Epox 8KTA3 (KT133A) overclocking problem

[G3DN]

Anyone with a Epox 8KTA3 able to get this thing to run at the 133MHz bus? Just to make sure my CPU wasn't the problem I underclocked it all the way to 550MHz and then upped it to 133MHz, and allI get is a black screen. Heck just to get any bus speeds options past 120MHz, I have to go back two bios updates to the very first one. This board is making me very angry! =( I'm using a 1.2GHz T-bird (that I unlocked) and 256MB Corsair CAS3 PC133. Any ideas?

 

[Ronin]

Hmmm, maybe u shoudve waited for Abit.

 

[G3DN]

Well my Abit KT7A-Raid will ship out tomorrow...

 

[KISS]

It sounds like you just got a bad board, or have something else in your system holding you back. Hard OCP reviewed this board and loved it. They were able to get 150 FSB no problem, even higher than their KT7A

http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/mainboards/epox/8kta3/

Let me know how it goes. I am considering this board to, since I can't find a decent sight to ship the KT7A to Canada....probably just wait for the A7V133.

 

[Tom]

G3DN (Jan 17, 2001 07:44 p.m.):
Anyone with a Epox 8KTA3 able to get this thing to run at the 133MHz bus? Just to make sure my CPU wasn't the problem I underclocked it all the way to 550MHz and then upped it to 133MHz, and allI get is a black screen. Heck just to get any bus speeds options past 120MHz, I have to go back two bios updates to the very first one. This board is making me very angry! =( I'm using a 1.2GHz T-bird (that I unlocked) and 256MB Corsair CAS3 PC133. Any ideas?

YOU NEED TO REMOVE A JUMPER TO GET IT TO WORK AT 133 OR FASTER LOOK FOR IT! mine will be here on monday keep me updated

 

[G3DN]

actually you don't remove the jumper, you move it from pin 1-2 to pin 2-3 according to the manual...when I do that, I just get a black screen. My question is why did Epox take 80% of all the FSB settings out of the BIOS that came with the mobo and the new one they released. There is no setting above 120MHz! You have to go back to the first bios to get all of them. Remember, those board sent for review were handpicked. I've receieved review samples myself in the past, and they almost always preform better then a retail or OEM model. I have a feeling when Epox started pumping these boards out in mass numbers, a bunch were having problems at high bus speeds. Why else would they take those FSB settings out? I sold my board to a friend who's not into overclocking and took a small loss. I then ordered a Abit KT7A-Raid...Abit boards have never failed me in the past. I also have another Epox board that hasn't shown up yet..I had ordered that for my son's computer I'm building for his 5th birthday this month. I'm going to test that one out and see if I can get it to work at the 133MHz bus...I'll be able to also test it with his 900MHz T-Bird along with my 1.2GHz T-Bird.

 

[KC Coldbrook]

See my big post about the A7M266 issues, I believe it bears upon this...

 

[neo1999]

This sounds like a classic case of a bad BIOS flash. It's inconcievable that Epox, or any manufacturer would castrate their product this way. If they had problems severe enough to limit them to a 120 mhz fsb, they would just recall the board.
I'd suggest re-downloading the latest BIOS, putting it on a fresh floppy, and flashing it again.
Good luck!

 

[G3DN]

No it's not a bad bios flash...those settings really were taken out, and I'm not only one to notice this. I've switched between the 3 bios many times...my board shipped with the 2nd release which could only goto 120. The 3rd release is the same way. The only way to get all the settings is going back to the very orginal bios, which from what I gather was only installed on pre-release boards. If you have a bad bios flash, your computer will simpley not boot. Epox probably took those settings out after AMD failed to certify their motherboard for 133MHz operation. This situation really sucks, because the latest bios fixes a lot of problems, but if you use it you get little to none FSB overclocking option. I guess I deserve this for leaving Abit. =(

 

[surlyjoe]

man that sucks *** ,,I been waiting for these damn boards to come out and now the're junk ,,oh well ,time to start lookin again

 

[Cadman]

I just purchased a Epox EP8Kt3, and I must say, it's a great board... Fast & Stable...

