gex85 wrote:

SL5QV and SL5QW should both work well. They are both Coppermine CPUs, not Tualatin (PIII-S), so no modding is needed at all.
The P3B-F supports up to 150 MHz FSB (see page 18 in the manual). However since the BX chipset is rated at 100 MHz max FSB by Intel, Asus won't officially support 133 MHz CPUs. Which obviously doesn't mean that they won't work - they usually do. Depends a bit on your graphics card as well, since the AGP bus will be overclocked if you run FSBs >100 MHz, but most cards should handle the higher frequencies without issues.

I simply use an 1GHz SL4BS with 133MHz FSB. Using the latest BIOS 1008 it gets recognized properly and you can set the PCI/FSB ratio to 33/133MHz. The AGP bus runs at 89MHz but with my Leadtek Geforce4 Ti 4600 that's not a problem. Furthermore you can use PC133 memory but you need to make sure that they have 128Mbit chips. My board is very stable so far.

Another board with the i440BX chipset that works very well with 133MHz FSB is the AOpen AX6B.

the_ultra_code wrote:

An update: I finally got the Asus slocket today, so I just threw the PIII 1.1GHz CPU into it, attached the StarTech CPU cooler I have for it, made sure the jumpers on the slocket were at defaults, stuck it into my PC, made sure I enabled JumperFree mode on the motherboard (figured that's what it would have to be), and... no post. None.

I went ahead to confirm that the CPU was working on that same Gateway board mentioned above, just to make sure, and it indeed was. So, at this point, should I try to manually set the dip switches on my Asus P3B-F motherboard for the CPU (there are no mentioned ways though to manually set the multiplier to 11x via the dip switches), or is the slocket confirmed DOA?

Maybe you use an old BIOS.

*sigh* This is going to be a lot.

kaputnik wrote:

If that Gateway board is a S370 one, and you tested the CPU without the slotket, begin with what I suggested earlier in the thread; "... ran into a few slockets where the connector tabs inside the socket had oxidized/gotten dirty through the years. Just insert the CPU and open/close the socket 20-30 times or so the first time you use it, to rub off oxides/dirt, and make sure everything makes contact". Don't forget to loosen the heatsink retention clamp before 😀

I'd try forcing 1.75V and 100MHz FSB. If there are setting jumpers on the mainboard, use those, and leave the ones on the slotket in auto mode. If not, use the ones on the slotket.

The multiplier setting will do nothing, the CPU just ignores it. All Slot1/S370 CPUs but the earliest PIIs are multiplier locked.

Yeah, I'll try this later today. Remember that the CPU and the Gateway motherboard do work. It's just the slocket that appears to be troublesome. Good to know that the multiplier dip switches won't matter much. I'll get back to you with my results when I have them. 😀

feipoa wrote:

That's unfortunate. Perhaps try the 1000/100 and continue going lower until you find a speed that works? My Dell Precision Workstation 410 maxed out at 850 MHz slot 1's. 1000's booted, but were not reliable. This is perhaps something I should revisit in the future. Maybe the issue was dried out heatsink compound? If you feel like selling the 1100/100, let me know. I killed both of mine and need to rebuild that part of my collection.

Did you buy the 1U startech coolers that are pure copper? I also bought a pair of those for my dual MSI slocket experiment with modded Tualatin chips. I ordered two units of these Startech coolers and one of them rubs on the housing. I suspect the quality control was rather lax.

That would be disappointing if this CPU was "too fast" for my Asus P3B-F board. If this CPU doesn't work out, I'll try a 1GHz PIII (first would have to buy it, though 😀 ). As for what I have done with the CPU: I thoroughly cleaned the CPU with 91% isopropyl alcohol to remove any left-over thermal paste, as I do with all my CPUs, then apply a fresh application of Arctic MX-4 (the wonderpaste 🤣 ). And yes, I am in fact using that all-copper StarTech cooler that philscomputerlab recommended, which is actually in spec to cool *all* of the Pentium III lineup (I actually contacted StarTech to see what's the supported TDP of this cooler, and they came back to me, saying it has a supported TDP of 50W - nice, right?).

