Trouble booting now totally out of service

[Robert Heiling]

Mostly likely it will run at the correct frequency but
merely not be able to make a positive ID on the CPU. It may
correctly display the operational speed, or may display
something *wrong*. For this reason it is necessary to
confirm the speed with alternate methods as mentioned
previously. It is least likely that it would run at 950
instead of 1000MHz. More like it would not POST at all, but
the odds are it will.

It is working, but with problems. It's all covered in my other response.

I cannot guarantee it, but think it is worth trying. If
there is a newer bios available you might want to update the
bios, particularly if the board has a relatively early bios
version. This may combat other bios issues in additon to
CPU identification.

I've done a lot of checking and it's pretty certain that my Bios is the
latest. It was also updated on 06/21/2002, which is the same day as the
Bios for a closely related board was also updated.

"In general" such boards did support 1GHz CPU, within the
limit of the [no support for 133FSB with non-'A' KT133] it
was the issue you mentioned that they simply didn't have
that speed yet when the spec for the board was produced- and
with lesser board brands/support, they may not update their
specs for it later, and sometimes won't even fully disclose
the changes a particular bios incorporates if there's even a
newer bios available. After flashing a bios, clear CMOS.

The board came with the jumper set at 100 and I left it there.

No, KT133 non-"A" does not actually support 133FSB. It does
not matter if it has a jumper. Other non-supportive boards
also had such a jumper. Via originally had intended to be
able to get KT133 running up to 133FSB, but wasn't able to
and shipped out the chips they had at the time. LATER they
got 133FSB working right and this was the distinction of
KT133A.

Gotcha - Thanks - that makes it pretty clear.

Not so easy to assume, the board itself can be an issue even
when memory is spec'd higher, especially when a board looks
up SPD info and finds a module spec'd for (as an example)
CAS3 @ 133MHz but CAS2 @ 100MHz. In such cases there is the
potential for it to still be running the memory at most
aggressive CAS timing possible. Resolution if there were
this kind of problem is obviously different memory, or
manually setting a higher CAS #, or other things we need not
delve into at this time.

Hmmmm. Wondering now about that. Details in next message and the 512
memory was running fine on the old system

Bob

 

[Robert Heiling]

Yes that is possible.
Install the CPU, video and memory for the time being.
When it posts, note what the board reports for CPU.

The mb with CPU & memory were installed and then the AGP video. Floppy
and CD-ROM drives connected.
Booting shows (abbreviated):
Award Modular Bios v6.00PG 06/21/2002
Main Processor: AMD Athlon 1333MHz (s/b 1000Mhz)
Memory Testing: 524288K (no problems)

Floppy Disks(s) Fail (40) (note: connections all ok)

Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter Setup
06/21/2002-8363-686-IA6LMC5CC-00
<pause> F1 <cr>
Verifying DMI Pool Data

Then it boots into my Knoppix v3.4 CD and shows the splash screen.
Attempted continuation fails in the Linux loading process (blanked
screen and no CD activity), but Memtest on that same CD gives:
Memtest-86 v3.0
AMD Athlon 1335MHz
L1 cache 128K 8193MB/s
L2 cache 256K 2510MB/s
Memory 512M 324 MB/s
Chipset vt8363
etc

If necessary (and possible) adjust bios settings or onboard
jumpers to accomodate your CPU- keeping in mind that KT133
(non-"A") does not support 133FSB (I dont recall the
particularly of your system at this time and I'd deleted the
original post).

Not sure what to do there. What was kept from the old system was Athlon
1GHz CPU and 512MB PC-133 memory and ATI-Radeon AGP card + case & power
supply from the old PC Chips M805LR mATX system.

Install floppy drive and run memtest86 to confirm memory
stability. Memtest86 will display the CPU frequency too
even if the BIOS POST screen misidentifies the CPU. Trust
memtest86's report over the BIOS report, BUT also you can
later run a windows CPU ID tool to confirm operational
frequency. For example, "WCPUID" would tell you, as would
"CPU-Z", http://www.cpuid.org/download/cpu-z-129.zip

It's all quite flaky. Instead of going into Memtest it sometimes gives
"unexpected interrupt - halting". In one case, Memtest was going well
and then started to fail. In most every other case. it has been failing
on every memory address. I'm holding off on trying another 128MB stick,
which is probably good, at the moment as the fault may not be with
memory
itself?

Bob

 

[Robert Heiling]

Robert Heiling wrote:

I'm holding off on trying another 128MB stick,
which is probably good, at the moment as the fault may not be with
memory itself?

Just a quick note that I swapped out the memory (512 out, 128 in) and
tried again. This time it was actually booting into Knoppix Linux and I
let it go a bit, but not all the way as I thought I would be able to do
it again. I killed it to try something else and haven't gotten Linux to
load that far again.

