old Skool help needed

[mongoled]

Hi peeps,
Have never owned an Intel CPU so need some help deciding if a certain CPU will fit on a certain mthbrd.


My Uncle wants to upgrade his computer, he has a ECS (Elitegroup) P6BAT-A+ mthbrd, the mthbrd supports 133mhz Socket 370 CPU's. On the ECS website there is conflicting information.

I found a webpage Pentium III CPU Support List which lists ECS mthbrds that support PIII processors. The P6BAT-A+ (rev 2.x, mine is a rev 2.0) supports FC-PGA
(133MHz) PIII's, but no info on the speed of CPU.

The specification webpage of P6BAT-A+ (P6BAT-A+ Specs says different), to quote

Processors

* SECC2 Pentium III up to 850MHz(100MHz FSB), Pentium II
* Celeron PPGA up to 533MHz

Im looking on eBay to buy the right CPU, will I be ok going for a 133mhz PIII up to 1000mhz?

Another thing,

the RAM my uncle has is

2 x PC100
1 x PC133

There are options in the bios to run the ram at variating frequencies (at the moment with 66fsb CPU the options are 66/75/83). There is a jumper on the mthbrd to force it to 100mhz, i believe with the right CPU the options increase to 100/133.

Hope someone can provide me with some help

mong

 

[batboy]

The ECS spec page shows a slot 1 motherboard. You said at first it's a socket 370. Perhaps you can double check what model the mobo really is and whether it's a socket 370 or slot 1. If it does turn out to be a socket 370 that truly supports 133 MHz processors, then any Coppermine (not Tualatin) P-III up to 1000 or Coppermine (not Tualatin) Celeron up to 1100 will work. If it's a slot 1, then you could get a slotket adapter and use a Coppermine CPU (probably not 133 FSB though).

 

[mongoled]

Hi batboy,

should have been more specific, the mthbrd supports both Slot1 AND Socket 370 CPU's, it was designed this way.

On the outer box, there is a sticker which has been clearly placed there after the box was manufactured, on the sticker it says, 'Support 133mhz CPU Guranteed'. Im hoping that the information you relaying is correct and that I can slap a 1Ghz PIII into her

mong

 

[batboy]

I looked at the link and pic again. *slaps forehead* The first time I looked I saw the slot 1 and stopped looking. Sounds like they might of released a new version of the mobo that supports 133 FSB processors. Check the ECS website for BIOS updates and see what the latest BIOS for that model supports.

 

[mongoled]

Done the bios update thing, when i first started the maintanance on the system. The latest bios version is 5.6 and was released 2003/03/28. The only note their is for the bios is the following:

Update Description
1. Support new CPU signon

Need to find more info abt this!!

Slightly offtopic, you wouldnt happen to know of an AGP 1x gfx card which has supported drivers (or even unsupported!)

 

[batboy]

Most older 2X or 4X AGP card should work. They are supposed to be backward compatible. If they aren't, they are supposed to be keyed so they won't fit into the slot.

 

[mongoled]

Yes,

ive been getting similar information from another a thread i started specifically abt AGP standards.

Back on topic,

Im hoping someone else will post here backing the concensus tht a 133mhz bus 1Ghz PIII, will fit into the mthbrd. Then i can go ahead and buy one from eBay!!

 

[batboy]

There are options in the bios to run the ram at variating frequencies (at the moment with 66fsb CPU the options are 66/75/83). There is a jumper on the mthbrd to force it to 100mhz, i believe with the right CPU the options increase to 100/133.

The only thing that worries me is your listed FSB jumpers. There didn't seem to be a jumper for 133 MHz. To play it safe, you could just get the fastest 100 FSB P-III you can find.

 

[mongoled]

That could be a good idea,

what im going to do first is verify the VIA chipset which is on the mthbrd, I know that different versions have different chipsets (Via Pro Apollo, Via KT333, Via KT333a). If the chipset supports a bus speed of 133mhz and greater and seeing that the sticker on the box gurantees this, I will get a 133mhz bus CPU.

Wht converns me is if the CPU power regulation on the board can handle a 'fast' CPU (fast is prob wrong terminology, wht I mean is power drawage, LOL).

Thanks for your help in this matter, looks like no-one else can help me...

 

[mongoled]

Ok,

ive discoverd tht the chipset is a VIA Apollo Pro 133. I think im going to take the plunge and buy a 1Ghz/133mhz/PIII from eBay.

If anybody happens to read this and thinks im making a mistake please tell me!!

