at
all. It is running at the default at the moment. But it runs hot,
around 50C idle. So I dropped the vcore (default is 1.75) to 1.70 and
it still runs fine but a bit cooler. I'm not sure I'm even going to
try to OC this board. I have two that are much faster so this is
pretty much for testing stuff out such as beta software, stuff that I
don't want messing up the main machines.

It did just run Prime95 for 14 hours with no errors. I went nuts
trying to get a 1600+ palomino to work and no luck. (1.05 no dot).
Anyone want a nice 1600+? Well, there's a PC Fair nearby today, maybe
I'll see if I can find a cheap board for it.

 

[gdp]

Your 5 V reading is very low, if you typed it correctly. What's your
12V reading?

I wouldn't think a Vcore change would help any, given that it does the
same thing at 1000 MHz.

Do a google search for memtest86 and run that overnight to see if you
are getting any memory errors. The old A7V could be picky about memory.

George

UPDATE as promised -----> results of my work today
1) First I flashed my A7V with latest BIOS Ver 1011, and reset BIOS defaults
as suggested in AFASH's README.TXT
2) Installed the new 1333/266 Athlon
3) Set Jumper Free to [off ], so I could control FSB and Multiplier with
dip-switches.
4) New BIOS faithfully reports correct CPU speed.
5) Now------->I'm having difficulty Booting......BIOS goes to FAIL SAFE
(BIOS SETUP) about 1 of 5 boots...Red text BIOS SETUP Message indicates
that CPU or Memory is having problem with settings and falls back to 100MHz
Memory and 33MHz PCI. I progressively backed speed down to FSB=100MHz
and Multiplier of 10 for 1,000MHZ CPU which is where I started (the old
CPU's speed), BIOS still goes to FAIL SAFE just as frequently as when I has
it set to my initial target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz. As I am typing
this, I am at my desired target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz and all is
fine, I have many browser sessions open and lots of application open on my
desktop....Rock solid if I get past the BIOS FAIL SAFE.
6) Next I will remove one 256MB memory stick at a time to make sure it is
not memory related, I added another 256MBs, which could be the problem.
7) Then I will put the old Athlon 1000 back, just to check.
8) I'll remove all PCI cards (except AGP) to take load off the power supply.
9) I'm out of ideas if the old Athlon and both memory strips work without
the FAIL SAFE problem.
10) I could always hit the reset button when I get a BIOS SAIL SAFE halt.
As I indicated, the system seem solid at 1.391Mhz. I'll keep it at this
high speed to see how it performs over time.
11) I also checked the voltages using BIOS SetUp......and found
Vcore=1.78volts, +3.3= 3.49volts, and +5 = 4.00volts .....the VCore is still
set to the [CPU default]. Should I jack with the Vcore voltage??????
12) Anybody got any ideas?????
Thanks, Joe101

For those following this thread...........My Athlon 1333/266 I ordered
from

www.spartantech.com ($40) just arrived and it is UNLOCKED or at least the
4

jumpers at L1 are clearly closed. This weekend I will try to run at
105FSBx12.5=1312MHz on my A7V. I will post results here at a future date.

 

[Joe101]

Oops! I typed it incorrectly +5=4.99volts and -12+12.26volts
I'll try memtest86.
I'm moving this string to the top as A7V BIOS FAILSAFE

Your 5 V reading is very low, if you typed it correctly. What's your
12V reading?

I wouldn't think a Vcore change would help any, given that it does the
same thing at 1000 MHz.

Do a google search for memtest86 and run that overnight to see if you
are getting any memory errors. The old A7V could be picky about memory.

George

UPDATE as promised -----> results of my work today
1) First I flashed my A7V with latest BIOS Ver 1011, and reset BIOS defaults
as suggested in AFASH's README.TXT
2) Installed the new 1333/266 Athlon
3) Set Jumper Free to [off ], so I could control FSB and Multiplier with
dip-switches.
4) New BIOS faithfully reports correct CPU speed.
5) Now------->I'm having difficulty Booting......BIOS goes to FAIL SAFE
(BIOS SETUP) about 1 of 5 boots...Red text BIOS SETUP Message indicates
that CPU or Memory is having problem with settings and falls back to 100MHz
Memory and 33MHz PCI. I progressively backed speed down to FSB=100MHz
and Multiplier of 10 for 1,000MHZ CPU which is where I started (the old
CPU's speed), BIOS still goes to FAIL SAFE just as frequently as when I has
it set to my initial target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz. As I am typing
this, I am at my desired target speed 107 x 12.5 = 1,391Mhz and all is
fine, I have many browser sessions open and lots of application open on my
desktop....Rock solid if I get past the BIOS FAIL SAFE.
6) Next I will remove one 256MB memory stick at a time to make sure it is
not memory related, I added another 256MBs, which could be the problem.
7) Then I will put the old Athlon 1000 back, just to check.
8) I'll remove all PCI cards (except AGP) to take load off the power supply.
9) I'm out of ideas if the old Athlon and both memory strips work without
the FAIL SAFE problem.
10) I could always hit the reset button when I get a BIOS SAIL SAFE halt.
As I indicated, the system seem solid at 1.391Mhz. I'll keep it at this
high speed to see how it performs over time.
11) I also checked the voltages using BIOS SetUp......and found
Vcore=1.78volts, +3.3= 3.49volts, and +5 = 4.00volts .....the VCore is still
set to the [CPU default]. Should I jack with the Vcore voltage??????
12) Anybody got any ideas?????
Thanks, Joe101

For those following this thread...........My Athlon 1333/266 I ordered
from

www.spartantech.com ($40) just arrived and it is UNLOCKED or at least

the

4

jumpers at L1 are clearly closed. This weekend I will try to run at
105FSBx12.5=1312MHz on my A7V. I will post results here at a future

date.