New Slot A Tbird acting up

[Pyroclasm]

I just started work on a new system for a friend of mine, who laid out quite a pretty penny for the system. As I this is my first AMD-based system, I figured you guys could help.

This system is being built from scratch, with the exception of an HP9100i CDR drive. I got the 800MHz SlotA Tbird and Abit KA7-100 in last week, as well as the Enlight 7237 case, with stock power supply. After attaching the quite attractive Golden Orb to the OEM Tbird, I set up SoftMenu III, only to find it still wouldn't boot through. I called a friend, who told me to change two settings to AUTO, which allowed the system to boot normally. However, through successive boots to install Win98 SE, instability issues crept up. I have yet to be able to actually get into Win98, stalling at splash. The system will hang randomly before then as well, at barying points during boot.

So, I come to you, asking what could possibly be wrong. I've got a GeForce DDR (Prophet) in there, as well as a Live!, Hollywood Plus decoder, WinTV, and Netgear FA310TX, as well as 128mb PC133 (just for the info). What do I need to do to get this system to boot reliably. The end user is not a hardware guru (comparatively), and certainly does not want to deal with a system that won't boot reliably. So, I ask the best of the best for help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Insane3D]

Well, first off AMD says officialy that the T-Bird will not work properly on the KX133 chipsets. However, there have been several sites that have used them in the KA7/KA7-100 and they worked fine, they just did not overclock well. The two settings your buddy told you to change to AUTO are CPU Pull-Up and Drive strength. Adjusting these settings is what needs to be done to get a T-Bird to work properly on these boards. I have heard different people say what those settings should be, but other than AUTO, I would suggest trying two other settings. First try 5 and 4 in that order in the BIOS, and if that doesn't work try 0 and 1 in that order. Those two settings are what will get that bird working right. If you still have no luck, I know there were some issues with the 800 and up T-Bird on the KA7, but the 700 and 750 worked fine. If I find anymore info, I will post it for you. I saw recently a site that was using a T-Bird on the KA7-100 and they spoke specifically about those settings. Try those and see how it works.

 

[Insane3D]

OK, I just saw this at SLOT A.com's forum. It is an e-mail from a Abit tech support person to someone having rpoblems with the T-Bird on a KA7. You should definitely flash to the "RY" bios as it is best suited for the T-Bird. The shipping bios, RX I believe, is not new enough to recognize the T-Bird. Let me know if you need a link to the BIOS. Good luck...

To KA7 owners - Pulled this off of Abit's main support NG 6/30...
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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