SPZ - The Last Dog

Discussion about systems that do not use the K6-x processors.
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Uranium235
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Post by Uranium235 »

What condition are the caps in? Did you replace the CMOS battery in any of them? Sometimes removing all power and the CMOS battery for a day straightens them out.

Every Gigabyte board I've ever messed with were high-strung and uncooperative....
Jim
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Post by Jim »

Caps look ok. Battery replaced in all of them. Have not left battery out for 24 hours. Will try that. Still have one more board on the way. Think what has happened is this : Both the other guy and myself missed a little warning at the back of the mobo manual, to check Bios manufacturer before flashing. Seems their early versions were Award versions and their later ones were AMI. The latest bios at the Gigabyte site is an AMI bios, version F8 which supports more recent processors. The most recent Award bios at the gigabyte site is F2. All 3 boards have Award chips. Now whether that means I have to get AMI chps, to use the F8 bios, or if I can use the Awdflash.exe to flash the F8 bios is unclear. This much I suspect : 2 of the three now have the bios screwed up. Reading the instructions for "Uniflash" seems to indicate they can all be salvaged, but I may have to hotflash and overwrite the bootblock on those two boards. Expert advice appreciated.
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Uranium235
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Post by Uranium235 »

Sounds like a hotflash may be needed IMHO. It's easy to do but takes a little nerve. I've done it about a dozen times already. A good BIOS chip puller is nearly mandatory. Radio Shack sells them. Might be a good idea to practice on something expendable first. Make sure the notch on the BIOS chip is facing the correct way. Just boot to a DOS prompt, swap the chip, flash the BIOS, power down and reinstall the original chip to restore the board. Let me know if you need any help.
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kalabok
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Post by kalabok »

sorry,

i still dont got it - does the 1,4ghz tualatin work on the GA-6VA7+?
what changes have to be done to get it work? - the gigabyte site claims it does not support it ...
Jim
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Post by Jim »

@ Uranium235 : Plan at the moment is to buy a new bios chip preflashed to the F8 bios and try to revive one of my problem children w/ that. Reason is these boards cost me a mint, and I don't want to risk the last of the 4 until I have one of the others back up. I know about "Hotflashing", though I have never done it. Also know about "Uniflash", though I have never used it. So I am going to have to be very conservative in my approach to this mess.

@ Kalabok : The last time I looked, the Gigabyte site said that the 1.4 Ghz Tualatin was "still undergoing testing" on the GA-6VA7+. Of course that is very dated information, and the indication from the other processors which had been tested and found not to work made it rather unlikely that the 1.4Ghz Tualatin would. What is unclear, however, is did this "testing" include a socket adapter or not? These adapters are newer items than the boards are, and may well not have been available at the time that information was posted. In any case Uranium 235 posted a link, (Back at the top of page 2 of this thread), to the website of a socket adapter manufacturer, (Upgradeware), which lists the board as supporting a 1.4Ghz Tualatin w/ the aid of one of their adapters.
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
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Uranium235
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Post by Uranium235 »

@ Uranium235 : Plan at the moment is to buy a new bios chip preflashed to the F8 bios and try to revive one of my problem children w/ that. Reason is these boards cost me a mint, and I don't want to risk the last of the 4 until I have one of the others back up. I know about "Hotflashing", though I have never done it. Also know about "Uniflash", though I have never used it. So I am going to have to be very conservative in my approach to this mess.
A wise decision.:wink:

I use the Socket 370 adapter on my Epox 3VWB+ with the Tualatin. I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue or a BIOS issue but apparently these boards have trouble providing the lower voltage for the Tulatin CPU's. My board does correctly recognize the Tualatin at startup and the BIOS hardware monitor shows the correct CPU voltage with the adapter even though Epox expresses no support for Tualatin's on these boards. I never tested the CPU without the adapter. My search on the Epox 3VWB+ Tualatin compatibilty showed that an adapter was necessary.
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kalabok
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Post by kalabok »

i have to admit - im impressed.
played with a celeron 366mhz on the 6va7+, and that cpu is outperforming the k6 series by far. ok, thats a newer chipset, but nevertheless overclocking of 25% is possible with passive cooling ...
for a cpu produced in 98 its a crystal clear leading for intel at that time. wonder how amd still managed to sell their k6-2 ...
Prime
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GA-6VA7+