 

[mongoled]

Ok,

ive discoverd tht the chipset is a VIA Apollo Pro 133. I think im going to take the plunge and buy a 1Ghz/133mhz/PIII from eBay.

If anybody happens to read this and thinks im making a mistake please tell me!!

Well looks like im going to give myself some advice here and ask for some more advice in the process!

I got the 1Ghz CPU yesterday, put it into the mthbrd and tried to boot, but it was a no-go. Its only gone and blown the mthbrd up! Now im searching on eBay to buy a Socket 370 mobo with Apollo Pro 133 chipset and the irony is tht I have found a mobo which will do the job, it is a EP-CU133A+ and it supports

Pentium 3 from 500-933Mhz

But i want to put a 1Ghz processor into it!!! Will the processor blow this mthbrd up to?????



Oh someone with some good advice respond.....

 

[ZL1]

Well looks like im going to give myself some advice here and ask for some more advice in the process!

I got the 1Ghz CPU yesterday, put it into the mthbrd and tried to boot, but it was a no-go. Its only gone and blown the mthbrd up! Now im searching on eBay to buy a Socket 370 mobo with Apollo Pro 133 chipset and the irony is tht I have found a mobo which will do the job, it is a EP-CU133A+ and it supports

Pentium 3 from 500-933Mhz

But i want to put a 1Ghz processor into it!!! Will the processor blow this mthbrd up to?????



Oh someone with some good advice respond.....

explain what happened, that cpu shouldnt have damaged the board

also as far as I know the apollo pro 133 can handle a 1ghz, but you sure you have the pro133 ? the ecs spec page says BX and 100fsb cpus only

D

 

[mongoled]

explain what happened, that cpu shouldnt have damaged the board

also as far as I know the apollo pro 133 can handle a 1ghz, but you sure you have the pro133 ? the ecs spec page says BX and 100fsb cpus only

D

Hello,

This is wht I did unplugged power, I reset the CMOS, took out battery, pulled out CPU, put in new CPU, attached heatsink, powered up.

I didnt adjust the 66/100mhz jumpers (dont think this should have caused any problems as to damaging the board.

When I powered up, It didnt boot, just fans start spinning, i try to boot up a 2nd time pressing 'insert' again no-go. I then turn computer off and play with the 66mhz/100mhz jumper. Again no boot, I draw conclusion tht the brd cant handle 1Ghz CPU. So pull out CPU and put old celeron CPU back in. Now, this is where it gets interesting.....

When I try to power up, the computer just goes into a infinite loop, what do i mean? The power goes on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off flickering like tht. So i turn the computer off, play around with PSU connections, again no go.

Test the PSU seperately (by shorting green-black) it powers up fine (need to check the rails on tht PSU)

Bring the mthbrd home (was at my uncles doing all this)plug it into my Tagan 480W PSU, manage to get the mthbrd to power up again without the 'flickering' but it doesnt boot, ive tried 4 CPU's in the mthbrd but it wont boot.

Maybe the bios is scrambled, but i dont have another bios chip for this mthbrd.

As for the chipset, i can tell you the exact code, it is:

VT82C693A

Google tells me this is the Apollo Pro 133 chipset.

If I make some assumptions, it is possible tht the current draw of the 1Ghz CPU was too much for the mthbrd to take. It is possible tht the bios got scrambled. Ive seen a few Apollo Pro 133 chipsets and the ones i seen dont support CPU over 1Ghz. The closest I got was 933mhz, with a reserved value (in user manuel) of 1000mhz (dont know why this was reserved??).

Ive got my eye on a Abit VH6-II (this is a Apollo Pro 133a chipset) which does support 1Ghz CPU. Hopefully I can win this auction and not have to worry too much if the mthbrd will take the Ghz CPU.

 

[KILLorBE]

If I make some assumptions, it is possible tht the current draw of the 1Ghz CPU was too much for the mthbrd to take.

I really doubt that is what happened as the Apollo Pro 133 was launched at the time Intel launched their Coppermine CPU's, so I'm pretty sure quite a few used their MOBO to run Katmai CPU's, now a 600MHz Katmai CPU draws about 17.2A and a 1.13Ghz Coppermine draws 16.6A so that shouldn't be the problem.

Also the Apollo Pro 133 does support 133MHz FSB.

