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Trying to Upgrade my Processor without much luck!!

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:24 pm
by Malc
Hi,
Could anybody please tell me where I am going wrong. I am trying to upgrade the processor in my kids pc. It is a Colossus (Time) with a P5ST-A Mother Board (GMB-P5ST-A....2A5IIG39 Gemlight I have found out so far). The cpu is an IBM 6x86 PR200 (Socket 7). I am trying to upgrade to a Cyrix MII 333GP. When I install the processor, change the jumpers and switch on, it says there is a PR233 6x86 installed?? and locks up on the windows 98 logo screen. I tried flashing the Bios with a version which came on the "drivers cd" but that just seems to lock up and sit there. Is it a bios issue and I haven't got the right version or am I being a pleb and missing something really basic?? Any help would be most appreciated.
thanks,
Malc

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:02 pm
by NickS
Yes, it could well be a problem with BIOS support for the CPU. I can drop a K6-III into my Vision Top VT586-TX and it won't put anything on the screen even though the right volts are achievable.
The parentage of this motherboard has been questioned and we think it's actually an ECS board.
This is the latest BIOS we could find:
ECS P5ST-A (Time Colossus)
11/05/97-SiS-5598-(P5ST-A)C-00 P5ST-A Ver 1.0a
11/05/1997 (146-C-25)

and we patched it for 128GB HDD support.
Can you give us the full details of what version you have ? Is it 11/05/97 ?

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:09 pm
by NickS
Just as an example, here's some history from the ECS site on the BIOS for another board (the P5ST-A is unlisted).

Code: Select all

2.3 05/29/98 Award® BIOS. 
  1. IBM 6x86MX / Cyrix M II CPU support
  2. Fixed modem ring wakeup fail(Support Ring SMI)
  3. Change the year of copyright from 1997 to 1998
  4. Fixed bug. When PCI BIOS size > 64k ,post later shadow change error
  5. Fixed wrong size of ROM device node if option ROM size is bigger than 16KB
  6. AWARD code has some bugs about assign pciirq, so we have by-passing the useless routine
2.3a 06/18/98 Award® BIOS. Add LM78 and keyboard password power on function  
2.3c 12/07/98 Award® BIOS. Support Cyrix/IBM MII-300/333 CPU 

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 4:59 pm
by Malc
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. The version I have at the moment is 11/05/1997 146-c-25. Does that mean it isn't going to work?

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 5:04 pm
by Malc
Hi,
I have just found the id string if that helps too. It's 11/05/97-sis-5598-(p5st-a)c-00. You'll have to excuse me, i'm on nights and have just got up!! Very groggy still!!
Cheers,
Malc

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 3:18 pm
by NickS
Well, it's the end of the line for that particular version. However, ECS also made motherboards for PC-Chips and I wonder whether there is a PC-Chips equivalent. (The SiS 5598 chipset was relabelled TX Pro II for PC-Chips). Any chance of a picture ?

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 3:55 pm
by Denniss
Maybe somewhat similar to M596 - the only ATX board with 5597/5598 chipset

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 4:47 pm
by NickS
M571 ? this is the only board listed with 5598, 4 PCI, 3 ISA. If so, 32MB is the largest drive possible (AMI BIOS, not patchable)

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 8:39 pm
by Denniss
My M571 does 40GB so a 60GB should work,too
P5ST-A would indicate an ATX Board - P5ST-B AT

Back to the problem :
Either the Bios does not recognize the speedgrade properly or some kind of wrong jumpers or the board is not able to feed this CPU .

What voltage/multiplier and voltage is written on the CPU ?
-> Usually a 2.9V version with either 66 or 75 or 83MHz FSB at 233 to 250MHz

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:48 am
by Denniss
P5ST-A Info :
ECS built for DTK but resold only as Gemlight

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:08 pm
by NickS
Malc emailed some pictures of the board in the box; some in focus and some a bit blurred. It is not an M571 physically as the RAM sockets are parallel to the back of the case. It has the same number of PCI slots, ISA slots and RAM sockets. Can't see the PSU connectors, which are under the PSU in Malc's case, and I can't make out the I/O. I also can't quite read the board ID 15-???-???????

My comment on the maximum M571 disk size was based on the info at the PC-Chips lottery; it seems different people have different experiences, probably depending on the HDD manufacturer.

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 8:21 pm
by Denniss
There are some good pictures at motherboards.org

My M571 with 5/99 Bios works fine via manual entering HDD parameters with LBA
Tested with WD/Seagate and IBM 40GB HDD

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:20 am
by NickS
Denniss wrote:There are some good pictures at motherboards.org
I didn't find them in 5 minutes (not logged in) - can you show me where ? I think my older brother has this board as well.

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 5:03 am
by Denniss
Forum -> Search -> P5ST-A

should work without logging in