Post by Prime »

Question for Jim-> Did you resolve the BIOS issues with your GA-6VA7+ motherboards? I recently acquired a baby AT computer with a Gigabyte GA-6VA7+ motherboard in it. It is a Rev. 2.1 with an Award BIOS version F2. Did you find a safe way to flash this board to a higher version?
Thanks.
Jim
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RE: GA-6VA7+

Post by Jim »

Truth to tell, I have not gotten around to messing with them yet. What I did do was BUY 2 more of those boards, one of which I got from KALABOK, which came with the F8 bios already installed. You might ask Kalabok how he achieved that. Apart from that, what I HAVE gotten around to messing with, is the FIC KA6100 boards with a Tualatin 1.3Gig Celeron on a Powerleap adapter card. Having some problems there, but I think they will be resolved.
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
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tazwegion
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Re: RE: GA-6VA7+

Post by tazwegion »

Jim wrote:what I HAVE gotten around to messing with, is the FIC KA6100 boards with a Tualatin 1.3Gig Celeron on a Powerleap adapter card.
I don't believe what I'm reading... Jim you're not messing with non K6x cCPUs now are you? :lol:

Ah it's all good fun I was just given a Slot1 PIII-450 on a Gigabyte GA-6BXC, I've never owned/tinkered with a slot type processor configuration before, thankfully most of it's capacitors are Sanyos so I only have to replace a handful of Choyos :D


Back to lurking...
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kalabok
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Post by kalabok »

as i remember,

i just flashed the f8 bios the normal and simple way with a celeron. the old bios was the f2 one ... i think.
Jim
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Post by Jim »

Don't do that !!! Trying to flash the F8 AMI Bios onto an Award chip with the F2 Bios is how I killed two of mine. It can be done; but not by the normal bios flashing method.

Apart from that, I have gotten the FIC KA6100 AT board working with a 1.3 Gigahertz Celeron using the Upgradeware "Slot T" adapter card. Ran memtest for three hours @ 1303 MHz with no errors. Still have not gotten the "Powerleap" adapter to work properly, will be trying a couple more experiments on that tonight.

In any case, it is now official, The FIC KA6100 AT board, will support a 1.3 Gigahertz Tualatin Celeron. One chip on the board was slightly warm to the touch, but not overly so. Probably the voltage regulator chip. If I can get the "Powerleap" working properly, then even that issue will be solved. Otherwise that chip will be getting a heatsink.

Now that the board is working, I will build it and post some test results, before it goes to Gloria, who will be getting it as a replacement for her machine which is dying from the capacitor problem . (FIC VA503+ w/ K6-2+ 550 ACZ @ 600 MHz).

EDIT : K, Further tests w/ "Powerleap PL-iP3T" done. Bottom line is it doesn't work insofar as supporting a 1.3 Gig Tualatin Celeron is concerned. The "Upgradeware Slot T" does work. Perhaps this is a case of needing the "Silver Paint" shown by KGB to get the Powerleap working.

Think about it ! 1303 MHz !! Not too shabby for an AT No ?
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
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kalabok
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Post by kalabok »

maybe i am wrong,

but as i remember the f8 bios was from award ... i remember i was wondering about the 4.51pg logo.
i checked the new bios from the gigabite site (german mirror), and it is indeed from award:

03/21/2001-693A-596-W977-2A6LGG0RC

the 2A mean its an award bios version 4.51

sorry, jim, but i dont know where the problem is.
Jim
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Post by Jim »

Well I do. Seems the GERMAN site has bioses that others don't. Go to the U.S. Site and the F8 is only available as an AMI bios. The newest Award, is the F2. Thanks for the info.
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
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kalabok
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Location: germany

Post by kalabok »

here i get the swiss gigabite site. download from every mirror:

http://www.gigabyte.ch/Support/Motherbo ... leID=10359

one thing to add:

on one german forum i found a guy, who claims the tualatin 1,4ghz is working on that board. he used the socket adapter, and the ami flashing tool. he dont mentioned which bios he used.
but the tualatin worked for him with an FCPGA 2 t-slot adapter from upradeware.
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