Hidden softmenu for Asus P2B?

[theR]

I have read in numerous places that there is a softmenu feature for the Asus P2B that can be unlocked with either a bios patch or a hardware hack. All the links I have found for either method have been broken. If this is indeed a feature of the board, is anybody aware of where I can find information on how to enable it? I want to have a little more fine tuning for overclocking on this board and would love to give this a try.

Thanks

-R

 

[Planktune]

I heard of it to I saw a howto at ars technica i think.
Its a hardware hack with solder of pins the info is in German and what is in english is'nt that helpful.I got my 333 at 416 so I don't think there is much more you can do with the soft bios. The best twak for a p2b is that you can put a 800 p3 100mhz fcpga on a slocket to the slot 1

 

[theR]

OK, sounds about right. I have a 350@466 right now that doesn't even need a cpu fan and is completely stable. The main reason I was asking about the softmenu is that I have a 400 that I can't overclock any higher than 466. Maybe I'll just sell the 400 and get something faster. I guess figuring out where to get a good overclocking cpu is probably a different discussion, but any suggestions in that area would also be appreciated.

-R

 

[Plester]

don't know about the soft menu, but i built a CHEAP rig for my sister inside an old dell p120 AT case w/ an Asus P2Z-B w/ a 366 @ 550. chucked my personal slot 1 650E in for kicks and set it to 133 and it ran like a CHAMP. the Asus P2X-X series are great boards and with the right p3 faster than all get out (this thing has a 150mhz fsb setting).

ps. cumines are not even supposed to be supported by the board i have. i know later revisions of the P2B-F have official support tho.

 

[theR]

Plester,

So are you saying that even though my vanilla P2B is revision 1.02 that I should still be able to make it work with a Coppermine? I know it is not officially supported, but if it works I wouldn't mind sticking one in there. Also, what is this 150Mhz FSB setting you're talking about? The highest I have been able to find is 133. Can you point me to where I can get a look at the jumper settings?

-R

 

[Plester]

sorry - the board i have is the P2Z-B (ZX chipset which is a modified BX - 1 less busmastered pci slot, and a 512?mb ram limit.) they are very closely related to the P2B, but obviosly not exactly the same. the last bios release for it was late '99, and it lists compatabilty up to the 600mhz katmai cored P3, but like i said, it ran my 650E cumine like a champ. there was a cpu error message during bootup but i can't remember what it was and didn't effect it in windows - was stable as a rock at 866/1.65v(this board obviously has the ability to auto-adjust vcore to 1.65 - which yours may not). i would advise you borrow a slot 1 xxxE cumine to see.

 

[AndyHui]

theR: yes, a Coppermine can be made to work with rev 1.02 of the P2B. You need to use a slotket and an FC-PGA processor, as well as the latest BIOS.

The P2B doesn't actually support 1.65 volts....the lowest it will go is 1.80 volts. This is fine for Coppermines. Just manually set the slotket to 1.80 volts and it will boot fine.

This trick works for ALL ASUS P2B family and P2Z/P299 family boards.