What is the revision number and current BIOS your working with?

retro games 100 wrote:

I have a non raid 8KTA3Pro board, which seems to have the initial 2001 dated BIOS. I've put a T-Bred 1700+ CPU in it, and it seems to work, but the BIOS POST screen tells me that it's an "unknown CPU". I visited Epox's website, and tried to download one of the later BIOS files, but the download didn't work. Does anyone know a good site where these BIOS files are still available - or is it just a case of googling for it, and visiting somewhere like "driverguide.com", for instance? Thanks people. 😀

Noticed this too when I update my KT7A Raid mobo bios....modt d/l links were

Just google for the file name you tried to d/l 😀

If you can, email the EPOX rep first. Probably they can help. Especially if it's still listed on the web.

Most driver sites are fishy, i'm getting tired of searching through them, only to find that you have to pay or download an irrelevant app to get to the files--which isn't guaranteed to be the right thing anyway. Actually i just downloaded a few files from http://sound-drivers.org/ which, apart from the seemingly correct filenames, the real contents are totally wrong!

And especially with BIOS flashing, you'll want a trusted source. I suggest that you email them first, then google on while you're waiting.

On the mobo's PCB it says Rev: 1.0 (hate those low values, hehe!) On the BIOS POST screen it says 09/06/2001, which I *think* is the initial release.

archsan wrote:

If you can, email the EPOX rep first.

I *think* (and I'm sure I will be corrected on this if I'm wrong) that Epox are "no longer with us". 🙁

Well, nothing to lose by trying...

some vendors do give good legacy support. You can also try the vendor's foreign subdivision site.

i mean like this

http://www.epox.ru/support/download/ep-8kta3/

I did similar thing when i was looking for guides for old soundblasters, which i finally got from their european archive site

I think that the BIOS dated 17.06.2002 will work best for you, since it seems that the others are used for updating the RAID controller.

From my searching, it looks like there was a beta version from May, 2003 that added proper Thoroughbred support. The file was named 8K203528.bin, though it appears it was only offered by email request and not on their download site, so I'm not sure where you'd get it anymore.

Thanks a lot people. 😀 (Unfortunately, the "Russian links" above don't appear to be working, but the website called "nodevice" has 2 BIOS files which I have DL'd.)

I was just wondering something: when I power on the mobo, the BIOS POST screen gives me the "good news" that the CPU speed and multiplier is correct for a T-Bred 1700+, and also that the FSB is 133 (not 100), and the RAM is 133 speed (not 100). Given this good news, perhaps it's not too important that the CPU is showing on the screen as "unknown type"? (i.e., merely a minor "cosmetic" issue?) Speedsys.exe gives me a healthy score of about 1700, and Pcpbench.exe gives me a "640 LFB" score of about 190, using a Geforce 4 series MX-440 graphics card.

Then maybe you don't need to re-flash it? I've read people complaining about FSB of less than 133 (something like 110 instead) after flashing to a newer BIOS. Soldier on, though! 😉

As long as the CPU is working properly, it doesn't matter a bit that the board doesn't know what to call it. I have a couple PIII machines that have been working fine for years on 'unknown' CPUs.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

From my searching, it looks like there was a beta version from May, 2003 that added proper Thoroughbred support. The file was named 8K203528.bin, though it appears it was only offered by email request and not on their download site, so I'm not sure where you'd get it anymore.

Damn, wish I could find this beta bios 😢

I emailed emailed for fun asking for the latest BETA BIOS for he 8kta3+ and I got a reply (!!) Didn't know Epox was still alive? wttff!

They emailed me the BETA BIOS

For those who want it please PM me, and I take paypal for payments 😁

Amigaz wrote:

I emailed emailed for fun asking for the latest BETA BIOS for he 8kta3+ and I got a reply (!!) Didn't know Epox was still alive? wttff!

They emailed me the BETA BIOS

For those who want it please PM me, and I take paypal for payments 😁

Have you scanned it for viruses? 😉

retro games 100 wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

I emailed emailed for fun asking for the latest BETA BIOS for he 8kta3+ and I got a reply (!!) Didn't know Epox was still alive? wttff!

They emailed me the BETA BIOS

For those who want it please PM me, and I take paypal for payments 😁

Have you scanned it for viruses? 😉

Oh, yeah

I used my work mail which has some mega-virus-killer-app

ok, semi-necro, ai nou 😅

But anyway, my question is rather similar - I'm looking for the manual as well.... (what does all those 'codes' mean?)
Do anyone know the generic(?) username and password to the epox ftp server ?

Mine has a bios which dates to 19.10.2001, not sure how large hdd that version supports.

- My very FIRST AMD mobo !! 😁
(£5 +s/h, including a supposed Athlon 1300mhz of some sort)

Lotsa huge(never seen such big ones on a mobo!) green Teapo<shudder> and GSC caps, but none seem to be in any sort of distress... hmm... (?)
Should I worry ?

I changed the multi from 10x to 13x, which seems to work - 14x does not. Do I need a mobile Barton mewonders.

Unfortunately I'm out of town until about November, so I'm unable to dig out the manual from my dismantled retro stock pile. Those codes are only important if the mobo goes mad. Which in this case is quite often. 🤣. Only joking. Your BIOS is about 6 months old. I think the beta BIOS is about May 2002. I'm sure you can download the final BIOS from the net somewhere (dated about April 2002 I think), although it isn't the beta version. It'll still work with a mobile barton XP-M CPU. Grab a 2400+ rated version. You can either "knife it" and get access to up to 18x multi, or probably a better option is to play around with increasing the mobo's FSB. One of my Epox Pro boards actually doesn't have rotten caps - gasp! Well, two look a bit iffy near the RAM slots, but I can increase the FSB to 169 and the mobo doesn't go insane. I get very good benchmarking scores.

Some tips to get this beast working: use a good PSU with lots of juice on the 5V rail. Eg 35-40 Amps. If you're using a powerful graphics card, consider using a second PSU for it - even if it's just for your initial testing to make sure everything's working OK.

I found out that an AWE32 doesn't work all that well in the ISA slot, but an AWE64 does work well. The AWE32 makes lots of pops and crackles, but the AWE64 is noise-free.

There's a "fan made" chipset patch thing you can install which helps out with stability. I think it's called George Breese latency patch.

retro games 100 wrote:

my dismantled retro stock pile

swaaye wrote:

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retro games 100 wrote:

my dismantled retro stock pile

To coin an American phrase, I am absolutely STOKED about restarting my retro testing. In an even bigger way than ever before. I'm just out of town at the moment. I'm 99% certain I'm all set for a January the 1st restart. I'm actually writing my new testing thread in notepad - I'm going to start with a Powerleap adapter, and then do a Vogons thread for every item I've got. My spreadsheet says 1300 items, but some are duplicates so it'll probably be about 500-700 posts over about a 12-18 month period. How exciting is that! 😳 😁