200GB: 12/28/2001-P4X266-8233-6A6LWP8BC

[Monster Kabasue]

I had a choice Hard drive or Video Card, should of gone with the video card Been wanting to update the bios for awhile to see if if the AGP slot would go from 2x to 4x any way.

Info is as follows
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BIOS Date: 12/28/01
BIOS Type: Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
BIOS ID: 12/28/2001-P4X266-8233-6A6LWP8BC
OEM Sign-On: P4VX2AD.B16 FOR P4VX2AD / P4VXAAD
Chipset: VIA 82C3128 rev 1
Superio: Winbond 697HF rev 6 found at port 2Eh
OS: WinXP SP2
CPU: Intel Pentium(R) 4 2000 Mhz MAX: 1500 Mhz (really?)
BIOS ROM In Socket: Yes
BIOS ROM Size: 256K
Memory Installed: 1024 MB
Memory Maximum: 768 MB (oh thats funny)
Memory Slot 01: 256 MB
Memory Slot 02: 256 MB
Memory Slot 03: 512 MB
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Additional Info
Manufacture "Alton" aka "PCware" aka "PCchips"
PCware web site where the bios update should be has been "This domain name expired on 09/14/2004 and is pending renewal or deletion" Damn my luck!

Hard Drive information.
Westren Digital 200 gig MDL WD200BB-00GUA0

update, I should mention the bios picks the HD as a 136gig, but windows still doesn't pick it up at all (xp service pk 2)

[Denniss]

According to the Bios-ID the board is from Azza .
AGP-Slot should be AGP Rev 2.x with AGP1x/2x/4x

You seem to have the latest Bios or I'm not able to find something newer - they seem to have ceased all support for their boards .

XP should be able to find this drive and maybe able to use the space above 137/128GB .

[Monster Kabasue]

Odd it only gave me the option for 1x and 2x, wonder if there an additional setting that I am missing. Xp doesn't give me the hard drive for me to format, but I will try add and remove hard ware bit, and see if that will find it.

[Denniss]

Maybe your VGa-card is only AGP2x ?

VIA P4X266 is roughly similar to the KT266 on the AMD side and that's definitely a Rec 2.x AGP1x/2x/4x chipset

You need some built-in Windows system tools to partition your drive and then it should appear in explorer to format

[Monster Kabasue]

It is a a GeForce 4 4200 ti, after a quick google it should be a 4x for the lower end models and a 8x for the higher end (pretty sure mine is a low end). Fortunately I am not the only one that has the problem, others are having the same problem as well. So it is quite possible that the bios is simply not displaying 4x (as you suggested) because the mother board doesn't think it can handle 4x. The solution appears to be a bios upgrade for the video card (ah geez just when I thought it was safe). I am going to run a little experiment when I get home, I have some older 1x, and 2x video cards in my shop I am going to put them in to see if the bios changes at all, then we will know for sure.

As for the hard drive, it is simply not showing anything for me to format, but I am going to try a force install, and or the old funny jumper crap when I find the on-line manual. Additionally I think the cable is 66, and the hard drive is 100. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for any hard drive, but this is a western digital we are talking about. So I will be taking home a 100 cable (or one that I think is 100) and test it out.

I called the e-support guys and they said they had the latest and greatest update for that bios number and it would support 500 gig hard drives. They dodged the question about the agp, but since they don't take pay-pal I would have to pay via CC which means I must go crawling back to the wife (I don't own a CC). Since I have all ready purchased 200 bucks of computer stuff this month she is liable to strangle the life out of me. So I will be skipping that for a loooooooooonnnng time.

Finally I was perusing the forums and I saw a few things about recycling old bios chips. I build computer for disabled people out of donated machines (usably P1s and P2s). We end up throwing out 2 or 3 boards a week. Being the compulsive pack rat I have saved all the Bioses out of the boards, we where making little pipe cleaner animals out of them, and selling them. Is there a market for used bioses (hell I will send you some for free for the help you have been giving)

[Monster Kabasue]

Update: I threw in an old GeForce2 agp card, and BAM in the bios was the selection for 4x. Getting closer, can almost taste the FPS improvment.

Update: Computer picked up hard drive would not display it, windows selp help says I need a 48 lba bios, blah blah Bill Gates Owns you blah blah. Whent to WD web site they say same thing, down load WD utillites format it and install any way, low and behold hard drives exzists now
(Referance: http://support.wdc.com/download/#dlgtools)

Update: Even after flashing the bios of the video card, I still can't get it to 4x. The G4 came in 4x and 8x flavors, so something on the board doesn't like the card. Might be something to do with the voltage, but I am not paying 60 bucks to find out if I am wrong or right. At least I got the 200 gig hard drive working.

any last thoughts before I surrender on the agp slot?

[Denniss]

Compatibility problem with either motherboard or graphics Bios .
GF4 should run fine with AGP2x and it's much faster than any GF2

Only the late GF4Ti models got AGP8x capability with some power improvements for the 128MB Ti4200 .