Epox 8kta3pro Can't get into CMOS

[chexi]

I haven't had this problem in a while, but now it has resurfaced. I have an Athlon XP 1600 CPU, but my Epox 8kta3pro reads it wrong by default for some reason. It's telling me it's an XP 1050mhz, FSB 200. That's all wrong, and resetting the CMOS won't fix it. The real problem is that I can't get into the CMOS to fix the settings manually, as it just hangs with me holding down the delete key. Anyone else encounter this, and more importantly know how to deal with it (other than chucking this stupid mobo)?

 

[chexi]

I put my old Duron 700 in, and it works and allows me access to the CMOS. I then swapped out the Duron for the Athlon and rebooted. It also allowed me into CMOS, but when I adjusted settings to fit the CPU, whammo... the same problem.

My guess is that the misreading of the fsb at 200 when it should be 133 is the heart of the problem. The Athlon XP must be telling the CMOS to expect 200 fsb, so it's defaulting to that. Grrr.:|

 

[chexi]

I'll post the "solution" I found, if you want to call it a solution.

1 part time, 1 part doing the following:

Turn power on, hit DEL, when it appears to hang, press CTRL + ALT + DEL

When the machine begins to reboot, press DEL again. This should get you into the CMOS.

In CMOS, set CPU using the proper multiplier X 133. Do not use X 100.

Okay, that said, I don't think the 8kta3pro was meant to be used with an Athlon XP, so I guess I may have been and be lucky that it actually "works," albeit with a lot of hassle initially. Oh, and I won't be changing anything in the hardware again on that machine for a long time... well at least not until my A8N SLI Deluxe arrives next week.