- Joined
- May 31, 2004
I found my old PIII 450mhz machine and decided it could do with an upgrade so I found a PIII 866 Coppermine on Ebay and updated the bios. This baby hums along just fine with pretty surprising response for a 10 year old machine. For those that might be interested in a similar machine, here's what I found.
The only way to run a Pentium III Coppermine CPU and at 133mhz on the P6BX-A+ rev. 1.1 motherboard is to upgrade its bios to the newest ECS bios version 5.6 which you can find from the manufacturer's site here:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Do...New&DetailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=9
or a more complete list here:
http://www.bios-drivers.com/companies/357.htm
This bios will activate the coppermine CPUs and fix the 40gb hard drive limit in the old bios.
You need to use the award flash program awd78.exe which you can find here:
http://bios.rom.by/ROMutils/Award/awdflash/history.htm
Note that other award flash versions may not correctly read/write the bios.
Boot from DOS and use the awd78.exe program to save the current bios. If the saved bios file is only 128k then you must upgrade the 128k bios to a 256k chip. [warning: the ECS site has the awd66.exe flash program but it failed to read the correct bios size and saved the wrong bios size for my floppy drive]. To update your chip you need to go to BadBios and purchase a 256k chip with the new bios already flashed onto it. The cost is relatively cheap. Just show them the site with the bios you want and they do the rest.
http://www.badflash.com/orderbiosinstr.html
You can also check the classifieds here for help from Tmod:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=254483
The updated bios v. 5.6 has removed the 133mhz memory option so if you want to overclock more there is one more step. Set the memory for 112mhz and boot into that setting. Download the program CPUFSB and check that your PLL is ICS 9148AM-47; its the chip next to the small silver sideways can that says 14.8 mhz on its top. Use CPUFSB to move the FSB to 133mhz. Test the system for stability using Prime95. The P6BX-A+ rev. 1.1 board should be capable of running full speed and overclocked at 133mhz.
Get CPUFSB from here:
http://www.podien.de/
and prime95 from here:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
Voila, your machine has a new lease on life.
The only way to run a Pentium III Coppermine CPU and at 133mhz on the P6BX-A+ rev. 1.1 motherboard is to upgrade its bios to the newest ECS bios version 5.6 which you can find from the manufacturer's site here:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Do...New&DetailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=9
or a more complete list here:
http://www.bios-drivers.com/companies/357.htm
This bios will activate the coppermine CPUs and fix the 40gb hard drive limit in the old bios.
You need to use the award flash program awd78.exe which you can find here:
http://bios.rom.by/ROMutils/Award/awdflash/history.htm
Note that other award flash versions may not correctly read/write the bios.
Boot from DOS and use the awd78.exe program to save the current bios. If the saved bios file is only 128k then you must upgrade the 128k bios to a 256k chip. [warning: the ECS site has the awd66.exe flash program but it failed to read the correct bios size and saved the wrong bios size for my floppy drive]. To update your chip you need to go to BadBios and purchase a 256k chip with the new bios already flashed onto it. The cost is relatively cheap. Just show them the site with the bios you want and they do the rest.
http://www.badflash.com/orderbiosinstr.html
You can also check the classifieds here for help from Tmod:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=254483
The updated bios v. 5.6 has removed the 133mhz memory option so if you want to overclock more there is one more step. Set the memory for 112mhz and boot into that setting. Download the program CPUFSB and check that your PLL is ICS 9148AM-47; its the chip next to the small silver sideways can that says 14.8 mhz on its top. Use CPUFSB to move the FSB to 133mhz. Test the system for stability using Prime95. The P6BX-A+ rev. 1.1 board should be capable of running full speed and overclocked at 133mhz.
Get CPUFSB from here:
http://www.podien.de/
and prime95 from here:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
Voila, your machine has a new lease on life.
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