shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 11:27:

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-02, 09:52:

up to F10

IIRC, it's HP key for choose boot device.
I would say it's a good choice.

Okay, seems to work. Here's a test for the CUBX-E/L.

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 11:27:

With the file from the first page, there is a change in voltage, but monitoring shows that it remains the same (1.45V)

Ah, I see.

The voltage mod is included in the current builds, and it should be working. You will almost never see your selected voltage in the Hardware monitor, though. The board always starts the CPU with its default voltage, and the BIOS applies the user-defined voltage pretty late in the boot process, after the point where you enter the setup menu.

I think the only chance to see the user-defined voltage in the Hardware monitor is having the machine boot through to the OS, issue a restart from there and then enter setup. (A monitoring tool in DOS or Windows should display the correct voltage.)

This behaviour is a bit quirky, but on the positive side it ensures that you can always enter setup from a cold boot, even if you have set the voltage too low for a successful POST.

[Edit: Moved attachment to first post.]

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-02, 12:10:

Okay, seems to work. Here's a test for the CUBX-E/L.

Works good.
Maybe change "AWARD Plug n play bios extension..." to "Press F10 to boot menu"?
Or add something similar to the post screen.

Everyone will forget about this feature without a reminder (((

Voltage change works.
And it is monitored in the hardware monitor. But you need to boot the OS after changing the setting.
If you just exit the settings menu with saving, then the voltage remains the same.
ASUS is...

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 12:58:

Works good.
Maybe change "AWARD Plug n play bios extension..." to "Press F10 to boot menu"?
Or add something similar to the post screen.

Thought something similar. I've added it to the bottom "Press F1 ..." message (see the the updated file attached to the post above).

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-02, 13:35:

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 12:58:

Works good.
Maybe change "AWARD Plug n play bios extension..." to "Press F10 to boot menu"?
Or add something similar to the post screen.

Thought something similar. I've added it to the bottom "Press F1 ..." message (see the the updated file attached to the post above).

Perfect!
I already checked

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 14:02:

Perfect!
I already checked

Thanks! I'll update the builds in the fist post later.

On the P3B-F BIOS from this thread I get the boot menu if I press escape.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2023-07-02, 17:16:

On the P3B-F BIOS from this thread I get the boot menu if I press escape.

Yes, that's the default behaviour. It just interferes with other uses of escape (notably skipping the memory check), so you might get the popup when you don't expect it.

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-06-16, 09:18:

Have you tried your CPU in the P2B? Is there anything specifically amiss (aside from the fact that the POST screen will call it a "Pentium III")?

It's missing the microcode for it, eventhough it displays it properly:

"BIOS update date incorrect (CPUID=0000068A). Update not loaded."

Looking at a previous post, there seems to be three microcodes available:

cpu0068A_plat10_ver00000001_2000-11-02_PRD_80FC9E3B.bin
cpu0068A_plat20_ver00000004_2000-12-07_PRD_995EC216.bin
cpu0068A_plat80_ver00000005_2000-12-07_PRD_B82BBBC1.bin

I'm not certain which platform is the right one, and I'm having issues with getting CBROM working with this BIOS. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT:

So the first one (Platform 10) was already there, I inserted platforms 20 and 80 and will test it... One difference I can see immediately is that CBROM /D will now show all the microcodes whereas before with the original Asus BIOS it would not. So hopefully it will still work with the board, because obviously there's something unconventional going on in the original.

mockingbird wrote on 2023-07-02, 20:11:

It's missing the microcode for it, eventhough it displays it properly:

"BIOS update date incorrect (CPUID=0000068A). Update not loaded."

That message is at the same time correct and misleading: Via C3 CPUs don't support microcode updates at all. The BIOS tries to find a "matching" Intel microcode update to load into the CPU. (It's good that it doesn't find any; in the worst case, the machine might lock up.)

mockingbird wrote on 2023-07-02, 20:11:

So the first one (Platform 10) was already there, I inserted platforms 20 and 80 and will test it... One difference I can see immediately is that CBROM /D will now show all the microcodes whereas before with the original Asus BIOS it would not. So hopefully it will still work with the board, because obviously there's something unconventional going on in the original.

Platform 10 in this case indicates Socket 370 CPUs (though still Intel chips, see above).

ASUS has designed a proprietary microcode file format which is not compatible with CBROM. I've posted a tool somewhere in this thread that can create ASUS microcode containers, but that won't help in this case. What the P2B's BIOS needs is a check designed to entirely skip the microcode update process when a Via CPU is installed.

I'll try to integrate that, but I'll have to work it out on the P2B-F first.

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-02, 22:17:

ASUS has designed a proprietary microcode file format which is not compatible with CBROM. I've posted a tool somewhere in this thread that can create ASUS microcode containers, but that won't help in this case. What the P2B's BIOS needs is a check designed to entirely skip the microcode update process when a Via CPU is installed.

I'll try to integrate that, but I'll have to work it out on the P2B-F first.

Thanks. I had the chip out and was about to get the TL866 out but I'm glad I checked this thread beforehand.

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-02, 09:52:

Ah. As shevalier already wrote, that's for building the BIOS mod from source, in case anyone wants to toy around with that. If y […]
Show full quote

Geeknik wrote on 2023-07-02, 08:17:

Its just all the other stuff that came with the zip. How do you use that stuff? I tried the *.exe(s) in the TOOL folder, but most said they were WIN32 applications in DOS and in Windows didn't do anything I could see.

