Athlon Tbird700 and KA7-100 acting VERY weird

[StevenSA]

I recently bought parts for a completely new system. For CPU/Mobo, I bought an Athlon Tbird 700mhz SlotA OEM, and an Abit KA7-100. I built it, and tried booting. During the first few tries, it stopped after detecting the IDE devices (ATA66 IBM hard drive and Pioneer DVD-115). Then it finally was able to boot from the DVDROM, and so I installed Win2K. I then shutdown to install the other cards, but it would not boot up. It detects my IDE devices, skipped a line, and then the cursor just sat there blinking.

After many tries, I figure that it boots about 10% of the time. When it does not boot up, it stops after detecting my IDE devices. When it does boot up, it works fine. Also, when I restart the computer via Win2K, it restarts fine.

I've jiggled all the cables, tried underclocking, flashed my BIOS with KA7_RX.bin from Abit's site, and tried clearing the PnP info. The problem persists.

I am aware of incompatibilities between the Tbird and the KA7-100. However, when it does boot up, it works perfectly. I've asked many people, and they have never heard of such a problem. What's going on?

ANY help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[Blacktree]

What kind of power supply do you have? Wattage rating? If I remember right, T-Birds are just as power-hungry as Athlons. An Athlon-approved power supply might be necessary.

 

[DaddyG]

You got to try the RY BIOS, seems that this is the one to use with T/BIRD. Also, check your CPU core voltage, it may be set wrong if you used the AUTO option. Should be 1.7 volts

 

[Mickster]

Check all the above,they are all good answers...
(Ry Bios Is Best)
Plus another thing to check might be the other bios settings which
revert aswell,
ie:eide detection,mine always reverts to factory if it didnt like my
last setting,
also a tip,if ya cant boot,instead of clearing cmos with jumper,
hold down the (insert)key just as you power it on,
it clears last cmos setting without the shutdown,unplug,& wait twenty secs for 5v line ref. signal to clear.

 

[Insane3D]

Yeah, check what Mickster said. The Bios will revert to only the primary master IDE being enabled, and everthing else disables. I had this happen after a bios flash and when I had to clear the CMOS. It was a pain to figure out at first.

 

[redpriest_]

Make sure you adjust the CPU drive strength appropriately.

 

[Godhead]

I just got a Ka7-100 and "classic" Athlon 800. I kinda had the same problem. It was a setting somewhere in my bios..I used the "default optimized settings" to reset everything and it worked after.

 

[zod]

post ur e-mail address steve

 

[sarielX]

T-bird and kx133 chipset reportedly have issues...
Sariel X
ASUS K7M (AMD 751 chipset)
T-Bird 700 @800 via GFC (core is 700)

 

[NuovoTech]

Pulled this off of Abit's main support NG 6/30...I also heard using
"Auto" setting for both may work too.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Would you please upgrade your BIOS to RY please? I think your BIOS is too old to identify Thunderbird properly. Basically, Thunderbird's electronical specifications are slightly different from previous K75, and its timing tolerance is beyond KX133's response timing. We aren't fully confident that any Thunderbird could run flawlessly on every KA7. But with latest BIOS and some adjustment in BIOS, it might help.

Please set these options in BIOS as following list:
CPU Pull Up Strength = 0
CPU Drive Strength = 1

TechSupport, FAE Department, ABIT
support@server2.abit.com.tw