New BIOS for TH7-II

[arman68]

New BIOS 43a for TH7-II

I just found this file on http://www.solidhardware.com/macci/stuff/ while looking for the 'hacked' 77 bios (th7h_77.bin): th7h_43a.zip

Interstingly it comes with the version 8.0 of the Award Flash utility which I have not seen anywhere yet. That's why I am inclined to think it is a new beta.

I have run CBROM on it and here is the output:

******** TH7H_43A.BIN BIOS component ********

No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 131C9h(76.45K) TH7H_43.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0F170h(60.36K) 0A485h(41.13K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 01FEDh(7.98K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 04179h(16.37K) 01A47h(6.57K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA pattern 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
5. Other(4029:0000) 02730h(9.80K) 0132Ah(4.79K) _EN_CODE.BIN
6. Other(4027:0000) 0127Fh(4.62K) 00BF3h(2.99K) NNOPROM.BIN
7. Other(4028:0000) 1CB50h(114.83K) 10A53h(66.58K) ROS.BIN
8. PCI driver[A] 0D000h(52.00K) 06F86h(27.88K) biosv231.bin

Total compress code space = 4B000h(300.00K)
Total compressed code size = 3AC22h(235.03K)
Remain compress code space = 103DEh(64.97K)

** Micro Code Information **
Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
SLOT2 03 0F12| SLOT2 01 0F21| SLOT2 08 0F23| SLOT2 07 0F24
SLOT2 09 0F0A|


As you can see it seems to include the latest BIOS (2.31) for the HPT370 controller (I am already running 2.31 on my system without any problem: I simply added the HPT370 bios to the TH7-II 38 bios).

Would anyone with a bios saver dare to test 43a and report here?

As soon as someone can confirm that it works I will test it since I have a few problems with 38 (cold boot problem, XP corrupt file problem, 1.625V limit)

Regards.

 

[arman68]

Let's see if I can attach the BIOS in this forum...

 

[gone_fishin]

Have you asked Macci about it at all? Maybe an email to him could clear it up?

Update, I sent him an email. If responds I'll post here. The date is from Feb. The "a" in its' name could indicate an early beta.

 

[arman68]

I emailed Macci about it already as well and will let you know when I get a reply.

I should have mentioned it before to avoid inondating him with similar emails ;-)

.aR

 

[ctay]

I've got a BIOS Savior, so I tried the 43a BIOS.

Here's my findings:

POST screen has title, "Lord Micron's P4 Northwood TH7II Raid System"

BIOS Setup changes:

AGPCLK/CPUCLK options:
2/2, 2/3, 2/4, 2/5, 2/6, 2/7, 2/8 , Fix

CPU Voltage:
1.1 - 1.85

Added Spread Spectrum Modulated: Enabled/Disabled

No other changes or additions found.

Tested fine, no issues found. Actually more stable than the 77 BIOS. I was able to get 140FSB at full RAMBUS speed: 560/140. 150 FSB attempt choked, though I was able to get a 165FSB with RAMBUS Auto, which yielded 495/165 in 300 mode. Cold boot problem has not been seen, unlike previous BIOS levels.

These are short tests only, havent tried any burn-in loops yet.

Have fun ...

 

[ELBARTO66]

I try this Bios for the last 6 days- very stable!
Bios screen when starting up shows version -39

I think it´s the modified beta from Abit

 

[gone_fishin]

ctay, did you use the same command line switches when flashing with the new awd800 flash utility?

 

[ctay]

The new Awd800 flash was copied over to the floppy, renamed to awdflash after renaming the original. I then edited the original runme.bat file to specify the correct BIN. All the appropriate switches were then included. Ran just fine, except I noticed the last few blocks were not written, unlike the other flashes I've done. Doesnt seem to cause a problem though. Cold boot issue seems to be gone.

 

[gone_fishin]

Thanks, but I got itchy and done it a little defferently.
Here's how I successfully did it.
Ran drdos to create boot floppy
copied 43bin file to it
copied awd800.exe file to it
reboot from said floppy
typed at prompt:
prompt line looks like this:
A:\> AWD800 TH7H_43A.BIN /cc /cd /cp /py /sn /cks /r

It talks in the manual about that last section not being written to so you can reboot from floppy if the flash goes bad. It's calle a bios boot block.

The thing that had me confused is the web site has the switches in a different order than the manual does. I went with the manual.

Praise to lord micron whoever he is

 

[ctay]

Well initial tests in Win2k were better than the 77 BIOS, but I'll stick to 150FSB at 3x Rambus mode for now. That gives me 450 or PC900 and a 800Mhz CPU overclock. It's super stable at 1.65 volts set in the BIOS and reaches 50c at full load. Idle is around 43c. I can live with that.

I had 140FSB at 4x mode, but Win2k flaked out. Upping the CPU voltage didnt help. 133@4x worked ok, but the system feels faster at 150@3x and I dont have to worry about data corruption.

I'm using 2-256MB Non-ECC Samsungs.

 

[arman68]

I just flashed the 43a and can confirm the changes ctay mentioned.

I don't know if it solves the cold boot problem as I have not tried OCing it yet.

Before that I thought I should mention the POST screen reports a compile date of 01/14/2002 and a BIOS version of 39... Sounds like an 'official' beta to me.

As for the Lord Micron message, it's relatively easy to change that string to anything you want.

Does anyone knows what compile date and version the hacked 77 reports?

.aR

 

[Cooler666]

does this new BIOS still freeze at the computer health section in the BIOS?

 

[gone_fishin]

I have found that when spread spectrum is disabled the mem reports 453mhz and with it enabled it reports 450mhz on post screen. I have my mem set to 300 and FSB to 150mhz. This seems to give a small boost to the FSB when disabled. WCPUID reports 2415mhz also instead of 2400mhz.

 

[ginfest]

As for the Lord Micron message, it's relatively easy to change that string to anything you want.

I have CBRom, do you just replace the EPA logo file? Or which part of the BIOS?
TIA,
Mike G

 

[ginfest]

dp

 

[MrNatural]

Hmmm. Looks like someone has gotten hold of my bios. I wonder how that could have happen.

Yep. I made that bios up awhile back. It's a mix of the 38, the 77, and I added the 2.31 HPT bios to boot. Been running several different versions of it for the past couple of months. Also did the divider optios so ppl like me who like to hit extreme fsb speeds could use the Fixed or the others as shown above.

By chance could you tell me where you came across it out there. I've passed it along to only a few ppl.

If you want to see just how how high I can get me FSB going tithe this board and bios then check it out. If you look you'll see the multiplier is 3x for the 576/1152 RDRAM speed setting. That means the FSB is running at 192/768mhz. Can you say ZOOOM?

 

[gone_fishin]

Hello Mr Natural, nice work on the bios. The beginning of the thread is where it's linked to. You are well skilled to make such a bios, over at bios mods they were requested to make the fsb options a few times and I believe they replied it wasn't possible for them to do.

Do you know if there needs to be a bios update for the 533 northwoods to be recognized when released?

Nice overclock, do you have any newer versions? Please share your good work

 

[arman68]

Impressive Mr Natural!

What kind of cooling do you use with that?

On a side note I'd like to mention my cold boot problem seems to have disappeared with your BIOS. How did you do that? :-D

As to where I found the BIOS, read my first post in this thread.

.aR

 

[Arghuin]

This memory speed is simply

Btw, MrN, could you put together one for the TH7II non-raid mobo?

 

[batboy]

Mr. Natural, why not modify this BIOS file a bit more to allow higher CPU core voltage options available, so we don't have to wire wrap the VID pins? You'd have many grateful overclockers here that would thank you.