Intel Triton 430FX rev 2, no "official" BIOS avail
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:00 am
Hello, I have an old motherboard, identified as the one above. It's a Packard Bell system, and as you might know, Packard Bell called it quits in the states years ago. I have applied numerous upgrades across the span of ownership to keep it mostly current for at least a few more years. I bought a Spectra400 processor upgrade from Evergreen Technologies (http://www.evertech.com) a few years ago. It's basically a special bridge from a Socket 7 for Pentium I to an AMD K6-2. The old BIOS of course didn't support the new processor, so Evergreen provides custom BIOS updates on a CD and copies the most appropriate BIOS to a diskette with flashing software.
The old BIOS, which was already flashed to the most recent version, 1007CP0R, didn't have many configuration options. It was from American Megatrends. The image is only 64.1 KB.
The new BIOS is MR BIOS v3.46, BIOS ID 097B5NN. Tried Google with no results for an update. I tried www.mrbios.com, which turned into www.esupport.com. I submit my info, but they sent me an e-mail asking to call before 4:30 PST on weekdays, which I cannot do.
The BIOS works well enough, but if I do a soft reboot, my secondary IDE slave sometimes doesn't get detected. Don't know about a primary slave since I don't have one. The only way to fix that is if I change the detection setting from Legacy to Auto, and that adds at least two minutes to boot time.
But what I'm concerned about is IRQ steering. I bought an iPod, and to be able to use it, I bought a SIIG USB 2.0+FireWire Combo DV-Kit. Windows detects PCI OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller and it's assigned IRQ 11; VIA PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller using IRQ 9; two VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controllers using IRQ 9 and 10.
My soundcard is currently sharing IRQ 10 and my video card is sharing IRQ 9.
My problem is with USB. My FireWire connection to my iPod has had absolutely zero problems, but when I try to insert my scanner/printer or my gamepad into a USB port, the system freezes up eventually. Erratic behavior trying to scan or print attempt (and probably a freeze) and I get a yellow exclamation mark icon for the gamepad.
I've been working at this for weeks. It's the kind of situation where you'd ring your computer's neck if it had one, while screaming, "WHY WON'T YOU DO WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO?!" I've downloaded an update from Microsoft that addresses timing issues with AMD processors faster than 350 mhz and VIA cards. But after a lot of research, I found out that no matter what Windows tells you, USB does not like to share IRQs with anything. I also read at http://www.usbman.org "Properly Installed the USB upgrade host controller should share the same IRQ as the onboard USB host controller". I take that as I need to get the Enhanced and Universal controllers all on the same IRQ.
The BIOS has four PCI slot assignment areas in the PCI Bus screen. The upper left is slot 1, upper right slot 2, lower left slot 3, and slot 4 is disabled, as there are only three PCI slots. Each assignment area has an Int A, Int B, Int C and Int D. Int D is disabled and any other setting has no effect and adds the same setting to slot 4. Basically, despite each slot getting four possible IRQs, Slot 1A affects 2B and 3C. 1B affects 2A and 3C. 1C affects 2B and 3A. So, I can't really give one slot more than one IRQ and I can't use more than three IRQs. I've tried every combination with no luck. Windows doesn't allow me to change any IRQ settings. IRQ Steering is shown as disabled. There aren't any USB options in the BIOS.
I've tried using TweakBIOS, but my system just freezes at bootup. Tried switching slots and lost blood in the process (PCI card edges are sharper than you think).
Is there anything I can do? I'm thinking that I can either get a BIOS that was meant for another mobo, I can do something that'll get TweakBIOS to work, or I'm just out of luck, unless I remove either the video or the sound card, which is not an option because ISA just won't due with video and not really for sound.
Help! My OS is Win98SE, by the way.
The old BIOS, which was already flashed to the most recent version, 1007CP0R, didn't have many configuration options. It was from American Megatrends. The image is only 64.1 KB.
The new BIOS is MR BIOS v3.46, BIOS ID 097B5NN. Tried Google with no results for an update. I tried www.mrbios.com, which turned into www.esupport.com. I submit my info, but they sent me an e-mail asking to call before 4:30 PST on weekdays, which I cannot do.
The BIOS works well enough, but if I do a soft reboot, my secondary IDE slave sometimes doesn't get detected. Don't know about a primary slave since I don't have one. The only way to fix that is if I change the detection setting from Legacy to Auto, and that adds at least two minutes to boot time.
But what I'm concerned about is IRQ steering. I bought an iPod, and to be able to use it, I bought a SIIG USB 2.0+FireWire Combo DV-Kit. Windows detects PCI OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller and it's assigned IRQ 11; VIA PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller using IRQ 9; two VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controllers using IRQ 9 and 10.
My soundcard is currently sharing IRQ 10 and my video card is sharing IRQ 9.
My problem is with USB. My FireWire connection to my iPod has had absolutely zero problems, but when I try to insert my scanner/printer or my gamepad into a USB port, the system freezes up eventually. Erratic behavior trying to scan or print attempt (and probably a freeze) and I get a yellow exclamation mark icon for the gamepad.
I've been working at this for weeks. It's the kind of situation where you'd ring your computer's neck if it had one, while screaming, "WHY WON'T YOU DO WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO?!" I've downloaded an update from Microsoft that addresses timing issues with AMD processors faster than 350 mhz and VIA cards. But after a lot of research, I found out that no matter what Windows tells you, USB does not like to share IRQs with anything. I also read at http://www.usbman.org "Properly Installed the USB upgrade host controller should share the same IRQ as the onboard USB host controller". I take that as I need to get the Enhanced and Universal controllers all on the same IRQ.
The BIOS has four PCI slot assignment areas in the PCI Bus screen. The upper left is slot 1, upper right slot 2, lower left slot 3, and slot 4 is disabled, as there are only three PCI slots. Each assignment area has an Int A, Int B, Int C and Int D. Int D is disabled and any other setting has no effect and adds the same setting to slot 4. Basically, despite each slot getting four possible IRQs, Slot 1A affects 2B and 3C. 1B affects 2A and 3C. 1C affects 2B and 3A. So, I can't really give one slot more than one IRQ and I can't use more than three IRQs. I've tried every combination with no luck. Windows doesn't allow me to change any IRQ settings. IRQ Steering is shown as disabled. There aren't any USB options in the BIOS.
I've tried using TweakBIOS, but my system just freezes at bootup. Tried switching slots and lost blood in the process (PCI card edges are sharper than you think).
Is there anything I can do? I'm thinking that I can either get a BIOS that was meant for another mobo, I can do something that'll get TweakBIOS to work, or I'm just out of luck, unless I remove either the video or the sound card, which is not an option because ISA just won't due with video and not really for sound.
Help! My OS is Win98SE, by the way.