Ah. As shevalier already wrote, that's for building the BIOS mod from source, in case anyone wants to toy around with that. If you just want to use the modified BIOS, you can ignore all of it.

OK. Thank you.

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 08:52:

F11, like of Gigabyte, would be great - it does not intersect with anything.

I'll try that later today. Note that F11 is outside of the original XT key set (up to F10), so this might not work with every keyboard.

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-02, 08:52:

And please bring back the voltage regulation for Tualatin...

What's missing there?

mockingbird wrote on 2023-07-03, 00:29:

Thanks. I had the chip out and was about to get the TL866 out but I'm glad I checked this thread beforehand.

Here's something to test, for both P2B variants (with or without hardware monitor).

In case your board supports hardware monitoring: Could you also check whether the VCore reading in Power Management Setup seems sensible?

[Edit: Removed obsolete attachments.]

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-04, 19:15:

Here's something to test, for both P2B variants (with or without hardware monitor).

In case your board supports hardware monitoring: Could you also check whether the VCore reading in Power Management Setup seems sensible?

Kudos, kudos, thank you, thank you. Not only is the microcode error gone, but the CPU now displays properly on POST.

vcore is showing an erroneous reading now -- you're right. It did work properly before. The fan also has the high divider like the stock P3B-F BIOS, so the fan speed is too low to register (If you feel like it, I'd appreciate it if you could modify it to the lower divider if it's not too much trouble).

mockingbird wrote on 2023-07-05, 01:22:

Kudos, kudos, thank you, thank you. Not only is the microcode error gone, but the CPU now displays properly on POST.

Glad it works, thanks for testing!

By the way: You should also be able to properly enable/disable the L2 cache on the Via chip now.

mockingbird wrote on 2023-07-05, 01:22:

vcore is showing an erroneous reading now -- you're right. It did work properly before. The fan also has the high divider like the stock P3B-F BIOS, so the fan speed is too low to register (If you feel like it, I'd appreciate it if you could modify it to the lower divider if it's not too much trouble).

Thanks for double-checking. My P2B-F might have a defect, so I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. In the end, the erroneous VCore reading was caused by a bug in the mod and should be fixed now. The fan dividers have also been changed to accomodate slower fans. (I've set the warning thresholds to ca. 900 RPM for all fans.)

[Edit: Removed obsolete attachment.]

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-05, 16:18:

Thanks for double-checking. My P2B-F might have a defect, so I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. In the end, the erroneous VCore reading was caused by a bug in the mod and should be fixed now. The fan dividers have also been changed to accomodate slower fans. (I've set the warning thresholds to ca. 900 RPM for all fans.)

Beautiful, fantastic. Fan speed is showing and voltage is correct. The only thing that's an issue is your detection algorithm (and your previous 07/04 release had this issue as well)... If I put an Intel CPU in now, it POSTs, but doesn't make it past post. The post screen finishes loading, the screen goes blank, and then...nothing. Might I recommend two seperate releases, one for VIA and one for Intel if you don't manage to figure that out. As always, I am glad to test for you either way. To be honest, I'll only ever use this board for VIA. I need it for its specific clockgen chip, and I have other, superior boards for Intel CPUs.

Cheers.

mockingbird wrote on 2023-07-05, 21:00:

Beautiful, fantastic. Fan speed is showing and voltage is correct. The only thing that's an issue is your detection algorithm (and your previous 07/04 release had this issue as well)... If I put an Intel CPU in now, it POSTs, but doesn't make it past post. The post screen finishes loading, the screen goes blank, and then...nothing. Might I recommend two seperate releases, one for VIA and one for Intel if you don't manage to figure that out. As always, I am glad to test for you either way. To be honest, I'll only ever use this board for VIA. I need it for its specific clockgen chip, and I have other, superior boards for Intel CPUs.

Hm, there's one change that was originally for Pentium Pro support on the P3 boards. Maybe this breaks cache initialization ... I've removed it; could you test this build with both CPU types?

[Edit: Removed obsolete attachment.]

DenizOezmen wrote on 2023-07-06, 17:57:

Hm, there's one change that was originally for Pentium Pro support on the P3 boards. Maybe this breaks cache initialization ... I've removed it; could you test this build with both CPU types?

Yes! That fixed it. Tested with both a Coppermine Celeron and the Via C3 Ezra-T and they both work. Double-checked the BIOS, everything looks ok. It is a privilege to have your BIOS sir. Thanks very much 😀

Just out of curiosity: does your BIOS have the patches for larger hdds?
If not, you might check the modfied bios from Jan Steunebrink (he is also on this forum), which has them included.
I actually use that one on my P2B. But I would also enjoy your improvements, so maybe it is possible to combine both ...

Skorbin wrote on 2023-07-06, 20:21:

Just out of curiosity: does your BIOS have the patches for larger hdds?
If not, you might check the modfied bios from Jan Steunebrink (he is also on this forum), which has them included.
I actually use that one on my P2B. But I would also enjoy your improvements, so maybe it is possible to combine both ...

The BIOS should support up to 128GB or so natively... Are you referring to LBA48 support? I've not seen anything like that from Jan, even for his K6-III BIOS, and OP already stated here that he hasn't gotten into that yet. Which modded BIOS exactly are you referring to that you're using with your P2B?

Oops!
Looks like I mixed two of my ASUS mainboards: the TXP4 has a modded BIOS from Jan, the P2B doesn't seem to need it.
Sorry for the confusion I created.