I hope quality control isn't lax. That would be disappointing. The only things that I have bought that were StarTech that I guess you could call cheap were the plastic 3.5" to 5.25" drive bays - one of them has already cracked when I screwed in one of the screws too tightly, I suppose. Thankfully, just a small crack. 😀

SpectriaForce wrote:

I simply use an 1GHz SL4BS with 133MHz FSB. Using the latest BIOS 1008 it gets recognized properly and you can set the PCI/FSB ratio to 33/133MHz. That means the AGP bus runs on stock 66MHz. Furthermore you can use PC133 memory but you need to make sure that they have 128Mbit chips. My board is very stable so far.

Another board with the i440BX chipset that works very well with 133MHz FSB is the AOpen AX6B.

Interesting, although I don't want to do anything system-wide overclocking like that. Scares me. 😀

SpectriaForce wrote:

Maybe you use an old BIOS.

And no. I'm using the latest beta 1008.004 BIOS straight from Asus's website, I promise.

It's probably the slocket, I went through a few with my P3B-F before I found one that worked. I also had an ASUS branded one and it did absolutely nothing

I'm now using an MSI MS-6905 slocket, with a ready-modified (has a small adapter board fitted) 1.4GHZ PIII s Tualatin chip. Works great ! Grab yourself some PC133 RAM and it's no problem at all. Never had any stability issues

Even if you still want to stick with 100 FSB, I'd definitely recommend the MS-6905 slocket

SpectriaForce wrote:

gex85 wrote:

SL5QV and SL5QW should both work well. They are both Coppermine CPUs, not Tualatin (PIII-S), so no modding is needed at all.
The P3B-F supports up to 150 MHz FSB (see page 18 in the manual). However since the BX chipset is rated at 100 MHz max FSB by Intel, Asus won't officially support 133 MHz CPUs. Which obviously doesn't mean that they won't work - they usually do. Depends a bit on your graphics card as well, since the AGP bus will be overclocked if you run FSBs >100 MHz, but most cards should handle the higher frequencies without issues.

I simply use an 1GHz SL4BS with 133MHz FSB. Using the latest BIOS 1008 it gets recognized properly and you can set the PCI/FSB ratio to 33/133MHz. That means the AGP bus runs on stock 66MHz. Furthermore you can use PC133 memory but you need to make sure that they have 128Mbit chips. My board is very stable so far.

Another board with the i440BX chipset that works very well with 133MHz FSB is the AOpen AX6B.

No. The 440BX does not support the divider to run 66mhz agp and 133mhz fsb, on any board. It DOES do 33mhz pci at 133mhz fsb but not 66mhz agp, it WILL run at 89mhz.
In most cases it will not be a problem as a lot of agp cards can handle that speed but there is no way around the overclocked agp when using 133mhz fsb.

meljor wrote:

No. The 440BX does not support the divider to run 66mhz agp and 133mhz fsb, on any board. It DOES do 33mhz pci at 133mhz fsb but not 66mhz agp, it WILL run at 89mhz.
In most cases it will not be a problem as a lot of agp cards can handle that speed but there is no way around the overclocked agp when using 133mhz fsb.

You're right: https://www.anandtech.com/show/574/4

Someone used his oscilloscope to measure the frequency of PCI and AGP buses at 133MHz FSB using an i440BX Asus P2B.

Interestingly at 120MHz FSB, the PCI bus runs at 40MHz and not 33MHz, because the 1/4 divider is only activated at 133MHz FSB 😵

the_ultra_code wrote:

kaputnik wrote:

If that Gateway board is a S370 one, and you tested the CPU without the slotket, begin with what I suggested earlier in the thread; "... ran into a few slockets where the connector tabs inside the socket had oxidized/gotten dirty through the years. Just insert the CPU and open/close the socket 20-30 times or so the first time you use it, to rub off oxides/dirt, and make sure everything makes contact". Don't forget to loosen the heatsink retention clamp before 😀

I'd try forcing 1.75V and 100MHz FSB. If there are setting jumpers on the mainboard, use those, and leave the ones on the slotket in auto mode. If not, use the ones on the slotket.

