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Last word on TH7-II?

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ginfest

Registered
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Location
North Reading, MA USA
Last word on TH7-II?Please-Confused!

Hi All,
I ordered a TH7-II, P4 1.6A, Rambus combo. I've read that the boards come with BIOS "37" which doesn't recognize the NW? I know that BIOS "38" and the hacked beta "77" do recognize NW. I also read that the board will post with "37", but at say 9xx Mhz so you can flash.I also read that disabling "speed error hold" will allow the board to post so you can flash?
Now I just read on another forum that there is no way it will post with the 1.6A, and I have to get a new BIOS chip, or find P4 Willemette?
Please, I'd like to set this up as soon as it arrives, does anyone know positively that I will be able to post a 1.6A with the "37" BIOS so I can flash?
Thanks for any help,
Mike G
 
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Bios

Hi , DONT panic!!!

You can update the bios to accept your Northwood no problems..

Even though the 37 Bios does not recognise the Northwood , you can still post , and with a BOOT disk ..Flash to a newer Bios..

Pull ALL cards except your Video card out.

Clear the CMOS , then FLASH the bios as normal ( either the 38 or 77 ).
 
when did you get the board, i just got mine and it had the 38 bios

anyways, whoever said you need to find a socket 423 P4 Willemette is smoking crack

it won't fit the socket

listen to woof, youll be fine
 
I ordered the board from Newegg Friday and am expecting delivery today. I know I sound frantic and don't even know what BIOS it will come with, but I am so psyched that I want to get it set up the minute it arrives. I've been reading so much stuff on this motherboard in the last few days, I'm getting confused. Just fretting over nothing I guess.
The reports of these NW CPUs going great OC got me wired. I've been OCing since the 300A days and since my P3 1 GB has been running at 150 FSB for months, I'm getting bored and I want the next new thing.
I even got 2 of the TI 533 Mhz DRCGs thru my company, JIC the stock ones on the TH7-II won't do 133 FSB!

Thanks for the help, gotta calm myself down and wait.
 
Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news (at least for me), but I couldn't get the 1.6A and TH7-II working. I couldn't POST past 29 (invoking CPU and video BIOS according to Abit). I thought it might be my video card (a leadtek geforce2 mx 400--leadtek says all their current geforce cards are 1.5V compatable but won't tell me what a current geforce card is...) so I popped my sister's card in the box (her's is already in a p4) and still couldn't get past the POST. I called Abit and they told me that I had to get a new BIOS and if I didn't have another P4 with which to FLASH, to call their BIOS department and order a new one ($12.00). So, I'm waiting on that...

Has anyone actually gotten a 1.6A to work on a new TH7-II? I've seen lots of 1.8A's and higher but not a 1.6A...

Mike
 
Mine posted fine with the Northwood. Just read crazy. Even loaded and ran Windows 2000 with it for a couple of days like that. Flashed to the "38" and all is well now.
 
Hi Mike,
Sorry to here that, I saw your post on another board and the responses which said that we were sh*t out of luck. But hopefully my board will come with the "38", or one of the tricks mentioned here will work.
Maybe it's "wishful" thinking on my part, but these guys here seem to know a lot more about these boards than the guys on AT.
Hope it works out, for you and me both.

BTW, I contacted Abit just in case, they wanted $14.00 shipped, $10.00 plus $4.00 Priority Mail, I'm debating with them now to get a "freebie" if I need it based on the fact that they market the board as for "478 P4" no distinction between the old 256MB cache ones and the newer Northwoods. Never hurts to have an extra BIOS.

Mike G

That's great news Skip, wonder if Mike's problem is something else?
 
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mikeward said:

Has anyone actually gotten a 1.6A to work on a new TH7-II? I've seen lots of 1.8A's and higher but not a 1.6A...

Mike

HMMM!!!....Yes , have seen several 1.6A,s been succesfully used with the th7 II , the boards started with the 37 Bios and were then flashed to a latter version.

Make sure you have ONLY your H/Drive/s and floppy and your AGP card connected for the Flash.

When you reset the Cmos with the jumper , pull the standby batery out for about 30sec also.