The only problem is with the latest bios, you MUST be able to post at you CPU's default multiplier @ 133fsb in order for the board to work on a 133mhz FSB !!!

I Have a TBird 950 that wont post at 9.5*133 (1264mhz) so I couldn't even boot the board with that CPU... (It's limit seems to be about 1200 for posting)

I tried a duron 700 which I know is good for 1000+ and it worded perfectly. (7*133=933)

So in order to get around it, I did a bit of surgury on the 950 chip, and cut one of the bridges and connected a couple of others, so now it thinks it is a 750, and all works perfectly. (See Tom's Hardware on a explanation on cutting the bridges)

Now I'm running along quite nicely @ 1088mhz (136*8).

I did some testing, and this is indeed quite a bit faster on memory intensive apps like CAD than 1100 (11*100)

I'll Post this same message on a couple of other message boards, and try to keep people from ripping there hair out on this one... I already HAVE !!!!

Have fun
CADMAN

 

[Fool]

You must have had a bad board. These things are stable and they perform as tested by all reviews. If you have the 1.2 t-bird you should rule. Check your pencil work... Let us know about your son's board!!!

 

[surlyjoe]

man that makes me happy!! ,, I relly wnat one of these things

 

[Banshax]

Please read the following things, there seems to be some issue with the 133Mhz bus and pci devider settings being set at 1/3 instead of 1/4 causing the Pci bus to run at 44Mhz [wich should contribute to your board instableness]

I have this problem myself, luckily a 140Mhz FSB runs with 1/4 PCI devider.

Check out this mail

Since it now looks like I'm going to have to bring the board back to
Connecticut to do some side-by-side comparisons with some other equipment, I
doubt I'll get to do this, but from correspondence forwarded to me, someone
else checked Sandra on several other 133A boards, and they all showed 1/3
ratios.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Henk" <[email protected]>
To: "Ed Stroligo" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2000 5:07 AM
Subject: Re[2]: kt133 PCI devider issues?


> Joe sent my *** to you. Seems you have the iwill kt133a board now.
> could you check out if the pci devider issue is reproducable?
>
>
> JC> Ed has this board now and I don't remember what the PCI speeds. He can
check
> JC> them out and get back to you.
>
> JC> Odd though that is would be a 3 divider.
>
> JC> ----- Original Message -----
> JC> From: "Henk" <[email protected]>
> JC> To: <[email protected]>
> JC> Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 7:18 PM
> JC> Subject: kt133 PCI devider issues?
>
>
> >> Hey joe!
> >> You might wanna read this...
> >>
> >> I`ve been planning me newest upgrade pretty well.
> >> My last system was a p3e500@800Mhz with ram at 120Mhz cas2.
> >> System performed exceptionally well. Gf2 at 220/410 All very nice.
> >>
> >> Now i`m using the Abit kt7a at 140x7 with the rest of the system
> >> identical. i`m using a Alpha 6035 hsf with Delta High performance fan.
> >> the cpu doesn`t get any hihger then 45Degrees celcius that shoud be
> >> around 113Degrees fahrenheit.
> >>
> >> Ok enough info on that.
> >>
> >> The strange thing is. At 140x7 the system is 100% stable [so far]
> >> The freaky thing is, that it seems that the PCI deviders aren`t done
> >> right by the bios [the board sets the deviders itself]
> >> so if you demand 133Mhz fsb with 33Mhz pci speed. the PCI devider
> >> should be 4 right? Ok now, in this setting the system is very
> >> instable, and Sisoft sandra reports 44Mhz pci speed. Wich is exactly
> >> pci devider of 3! Seems the bios is doing something wrong.
> >>
> >> Did you encounter that with the Iwill kk266 kt133a mobo [motherboard]
> >> ? Or do you have any info about this? Or did you encounter, any things
> >> like that with similar kt133a boards?
> >>
> >>

 

[stef]

I have this board and how I got it to work is
I left the jumper to 1-2 turned it on went to the bios set the cpu voltage to +.05 . rebooted shut it down and set the multi to 8.5 for my 1.1 t-bird rebooted to shut down then jumped to 2-3 for the 133fsb ...it worked for me