Ok. I'll keep this short and sweet for those who hate long htreads.
Basically what I've been able to do and maintain with my BD7 Raid which you will see in a few pics below is due to 1 vmod on my HIP6301 regulator chip (ie added 47K pot) and the use of a bios I have been working on and tweaking. It's allowed me to reach what I have in the pics below and if I work at a little more I can get better.
the bios does not resolve the cold boot problem but I have found that this is a bommon problem wit alot of i845D mobos when OCd. It looks to me to be tied to the memory somehiw when the memory speeds exceed 133/266mhz or when the FSB itself exceeds the 133mhz point. I've founf that that rather than hitting the reset button, simply turn the system off and back on real quick. If it still doesn't boot then keep doing this a couple more times and the system will boot in a default safe mode for the CPU and the memory. This is a little safety net Abit uses for wrong setting. If you go in the bios when it reboots at 800mhz then reset the memory timings and the memory speed back to what you had before and try it again. I've found that after maybe 2 rounds of this it will catch and go on through with the boot process at the settings you use. It's a pain I know but it's a way around it for now.
the bios I'm posting a link to has an added option for the memory timings for the Prechare and the RAS to CAS. These settings are 0 and AUTO. If you find the 2 or 0 or 3 doesn't work for you then use the AUTO setting for both and you'll sind things go much smoother then with the boots. this is what leads me to believe the cold boot problem is tied to memory timings and speed.
One other thing I have found that puzzles me to which I will be getting with Abit Tech about tonight is the AUX Voltage read out. I have checked with a number of other BD7 owners and they all confirm the AUX voltage reading shows 4.08v. this concerns me due to the fact that the AUX voltage should be the VDIMM voltage read out which should be eithe rthe 2.5, 2.6, or 2.7v that is set in the bios. 4.08v is far to high and can cause major stability problems with the memory if that is in fact what I think it is. Will let everyone know later as to what Abit Tech says on this.
The bios also includes the HighPoint 2.31 370/372 bios which you will see in 2 pics below to work quite nicely with the 2.31 drivers. Of course if you are jumping from the original BD7 bios to this one and you are using Raid then you may encounter a problem but the new HighPoint bios can and does repair the Raid configuration if you enter the Raid bios right after flashing and telling it ot so if it indicates a problem with the Raid. I tested it here and the pics below are the results of that repair. No reinstall of XP was required. All I did was before I flashed I installed the lates 2.31 drivers and then rebooted and did my flash, did the repair and then re-entered XP with no signs of any problems. The new bios also contains the latest set of CPUCODEs to support upto the 2.4ghz P4 when it releases in a couple of days.
Anyway. I promised not to make this a long post so I'm cullting it off here. If you have any questions then I will answer them if I can.
First here are the Pics. The system used here is as follows.
P4 1.9ghz Willimette series ES (unlocked)
Abit BD7-Raid (with bios BD7_6H1.bin-Modified)
1gig Samsung PC2700 DDR (2 sticks 512meg unbuffered)
2x20gig WD ATA100 7200rpm HDs in Raid 0
Gainward GF2 Ti500 XP Golden Sample.
Intel 10/100 NIC
Standard air cooling with 7000rpm fan and ASII
Windows XP Pro (with memory set for System Caching)
That should do it with that. Now for the pics.
Next 2 pics are the HD numbers.
#1 is with Windows Buffers ByPassed.
Next pin is with Windows Buffering used (ie System Caching)
Well that does it for the numbers. Now if you want to use the bios I'm using here then you can grab it through the link below.
NOTE!
When flashing your bios it is best to have CPU and memory speeds at default settings. It is also best to use the following line and it writes the whole bios and boot block while clearing the CMOS.
awd800 (or awdflash) xxxxxxx.bin (xxxxx.bin = name of bios) /py/sy oldbios.bin /Wb/cd/cp/cc/LD
This line has always worked for me and I can flash upwards of 10 times a day on the same system.
Abit BD7 Bios - BD7_6H1 Modified
Ok guys. that's it. Any comments or questions then feel free to post.