Eventho manufacturers may say that their MOBO only supports up to 933MHz CPU's doesn't mean it won't run a 1.0GHz or 1.13GHz CPU (Or even 1.4GHz), one reason they say that is to prevent people from buying (Knowingly or accidentally) unlocked (ES) CPU's as the BIOS only allows you to select a certain multiplier (most likely 8x max.), another reason is that at the time the MOBO was designed there were no CPU's that used higher multipliers.
So as long as you use a locked CPU you should be able to run any* CPU.
*NOTE1: A Tualatin CPU requires at least an adaptor (or mod) and possibly a new (patched) BIOS.
*NOTE2: Not all MOBO's use a VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) that goes low enough (1.5V) to run Tualatin CPU's, but this only affects Slot1 MOBO's AFAIK, and I'm pretty sure it works fine with the PowerLeap adaptors as they have a VRM on the slocket.
*NOTE3: Some MOBO's don't have enough divider options, thus running the AGP/PCI out of spec when using a 133MHz FSB CPU.

The VH6-II *should* be able to run a 1.4GHz Tualatin CPU using an adaptor (Have a look at Upgradeware, or the more expensive PowerLeap and there are some cheap Lin Lin adaptors (Check eBay)).
*should* = I'm not sure what is causing the problem with some of the 1.4GHz Tualatin CPU/MOBO combo's, but it seems that the 1.4GHz won't run on some (very few) MOBO's, the 1.2GHz and 1.3GHz are a safe bet tho.

BTW: Does the old MOBO try to access the floppy drive? If so you may be able to flash it.

 

[ZL1]

Hello,

This is wht I did unplugged power, I reset the CMOS, took out battery, pulled out CPU, put in new CPU, attached heatsink, powered up.

I didnt adjust the 66/100mhz jumpers (dont think this should have caused any problems as to damaging the board.

When I powered up, It didnt boot, just fans start spinning, i try to boot up a 2nd time pressing 'insert' again no-go. I then turn computer off and play with the 66mhz/100mhz jumper. Again no boot, I draw conclusion tht the brd cant handle 1Ghz CPU. So pull out CPU and put old celeron CPU back in. Now, this is where it gets interesting.....

When I try to power up, the computer just goes into a infinite loop, what do i mean? The power goes on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off flickering like tht. So i turn the computer off, play around with PSU connections, again no go.

Test the PSU seperately (by shorting green-black) it powers up fine (need to check the rails on tht PSU)

Bring the mthbrd home (was at my uncles doing all this)plug it into my Tagan 480W PSU, manage to get the mthbrd to power up again without the 'flickering' but it doesnt boot, ive tried 4 CPU's in the mthbrd but it wont boot.

Maybe the bios is scrambled, but i dont have another bios chip for this mthbrd.

As for the chipset, i can tell you the exact code, it is:

VT82C693A

Google tells me this is the Apollo Pro 133 chipset.

If I make some assumptions, it is possible tht the current draw of the 1Ghz CPU was too much for the mthbrd to take. It is possible tht the bios got scrambled. Ive seen a few Apollo Pro 133 chipsets and the ones i seen dont support CPU over 1Ghz. The closest I got was 933mhz, with a reserved value (in user manuel) of 1000mhz (dont know why this was reserved??).

Ive got my eye on a Abit VH6-II (this is a Apollo Pro 133a chipset) which does support 1Ghz CPU. Hopefully I can win this auction and not have to worry too much if the mthbrd will take the Ghz CPU.

very strange ...
dont think it was power related though, I think the bios just went crazy, still odd as it shouldnt have, if its a pro133 than the cpu should of worked.
by the way was the 1ghz ok ? any bent/missing pins ? scratches ?

yep the vh6-II is a good choice, I actually have a pro133A board and it will run up to 1.4ghz easily

D

 

[mongoled]

CPU draws about 17.2A and a 1.13Ghz Coppermine draws 16.6A so that shouldn't be the problem.

Thanxs for this verification

BTW: Does the old MOBO try to access the floppy drive? If so you may be able to flash it.

Ive tried this but it dosent detect the floppy

very strange ...
dont think it was power related though, I think the bios just went crazy, still odd as it shouldnt have, if its a pro133 than the cpu should of worked.
by the way was the 1ghz ok ? any bent/missing pins ? scratches ?

The CPU was bought from eBay as tested working. It doesnt seem to have anything wrong with it, looks in good condition

yep the vh6-II is a good choice, I actually have a pro133A board and it will run up to 1.4ghz easily

Lets hope so! Im just worried now abt testing this 1Ghz CPU out. . Any chance of having a spare bios chip, hehhehee, wonder if it would allow me to access the floppy to flash to proper P6BAT-A+ bios!