440bx limitations

[Shaftatplanetquake]

I'm using an asus p2b and I'm having dificulty running any fsb over 100Mhz. The board will let me set the jumpers for up to 150 Mhz, but that basically just makes the computer lock up while its booting. I had a 600 in here (4.5X133), but I had to run it at 450(4.5X100) to get it to boot windows.

Anyone know if the 440bx was ever able to get over 100 fsb? Anyone back in the day able to get it to run 133?

Thanks

 

[soulm4tter]

my friend has been running his at 133mhz bus for over 2 years.

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

hrmm ok must be ram thanks

 

[bacillus]

mine is running x124fsb!

 

[DSTA]

Other problem is that the AGP is hard locked on 2/3 FSB. Dunno what vid card you use, but there's a fair chance it does not like a 89 MHz AGP.

If you've got one laying around, try to see how high it goes on with a PCI or ISA vid card. Other possible tweak is to set AGP 1X.

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

Right now I've got a 64 Mb radeon VIVO in my machine. You think that could suck with 89 Mhz agp frequency?

 

[bacillus]

thinking about it & assuming it was a 600B chip, did you have the latest bios as that chip needed 2.05V default instead of the then usual 2.0V?

 

[Syborg1211]

Yea 440 bx always ran over that much. I have al old P3 700 running at 1.05 ghz (150 mhz bus). The only problem with the 440bx is the lack of a lower agp bus ratio. The best ratio the chipset has is the 2/3 agp bus ration which will take 2/3 of you total fsb and run you agp at that speed. And since 66 mhz is the ideal speed for your agp bus then running at say 133 will overclock you agp bus by 22 mhz and that's a lot on an agp card. Most cards can handle it but some don't. Maybe try taking a friends graphics card and swapping it out. Another problem could be your ram, maybe you only have pc100 ram?

 

[DSTA]

AFAIK a Radeon should be fine.

To recap: I think the problem is not the BX. More likely RAM if it's still PC100 or the CPU. If you have a 600 MHz chip with 512K cache you'll need to think about cooling too. Those things ran hooot.

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

Yeah, I need a better heatsink and I need better ram.

Just now I was playing with the different sticks and only a certain combination of the sticks would allow me to even make changes in the BIOS (it would just freeze up).

I need to get 2 128Meg sticks of pc150 2-2-2 and a decent slot 1 cooler.

 

[DSTA]

I need to get 2 128Meg sticks of pc150 2-2-2 and a decent slot 1 cooler.

On second thought - please check what kind of PIII 600 you have before making that investment.

There are a many different types of PIII 600 out there, important difference: some where made based on the older Katmai core, other based on the newer Coppermine core.

The Katmai core version is pretty much maxed out at the stock 600 speed. The coppermine core (especially the later steppings) version got a good chance of making it to 800 and 133 FSB.

If you've got the case open, just read the SSpec from the CPU and do a search with google. If not, get sandra or wcpuid to find out what kind of PIII 600 chip you have.

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

This is a 600b. I don't know if that makes it a coppermine or a katmai, but its default is 133Mhz Fsb and 4.5x for the multiplier. To reach 800 with this chip I would have to go to 178Mhz fsb- and I really really doubt that would happen.

And yes, I am supposed to be using 2.05V for the vcore. I need to take a look and see if that is what I am using perhaps that is why I cannot get it up to the 133Mhz fsb.

BTW I have just went through all my systems and pulled out the RAM, and the best combo I could come up with (on some pretty decent ram that runs @ 143Mhz) was 115Mhz for the FSB.

Where can I find the SSpec?

Thanks

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

BTW I also put a pci vid card in there while I was trying different combos with the RAM. I was still unable to get it higher than 115.

 

[DSTA]

<< This is a 600b. I don't know if that makes it a coppermine or a katmai, but its default is 133Mhz Fsb and 4.5x for the multiplier. [...] And yes, I am supposed to be using 2.05V for the vcore. >>



Hm. They made 600B with the Katmai or Coppermine, and I agree, you'd be really pushing things with the 170 MHz+ FSB .

If you know for sure that it's got to be run at around 2V, then it's definitly a Katmai.

Anyways, I was (wrongly) assuming that you wanted to run a 600 with a 6.0 multiplier at 133FSB/800. Both Coppermine and Katmai 600B should be able to reach their spec speed just fine (except that the Katmai runs hotter).



<< BTW I have just went through all my systems and pulled out the RAM, and the best combo I could come up with (on some pretty decent ram that runs @ 143Mhz) was 115Mhz for the FSB. Where can I find the SSpec? >>



You can look up the PIII SSpec here. It's written on top of the cartridge somewhere.

Oh, another way to find out what it is (not that it should really matter except for cooling), scroll down to 'pictures' here. '0.25 µm Pentium III Top' is Katmai, '0.18 µm Pentium III Top' is Coppermine.

Now that you've got ram that does 133+, what I'd try first is forcing AGP 1X in BIOS. If that does not work, try another vid card (best a PCI model). Perhaps the ViVo enhanced Radeons where a bit more picky than the plain ones? Not sure about this, though.

Edit: just read about the PCI card. With RAM that does 133+ in another machine, a 600B running under or at spec, I can think of cooling (worst case a PIII 600 is only 35W thoug), or not enough VCore (check that in BIOS). Try different SDRAM slots with the 'now good' RAM too.

 

[thraxes]

OK here's a topic which I can talk about

The CPU is probably a Katmai, 2 clues:

1 It wants to run at 2V
2 The board boots up at 100FSB - Coppermine requests 1,6V from the mainboard and most P2Bs (except later revisions) only go down to 1.8V and would not power up with a slot1 coppermine. You can avoid the problem by getting a socket CU-Mine and a slot adapter to manually set V-Core.


The RAM has got to be PC133 of course otherwise it's not worth even getting started. Here's the deal: Asus P2B boards are bastards to overclock, plain and simple. The board is extremely well designed for fast operation at default speeds, faster than most other BX boards. This comes at a price though: overclockability. I could get 133MHz out of an Abit BX board with the same components, but with my P2B I am limited to 124MHz.

It also depends greatly on the graphics card but that has already been mentioned. Anyway I have almost always got P2Bs to work with 115MHz and 120MHz settings just go slow, one speed step at a time.

For 124MHZ I had to up the CPU voltage (P3-800 100FSB @ 960MHZ 124FSB 1,9Vcore). Has been running for a year now without problems.

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

All I want to do is run this cpu @ default. Right now I am UNDERCLOCKING by 150 Mhz.

This chip is a 2.05 volt cpu. How do I know? It says so on the cartrige. The motherboard doesn't "want" to run @ 100Mhz fsb. It runs the fsb at whatever I tell it to run at (via jumpers on the mobo). I simply cannot get windows to boot @ 133Mhz fsb. I have tried taking out the radeon and putting in a PCI video card and it still wouldn't boot windows. I am sure that the ram does 133 Mhz, actually right now the ram is doing 143 Mhz 2-2-2(I set that in the BIOS).

What is going on?

 

[AndyHui]

You might find this FAQ useful about the ASUS P2B: What is the fastest processor I can use on my ASUS Slot 1 motherboard?