Later
Basically what I've been able to do and maintain with my BD7 Raid which you will see in a few pics below is due to 1 vmod on my HIP6301 regulator chip (ie added 47K pot) and the use of a bios I have been working on and tweaking. It's allowed me to reach what I have in the pics below and if I work at a little more I can get better.
the bios does not resolve the cold boot problem but I have found that this is a bommon problem wit alot of i845D mobos when OCd. It looks to me to be tied to the memory somehiw when the memory speeds exceed 133/266mhz or when the FSB itself exceeds the 133mhz point. I've founf that that rather than hitting the reset button, simply turn the system off and back on real quick. If it still doesn't boot then keep doing this a couple more times and the system will boot in a default safe mode for the CPU and the memory. This is a little safety net Abit uses for wrong setting. If you go in the bios when it reboots at 800mhz then reset the memory timings and the memory speed back to what you had before and try it again. I've found that after maybe 2 rounds of this it will catch and go on through with the boot process at the settings you use. It's a pain I know but it's a way around it for now.
the bios I'm posting a link to has an added option for the memory timings for the Prechare and the RAS to CAS. These settings are 0 and AUTO. If you find the 2 or 0 or 3 doesn't work for you then use the AUTO setting for both and you'll sind things go much smoother then with the boots. this is what leads me to believe the cold boot problem is tied to memory timings and speed.
One other thing I have found that puzzles me to which I will be getting with Abit Tech about tonight is the AUX Voltage read out. I have checked with a number of other BD7 owners and they all confirm the AUX voltage reading shows 4.08v. this concerns me due to the fact that the AUX voltage should be the VDIMM voltage read out which should be eithe rthe 2.5, 2.6, or 2.7v that is set in the bios. 4.08v is far to high and can cause major stability problems with the memory if that is in fact what I think it is. Will let everyone know later as to what Abit Tech says on this.
The bios also includes the HighPoint 2.31 370/372 bios which you will see in 2 pics below to work quite nicely with the 2.31 drivers. Of course if you are jumping from the original BD7 bios to this one and you are using Raid then you may encounter a problem but the new HighPoint bios can and does repair the Raid configuration if you enter the Raid bios right after flashing and telling it ot so if it indicates a problem with the Raid. I tested it here and the pics below are the results of that repair. No reinstall of XP was required. All I did was before I flashed I installed the lates 2.31 drivers and then rebooted and did my flash, did the repair and then re-entered XP with no signs of any problems. The new bios also contains the latest set of CPUCODEs to support upto the 2.4ghz P4 when it releases in a couple of days.
Anyway. I promised not to make this a long post so I'm cullting it off here. If you have any questions then I will answer them if I can.
First here are the Pics. The system used here is as follows.
P4 1.9ghz Willimette series ES (unlocked)
Abit BD7-Raid (with bios BD7_6H1.bin-Modified)
1gig Samsung PC2700 DDR (2 sticks 512meg unbuffered)
2x20gig WD ATA100 7200rpm HDs in Raid 0
Gainward GF2 Ti500 XP Golden Sample.
Intel 10/100 NIC
Standard air cooling with 7000rpm fan and ASII
Windows XP Pro (with memory set for System Caching)
That should do it with that. Now for the pics.
Next 2 pics are the HD numbers.
#1 is with Windows Buffers ByPassed.
Next pin is with Windows Buffering used (ie System Caching)
Well that does it for the numbers. Now if you want to use the bios I'm using here then you can grab it through the link below.
NOTE!
When flashing your bios it is best to have CPU and memory speeds at default settings. It is also best to use the following line and it writes the whole bios and boot block while clearing the CMOS.
awd800 (or awdflash) xxxxxxx.bin (xxxxx.bin = name of bios) /py/sy oldbios.bin /Wb/cd/cp/cc/LD
This line has always worked for me and I can flash upwards of 10 times a day on the same system.
Abit BD7 Bios - BD7_6H1 Modified
Ok guys. that's it. Any comments or questions then feel free to post.
Later
Last edited:
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