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Trouble with different CPUs on a Slot 1 440BX motherboard

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First post, by PTherapist

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For reference the board is: FIC KB-6130-Z.

Been playing around with this motherboard with Intel 440BX chipset. It has always been paired with a Pentium III 450MHz Katmai CPU (450/256/100, 2.0V) amd works well with that.

I recently got a Slotket and installed a PIII 1.0GHz CPU (Coppermine, 1000/256/100 1.75V) and it worked, however it was overheating due to a poor cooler fitting and was freezing after being switched on for some time. At least - I assumed the issue was overheating, unfortunately I accidentally damaged this CPU when removing the cooler and it's now dead so I can't test any further.

Since then I've tested several different CPUs with varying results:

2x PIII 550/512/100, 2.0V (Katmai) = Can get into the BIOS with both, but can't get any OS to boot, just irql_not_less_or_equal BSOD with Windows.

PIII 667/256/133, 1.7V (Coppermine) @ 100MHz FSB = Works OK (@ 133MHz = BSOD shortly after boot - 133MHz not supported so expected this not to work)

Celeron 1100/128/100 (Coppermine), 1.75V = Can get into the BIOS, but any attempt to boot an OS results in a system freeze.

Anybody have any ideas why this board might be being so picky with different CPUs? The Celeron 1.1GHz was the only chip that the BIOS didn't correctly recognise, all the rest it did. I thought maybe it was voltage related, but the 450 & 550MHz Katmai chips both use 2.0V.

Also don't suppose anybody has a later BIOS for this board? BIOS shows MH4120 at boot and the text at the bottom shows: 01/11/2001-i440BX-SMC60X-2A69KF0DC-00.

Reply 2 of 3, by dionb

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Could it be power draw? That underclocked P3 will probably draw less than the P3-450, all the others draw more. Check how hot the voltage regulators on the motherboard are getting. They might be the problem. Also, what PSU are you using? A Slot 1 system gets its CPU power off the 5V line. Old PSUs are very 5V-heavy and handle this easily. Very modern PSUs basically only have a 12V line and do DC-to-DC conversion from that to 5V (and 3.3V), they will be fine too, but an earlier ATX 2.x PSU might well be well out of balance with so little draw on 12V and so much out of 5V so it gets wobbly under load.

Reply 3 of 3, by PTherapist

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Ok I tried a few more things today. Took the PSU from another Slot 1 PC and tested it - no difference.

Tested another CPU, this time a Coppermine 650/256/100, 1.65V. That also worked fine.

Weird or possibly faulty motherboard. Don't think there's much more I can do with this thing so I'll probably put it back into storage.

To add re- the stress comment. I ran Prime 95 for a while on the 450MHz CPU. Other than it getting hot, no stability issues at all.

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