The multiplier setting will do nothing, the CPU just ignores it. All Slot1/S370 CPUs but the earliest PIIs are multiplier locked.

Yeah, I'll try this later today. Remember that the CPU and the Gateway motherboard do work. It's just the slocket that appears to be troublesome. Good to know that the multiplier dip switches won't matter much. I'll get back to you with my results when I have them. 😀

So, finally "tried" it. The board doesn't have any dip switches regarding CPU voltages, so I went ahead and gave the CPU and the socket on the slocket a good 35 opening/closing, just for good measure, followed by plenty of compressed air. Threw it into the system and... doesn't turn on. Not even fans spinning. Threw back the 800MHz Slot 1 CPU that was in there, same thing. What I had to do was take the whole motherboard out of the system and have only the CPU in the system before the board whizzed back to life (I also threw in a new 2032 coin battery to replace the now at-least-1-year-old 202X coin battery that was in there). *sigh* I was relieved.

Before I put the system back together again in the case, I again tried the slocket again, to see if there was any difference, with all the dip switches set to "off", both with the motherboard set to JumperFree and not JumperFree mode. In both situations, nothing. Nada. 😒

Just as a side note, I did notice that a capacitor near the slot on the motherboard showed some grey stuff on the top of it. Should I be concerned, or is this dust/dirt, because it's not bulging?

Nipedley wrote:

It's probably the slocket, I went through a few with my P3B-F before I found one that worked. I also had an ASUS branded one and it did absolutely nothing

I'm now using an MSI MS-6905 slocket, with a ready-modified (has a small adapter board fitted) 1.4GHZ PIII s Tualatin chip. Works great ! Grab yourself some PC133 RAM and it's no problem at all. Never had any stability issues

Even if you still want to stick with 100 FSB, I'd definitely recommend the MS-6905 slocket

It's sad, isn't it? Getting an Asus part that doesn't work? *sigh* I am ready to buy that slocket you mentioned immediately, one straight from Germany, but before that, does anyone have any other honorable mentions? I'm open to any at this point. 🤣

If the next slocket doesn't work, I'm immediately willing to upgrade to my Asus TUSL2-C socket 370 board with an Intel Tualatin 1.4GHz CPU that I have in storage, waiting to be used, and move all of the 4 DOS games I play [rarely] on this system to either my P1 system or my modern machine via emulation and source ports. Get better performance for the games I care about, mostly maintain that period-correctness, and hopefully won't throw as many temper-tantrums as this 440BX-Slot 1 system does, and, on top of all that, besides all of the data transferring and re-setting up, I keep all the same expansion cards (except the AWE64 Value, since no ISA slots) and would only require a new SATA hard drive. *shrug*

Make sure you buy a coppermine cpu supporting slotket adapter. When buying the MSI make sure it is the ''master'' and not the regular ms-6905.

Most slotket adapters are Celeron only (older ppga) and will not work with coppermine cpu's.

meljor wrote:

Make sure you buy a coppermine cpu supporting slotket adapter. When buying the MSI make sure it is the ''master'' and not the regular ms-6905.

Most slotket adapters are Celeron only (older ppga) and will not work with coppermine cpu's.

Yeah, ones that are FCPGA-compatible. Already one it. 😀

Still, any suggestions anyone?

the_ultra_code wrote:

So, finally "tried" it. The board doesn't have any dip switches regarding CPU voltages, so I went ahead and gave the CPU and the […]
Show full quote

the_ultra_code wrote:

kaputnik wrote:

If that Gateway board is a S370 one, and you tested the CPU without the slotket, begin with what I suggested earlier in the thread; "... ran into a few slockets where the connector tabs inside the socket had oxidized/gotten dirty through the years. Just insert the CPU and open/close the socket 20-30 times or so the first time you use it, to rub off oxides/dirt, and make sure everything makes contact". Don't forget to loosen the heatsink retention clamp before 😀

I'd try forcing 1.75V and 100MHz FSB. If there are setting jumpers on the mainboard, use those, and leave the ones on the slotket in auto mode. If not, use the ones on the slotket.

