At least it's a Pentium III. That's its only saving grace 😀

Oh not a nasty VIA P3 chipset. Eeek. I suggest you install George Breese's VIA PCI patch.

BTW, it's not special that the board needs low density 256MB sticks. Most SDRAM chipsets don't have support for higher density RAM chips.

This board doesn't even have AGP 2X! and only supports max 512mb RAM if you can find the 256mb sticks this crappy mobo will accept.

You've got your specs a bit wrong, there. It does have AGP 2X, and it supports up to 1GB RAM. You don't need the low-density memory on the 693A.

I honestly don't really see anything particularly bad about that system, really. Via chipsets aren't the greatest, but with the right drivers and software patches they work decently enough. (Though, they work a lot better in Win2k than under 98/SE/ME, in my experience.)

Everything runs better in XP/2k as long as you have enough RAM and it's PII or better. 😀

Amigaz, how did you get the specs wrong after you linked us the specs page! There is no such thing as a AGP 1x-only slot.

swaaye wrote:

Everything runs better in XP/2k as long as you have enough RAM and it's PII or better. 😀

Amigaz, how did you get the specs wrong after you linked us the specs page! There is no such thing as a AGP 1x-only slot.

The quick specs are wrong...please d/l and read the mobo manual 😀

I can confirm that it won't take 2x 512mb RAM and different utils such as cpu-z report that the AGP port is runing at 1X

Amigaz wrote:

swaaye wrote:

Everything runs better in XP/2k as long as you have enough RAM and it's PII or better. 😀

Amigaz, how did you get the specs wrong after you linked us the specs page! There is no such thing as a AGP 1x-only slot.

The quick specs are wrong...please d/l and read the mobo manual 😀

I can confirm that it won't take 2x 512mb RAM and different utils such as cpu-z report that the AGP port is runing at 1X

But that might not mean the slot itself is incapable of running at 2x. Check the BIOS, might be something in it 😉

Tetrium wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

swaaye wrote:

Everything runs better in XP/2k as long as you have enough RAM and it's PII or better. 😀

Amigaz, how did you get the specs wrong after you linked us the specs page! There is no such thing as a AGP 1x-only slot.

The quick specs are wrong...please d/l and read the mobo manual 😀

I can confirm that it won't take 2x 512mb RAM and different utils such as cpu-z report that the AGP port is runing at 1X

But that might not mean the slot itself is incapable of running at 2x. Check the BIOS, might be something in it 😉

Have checked that...no options even with the latest BIOS 😜

Amigaz wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

The quick specs are wrong...please d/l and read the mobo manual 😀

I can confirm that it won't take 2x 512mb RAM and different utils such as cpu-z report that the AGP port is runing at 1X

But that might not mean the slot itself is incapable of running at 2x. Check the BIOS, might be something in it 😉

Have checked that...no options even with the latest BIOS 😜

Maybe it's something to do with that oem BIOS?

Tetrium wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

But that might not mean the slot itself is incapable of running at 2x. Check the BIOS, might be something in it 😉

Have checked that...no options even with the latest BIOS 😜

Maybe it's something to do with that oem BIOS?

I've flashed the board with the latest ROM from MSI's website

Some graphics cards will put themselves into 1x mode if the AGP slot has issues. VIA chipsets usually have such issues. Could be crappy board quality or BIOS problems too.

swaaye wrote:

Some graphics cards will put themselves into 1x mode if the AGP slot has issues. VIA chipsets usually have such issues. Could be crappy board quality or BIOS problems too.

That VIA chipset is one of the earlier ones for slot1. I did find with such a chipset, it's performance is SuperPi was about 10% lower then when using an Intel 815 chipset.
It did have advantages though (the later VIA P3 ones), more compatible with RAM (higher density and more then just 512MB)

They are not that bad...they are just not really good 😜

swaaye wrote:

Some graphics cards will put themselves into 1x mode if the AGP slot has issues. VIA chipsets usually have such issues. Could be crappy board quality or BIOS problems too.

Maybe I should try a different GF2?

Amigaz wrote:

Maybe I should try a different GF2? […]
Show full quote

swaaye wrote:

Some graphics cards will put themselves into 1x mode if the AGP slot has issues. VIA chipsets usually have such issues. Could be crappy board quality or BIOS problems too.

Maybe I should try a different GF2?

The "Graphics Interface 4x" must be the GF card, the mobo doesn't support 4x AGP mode, only 1x and 2x.

What are you trying to tell us with those screenshots?
-Edit:Woops, was already there!-

And try the GF in another board, just to make sure it can work at AGP 4x speed

I think that some piece of software is shutting AGP down this basic mode. It could be the AGP driver or the NVIDIA driver. It's all for stability's sake. VIA AGP2x chipsets were really bad. Both K6 and Slot 1 stuff alike.

The card is running in AGP 1x mode without sideband addressing or fast writes. That means it's basically sitting on a 66 MHz PCI bus. I've seen this happen with the VIA K6 AGP chipsets too.

Chipset info:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/le … ro133/index.jsp

If you haven't installed the VIA 4-in-1 drivers, you can try that.
http://www.via.com.tw/en/support/drivers.jsp

IMO, what you really want for that board is a Voodoo 5. That "keep it simple" 3dfx AGP design is nice here.

Heres the page of your board. It sais you can set AGP 2x mode right there!!

http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/te … a/MS6156Via.htm

The AGP driver will reprogram the chipset and bypass BIOS settings. I've seen the VIA 4-in-1 pack's AGP driver shut AGP down to 1x mode without sideband regardless of BIOS settings.

It still doesn't make these AGP 2x VIA boards stable with some cards. 🤣. I think some of these AGP 2x mobos have AGP power delivery problems too. Ugly nastiness.

swaaye wrote:

The AGP driver will reprogram the chipset and bypass BIOS settings. I've seen the VIA 4-in-1 pack's AGP driver shut AGP down to 1x mode without sideband regardless of BIOS settings.

It still doesn't make these AGP 2x VIA boards stable with some cards. 🤣. I think some of these AGP 2x mobos have AGP power delivery problems too. Ugly nastiness.

Yup, but those AGP power delivery problems weren't VIA's fault 😜
It was a hardware problem. I'm not sure about the AGP setting though. It 'could' be a driver problem. Sounds more likely then it being caused because he flashed an oem board with a retail BIOS. Amigaz did mention he couldn't set it to AGP2x even though the BIOS, according to documentation, should be able to.

In any case, personally I definitely like some of VIA's chipsets. Too bad they left the chipset business.

Like I said the VIA AGP driver will sometimes change AGP settings regardless of the BIOS settings. He should check out what AGP driver is running on there. I've seen this firsthand with VIA MVP3, a chipset of similar AGP2x vintage and horribleness.

And I don't like any of VIA's chipsets. Keep em away. 😁

Amigaz does this mean you never played DOS games??

Anyway can you check your Sound Blaster 1.0 DSP version on it?