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My K7 "Retro Rocket"

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Reply 20 of 26, by 5u3

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The multiplier issue can only be solved by cutting bridges on the CPU or joining pins on the CPU socket. Boards based on the KT133A usually only support 4 bits of the multiplier setting, so I don't think the situation will be different on the Abit KT7A.

The wrong voltage for the XP-M CPU and the FSB issue seem to be a BIOS problem. What revision were you running on your board?

Reply 21 of 26, by prophase_j

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I can't tell you off the top of of my head but I did update it to the latest one. As I recall the spread spectrum behavior was the same though.. and I would bet money that's the root of the FSB issue. I don't think would need to mess with the bridges on the CPU since its an XP-M. I'm not afraid to drop some wires in the socket... just need to figure out which ones. I had tried it previously with the other barton but it was "superlocked" so no go. From what i read it seems if you can trigger that 5th bit it makes it so you can essentially double the multiplier so I want 14.. i would pick 7 in the bios. So if i do the wire trick I just need to hope it will post up the point of the bios so i can pick the right one. Or set it before hand and then drop the wire.

"Retro Rocket"
Athlon XP-M 2200+ // Epox 8KTA3
Radeon 9800xt // Voodoo2 SLI
Diamond MX300 // SB AWE64 Gold

Reply 22 of 26, by swaaye

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This is how I used to figure out my socket mods. I ran a Barton on a KT266A with a x15.5 multiplier (or some such) back in the day.
http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.o … amd_pinmod.html

Reply 23 of 26, by prophase_j

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Yup seen that 😀 I have noticed that there is one jump that is persistent as soon as you clear 12.5x. I'm guessing that is the fifth bit. I looked at all the configurations and it isn't there until that point.. and then doesn't go away.

fifthbit.jpg

"Retro Rocket"
Athlon XP-M 2200+ // Epox 8KTA3
Radeon 9800xt // Voodoo2 SLI
Diamond MX300 // SB AWE64 Gold

Reply 24 of 26, by prophase_j

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So I got a hold of the KT7A. Looks like it had some bad caps (shocker right?). Doesn't want to boot up.. didn't mess with it too much though. It made me wonder about the stability problems so I looked at the epox and sure enough.. there is at least one bulging back where the voltage regulation is getting done. I'm considering having it shipped away and recapped.. but dang it I want it to be stable! I don't even car about overclocking, I was picking high end components for best is-as-it-is performance.

"Retro Rocket"
Athlon XP-M 2200+ // Epox 8KTA3
Radeon 9800xt // Voodoo2 SLI
Diamond MX300 // SB AWE64 Gold

Reply 25 of 26, by swaaye

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Yeah it's very annoying that all those boards used lowest-bidder incomplete-formula caps that are all defective now. I wouldn't be surprised if even the ones that look ok are bad. If you send it in he'll set you up with high quality caps. Kinda expensive for retroness though....

Reply 26 of 26, by prophase_j

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Okay... its time for an update. Things are coming together pretty well. Starting from where I left off... I was running at 1.5ghz with my 130 bus speed and 12x multi. I had been running 3 sticks of ram, 1x Patriot 512 and 2x Kingston Valueram. It dawned on me that I had never taken out the Kingstons since I had them first. So I did that and just left the PDP stick in there. I had been running it at 1.475 volts... and at one point I notched the northbridge up. I moved the core up the next step and sure enough it worked. Next I wanted to try I higher multiplier... couldn't get to work. Even at 1.65v... still wasn't stable. I wasn't too upset though... I ran sandra and 3Dmark and saw an improvement. I still wondered what was holding it back. If I couldn't get it to work at 12.5 then there is no point in wiring the socket for 14x. Keep reading if want a good laugh.

Now.. about a week before I did this I realized my power supply only rated at 200 watts. I had borrowed it from a Dimension 2350 that I'm not using for anything, just never bothered to see what it was rated at. Seriously, I had even ran 9800xt in there and it hadn't given me problems... at least not one that I didn't chalk up to being part of my other issues. I'm actually kinda bad in this department... my main computer is an HP Pavilion that I upgraded form a P4 Williamate 1.8ghz to a 2.6ghz Northwood, and stuck a EVGA 7600gt in it. It has ran for almost 2 years this way... and it had the stock 230w supply in it. So I ended up getting a new one off eBay. I got a 400w Coolmax that is really nice.. It has a 120mm fan with a speed switch, nice long power leads. Put it in, and sure enough it stabled right up. I also discovered that if I set the multiplier to 13 in the bios it would run at 12.5. I thought that was weird... but I'm stable at 1666mhz. Actually it is at 1670mhz.. the spread spectrum makes the FSB 133.7... at least this is what is indicated by CPU-Z.

So the other issue I had to deal with was my graphics card. I had been running an old radeon 7000 in there, but I wanted some more juice to play my Civ4 with. I had been tossing between a fx5950 and a 9800xt. I found a 9800xt with a zalman cooler so I jumped on it. When I got home and pluged it in it was all scrambled. It would post.. but then the screen was all scrambled. I took it out and inspected it and found that it had a loose capacitor on it. One of the leads was broken and not making contact. Next I took some box tape to sinch it down and I got it working. Did a full run of benchmarks and it was great. I turned it off and when I came back it was all glitched again. I fiddled with it again and managed break it off. I tried to superglue it but that didn't work reliably. I didn't try to solder it because there are other SMDs on the back of the PCB. Well after I got the new power supply I took a binder clip, some pieces of paper (on the back as an insulator and as a shim on the front), and a random plastic piece that came out of some vertical blinds. I put it all together and volia!! it worked. Going from the 7000 to the 9800xt increased my 3Dmark scores by 350%. I think Civ4 runs just as good if not better than my P4. I'm still sorting out the optimal settings in the BIOS... I should retest the 2 sticks I pulled out, but i'm mondo stoked.

"Retro Rocket"
Athlon XP-M 2200+ // Epox 8KTA3
Radeon 9800xt // Voodoo2 SLI
Diamond MX300 // SB AWE64 Gold