Bob

 

[kony]

The mb with CPU & memory were installed and then the AGP video. Floppy
and CD-ROM drives connected.
Booting shows (abbreviated):
Award Modular Bios v6.00PG 06/21/2002
Main Processor: AMD Athlon 1333MHz (s/b 1000Mhz)
Memory Testing: 524288K (no problems)

Floppy Disks(s) Fail (40) (note: connections all ok)

Does this mean floppies weren't working?
Hold off on troubleshooting this though, because of the
overclocked-CPU potential I'll comment on below.

Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter Setup
06/21/2002-8363-686-IA6LMC5CC-00
<pause> F1 <cr>
Verifying DMI Pool Data

Then it boots into my Knoppix v3.4 CD and shows the splash screen.
Attempted continuation fails in the Linux loading process (blanked
screen and no CD activity), but Memtest on that same CD gives:
Memtest-86 v3.0
AMD Athlon 1335MHz
L1 cache 128K 8193MB/s
L2 cache 256K 2510MB/s
Memory 512M 324 MB/s
Chipset vt8363
etc

It's a 1GHz CPU, yes?
I'm surprised that it even POSTs at 1.3GHz, at stock
voltage.

You are certain the 100MHz FSB jumper is set to 100MHz?
If so, try clearing CMOS. If it still appears to be at
1.3GHz, check the bios menus for a 2nd FSB setting in
addition to the jumper. Chaintech should NOT have allowed
that board to ever default to 133FSB no matter what CPU was
installed, since it uses KT133 instead of KT133A. What
"probably" happened is that they reused same bios for their
next-gen (or later revision of same board) that DID have a
KT133A chipset and so did support 133FSB CPUs.

Not sure what to do there. What was kept from the old system was Athlon
1GHz CPU and 512MB PC-133 memory and ATI-Radeon AGP card + case & power
supply from the old PC Chips M805LR mATX system.

Making sure the FSB is correct is a manditory first step.
Myriad other false-errors may be reported while the CPU is
so overclocked (at stock voltage, though maybe either way).

It's all quite flaky. Instead of going into Memtest it sometimes gives
"unexpected interrupt - halting". In one case, Memtest was going well
and then started to fail. In most every other case. it has been failing
on every memory address. I'm holding off on trying another 128MB stick,
which is probably good, at the moment as the fault may not be with
memory
itself?

Ignore memory errors for the time being and only use memtest
to check CPU speed, till it reports that at correct 100FSB.
Look around for jumpers for memory too, perhaps one for
memory at 100MHz or at 133MHz- and set it to 100MHz for the
time being, perhaps permanently. Again there may be a bios
(menued) setting for this even with a jumper.

 

[Robert Heiling]

Does this mean floppies weren't working?

It shows in POST and in Bios, but won't boot a bootable floppy like my
Memtest-86 or Win98 for example.

Hold off on troubleshooting this though, because of the
overclocked-CPU potential I'll comment on below.


It's a 1GHz CPU, yes?
Yes

I'm surprised that it even POSTs at 1.3GHz, at stock
voltage.

I'd have thought that it would run very hot, but it's been running only
about 51C even right after Memtest and the hottest I've seen is 53C.

You are certain the 100MHz FSB jumper is set to 100MHz?

You aren't going to believe this. It has a standard 3 pins for a
2-position jumper with the left 2 pins being jumpered from the factory
or from? Facing the print & jump on the board it says:
1-2 cpu 100MHz
2-3 cpu 133MHz
I believed them and I don't know why I didn't try this before, but
they're lying. I moved the jumper to 2-3 and the cpu now posts as
1000MHz and Memtest-86 shows it as 1002MHz. It's running successful
memtests as I write.

If so, try clearing CMOS. If it still appears to be at
1.3GHz, check the bios menus for a 2nd FSB setting in
addition to the jumper. Chaintech should NOT have allowed
that board to ever default to 133FSB no matter what CPU was
installed, since it uses KT133 instead of KT133A. What
"probably" happened is that they reused same bios for their
next-gen (or later revision of same board) that DID have a
KT133A chipset and so did support 133FSB CPUs.

That's really some mistake they made with those jumpers! The manual page
doesn't even look like it. "CPU Bus Frequency (SW4) This switch allows
you to select between 100MHz FSB or 133MHz FSB frequency speed (then a
chart, formatting may be off)
SW4 1 2 3 4
100MHz off on off off
133MHz off off off off

Making sure the FSB is correct is a manditory first step.
Myriad other false-errors may be reported while the CPU is
so overclocked (at stock voltage, though maybe either way).


