BIOS Updates forum

I am thinking about changing my Intel MMX processor to an AMD k6-2 500 MHz processor. My motherboard only supports up to 300 MHz for AMD processors. So will my motherboard limit the speed of the processor to 300 MHz or will it recognize the processor as 500 MHz. And one more thing, will a super socket 7 processor work on a regular socket 7 motherboard?



Robert.

What motherboard? BIOS ID string?

Here you go.

Mother Board : Biostar M5ATC

BIOS type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG.

BIOS date: 11/21/97

BIOS ID: 11/21/97-ALi-154x-2A5KIB09C-00

BIOS Sign-On: ATC1121D

Chipset: ALi M1531 rev 179

Your board should support at least 83 MHz FSB, if it supports 2.2V your CPU should run fine with 83 MHz x6 = 500 MHz. If you have 2.5V as minimum use 400-450MHz as max to avoid overheating. You may need to update your Bios to support the late-verseion K6-2.
See http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index. ... 0&count=40 for the latest Bios.

okay, so say if i dont upgrade my BIOS, will it still run but at a lower speed?

It should always run at the speed you set your motherboard for (FSB x multiplier). As said, a precaution is to use only 400 to 450 Mhz if your lowest VCore is 2.5V, if 2.2V then use 500 MHz.

You may need the new Bios because some new features may not be activated by your current Bios, Write Allocation as example.

My ex-gf has this machine, and once I get it back, I was planning to have Jan patch the BIOS for the higher speed K6's.

Please contact Jan (see my signature) and get the ball rolling. He can patch the BIOS for WA, but you will still need third-party application to set the rest of the CPU features. I use WAMonitor myself for this.

2.1V VCore is available, so you could run a + series CPU in this machine successfully.

Note that Wim's has a patched BIOS for this board to support larger HDD already.

The Biostar M5ATC incorporates an ALi Aladdin IV chipset. Besides the usual stuff (DIMM, UDMA/33 IDE, USB1.1, etc.) it supports async clocks for the CPU/PCI bus, so you're able so use a 75/83.3MHz FSB without overclocking the PCI bus. The board features (most probably) a switching regulator so running any K6-2 is possible (some 2.5V VCore mainboards (still) feature linear regulators which are not able to supply enough current for faster cpus). The M5ATC supports all voltages from 2.0V upto 3.5V in 0.1V increments.
According to this and this it's possible running any K6-2(+) without problems. As Denniss already stated the cpu will always run at 'multiplicator (M5ATC: JP6) x FSB (M5ATC: JP9)' even if the BIOS post screen will show something completely different.

Okay my board does support 2.1v to 3.5v for dual voltage processors, so it is possible to run a AMD k6-2 (+) processor in my system. Thanks allot.

Please report back with your results...Thanks!

still waiting for my processor to arrive, will provide results one it comes.

okay, my cpu is up and running, but there is one problem, my HDD indicator light is always on! It happend when i pulled out 3 jumpers for my cpu to run. When i put them back, the HDD LED light goes back to normal, so will i have to live with it, or is there any way i could fix the problem?

name those jumpers, please.

i removed all of the jumpers from jp 9 and rearranged jp 6

JP9 should be: (1-2) closed & (3-4) open & (5-6) closed. this will give you a fsb of 83.3MHz.

JP6 should be: (1-2) closed & (3-4) open & (5-6) open. this will give you a multiplier of 6.0 for your cpu.

you should then end up with a nice 500MHz for your pleasure :)