mistermister wrote on 2020-07-04, 00:33:

I have been reading Vogons a lot in recent months, getting into the vintage PC hobby. This is my first post.

I have recently purchase a Gateway P3 -450 system and a Voodoo3 3000 to set up a nice 1999 Win98SE gaming system. I would like to upgrade the CPU but I think I can only get to 600mhz Katmai on the current BIOS that is installed, version P13, Feb, 1999. The last bios for this motherboard was P21, Nov 1999, and supported Coppermine at least to 1ghz, but I can't find the file anywhere online. The motherboard is an MP440BX. The bios filename that I am looking for is 4M4PB0X1.15A.0033.P21. I see several links to the file in old forum posts but they are all linking to the Gateway support site and these old bios files apparently are no longer hosted there. If anyone can suggest a way to find this file, I would very much appreciate it.

Thank You

Welcome to Vogons 😀

According to this page

https://web.archive.org/web/20030804120939/ht … le.asp?id=14928

the compressed file your're looking for is 7508283.exe (BIOS Revision 4M4PB0X1.15A.0033.P21)

You can dowload that file from here

https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … driverid=884239

Zipped copy here for future reference

Also, if you want the update as a bootable floppy you can get it here

https://web.archive.org/web/20070125165315/ht … esktop_bios.asp

from the Tabor (PentiumII) MBD Endast link near the bottom of the page, which will lead you to a file called vp21.exe (a self-extracting WinImage IMA floppy)

Thank you, I was able to successfully update my BIOS! I used the auto-generated bootable floppy disk method. The .exe file used to create the floppy would not run on Windows 10 with a USB floppy drive, so I ran it on the P3 running Windows 98 which worked flawlessly. I did have to try a couple floppies to get one without any errors, the disk creation program performs a verify so it made sure I had a good one. Now I get to shop for a Slot 1 Coppermine CPU.

Curious to learn what processor you added and if you were successful. I also have a Gateway E-4200 with a Pentium III 450 in it and am interested in purchasing an upgraded processor, but I'd love to be sure it's compatible first. Thanks for your insight!

Thanks for the bios update.

I'm not the original poster, but the one curious thing I found out about my E-4200 was it accepted 3 256MB sdram dimms (768MB total) even though the manual said 384MB max. That was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

I've got a slot 1 PIII-600e & PIII-650 that I'd try in the system, but the CPUs are missing their cover plates.

Any suggestions for attaching a heat sink to it?

I just noticed that this thread was responded to recently. I ended up with a P3 600MHz Katmai CPU in my Gateway E-4200. Even with the latest P21 BIOS, it would not POST with a 100FSB Coppermine CPU installed. If I remember correctly there are different motherboard revisions with different processor limits, mine is not the most recent version. I am still using this PC with the Voodoo3 it is a good combo for me. I do not have a copy of the manual, if you would send me a link or a copy that would be appreciated.

I ended up getting a 2nd P3 system, a Dell which was able to take a P3-1000. That one I use with a GeForce3, so I have 2 Win98 P3 systems, both are used depending on the game I am playing. The 2nd computer was actually cheaper than getting a PCI Voodoo3 card and running an all in one system.