AMI 51-0100-006389-00111111-071595-TRITON2-smhx000-0

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KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Hi All!!

This BIOS is from my girlfriends SuperMicro P5STE (i430HX). Also at the top there is the message 0520971045 Pentium Motherboard R1.7. Board itself is dated 3/97 and is a Rev. 2 board. The BIOS is the latest from their website. More info on the board can be found here, if you are interested... P5ste info.

The BIOS has a slew of features to fiddle with...most of which I just have set as default. Is there a definitive list on what all these mean? You can even adjust things like Mem Address Drive Stregnth (currently 8/8mA)!!

I'm used to AWARD BIOS features of which most of this stuff is hidden...

From reading, I know the i430HX was more business oriented (doesn't do SDRAM but can take 512MB EDO...) so I gather they gave the IT guy more BIOS selections so he could set it up to his liking. (BTW, there is 128MB in it now, and it is caching it all with a 256KB chip...doesn't have the optional 512KB, although there is a spot for it if I can find a chip...and check the TAG of course...).

So where can I find out about what all these *extra* settings do??
KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

I'm assuming we all took the Labor Day holiday off...

Any help here??

The board has been doing some very strange things lately, especially memory-wise. Up until this week, the thing has run great at the settings I knew about...the rest were left as default. Now the thing won't boot unless I'm set at the slowest memory timings available (was set to auto before and ran fine). The memory passes an overnight test using MemTest86 (v3.0) but the machine freezes using GoldMemory (v5.07). Last night I turned off the external cache and things *seemed* better, and I'm running the GoldMemory test in that mode as I write this now. Don't think the cache got fried because MemTest86 turns it on and off in it's testing...not sure what GoldMemory does though...

I also tried adding some more EDO RAM (it had 64MB FPM) but it seemed not to like the mix... It did recognize EDO in banks 1 and 2 (the FPM is in Bank 0). All the modules use the the same type chip, so the BIOS doesn't have to figure out different addressing, etc... So I don't get it...even tried all EDO and it still freezes...

Also to note I have pulled all the I/O cards except for the video card, and have changed processors from an i133 to an i200 (both non-MMX) so I'm at a bare-bones level here...

OK...hope I can get some help this week. Thanks in advance.
Rainbow
The UniFlasher
Posts: 3122
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 4:16 pm
Location: Slovakia
Contact:

The L2 cache is often bad on Socket 7 Pentium boards. On my MSI MS-5120, enabling the cache causes a couple of memory errors in GoldMemory (and causes Windows to be unstable). I have also some other boards with bad cache:
Matsonic MS6260s - hangs before boot if cache is enabled
DTK PAM0075I E1 - memory errors when cache enabled
Patched and tested BIOSes are at http://wims.rainbow-software.org
UniFlash - Flash anything anywhere
KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Hmmm...

Just seems interesting that all of a sudden it would fail... I'll have to look into what chips are being used for the TAG and the cache itself...

In the meantime, I was able to find the core BIOS manual over at the AMI ftp site...now all I need to do is weed thru it and see if it tells me anything useful... :roll:

I should mention that we think the board may have been hit by lightning. We've had some bad storms, and she had left it up and running (at my request no less, to troubleshoot a different problem). She has a protected power strip, but no phoneline protection. I already know that the modem switchhook is degraded (dialtone is at 1/2 volume and it won't hang up properly...but when it connects, it can still give a solid 45k connection). Perhaps this is a delayed concequence of that possible mis-hap...
KachiWachi
The New Guy
Posts: 1451
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 10:32 pm
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

OK...just got lucky (I think).

My neighbor was going to throw out her son's old computer and asked if I wanted it...so of course I said yes. It ended up being a BioStar M5ATC. Not being familliar with this board, can I get some hints from the board on it? I already downloaded the latest manual, latest BIOS release, and the patched BIOS from here. Should Win98SE be able to figure itself out if I just swap in her old hard drive and cards, etc...?? Will I need to download any of the ALi drivers, or will Windows have all it needs?

Will be a good step up from her old 133 to the 200MMX that is in it currently...and from what I see, this thing can run at 75 and 83MHz...so I should be able to give her my Cyrix 433 as soon as I get my AMD K6/+ and clock the thing at 75x4 (if it can see the x4) or at least 83x3.5...

And for me...I get the JTS Champion C3200-2AF (Mode 4, 3.2GB) Hard Drive, the sound, modem, and network cards!!

Any thoughts??
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