The multiplier setting will do nothing, the CPU just ignores it. All Slot1/S370 CPUs but the earliest PIIs are multiplier locked.

Yeah, I'll try this later today. Remember that the CPU and the Gateway motherboard do work. It's just the slocket that appears to be troublesome. Good to know that the multiplier dip switches won't matter much. I'll get back to you with my results when I have them. 😀

So, finally "tried" it. The board doesn't have any dip switches regarding CPU voltages, so I went ahead and gave the CPU and the socket on the slocket a good 35 opening/closing, just for good measure, followed by plenty of compressed air. Threw it into the system and... doesn't turn on. Not even fans spinning. Threw back the 800MHz Slot 1 CPU that was in there, same thing. What I had to do was take the whole motherboard out of the system and have only the CPU in the system before the board whizzed back to life (I also threw in a new 2032 coin battery to replace the now at-least-1-year-old 202X coin battery that was in there). *sigh* I was relieved.

Before I put the system back together again in the case, I again tried the slocket again, to see if there was any difference, with all the dip switches set to "off", both with the motherboard set to JumperFree and not JumperFree mode. In both situations, nothing. Nada. 😒

Just as a side note, I did notice that a capacitor near the slot on the motherboard showed some grey stuff on the top of it. Should I be concerned, or is this dust/dirt, because it's not bulging?

Nipedley wrote:

It's probably the slocket, I went through a few with my P3B-F before I found one that worked. I also had an ASUS branded one and it did absolutely nothing

I'm now using an MSI MS-6905 slocket, with a ready-modified (has a small adapter board fitted) 1.4GHZ PIII s Tualatin chip. Works great ! Grab yourself some PC133 RAM and it's no problem at all. Never had any stability issues

Even if you still want to stick with 100 FSB, I'd definitely recommend the MS-6905 slocket

It's sad, isn't it? Getting an Asus part that doesn't work? *sigh* I am ready to buy that slocket you mentioned immediately, one straight from Germany, but before that, does anyone have any other honorable mentions? I'm open to any at this point. 🤣

If the next slocket doesn't work, I'm immediately willing to upgrade to my Asus TUSL2-C socket 370 board with an Intel Tualatin 1.4GHz CPU that I have in storage, waiting to be used, and move all of the 4 DOS games I play [rarely] on this system to either my P1 system or my modern machine via emulation and source ports. Get better performance for the games I care about, mostly maintain that period-correctness, and hopefully won't throw as many temper-tantrums as this 440BX-Slot 1 system does, and, on top of all that, besides all of the data transferring and re-setting up, I keep all the same expansion cards (except the AWE64 Value, since no ISA slots) and would only require a new SATA hard drive. *shrug*

The Cap close to the RAM-Slots looks like it is about to fail. Could be the picture but to me it looks kinda like an hourglass. Maybe you should replace it in the near future.

It's just the slocket that appears to be troublesome.

As it was nearly 2 decades ago as well! There is no shortage of frustrating slocket upgrade stores from this time period.

I remember back in the day I was upgrading my mechanic's computer with a Tualatin Celeron slocket upgrade in exchange for him changing the ring gear on my 1979 240D Mercedes. I also reformatted and reinstalled everything on his computer. Anyway, I used a quality slocket from Powerleap. His was really happy with the responsiveness of his upgraded computer. However, later on, he told me that it would freeze every 7 days of uptime and ended up buying a new computer. I felt pretty bad, like I gave him a bad deal. My wife has similar upgrade experience from this era.

Nipedley wrote:

It's probably the slocket, I went through a few with my P3B-F before I found one that worked. I also had an ASUS branded one and it did absolutely nothing

I'm now using an MSI MS-6905 slocket, with a ready-modified (has a small adapter board fitted) 1.4GHZ PIII s Tualatin chip. Works great ! Grab yourself some PC133 RAM and it's no problem at all. Never had any stability issues

Even if you still want to stick with 100 FSB, I'd definitely recommend the MS-6905 slocket

Update: so, I did end up buying an MSI MS-6905 Master slocket from an ebay user in Germany (apparently he is selling nearly a hundred of these guys), and it arrived in the mail today.

