FIC VA-503+ revisted

Discuss software and how to tweak more performance out of your system.
James
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Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi DonPedro,
Yes, please feel free to disconnect web server - thanks!
I do have an old MX200 AGP, I may try driver with that. I had used one from Nvidia which was newer.
Regards,
James Cannon
James
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Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Sucess!

The driver from DonPedro "52.16_win2kxp_international_whql2" was the winner.

Also need to note that "IRQ for VGA" in BIOS needs to be set and also "System BIOS Cacheable". The first BIOS setting if not enable will give you a 16-bit display and an error in Device Manager that not all resources are available. The other BIOS setting is needed to do Direct3d 7. At least on the 6200 Nvidia card.

Right now, I am using the MX 200 and it passes all Direct3d tests for DXDIAG program. :D

Thanks to all. Now, I need to do some tweaking and lets see if we can get this AMD K6-III+ running higher than the factory-recommended 450Mhz. Many thanks to Jim and DonPedro with this rebuild.

I kind of gave up on Windows 98SE as I don't want it connected to the Internet and got tired of burning CD-ROMs to move drivers to it. As Windows XP still is supported by Microsoft, it seems to be the better one.

Next steps ...
Try to get Nvidia 6200 to work with older driver.
Try to get the Radeon 7000 or 9250 to work.
Once I have the video issue resolved, we have overclocking to do.

I'll update as I go. Here is current hardware ...

K6-3+ 450 ACZ (4.5x100)
FIC VA-503+, Rev. 1.1a (eSupport.com BIOS)
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
10GB Western Digital (WD100)
AOpen DVD (1648/BKH)
Nvidia MX200 AGP
Hercules Digifire PCI sound/firewire
3COM EtherLink III ISA PNP (not used)
Belkin PCI 5 port USB 2.0 card (NEC chipset)
D-LINK WUA-1340 wireless G USB
Jim
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Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

The ATI 7000 will work, but I doubt if the 9250 will. I have used : ATI 7000, ATI 7500, and ATI 9000 cards on Super 7s; and my FIC VA503+ has an ATI 7000 on it.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
James
Junior K6'er
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi Jim,

I will probably be trying my HIS Radeon 7000 AGP next as the Nvidia MX-200 AGP has real poor performance for video. I was able to install the AD&D Baldur's Gate (circa 2001) and the intro videos were all choppy. Game play was excellent when using the game tutorial. I do have the original CD-ROM and docs for the HIS 7000 AGP card so that is a good thing. I tried the EVGA 6200 AGP with the drivers from DonPedro, but it just made Windows 98SE reboot. I went back to my Windows 98SE hard drive as it had 8GB out of 10GB free space. On the Windows XP 10GB drive, I had 2GB free space. What a difference between the 2 operating systems. I think most of XP install is Microsoft, with .NET being a real hog. At least now, I have a pretty cool Y2K game rig. I haven't tried overclocking as I want to get the video as good as possible. At least DonPedro's device driver resolved the Direct3D BSOD with Nvidia. I wonder what the heck NVidia did with the device drivers ...

I'll try the Radeon 7000 tonight, time permitting. Thanks again to all.
Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

You can use WPCredit to improve you overall performance, (including video), quite a bit; but the ATI 7000 will probably work better than a very old Nvidia card. You can also overclock the sucker, 103 MHz, or 112 MHz FSB with a 5.5 multiplier for best results.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
James
Junior K6'er
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi Jim,

I put in the HIS ATI 7000 AGP and used the original drivers on the CD-ROM and it passed all 3 Direct3d tests with dxdiag. I was super happy with that. I looked at the install CD-ROM and started to look at the documentation and see it had documents for ATI 7000 through 9800. With that in mind, I removed the 7000 and put in the 9250, which the drivers recognized without an issue. I ran dxdiag again and it passed Direct3D for 7 and 8, but dxdiag crashed on 9. The program literally disappeared with no errors. I may just stick with the ATI 7000 if the 9250 is not fully functional. Bear in mind, this is the Windows 98SE CD-ROM and I have not tried Windows XP. I do know that the Nvidia MX-200 worked with both Windows XP and Windows 98SE. I played a DVD with the an old trial version of WinDVD and that is fine. I am not sure why the video is not smooth in the game sequences for the AD&D "Pool of Radiance" game. I mistakenly mentioned a different game in prvious post. The "Pool of Radiance" game is from 2001.

I still have not tried to overclock the CPU yet. If I have time tonight, I will bump it up to 500 from the stock 450 and see how that is for a week, before proceeding higher. I did try the WPCredit you had recommended earlier, but was not sure what to do with that. I looked on author web site, but did not see a lot of documentation (if any). The readme text file was sparse. I will have to research that.

At least I can play videos and have Direct3d for now.
Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

If you go back through this thread, you will find a link that I posted on "Operating Instructions For WPCredit". When OCing a K6-3 450 ACZ, set the voltage to 2.1 V. You can get it up to 600 MHz with no problems at all. 6x100 MHz. BUT the 5.5 multiplier works better for maximum performance. AMD optimized these processors to work best with the 5.5 multiplier, so ideally use 5.5 x 103 MHx FSB or 5.5 x 112 MHz. The latter, is on the outer boundary of what might work, depends on how good your CPU is, how good your cooling setup is, how good your RAM is, etc.