Ignore memory errors for the time being and only use memtest
to check CPU speed, till it reports that at correct 100FSB.
Look around for jumpers for memory too, perhaps one for
memory at 100MHz or at 133MHz- and set it to 100MHz for the
time being, perhaps permanently. Again there may be a bios
(menued) setting for this even with a jumper.

It's looking good now! Thanks as always for the great help!

It's running Knoppix now which all loaded off the Primary IDE so that's
probably ok & ready for a HD. I was chasing that floppy error message,
but the only advice I've found so far was to check connections or
replace the drive<lol>. That may also be a Bios setting that didn't work
right when it was overclocked and will now. That needs some
experimenting. I also need to buy an ethernet card. The old board has a
small pcb card with the RJ-45 jack for the rear and a small ribbon cable
with plug onto the motherboard. This board has no place to plug it, so
I'll pop the five bucks for a pci ethernet card.

Thanks again!

Bob

 

[kony]

I'd have thought that it would run very hot, but it's been running only
about 51C even right after Memtest and the hottest I've seen is 53C.

It has the in-socket-well thermal sensor though, which was
probably calibrated for lesser CPUs. It would then tend to
read temps a little low IF it had previously read correctly.
Even so, temp is mostly a function of heatsink interface and
it's overall efficiency. Raising clock speed without
voltage increase would raise temps much either.

You aren't going to believe this. It has a standard 3 pins for a
2-position jumper with the left 2 pins being jumpered from the factory
or from? Facing the print & jump on the board it says:
1-2 cpu 100MHz
2-3 cpu 133MHz
I believed them and I don't know why I didn't try this before, but
they're lying. I moved the jumper to 2-3 and the cpu now posts as
1000MHz and Memtest-86 shows it as 1002MHz. It's running successful
memtests as I write.

Good, looks like you solved the larger part, but is the
floppy still a problem? Perhaps a bios setting needs
changed or the cable is backwards at the board?

If/when you boot to the OS, see if the floppy works then.

That's really some mistake they made with those jumpers! The manual page
doesn't even look like it. "CPU Bus Frequency (SW4) This switch allows
you to select between 100MHz FSB or 133MHz FSB frequency speed (then a
chart, formatting may be off)
SW4 1 2 3 4
100MHz off on off off
133MHz off off off off

So we can see that they were a bit confused<vbg>

Yep, sometimes those lower-end boards cut a lot of corners,
or make changes and then the relevant docs aren't updated to
reflect the changes.

 

[Robert Heiling]

Good, looks like you solved the larger part, but is the
floppy still a problem? Perhaps a bios setting needs
changed or the cable is backwards at the board?

If/when you boot to the OS, see if the floppy works then.

I fixed it a while ago and it was something I've done in the past a
couple of times when moving cables around and had forgotten about. ;-)
Tomorrow I'll buy & install a 10/100 pci card, move her HD back from
this machine I use to that one, hassle with drivers again, then haul it
back upstairs to its cat-5 plug. monitor et al. The way I look at it is
that for ~$50, I've basically salvaged some memory that I recently paid
$75 for, plus the value of the other memory & cpu that was all headed
for the dumpster, and wound up with a 1GHz Athlon with 640MB memory that
will keep someone pretty happy for the comparatively minor amount of
usage it will get. Not an impressive machine, but a very usable one.

Thanks very much for the help you contributed!

Bob

 

[Robert Heiling, P233]

It's a 1GHz CPU, yes?
I'm surprised that it even POSTs at 1.3GHz, at stock
voltage.

You are certain the 100MHz FSB jumper is set to 100MHz?
If so, try clearing CMOS. If it still appears to be at
1.3GHz, check the bios menus for a 2nd FSB setting in
addition to the jumper. Chaintech should NOT have allowed
that board to ever default to 133FSB no matter what CPU was
installed, since it uses KT133 instead of KT133A. What
"probably" happened is that they reused same bios for their
next-gen (or later revision of same board) that DID have a
KT133A chipset and so did support 133FSB CPUs.

Discovered this & thought I'd pass it on fwiw as it explains something
confusing that was happening to us. The Athlon machine has been humming
along since yesterday, in fact I'm posting this from it. Once I had it
running solidly and on our network, I pulled over a copy of the CPU-Z
that you had alerted me too. It reports (partial)
AMD Athlon Thunderbird
Core Speed:1002.3 MHz
and significantly: Chipset VIA KT133A Rev 03 !!!
So even though the various web writeups for the CT-7AIA mb said it had
KT133 and the dealer's website said it had KT133 and the manual says it
has KT133, this particular board actually has KT133A which would explain
the unexpected 133 speed capability.

Bob