So, I went ahead and unboxed it:

... put my processor into the slocket, with jumpers JV1-4 set on 1-2, J2 not shorted, J1 shorted, and J4 set on 1-2:

... set my P3B-F to "auto" dip-switch/jumpers settings, and, what'da'ya know, it POSTs, and after telling the BIOS what the CPU's frequency is, it was properly detected!

I booted into Windows 98SE, and threw up CPU-Z. Yep, Windows was picking it up correctly.

So, I knew the slocket worked, and the CPU being used with it was being detected. How would it fare if I threw a game at it?

I opened up NFS3, and was racing on Hometown reverse mirror with a full grid of opponents in my fast-ass Mercedes. In retrospect, it felt like the FPS was a little less than usual with my 800MHz Slot 1 P3, but maybe it was just me (no way to tell since Fraps doesn't work in Glide games)?
Anywho, 2nd and final lap in, and - dammit:

Freakin' exception. Something's up. Either it's the CPU, slocket, motherboard, or a little bit of both. Any ideas?

DId you try a slower CPU in the slocket? How about conservative memory timings?

EDIT: I had a 440BX system which work stabled with up to dual 850's, but dual 1 GHz chips caused stability issues.

Can you run Prime95 and 3DMark without exceptions? NFS-Games are kinda critical when it comes to "exotic hardware" - in my own experience. There is a modern patch floating around, and the guy who wrote it made super-heavy changes to the code which make the game playable on Win10 even at high res 16:9 resolutions.

feipoa wrote:

DId you try a slower CPU in the slocket? How about conservative memory timings?

EDIT: I had a 440BX system which work stabled with up to dual 850's, but dual 1 GHz chips caused stability issues.

Well, no, I haven't tried a slower CPU, although I have no more money at the moment to buy a slower CPU to see if this would work. As for memory, I just told the motherboard to use SPD timings.

The Sandman wrote:

Can you run Prime95 and 3DMark without exceptions? NFS-Games are kinda critical when it comes to "exotic hardware" - in my own experience. There is a modern patch floating around, and the guy who wrote it made super-heavy changes to the code which make the game playable on Win10 even at high res 16:9 resolutions.

I just ran 3DMark2000, and while it ran it was abysmal compared to the 800MHz Slot 1 CPU that was in the PC. It eventually just crashed at the shape-shifting rings on a ring test. Obviously, it's not just NFS3. Also, I've been using the NFS3 Modern Patch to play NFS3 on this PC - not just for convenience's sake (no CD required), but also I thought I noticed a very small performance gain using the Modern Patch over the vanilla game. 😀

For the moment, I'm just going to give up on this goal of my to upgrade the CPU - just hasn't been worth it at all. Instead, tonight, I'm going to go ahead and transfer over all of the DOS games to my modern i7 machine that I care for and don't have on other systems, and upgrade to my Tualatin-compatible Asus TUSL2-C motherboard, complete with a 1.4GHz PIII-S, and a newer 250GB SATA HDD for it; however, just going to have to deal with 256MB of PC133 RAM compared to the 512MB of PC100 RAM I currently have for this Slot 1 system until I get more money and get another matching stick of Kingston 256MB PC133 RAM.

However, don't think this is the end of this thread - when I get more money, I'm definitely curious as to what CPU my Asus P3B-F can take - obviously can't take a 1.1GHz PIII. Might need your guys' support to do so. 😀

the_ultra_code wrote:

For the moment, I'm just going to give up on this goal of my to upgrade the CPU - just hasn't been worth it at all.

That's the feeling I had with upgrading my Dell dual slot 1 system. I would like to give dual Tualatin's a shot though, which would run at 1050 MHz (10.5 x 100). I'd also be using the same MSI slockets with pin-modded Tualatin chips. It would be very interesting if the Tualatins worked and not the slot 1, 1 GHz chips.