Believe me, I mention it numerous times:

Board revision 1.04
BIOS revision 1006

As said above...wait a minute, I'll write you a PM! I just have to crawl all the archives...

Just gave the hint to UniFlash as it's the ultimative flasher for boards of this time!

It seems there are two versions of the ASUS P2B and the corresponding BIOS, one with HW monitoring and one w/o. Please check if Fan, Thermal, Voltage Monitoring is available in your current BIOS "Power Management Setup".

You have to flash the appropriate BIOS. Please wait for the PM.

kind regards
soggi

Thanks for the kind message soggi, looks like I have acquired an infamous rev 1.04 (AKA fake board!). The funny thing is that the rev 1.02 (if they are legit), looks identical to the 1.04 😀 :

Read the discussion about the "fake" here:

ASUS P2B 1.04 BIOS update always fails on verification

Rev 1.02 on UltimateRetro:
https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/9628

This is getting more interesting by the minute! 😀

Believe me, I mention it numerous times:

Board revision 1.04
BIOS revision 1006

That PDF from Asus doesn't say that rev1.04 is fake. It just says that there are some fake boards which are marked as rev1.04.
There are also authentic rev1.04 boards.
At the time when they wrote that PDF, rev1.04 was no longer in production so they advised people to be suspicious of "new" rev1.04 boards. But no revision of these boards are new anymore so that advice is outdated.
Asus' comparison photos seem to be using rev1.10 as their example of a real board, instead of showing what a real rev1.04 looks like.

Can you post a clear picture of the motherboard?
Also, can you give the part number (or post a picture) of the ~20-28pin voltage regulator IC which is in the area between the CPU slot and the rear ports?
A rev1.04 board most likely does not have the correct voltage regulator to support a 1.65V CPU. But if it does, then an update with the correct BIOS is also required before it will work.

shamino wrote on 2021-12-16, 08:52:

That PDF from Asus doesn't say that rev1.04 is fake. It just says that there are some fake boards which are marked as rev1.04. […]
Show full quote

That PDF from Asus doesn't say that rev1.04 is fake. It just says that there are some fake boards which are marked as rev1.04.
There are also authentic rev1.04 boards.
At the time when they wrote that PDF, rev1.04 was no longer in production so they advised people to be suspicious of "new" rev1.04 boards. But no revision of these boards are new anymore so that advice is outdated.
Asus' comparison photos seem to be using rev1.10 as their example of a real board, instead of showing what a real rev1.04 looks like.

Exactly! Thank you! 👍
From the document:

This is the fake board. On it we can see its version is of ver. 1.04, which ASUS has no longer shipped to our customers since De […]
Show full quote

This is the fake board. On it we can see
its version is of ver. 1.04, which ASUS
has no longer shipped to our customers
since Dec. 29th , 1998 . Therefore, there
should be few or none of this version in
the market.

This clearly states Rev 1.04 has been officially shipped to customers by Asus until Dec. 29th , 1998.

BTW: While Asus officially only supports Coppermine on P2B starting with rev 1.12 there are some rev 1.10 boards that already have the new VRM. To my knowledge rev 1.04 never supported Coppermine voltages.

Also Asus still host BIOS and flashing utility for the P2B on their website:
https://www.asus.com/supportonly/p2b(mb)/HelpDesk_BIOS/
P2B Beta BIOS 1014.003
The latest Beta BIOS.
P2B (Without Harware Monitor) Beta BIOS 1014.003
The latest Beta BIOS.
Aflash BIOS tool V1.37
Aflash V2.21 Utility to update the motherboard flash BIOS - (DOS)

C0deHunter wrote on 2021-12-16, 08:02:

Believe me, I mention it numerous times:

Board revision 1.04
BIOS revision 1006

The magic word here is "Coppermine"

There are three completely different kinds of P3:
- Katmai
- Coppermine
- Tualatin

The Katmai is basically just a P2 with some instructions added. Hardware that can support Deschutes P2 can always support Katmai (although firmware i.e. BIOS might be an issue on some boards). Coppermine is a completely different beast. Instead of 512kB external L2 cache on separate chips running half speed, it contains 256kB of internal L2 cache running at full speed. That improves performance significantly. And - and this is your problem here - it had a die-shrink which made it more electrically efficient and operate at lower voltages. And your motherboard needs to support those voltages.

Asus made a royal mess of revisions of the P2B, with Coppermine-capable VRMs found on some from 1.05 onwar but only reliably present on 1.12. One place they aren't though is 1.04. So your board can't deliver 1.65V. What does it do if your CPU asks for it anyway? Design states if an unsupported voltage is requested, it doesn't supply anything. That's what's happening here, regardless of BIOS.

