- Joined
- Nov 10, 2003
- Location
- Canberra, Down Under
Just had an idea ... Assuming that the instability of the K7D is related to the configuration of the processor, there's one thing that I haven't seen tried yet and that makes a little bit of sense: changing the default FSB via the L12 bridges.
Currently, mobile CPUs use the FID_Sense configuration "10". However, for a desktop CPU, this is a "reserved" FSB_Sense setting. If it was changed to the expected FSB_Sense setting of "01" (indicating a 133MHz FSB) it may alter the way that the CPU and Northbridge talk to each other. If the Asus, Gigabyte, etc are programmed such that the FSB_Sense pins are either ignored or treated correctly when negotiating the FSB parameters, and the MSI stuffs something up due to not being a "valid" value, then this could allow the chips to work correctly.
Doing this modification would involve cutting the leftmost L12 bridge (the one closest to the dot). If the Asus hasn't eaten my Durons, I'll try the reverse through pin painting (changing to the "reserved" FSB_Sense setting and seeing if stability is affected).
I'd also be interested to know if anyone's tried this on their chips yet
Currently, mobile CPUs use the FID_Sense configuration "10". However, for a desktop CPU, this is a "reserved" FSB_Sense setting. If it was changed to the expected FSB_Sense setting of "01" (indicating a 133MHz FSB) it may alter the way that the CPU and Northbridge talk to each other. If the Asus, Gigabyte, etc are programmed such that the FSB_Sense pins are either ignored or treated correctly when negotiating the FSB parameters, and the MSI stuffs something up due to not being a "valid" value, then this could allow the chips to work correctly.
Doing this modification would involve cutting the leftmost L12 bridge (the one closest to the dot). If the Asus hasn't eaten my Durons, I'll try the reverse through pin painting (changing to the "reserved" FSB_Sense setting and seeing if stability is affected).
I'd also be interested to know if anyone's tried this on their chips yet