To save you looking, here is the WPCredit Link again :

http://www.k6plus.com/index.php?name=PN ... pic&t=1440

And though I never used WPCredit on a FIC VA 503+, Kyle Brant did, and I posted a link to his settings. See :

http://www.k6plus.com/index.php?name=PN ... +asus+p5ab

But I did use WPCredit on a DFI board, and here is a link to the settings I used :

http://www.k6plus.com/index.php?name=PN ... pic&t=1406
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
James
Junior K6'er
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi Jim,

Appreciate the links to WPCredit. I have not had the time to research it yet. So far, running at 500MHz is working out with no issues. This weekend, I will go to 550Mhz using the 5.5 multiply.

One question I did have, what ATI driver are you using on your system? I think that the 9250 should work, but not with the 7000 drivers for the current card. When I was first trying to use the 9250, I had the latest from ATI for Windows XP. I am wondering if drivers are an issue with ATI as it was for Nvidia. The drivers from DonPedro worked great on the MX-200.

Regards,
James
Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

I have an ATI 9250 but I couldn't get it to work properly, wound up not using it, still sitting in the box it came in. Remember to set your processor voltage at 2.1 V, and you can easily clock it up to 600 MHz. (6x100MHz is achieved by using the 2x multiplier with the 100 MHz FSB setting. - K6-3+ processors remap the 2x multiplier setting to 6x). BUT you get best results by using the 5.5x multiplier because AMD optimized these processors to work best with the 5.5x multiplier. So best is 5.5 times whatever you can get the FSB to run reliably at.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
James
Junior K6'er
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi Jim,

I bumped up the Mhz to 550 over the weekend and it seems very stable. I had spent a few hours with the same "Pools of Radiance" (AD&D) game. Only issue I have with my motherboard is when I do a restart in Windows, is that the CPU fan stops spinning.

Not sure if anyone else has seen this where CPU fan stops spinning after a reboot. If I shutdown via Windows, and then power on, I am Ok. Too bad you had no luck with the 9250 also. What would be the most powerful video card for a socket 7 system?
Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

Best one I have used is the ATI All In Wonder 9000. There might be better ones out there though. Re the CPU fan, have you tried letting it run for a while, (while in the bios keeping an eye on the CPU temp), to see if the fan restarts after a while ?
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
James
Junior K6'er
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi Jim,

I'll keep an eye out for the AIW. Perhaps I may find one on eBay. Should be better than the 7000 I am using, which is fine for most 2D stuff and DVD viewing (on 1080p display).

If in the BIOS, the temp looks good. I may have CPU fan run off of MOLEX connector. I had a cable to do that.
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mamba
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Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2003 7:42 am
Location: Italy

Post by mamba »

I see that your FIC is an AT motherboard, but still I don't understand why your R9250 won't work.
I successfully tested an FX5950 Ultra on a MVP3G5 (MVP3 same as yours) and on a GA-5AX (ALi).
The best balanced card (performance/watt) was an FX5700.

Maybe the electrical scheme of the AT standard prevents you from using a bit demanding VGA, but I would give a shot with a Titanium Geforce like a ti4200.
Pretty decent cards, better than R9250, maybe more compatible with AGP 1X/2X 3.3V, and you can easily find one of them on Ebay.

Image

Never get used to say that: follow the scheme above, if it won't fit it won't work; if it fits, 95% it works... Or there is something wrong in your mainboard OR the VGA manufacturer (I remember an XFX 6200 card with universal connection that won't work. XFX used low end and old components for those cards).
James
Junior K6'er
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:51 am
Location: N37° 54.0553', W121° 25.3657'

Post by James »

Hi Mamba,

I first tried an EVGA AGP 6200 card. First issue I ran into was not enough resources. After a lot of searching online, I found out I needed to enable IRQ for VGA. With that being done, I was out of 16-bit VGA land. However many times I tried with that card, I failed for version 8 and 9 with DXDIAG program. I also tried a Jaton 6200 PCI card for grins. I tried latest drivers from Nvidia and also ones that shipped with the card. I did get the MX200 to work with DonPedros drivers, however, after advice from Tom, I was able to use the ATI 7000 without issue. It is a bit of a dog in some regards, however, I am content for now. Perhaps eBay would be worth a shot.
DonPedro
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Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:11 pm

Post by DonPedro »

james,

don't waste your time with trying to get a nvidia card modell 6xxx and up running on a ss7-board when it comes to dx 8 or 9. as I have tried to tell you in a previous post in this thread there is no way to achieve this. for a card 6xxx (and up) you need driver version 6x.xx (and up) and here the trouble begins ...

this does not mean that you are not able to use a nvidia 6xxx card, they work in 2d mode and also opengl-games run fine. I had a 6600gt card in my asus p5a and it worked that way ...

for better understanding please check out the thread Problems with using GeForce drivers version 6x.xx and up over here.
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