So what can you do?
- in-spec you can replace the P3-650E with a P3-600 Katmai (note: not 600B, which requires 133MHz FSB, or P3-600E which is also a Coppermine, or P3-600EB, which is both) or lower that requests and runs on voltages supported by the board.
- you can modify the pins on the CPU to request a slightly higher but hopefully not damaging voltage that the board can supply (1.8V)
- you can replace the slot 1 P3-650E with an So370 P3-650E (or higher) and connect it using an So370 FC-PGA (yes, there are also three different kinds of So370 and you specifically need this one) to Slot 1 slocket that offers voltage jumper settings, where you can set jumpers to do the same as modding the pins as suggested above.
- you can try and replace the onboard VRM itself for newer version that can do 1.65V. This requires quite a bit of (de)soldering skill.

As for the BIOS, so long as the multiplier of your CPU is 10 or below (on a P3-650E it's 6.5), the system will at least boot with an unrecognized CPU, but if possible you want to get upgraded to have the correct microcode for the CPU - but once again, that's not the big issue here, it's the voltage.

For more info, take a look here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html

Gee, this horse has been beaten to death 😁

Every P2B can be put to work with Coppermine. Even older revisions, just use tape method to mask appropriate VID pins to get 1.8v vcore if the board equipped with older voltage regulator chip and you're good.
133 MHz CPU's will also work but earlier revisions lack 4th FSB jumper and therefore without adding one (you can add one too but rquires some soldering etc) you only get 133/41 not 133/33 MHz which could cause instability with PCI cards. AGP will run at 89 MHz but that is not a problem for most AGP cards of that era.

Paadam wrote on 2021-12-16, 10:14:

Gee, this horse has been beaten to death 😁

133 MHz CPU's will also work but earlier revisions lack 4th FSB jumper and therefore without adding one (you can add one too but rquires some soldering etc) you only get 133/41 not 133/33 MHz which could cause instability with PCI cards. AGP will run at 89 MHz but that is not a problem for most AGP cards of that era.

It's a supernatural horse.
There is an exception to the 133MHz suggestion.
One of the clock generator types that was used by ASUS on P2B boards was buggy and unable to produce a working 133MHz signal. You can read more about it here - scroll down to [P2B, Feb 22, 2006 ] where it reads:
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yeah, upgrading older P2B-series boards would be a lot simpler if the 9150-08 133Mhz setting actually worked, instead of producing an ugly signal the BX interprets as 109Mhz.
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
https://www.motherboardpoint.com/threads/need … mod-help.22785/

Better be aware of this before investing serious money in fsb 133 cpu's for this type of motherboards.

Paadam wrote on 2021-12-16, 10:14:

Gee, this horse has been beaten to death 😁

Every P2B can be put to work with Coppermine. Even older revisions, just use tape method to mask appropriate VID pins to get 1.8v vcore if the board equipped with older voltage regulator chip and you're good.

I mentioned that 😉

- you can modify the pins on the CPU to request a slightly higher but hopefully not damaging voltage that the board can supply (1.8V)

OP, show us a clear picture of this chip (see attachment), and we'll tell you if Coppermines are viable on your board or not (without any mod).
Anyhow, the other suggestions are also good, although I would personally prefer just replacing the VRM chip (it sounds more difficult than it actually is) instead of overvolting the CPU.

Q: How do I find out which voltage regulator chip I have and what voltages it can provide?
A: You need to look at the board. Near the Slot1 connector there is a chip with around 30 pins or so. Some of these chips can provide 1.3V-3.5V, while others can only provide 1.8V-3.5V. Attention, dual-cpu boards have two voltage regulator chips, and it is possible that one is of the new type and the other not!
Chips that can provide voltages down to 1.3V:
HIP6019BCB
HIP6020ACB
HIP6004CB
HIP6004BCB
US3007CW

Chips that can only provide voltages down to 1.8V:
HIP6019CB
HIP6004ACB

This list is not complete. Asus has used quite a lot of different voltage regulator chips on its boards, so it's possible there are even more that Asus used I'm not aware of.

web:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html

vogons:
Asus P2B rev. 1.04

dionb wrote on 2021-12-16, 09:49:

For more info, take a look here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html

teclillass wrote on 2021-12-16, 16:32:

web:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html

Didn't know this went offline... Maybe I should make it available again for the searchable web via the new category "recovered" on my website.

kind regards
soggi

soggi wrote on 2021-12-19, 08:10:

Didn't know this went offline... Maybe I should make it available again for the searchable web via the new category "recovered" […]
Show full quote

dionb wrote on 2021-12-16, 09:49:

For more info, take a look here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html

teclillass wrote on 2021-12-16, 16:32:

web:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html

Didn't know this went offline... Maybe I should make it available again for the searchable web via the new category "recovered" on my website.

kind regards
soggi

I didn't realize that dionb had posted the same faq.
My apologies

I don't usually post anything because English is not my native language and I have to use the translator. But even if I don't post, I read often.

