AHHHH!!! Someone please help!

[DragonFire]

I have a Soyo K7VIA motherboard, I did have a KA7, I should say I had two of them and the bios on both of them went dead on me! Anyways....I have a Athlon 700 but it has a 900 core, I got a GFD and now I find out that I cant even run it at 900 on the Soyo MB, the most I can get is 850. It wont even do 875Mhz, I think it has to do with the L2 cache, for someone reason the board wont use a 1/3 divider at 900+ it uses 1/2. Any ideas on how I might get 900?

Another thing I would like to know, which I think is odd since the KA7 is supposed to be better. On the Ka7 MB, the highest my L2 cache would run at is 360MHz but now on the Soyo MB, its running at 425Mhz without a problem! Whats up with that?

 

[Assimilator1]

If your figures are right,then 850/425 will be faster than 900/300 anyway .

BTW you've answerd your own question! ,if the L2 divider is stuck at 1/2 then that is why you can't reach 900.
I thought the L2 cache divider was only changeable by the GFD?

 

[DragonFire]

I know that the divider being stuck on 1/2 is what is stopping from getting to 900, what I wanted to know, was there a way I could get to 900?

Also, A GFD cant change the L2 cache divider, you either have to modify the Athlon itself or use motherboard that lets you do it from the bios (Abit KA7)....

 

[Assimilator1]

Looks like you'll have to mod the GFD then if the m/brd won't set 1/3 for the L2 cache, that's gonna be the only way you'll get that to 900

 

[Funeral]

H.Oda used to have a program that let you change the L2 Cache divisor, but I just checked his web page and it doesn't have it for download anymore. I bet you could still find it if you look around.

"WCPUA2 is the program that Athlon L2 Speed control by software for Win32/GUI."
"Download and Support stopped"

"WCPUA2B is the program that Athlon L2 Speed WRITE to BIOS file."
"Download and Support stopped"


H.Oda's Homepage

 

[Technonut]

Download MAthlon from Here, and see if it does the trick for reducing your cache.

 

[DragonFire]

I have that program already and your for getting something running at 900Mhz with a L2 cache 1/2 cache divider means my L2 is running 450Mhz at starup which is a no.....Unless someone gives SoftFSB support for my cpu there is no way I can get it to boot at 900Mhz on this board. I would go with a Abit KA7 but after the last two dieing on me the same way....I dont really trust that motherboard at all...

 

[Technonut]

The default cache is 1/2 on the 700 whether it has a 900 core in it or not. More than likely, you will have to drop the cache to 2/5 to get to 900, and 1/3 to get above that depending upon what type of cache chips you have.

I personally have not used MAthlon, I just suggested it because it was the only thing that I could think of besides buying a GFD with included cache control if they are still available. From what I gather, MAthlon will allow you to drop the cache to 2/5 or 1/3, which is what you need to do, unless you get another KA7 that allows you to set the cache in the BIOS. I have used many KA7 boards when I was building Slot A systems, and they never gave me any trouble. Soft FSB will not do you any good unless you reduce the cache speed to 2/5 or 1/3.

 

[DragonFire]

Perhaps I need to speel it out.......I understand everything you guys are saying. What you guys arent understanding is ant L2 changing program is useless because my computer will not boot up! Unless I can get into windows at 850MHz, change the L2 cache to whatever and then change the FSB within windows I dont see any other way...


About the KA7, perhaps you have some ideas. One night I turn my pc off for some reason, the next day I turn it on. Right before it tries to boot from a floppy it hangs and at the bottom it has the words "Building DMI Pool" I have tried reseting the CMOS time after time without luck, I tired moving my memory around, I tired removing everything except a video card and a floppy drive and still the same thing....IDEAS?

 

[Technonut]

I think that I have to spell it out for you Set your Athlon at the deault 700 1/2 cache, install .the latest version of MAthlon, set it for either 2/5 or 1/3 cache (depending upon on how high you want to try to overclock) Set your GFD & Voltage, and your cache will be set BEFORE you boot into Windows. I hope this helps you.

