I've run it through Memtest86 and Prime95, no problems, it mostly seemed stable for desktop activities with XPSP2, but as soon as SP3 gets involved it goes to hell, It seemed to work fine in 98SE until I tried to run some DX 9 games, it works for about a minute then crashes, do these things seem like the types of issues you were seeing before the o-ring fix?

Are you running at 1066MHz FSB ?
You could try older VIA 4in1 drivers (if you are using latest ones), here's good repository :
LINK

I believe I'm running at 1066 FSB, I'll double check. I'll give those versions a try.

If it's running at 1066MHz, decrease that manually to ~1024MHz.

Shagittarius wrote:

I've run it through Memtest86 and Prime95, no problems, it mostly seemed stable for desktop activities with XPSP2, but as soon as SP3 gets involved it goes to hell, It seemed to work fine in 98SE until I tried to run some DX 9 games, it works for about a minute then crashes, do these things seem like the types of issues you were seeing before the o-ring fix?

Would say my problems at least were somewhat similar. Never tried anything but XP SP3 and W98SE, the latter crashed less frequent though. Games seemed to cause the most trouble, but it still crashed now and then just sitting at the desktop.

The board itself should be pretty stable. Try lowering FSB as agent_x007 suggests. I have 775dual-vsta with core duo 7500. It runs great in 98, xp sp3 and windows 7 with 580GTX, 285GTX and fx5950. I'd also try different ram modules still even if they pass in memtest. Just to be sure. Also, at which speed do you run them? It's a known fact, that this board runs better with DDR1. If you have DDR2, go with 533 mhz - it will even score higher in benchmarks than on 667 mhz. Some quirk of the chipset.

Edit: oops, I didn't notice that you wrote which ram speed you have. Discard that part then! 😀

I went in and enabled the "Flexibility Option" under the chipset settings which says it 'Allows better tolerance for memory compatibility', and this seems to have fixed all my problems. Running a benchmark doesn't seem to indicate much of a performance hit in XP, margin of error really, so what exactly is that option doing, and would ram with different timings allow me not to turn this option on?

Thanks for the tips that made me focus on memory, I owe it to you guys for focusing my efforts there.

Reading up on it, I guess "Flexibility Option" relaxes some of the RAM timings. If so, then of course it will enhance compatibility at the price of performance. However, I don't think the impact is big if at all noticeable. Still, all this confirms that the chipset does not like your memory modules too much. I, for one, don't have to resort to this option to have it running properly so you might consider trying other memory in your board. If I remember correctly, my setup has some generic Samsung DDR2 667 2x2gb sticks which I'm running at 533 mhz.

Come to think of it, running 667 memory at 533mhz works somewhat the same as that option, haha.

Anyways I'm glad you've got it working! It's a pretty fun board if a bit temperamental.

I've got some more Samsung memory on the way, I'll give that a try and report back.

Check CPU-z ("Memory" tab), Flexibiltiy Option drops DDR2 speed to forced 400MHz mode (for DDR2).
I guess you didn't checked decreased FSB I mentioned ("256MHz" is the value you put in BIOS) ?

Right, I didn't set the FSB because I just gave this option a shot first, do you think it would be better to drop the whole FSB? Maybe if the replacement ram isnt any better I'll give that a shot too. Do I run in Sync or Async mode?

I have such a question, someone tried to find the possibility of working on this motherboard video cards with the pсi-express gene interface 3.0? Maybe contact the author of the modified bios and so on?

max1024 wrote on 2020-01-13, 20:20:

I have such a question, someone tried to find the possibility of working on this motherboard video cards with the pсi-express gene interface 3.0? Maybe contact the author of the modified bios and so on?

It's not a modified bios in the usual sense. It's just a version of BIOS that was developed by Asrock's engineer who had the source code in his hands.

Asrock is something like Asus cheaper brand, which something do more experimenting.. i guess that electrical components were often worse.. VRMs arent good for overclocking, but only Asrock made these universal boards, so i some point of view are the best.
I similar today HW, im still buying Gigabite boards, because lost advanced bios options, but im aware that electrical components, support, utilities etc.. are much worse that these from Asus, or even MSI.

World would be more funny, if some vendors would do more that slight enhancing Intel / AMD reference designs, usually by some universal Bios options.. there are even less and less additional storage and usb controllers on boards.. and know you can buy only something which has better VRM models, better realtek Audion / Nic, more M.2 slots (usually in exchange for some PCI-E slots) and more USB ports.. that all.

Roman555 - Thx.
The point is not in Asrok, cheap HW components and not in overclocking & etc, but in the presence of the very ability to run ANY videocards. When I installed GeForce 980Ti on the Socket478, I had no incompatibilities in my thoughts and everything worked perfectly, but not in this case.
How easier is it to contact him about this? Can someone get an email or some other type of connection? I mean the engineer who helped us all with previous versions of bios.

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In case anyone is interested I found the following ram will run at full speed @533 in the 4CoreDual-VSTA:

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/4coredual-vsta/CT825612

No relaxed mode, though I should point out that I am using it with a 4 core Xeon so it is slightly underclocked on this board, but I suspect it would be fine even without the 10% penalty.

is this board recommended to be used w/ win98se?
can't decide..

thinking about a 64GB S-ATA SSD, GF4 / FX and a CPU that uses Speedstep / C&Q.
Geode or XP-M CPU's are not well supported by Desktop Boards.
Epox 8RDA+?
asrock k7s41gx / k7s41gx2 / k7s41 ?

http://www.hasw.net/8rdavcore/

latest boards i've found w/ AGP
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA: VIA PT880 Chipsatz, ATX, AGP & PCIe, DDR1 & DDR2
ASRock 775i65G R2.0: Intel 865G Chipsatz, mATX, integrierte Grafik, AGP, DDR1
ASRock ConRoe865PE: Intel 865PE Chipsatz, ATX, AGP, DDR1
ASUS P5PE-VM..

latest boards i've found w/ AGP

ASRock ConRoe865PE is probably easier to go with, although it's slower. Just your regular old 865PE+ICH5 chipset.

Geode or XP-M CPU's are not well supported by Desktop Boards.

In general, there's no problem with VIA based boards. In fact, late desktop CPUs were specifically modded to XP-M to add unlocked multiplier.

my goal is to have a silent and cool cpu. the problem is, that the geode needs less vcore, but not every mainboard allows me to set a lower vcore in BIOS.
https://www.silentpcreview.com/node/69/1

idk what's better...
Athlon64 3000+ (1,35V vcore, 90nm, Venice) w/ C&C enabled ~0,9V Vcore -> Sockel 939, Mainboard w/ SATA possible
Athlon XP-M 2200+ (1,35V vcore, 130nm, Barton)
Geode NX 1500/1750 (1,1V vcore, 130nm, Thoroughbred)
Core 2 Duo E7200`?