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Can I run an AMD k6-3 450 with a FIC VA503+ motherboard?

G

gekedad

Junior Member
I am trying to get a little more life from my son's computer. It is has a FIC VA503+ motherboard with an AMD k6-2 350Mhz cpu. I tried to install a new AMD K6-3 450 Mhz cpu but the bios won't recognize it. I flashed a new bios JE438 but the cpu comes up as a 66Mhz but the POST will not continue. I went to the FIC FAQ's for this board and found buried among the questions the note tha boards labelled 4503 or E0037 are able to support the AMD K6-3 450. However my board is 4502. Does anyone know of a fix. Thanks
 
Hi.

A fix? No, probably not.

I had the VA-503A with a 500 AMD k6-2. First check your CPU voltage, your motherboard's FSB settings and memory to make sure they're set properly. Next, make sure the you are reading the chip's marking correctly. Go to AMD's website and double check the chip markings.

We can assume the AMD k6-2 450 runs at 4.5x, 100MHz FSB and 2.2v or so.

If everything checks out from above, and everything is correct; and it still does not work- I would geuss the VA-503+ can't support a 100MHz FSB chip. You can run the FSB setting down (CPU side)from 100MHz, it won't hurt the chip. But you will lose system speed. Your clock mutliplier may top out at 5 or 5.5x; if the VA-503+ FSB can be adjusted up from 66MHz to 75MHz, 83MHz or 90/95 MHz- you might be able to get around 400MHz mark.

5x + 83Mhz = 415MHz
5x + 75MHz = 375Mhz etc, etc...

I hope this helps, email me if you need anymore help.

Mike
 
most likley it will work, just make sure you ahve the latest bios. I have the FIC PA2013 and it is supposed to work but i have latest bios and a K6-3+ 450.
 
FIC bios je4330, do a search of their site. It is not listed in their bios page, as it is an "unofficial bios"
 
With that bios I'm running a K6-2+ (128 onDie cache) 500@550.

The only bug is the L3 cache , is not working :-((((


 
I've got the same setup, and mine is an AMD K6-3+ 450 (notice the plus sign, it's a mobile processor). I had to upgrade my bios in order for it to recognize the new processor (because before, it did the same thing you said it did: 66 mHz). I've got in OC'd at 550 right now, and I could probably go a little further if I tried.

Sad thing is, once I flashed the BIOS, Win2K began having IRQ conflicts. I expected that. I never made note of my original IRQ setup, so there you go. 🙂

 
Thank You

I downloaded the je4330 bios. It worked. The board recognizes the K6-3 450Mhz cpu and boots up fine. It tests out 1.5 times as fast as the older k6-2 350 chip. Many Many Thanks
 
I just installed a k6-3 450 yesterday onmy 503+.

I flashed the bios to 4331 version, dropped in the CPU, it it ran at 600mhz at 2.0v right off the bat!!! That's standard voltage, and it running stable and cool.

I ran a quick 3d mark test, and it returned benchmarks that surpassed Pentium III 450's and Celeron 566's. A far cry better than the weak-kneed performance of the K6-2 550 which it replaced (and which I can sell for more than the price of the k6-3).

 
What makes this processor really fly is the 256K on-chip L2 cache running at full FSB speed. That changes a mildly performing K6-2 into a hot performer, at least for standard Windoze apps. My old rig(now my son's) is a MSI-5169 MB with K6-III/400 Oc'ed to 450, 128 MB Crucial PC133 RAM, Diamond Monster Fusion video card on Win98SE. Winstone99 Performance of 25.2. Actually, better than a comparable P3 @500mhz. Games is another story.....and although stability on that rig is pretty good it is not up to the excellent level of the latest socket A/KT133 rigs.
 
well , after a lot of computing today I finally stopped my still running K6-2+ 500@550 , is a sad day but this system is useless for browsing today's website even with the lightest browser ... so finally he got his rest.

Goodbye K6-2+

🙁
 
K6 said:
well , after a lot of computing today I finally stopped my still running K6-2+ 500@550 , is a sad day but this system is useless for browsing today's website even with the lightest browser ... so finally he got his rest.

Goodbye K6-2+

🙁
Click to expand...

put it on ebay. there are commercial/industrial systems that still use old dos computers. you might get some decent money for it.
 
what's with the revival of old threads? there was that 10yr old starcraft thread and now this. u were only 3 months short of reaching a decade...

looking on ebay, bin price is <$10 and only 1 bid on any k6 at $1+$4shipping. i say toss it.
 
Laid to rest after outliving so many of its ilk. I've raised a glass & paused in thought for the good service I had from K6-x+.

/nostalgia
 
I have a PIII 1GHz box I'm about to retire myself. That will leave me with an AthlonXP 3200+ as my oldest running machine. Even the XP 3200+ is starting to show its age. Throw a bunch of flash or java on a web page and it chokes.
 
I still have an A64 4000+ S939 @ 2.9GHz and it's decent, will play SC2 at 1680x1050. Being single core it's one thing at a time though. Try to run WMC streaming 720p and surf FF at the same time and it chokes.
 
If your board supports a 2x multiplier, the chip will remap that to 6x multiplier, you can get 600MHz out of it. Even better, if you can run bus speeds faster than 100MHz (and I believe the 503+ can), you can get even faster speeds.

Slap a PCI SATA card in there, with a modern SATA hard drive, and a low draw AGP card (that will work in an AGP 2x 3.3v board, be careful there), 2x256MB CAS 2 RAM, and you ought to be able to run Vista for just browsing, if not Windows 7. Just let it boot up and stop grinding. 🙂

Chuck
 
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my first computer that i bought myself was a k6-2 450 128MB ram with a Nvidia TNT 16MB ohhh those were the days.
 
my oldest, still running system is an Abit VP6 running dual 1ghz P3 @133 cpus. It has 1gb of ram and 40 gig hdd. This system is my file server and web server.

It runs XP pro like a champ.
 
chucky2 said:
If your board supports a 2x multiplier, the chip will remap that to 6x multiplier, you can get 600MHz out of it. Even better, if you can run bus speeds faster than 100MHz (and I believe the 503+ can), you can get even faster speeds.

Slap a PCI SATA card in there, with a modern SATA hard drive, and a low draw AGP card (that will work in an AGP 2x 3.3v board, be careful there), 2x256MB CAS 2 RAM, and you ought to be able to run Vista for just browsing, if not Windows 7. Just let it boot up and stop grinding. 🙂

Chuck
Click to expand...

I doubt he's still waiting for an answer...
 
Is it me or many of the circa 2000 motherboards have gone south due to bad caps? I was cleaning out my closet yesterday and got a PPro 200mhz to fire up with with it's 128mb EDO DRAM, but I couldn't get my T-bred 3000+ to fire up in an Asus/VIA board. I couldn't also get an old Asus board with a P4 northie 1.8 to fire up either.
 
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