P2B is my main and favorite retro platform. Please make a place for it on your website (by the way, a very nice style)

Regards : )

No problem! I'm also not a native speaker and often have to look for some (special) words on dict.cc. The important thing is that your English is understandable, no one cares about minor mistakes.

BTW I don't know if "recovered" or "restored" is the right word for this upcoming category...had many looks at dictionaries and searched for phrases and anything, but I'm still unsure. So I know my English isn't perfect but understandable.

Thx for your compliment! It's nice to see that so many people love the style and minimalism of my website, the description I love most is from Hacker News (news about that):

A bit off topic but that article -- as well as the rest of the site -- is absolutely gorgeous. The smart use of context-specific text colors such as green for section headers, red for emphasis, white-on-blue for code blocks, and (my favorite example) orange for external links vs yellow for internal links; the highly readable but nevertheless classic console font; the razor sharp lines/boxes; and the jet-black background come together to make it feel like I'm reading a BBS in high school in 1992. ...

So...I will recover (restore!?) the page https://web.archive.org/web/20191114013933/ht … pgrade_faq.html, but I don't know when I will have the time to do that. A ASUS P2B spec page is questionable as I don't own one myself, so I need high-res pics to see all the details.

kind regards
soggi

Any word sounds good for your section, recovered, revived. Even a short composition sounds good "Links recovered".

I have seen that it has P2B-B and P2B-D on its page, so I proposed to put the P2B section without acronyms next to the ones it already has.
But do not feel obliged to anything, if you want something and I can help you, let me know.

Here I have uploaded the basic data if it can be useful to you:
https://mega.nz/file/rUpEUYAR#YCxTJTEiMIQvJIX … pIZSLqz05Mw7NKY

Regards

Sorry if I hijack this thread, but has anyone ever gotten a 40GB HDD to work on their P2B? (as in P2B, no -F, -B or anything. Plain old P2B - not sure about the revision I have but I think it's 1.02.)

I have this issue where EVEN after updating the BIOS to the latest I can't get any 40GB (and they're known working and tested drives) to work on it.
The best that happens is that the P2B is that even if the drive is detected, it's listing "Primary hard disk failure".

I tested both drives (WD400BB and Maxtor 6E040L0) on 5 other boards - a Soyo 6BA +IV, a ECS P6VXA, a LuckyTech P5MVP3, a Gateway WS440BX and finally, a DTK PRM-27iV (w/ Shuttle AV11 BIOS since they're not very much different besides a missing 4th slot on my DTK.). All motherboards detected the 40GB drives successfully and booted them without any problems - the WD400BB even resides in the Gateway GP6-400 I used to test the 40GB barrier.

Any solutions? I would rather not use a offboard PCI card if the motherboard is SUPPOSED to support 40GB drives after a simple BIOS update.

On this note, if anyone needs hi-res pictures of a plain P2B, let me know. I can take it out of the case I have it in and take any snapshots you might need.

PcBytes wrote on 2021-12-21, 15:20:

Sorry if I hijack this thread, but has anyone ever gotten a 40GB HDD to work on their P2B? (as in P2B, no -F, -B or anything. Pl […]
Show full quote

Sorry if I hijack this thread, but has anyone ever gotten a 40GB HDD to work on their P2B? (as in P2B, no -F, -B or anything. Plain old P2B - not sure about the revision I have but I think it's 1.02.)

I have this issue where EVEN after updating the BIOS to the latest I can't get any 40GB (and they're known working and tested drives) to work on it.
The best that happens is that the P2B is that even if the drive is detected, it's listing "Primary hard disk failure".

I tested both drives (WD400BB and Maxtor 6E040L0) on 5 other boards - a Soyo 6BA +IV, a ECS P6VXA, a LuckyTech P5MVP3, a Gateway WS440BX and finally, a DTK PRM-27iV (w/ Shuttle AV11 BIOS since they're not very much different besides a missing 4th slot on my DTK.). All motherboards detected the 40GB drives successfully and booted them without any problems - the WD400BB even resides in the Gateway GP6-400 I used to test the 40GB barrier.

Any solutions? I would rather not use a offboard PCI card if the motherboard is SUPPOSED to support 40GB drives after a simple BIOS update.

On this note, if anyone needs hi-res pictures of a plain P2B, let me know. I can take it out of the case I have it in and take any snapshots you might need.

I used a 120GB SSD with SATA-IDE adaptor on a P2B 1.02. for testing before. Worked like a charm, formatted the drive, installed Win98SE, all that.

My thinking is that it might need a nice crisp fresh 80 conductor cable. Those things go bad if you look at them wrong.

I used brand new ASUS 80 conductor cables from a NOS 775 mobo, no dice with either. Also tried a whole lot of other 80 cond. cables with no luck.