Quoted from the MAthlon instructions:

MAthlon is now a DOS Device driver, which means that ALL SOFTWARE
conflicts have been eliminated!!!. MAthlon will now run under any
software, including EMM386, Windows 9x, etc.

Works under DOS, therefore it is possible to lower the L2-cache
multiplier before Windows loads. This is important, as with most of
the higher overclocks, Windows cannot load due to L2-cache failure.
READ THE NEXT SECTION for BEST USAGE!!

1.4 - Usage.
------------

MAthlon should be loaded from your CONFIG.SYS. The most efficient
method is as follows:

1) Place a line in your CONFIG.SYS (make sure it is the FIRST line in
CONFIG.SYS) that installs MAthlon and sets the desired L2-cache
multiplier. Assuming you have put MATHLON.SYS in C:\MATHLON, and that you
want to use the 1/3 multiplier, this is:

DEVICE = C:\MATHLON\MATHLON.SYS -1/3

Now save your CONFIG.SYS and reboot (CONFIG.SYS can be found in the C:\
directory).

2) Get into the BIOS setup of your motherboard, and DISABLE L2-cache (often
called as External-cache). Don't worry, MAthlon will reenable the cache
as soon as it gets called from CONFIG.SYS.

Now, turn off your computer.

3) Next, use your GFD to set the CPU multiplier.

4) Turn on your computer.
Your system will not even boot if you skip Step 2), since the GFD cannot
control the L2-cache multiplier (and I assume you want to overclock
higher than what your cache can handle at the default multiplier) and
your computer cannot even get to MAthlon before it locks up.

5) Presto, everything should be rolling..

 

[Assimilator1]

Like I said ,then you going to HAVE to alter the GFD so you can lower the L2 cache divider.
[edit] (my bad ,only some GFD's had the fly leads to plug into the Athlon to allow L2 divider change)

Ref your KA7 problems ,did you try a different RAM stick?
BTW my fathers PC has an Abit KA7 ,no probs with that except 1 RAM stick dieing

 

[DragonFire]

Technonut!!!!!!!!

Tell me something, how is this dos program supposed to change the L2 cache divider if my computer locks up before it can it start running windows......Your saying have the computer start up at 900 and then let this doe program change the divider to 2/5 or 1/3 before windows loads. The problem is that my computer locks up before it can even run that program.

 

[Technonut]

No, I am saying that you have a 700 with a 900 core with a GFD correct? You could get into Windows at 700MHz, correct? Pull off the GFD and let the chip default and run at 700 1/2 cache. Install MAthlon, and set it for whatever you want, then put the GFD back on and overclock to your heart's content. You are making it sound impossible to run your Athlon at the default 700MHz. Even if the chip was hard modded, you could still knock it back to 700 with the GFD installed. What voltage are you at? you may be able to use MAthlon, and get through bootup, and into DOS with the voltage higher.

I am just trying to help, and if what I am saying is not making sense, someone please tell me...

EDIT: Have you tried to do it the way I described already? If so, I apologize, and your only options are to buy a GFD with cache control, or send your Athlon to SD Tom or Saturn if they are still doing chip mods, and have it hard modded, or buy another KA7, or RMA yours if you still could. You could also check Pricewatch, and probably pick up another Slot A Athlon 900 or 950 at a good price.

 

[DragonFire]

Are you saying put the GFD back on while the computer is running?

 

[Technonut]

No, of course I am not saying to put the GFD back on when running. After you boot into Windows at 700MHz and install MAthlon, shut down, then put your GFD back on. Set it at 800, and see if it works at whichever cache setting that you have chosen. If it does, work your way up from there. If you have good cooling, I suggest you set your voltage at 1.85.

Just try it and see if it works. There is not much more that I could suggest that I have not already.