Give it another shot....:)
 
Well, I wish you luck Mike. Maybe my board's bad. What's the "speed error hold" you talked about earlier? Here's the steps I've taken:

1. Set up the board with RAM, CPU, and Video card. No POST past 29. Video card indicates its running at AGP 4x.

2. Add HDD and FDD. Still no POST past 29.

3. Inserted BOOT disk. Same results.

4. Switched video card for another one. Nothing new.

5. Removed HDD and FDD. Nothing past 29.

5. Called Abit...

mike
 
According to the manual, "speed error hold" if enabled, and the CPU speed setting is wrong, will keep the machine from posting (or in Abit's terms "...system will hold.")
Maybe someone here can better explain.
Still waiting for Fed EX, hope I get setup tonite.

edit: sorry, guess it doesn't matter if you can't get into the BIOS, I'm not thinking clearly right now, too much info and the waiting s**ks
 
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HMMM!!! VERY strange!!!!

"Speed error hold" is disabled by defualt anyway..

MIKE.....So you get absolutley NOTHING on the monitor at all??

Trying to remember a thread i seen on NOT being able to get past error code 27/29...Somewhere over at Mad Onion .com.
 
I get nothing. No video output whatsoever. If I start playing around with the jumpers, I can get it to stop POSTing at 26 (by disabling the CPU auto settings)...but I still can't get it past 29.
 
mikeward said:
I get nothing. No video output whatsoever. If I start playing around with the jumpers, I can get it to stop POSTing at 26 (by disabling the CPU auto settings)...but I still can't get it past 29.

That's odd. Like I said, mine booted right into Windows. I ran it a couple of days before I flashed to "38"
 
Mike.....I realise you have problably already tried this But ...

Make sure the "3" power connectors on the board are secured properly...eg, Main ATX , AUX power, and most important the ATX 12v ( the little square connector under the socket area. )

A feind of mine has the TH7 II with a 1.6A and had NO problems booting up to flash to the 38 Bios...

I am NOT tyring to treat you as a NEWBIE!!!! ...BUT sometimes the simplist probs are the hardest to find....:)
 
Hey ginfest...did you get your board? Are you up and going?

I tried resetting the CMOS and still didn't get anything. I also reconnected all of the power connections and have the same problem...I doubt it's a power issue...it seems odd that low power would have this effect.

Any other ideas? I jumpering the CMOS to clear it and took the battery out this morning before leaving for work...I'll try again either tonight or tomorrow...maybe my CMOS has a really, really long life span :)
 
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I got it and I'm in the same boat, Post Code 29. I even called Abit Tech. Support b/4 I tore down my system, they assured me it would boot, and if not just clear the CMOS, no problem. Well it won't boot, I've cleared the CMOS, pulled the battery, etc. I may try and change the DIP switches, not sure yet.
To Abit's credit, they did offer to send me a new BIOS chip free, and I'm waiting for it to arrive today.
Still can't understand it, I've been building these for 10 years, usually all a mis-matched BIOS will do is show an inaccurate speed, allowing post at least.
They did recommend changing the video card, trying a PCI card, but I have a GF3 ti200, only a couple months old, I think it's a waste of time to swap it out, plus I don't have any old PCI cards lying around.
Well, hopefully the new BIOS will work, I post when I get some success.
Mike G
 
Sorry to hear that Mike...I hope your BIOS chip gets here soon.

I'm kinda upset that Abit didn't give me a free BIOS. I want my $12.00 back...Guess I'm off to email/call them...

Mike
 
OK, I'm Rolling

Got the new BIOS chip in via UPS, popped it in , now it posts. Had to re-install XP over itself, and have finally got my system back to where it was.
I haven't OC yet, still curious about some of the BIOS settings, which I'll ask in another post.
BTW, for Mike Ward, yesterday on the phone they said that they would send the BIOS ou overnight, and didn't mention a price. I assumed it was "free" as Tech Support transfered me to the BIOS Dept. after failing to get my system running.
Unfortunately when the Postman arrived, I had to pay $31.00 US for the package, $10.00 for the BIOS and $21.00 for overnite!
Guess I ASSuME too much, but I wanted it ASAP and at least I got it.
Fair enough as my local shop wanted a $50.00 service fee to flash the board, they are probably ****ed that I mail ordered it!
Anyway, I'm running, sorry to mislead Mike.
Mike G

Edit: I am going to call and complain about the $10.00, not to be cheap but Tech. Support insisted on 2 diff long distance calls that there are no known problems of the type we are having, gotta be BS as I've seen this "Post Code 29" problems all over the WWW.
 
Ah...I was going to PM you and ask how you got it for free. I called and they told me that I had to pay for it (as there were no known problems with the TH7-II and Northwoods). So, I'm guess I'm in the same boat still...waiting and waiting for my bios to get here...
 
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