MSI K7T Turbo w/ Duron @ 133 problems

[jfkaiser]

Hi Guys,

Two things about the MSI K7T Turbo board and Durons:

1. The 2.4 shipping bios does NOT initialize the Promise Raid controller bios if you
have some brands of TNT2 (Leadtek Winfast2 Ultra) or the Geforce 256
(Hercules 256 DDR-DVI )cards..maybe others
You don't even see the Promise screen at all.
Solution: flash to the latest beta (b16 I think) and you're good to
go...MSI Techs were not aware of this, but I verified it with different AGP
cards.

2. I was having trouble getting my unlocked Duron 600 which I usually run
at 101 fsb x 10 = 1010 Mhz. to come up in 133 fsb. It seems that if you
don't get a successful boot after changing some multiplier/voltage/bus
setting in the K7T Turbo Bios (either v2.4 or Beta b16) the system will
reset to the DEFAULT multiplier on the Duron chip. For me it kept resetting
to 6 x 133 = 800 Mhz.

MSI should address this in a bios update so that you are'nt forced back to
the chips Default multiplier (at least fix the Overclocking bios's to not
act that way).

Solution: I had to set the 100/133 jumper on Motherboard to 100 Mhz. Then
go in and set my multiplier to what I wanted it to be when it would
eventually be set to 133 fsb.
What I mean is that I had to set it for 7.5 x 100 (which I knew it could
handle) to get a clean boot at 100 fsb.....but anticipating eventually doing
7.5 x 133. Set my voltage at this time also to what I knew chip needed at 1
Ghz speed.

Then I would do F10 and save and exit bios screen but right away KILL the
power strip........then bleed any remaining power from the PC by depressing
the power switch on PC even though power strip was off. THIS IS CRITICAL.

Next I turn on the PC and check for (750 Mhz) 7.5 x 100......if I don't
immediately see confirmation of my desired 7.5 multiplier (which I'll need
for proper speed at 133 fsb) I'll kill and bleed the PC again till I boot
and see that magic number.

I then shut off and bleed the PC again, but now I change my jumper to 133
fsb and reboot........again, if I don't see the proper speed at post (997
Mhz 133 x 7.5) I'll kill and bleed the PC again and usually that is all it
takes.

Once you have forced your multiplier to the desired setting for your chip,
you should not have to go thru this process again (or at least until your
next flash).

BTW.....I am writing this post with my K7T Turbo proudly driving my little
Duron at 1020 Mhz (136 FSB x 7.5).
I hope above info helps some people out.....it took alot of reboots to see
any kinda pattern.

Thx,
Jon

 

[jfkaiser]

I hate having to recant my first posting....but

After running my Duron 600 successfully at 7.5 x 136 last night and benching it and rebooting, etc. I awoke this morning to a boot with no video sync.

I tried every action mentioned in my first post including the "bleeding of power" and was unable to get the chip back to the 7.5 multiplier again....it would continue to come up at its factory default of 6x....even though it's unlocked.

I sure hope MSI addresses this wierd "safe mode" of bringing a boot back to original multiplier if failed the first boot attempt (7.5x)

The only other thing I could do would be to "Hard Mod" my chip to 7.5 and I really don't want to do that.

Come on MSI.....help us out here!

Thx,
Jon

 

[Mavo]

That's strange that the multiplier would reset itself. Last night, I flashed to the OC bios and have been funning at 133 FSB ever since.

This is what I did:

1) At 100 FSB, set mult. to 5 and boot into Windows to make sure it worked.

2)Restart computer and switched off computer when it posted.

3)Removed jumper to get to 133 FSB.

4)Powered up, went to BIOS, made changes to mult., voltage, etc., saved.

My computer then posted, and booted into windows.

How are your bridgs unlocked? I used the defogger kit and never ran into any problems.

 

[ivanov]

my K7T Turbo doesn't have that multiplier reset problem u described... i flashed to the beta overclocker bios (ver 016 or something) and have been running my tbird smoothly and reboots haven't caused any problem either.. but MSI should definitely fix up the buggy bios and release a proper set of bios for this mobo too... it's an awesome board, but for the bios... well, that can be rectified...

hope u manage to solve it

 

[jfkaiser]

Thanks for your response...

My bridges are #2 pencil done by overclockerz store, but has always worked fine and still works fine for 10x i.e. 10 x 101 = 1010.

Could it be the Duron vs. TBird thing.....I don't know.

Frustrating to get there and then lose it the next day.

 

[jfkaiser]

Hi....Im Back !!

Ok here is the latest attempt at a solution.
I had been running back at the 100 FSB speed after my failures to get back to 133fsb mentioned above. PC had been running for about 3-4 hours....not sure if PC being warmed up had anything to do with what follows....

I decided to try and get back to a bootable 7.5 multiplier (whether it be at 100 or 133) I just wanted to see if I could ever get machine to hold at 7.5 again.

I kept bus at 100 fsb and set Duron600 for 9x. I hit F10 to save and rebooted OK..no power off and bleed this time. I did NOT hit F10 and power off immediately as describe in my earlier post. I just did F10 and saw if PC got video sync or not. That is same for what is described below too.

Next I went for 8.5 and saved. Got no video sync after save reboot, so powered off and bled PC by depressing power button with Power strip off. This time machine DID come back at 8.5 x 100.

Next I went down to 8x then finally the desired 7.5x multiplier following exact process mentioned above about powering off and bleeding.......woo hoo I got machine to talk to 7.5 again.

Final step was to change jumper to 133fsb and see if machine came up.....YES success, and once again I am writing this from a PC actually running 7.5 x 136 fsb = 1020MHhz.

I only pray that tomorrow when I turn the PC on again it will come up at 1020 and not fail as it did earlier today.

I don't know if the changing back to 100 fsb and then starting to go down from 9x to 7.5 is really necessary.......If I have to do this again I will try leaving the fsb at 133 and coming down from 9x to 7.5 (if my Duron can handle 9 x133 just to get the wierd process going on way down to 7.5

I would hope that something here can be logically explained and fixed in future bios release. I read something about Hi and Low states of the Durons and maybe my strange procedure somehow switches those states and lets me re-attain the 7.5 multiplier....I'm not sure.

Thx,
Jon