Abit BX6 Motherboard 1GHz processor

Hi,
I have a MkI Abit BX6 motherboard.
Originally it was running 320mb of ram and a 333Mhz Pentium II Processor.

Just recently I have bought 2 128mb PC100 RAM sticks and upgraded it to 512MB and a 1Ghz Pentium III FC-PGA processor.

The processor is rated with a 100FSB and 1.75v I have fitted a Soltect Converter (Slot1 to FC-PGA) and have fitted this into my system.

Everything seems to be fine except I can only set the CPU to 956Mhz using a bus speed of 100 and a multiplier of 8. I have contacted Abit to see if they do a bios update to support more multipliers. Also I get a cpu unworkable error message which I have disabled in the BIOS.

The problem I have is mainly to do with Hard Drive corruption. I am getting a lot of cross linked files etc since my upgrade and am wondering if this is related to my processor not running at full speed? This is under windows 98se

Under Windows 2000 this refuses to start producing an application as failed to write to a certain address. "service.exe has failed rebooting" before its fully started up. This same error message occurs on both my installations of windows 2000 which are multi booting on different hard disks.

What I wish to know is how do I cure this problem? wait for a bios update? Play around with ram timings if I can? or could it be corrupt memory and if so how do I identify the suspect chip?

If I do get a bios update because the cpu running not at its full speed are there any risks when I do the flash update because my cpu at an incorrect speed? I have done flash updates before

Thanks

if you set the bus speed to 100 then the chip will be running at 1ghz. the multiplier is locked so it doesnt matter what you put it at. you could put it at 3 and there would be no difference.

i bet if you download a program like sandra and check the speed it will be listed as 1 ghz. i think your bios just isnt recognizing it right.

as for hardware corruption.. you might just want a new install of windows. hows your cooling. I occationally get errors if i reboot when temps are too high from folding protiens.

one other thing. it might be your ram. if you got it cheap. I've had pc100 ram that didnt like doing 100 mhz. its sad but people try to rip you off with this stuff.

by the way where did you purchase the chip from. im interested in buying one for my abit bx6 rev 2.

thanks.

The Chip+Fan I purchase from www.scan.co.uk the converter I purchased from a shop in Lever Street in Bolton (RD computers) I'll dig a web address out and post it later. It has a full type pentium shround for stability and is both auto or manual config.

My orginal 2 128mb chips might be the problem as I was not happy with them when I first got them. I might purchase 2 more of the type I already have.

How do I increase ram access speed in the BIOS?

I have seem bechmarks saying my proccesors running at 1010Mhz so I think it right but not sure.

The hard disk curruption is worrying though.

As far as I am aware there been no overheating problems just the hard disk ones?

I have a case fan fitted ( from maplin.co.uk ) and the fan I got with the proccessor was an offical one from intel

ok im assuming your bios is softmenu 2 like my bx6 2.

To change ram access time go in the chipset features menu go to sdram cas latency time and you can change from 3 to 2. only do this if you have good ram. generic pc100 ram will most likely not be able to run cas 2. my ram can't do it. you'll probably end up not being able to boot or windows will crash.

I would not bother trying this unless you have ram that is certified by the manufacturer that it will do cas 2.

remeber if it wont boot period either turn the power on and hit the insert key on your keyboard to reset the bios or pull out the battery from the board and put it back in to clear the bios.

As for the data corruption, do your hard drives get excessivly warm? How often do you defragment them? And how old are they?

A clean install of windows usually helps out if you can do it. also defrag and run checkdisk to see if your harddrives have any bad sectors.

The BX6 and BX6 2 were only ment for processors up to 700 mhz so the system gets a bit warm when running processors faster than this. I have a celly 566 @ 952 and my system temps are usually a bit warm. See if the system is more stable running with the case open or with a floor fan blowing in on it or with the air conditioning on high. your system temps could be causing some instability. my old case was unbelievably warm. now I have an antec 1030b case thats much cooler.

I have an alpha pal 6035 heatsink and a 3500rpm fan on it along with 5 80 mm case fans for cooling. if you still have the thermal cable that came with your motherboard attach it to the chip and check the temps. you might want a better heatsink for the processor than the intel one.

another thing you can do with the green heatsink on the bx6 if you dont buy a blorb. there usually isnt thermal grease between the heatsink and the chip. if you are real careful remove the greenie, put some thermal grease on the chip and put the greenie back on.

hope that helps. i'll probably know more in a month when i order this same chip.

Attached is memory information from Sisoft Sandra. I'm not to sure how it came to the conclusion about my chips but I think it read some info from them.

The chips in banks 1 and 2 are my original which I used when my bus was running at 66Mhz. Notice they seem to be of a different arrangement. I going to take these pair out as I am not happy with them and see if matters improve.

What does CL2 and CL3 mean? Does memory arrangement affect performance and which of my chips are better?
8x(16Mx8)
16x(8Mx8)

My hard drives are less than a year old. I think my problems related to memory as they seem to occur across all drives and all 3 of my operating systems installed 98se and my 2 separate installations of 2000 which report a memory access error. I have fitted the cache update bug fix from Microsoft.

Will PC133 memory work in a PC100 system?

pc 133 memory will work fine in your computer. it will just run at 100 MHz.

try running your pc with 1 stick of ram at a time to see if you can find one that causes instability. and get back to me on this.

the one on there that says cas3 up to 125 is probably the best stick of ram in your system.

i cant remember the difference between cas 2&3. today just isnt a great day. cas 2 is better. also look for memory that is close to 7ns access time. i think mine is 8ns which is a bit slower.

I'm far from the expert on memory but i think you want all of your ram to be similar and this could cause instability.

8x(16Mx8)
16x(8Mx8)

have you tried reinstalling windows completely? using fdisk or erasing with windows 2k's 4 startup disks?

I hope someone else post on this because I'm not a memory expert. I would try the sticks of ram individually and see how it works.

I have sorted the problem out.
It was bad memory.
I purchased some more which was 8x(16Mx8)
Then emptied my banks and filled one by one testing with windows 2000 every time.

The fault was tracked down to my two 16x(8Mx8) sticks of memory. One had a memory fault and could not be written to so somethings probably gone bad on that one and the other gave random crashes of programs etc so was probably running to slow. I removed them and have a fully operation fast and stable system.

Now I have to return the faulty chips and argue for my money back.

BTW: I got a response from abit :-
"As I know, BX6 r1 can not support 1G PIII or 80G HDD.

Technical Dept.
Abit Computer Corp., Ltd. U.K.

Unit 3 , 24-26
Boulton Road
Stevenage
Herts SG1 4QX

Tel: 01438 228888
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It seems I proved them wrong. I wonder if I can get an 80GB HD to work?

Good luck on the 80 gig hd. There is no reason why it shouldnt work. I emailed them with the same question about that chip and they never responded to me.