ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-06, 09:58:

That's awesome mockingbird. I also modified the 0826 BIOS for myself. What is the BIOS patcher 6a9?

Thanks. Which mods did you do and can you share it?

BP is commonly used here on older Award BIOS. You run the program, it updates microcodes and implements some standard fixes from back in the day. There are three commonly used versions that I'm aware of: 4.23, 4.51B, and 6a9.

Con 2 botones wrote on 2022-05-06, 13:53:

Just curious, why is it a good to disable ACPI?

ACPI probably works fine for vintage computing purposes, but disabling it is standard operating procedure in our case... Last I remember, ACPI implemented IRQ sharing. I know that there are some boards that are used extensively and without issue for vintage computing where you cannot disable it (Asus P3B/CUBX/P5A) and they work perfectly fine, so I don't want any arguments from anyone about it... I am just saying it is 'better' not to use it. You make of that what you will.

mockingbird wrote on 2022-05-06, 14:59:

Thanks. Which mods did you do and can you share it? […]
Show full quote

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-06, 09:58:

That's awesome mockingbird. I also modified the 0826 BIOS for myself. What is the BIOS patcher 6a9?

Thanks. Which mods did you do and can you share it?

BP is commonly used here on older Award BIOS. You run the program, it updates microcodes and implements some standard fixes from back in the day. There are three commonly used versions that I'm aware of: 4.23, 4.51B, and 6a9.

Con 2 botones wrote on 2022-05-06, 13:53:

Just curious, why is it a good to disable ACPI?

ACPI probably works fine for vintage computing purposes, but disabling it is standard operating procedure in our case... Last I remember, ACPI implemented IRQ sharing. I know that there are some boards that are used extensively and without issue for vintage computing where you cannot disable it (Asus P3B/CUBX/P5A) and they work perfectly fine, so I don't want any arguments from anyone about it... I am just saying it is 'better' not to use it. You make of that what you will.

Ok, thanks.
My asking about the whys was sincere (to undestand better an issue I had). I´ve got a Compaq Presario 7470 which shows a conflict in device manager, with the video card.
Although everything works fine, I remember investigating a bit about the reasons and found some post where someone pointed to the ACPI setting in BIOS.
The downside, he menitoned, is that if you disable it after installing the OS, then you would have to reinstall it.

mockingbird wrote on 2022-05-06, 14:59:

Thanks. Which mods did you do and can you share it? […]
Show full quote

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-06, 09:58:

That's awesome mockingbird. I also modified the 0826 BIOS for myself. What is the BIOS patcher 6a9?

Thanks. Which mods did you do and can you share it?

BP is commonly used here on older Award BIOS. You run the program, it updates microcodes and implements some standard fixes from back in the day. There are three commonly used versions that I'm aware of: 4.23, 4.51B, and 6a9.

Con 2 botones wrote on 2022-05-06, 13:53:

Just curious, why is it a good to disable ACPI?

ACPI probably works fine for vintage computing purposes, but disabling it is standard operating procedure in our case... Last I remember, ACPI implemented IRQ sharing. I know that there are some boards that are used extensively and without issue for vintage computing where you cannot disable it (Asus P3B/CUBX/P5A) and they work perfectly fine, so I don't want any arguments from anyone about it... I am just saying it is 'better' not to use it. You make of that what you will.

I unlocked the same stuff as the "turbo" BIOS down on the right side of this page.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030813042423/ht … k266faqbios.htm

I didn't keep the backup, but I ought to be able to pull it off the machine if you would like to see a copy. I may do that just to run the BIOS Patcher on it. I'm really curious as to what it would do compared to where I am at now. Like can I get a lower multiplier than 5.5? I wasn't able to do that while modifying the BIOS.

Con 2 botones - I think this board requires a modified BIOS to show the ACPI setting.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-06, 17:49:

I unlocked the same stuff as the "turbo" BIOS down on the right side of this page. https://web.archive.org/web/20030813042423/h […]
Show full quote

I unlocked the same stuff as the "turbo" BIOS down on the right side of this page.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030813042423/ht … k266faqbios.htm

I didn't keep the backup, but I ought to be able to pull it off the machine if you would like to see a copy. I may do that just to run the BIOS Patcher on it. I'm really curious as to what it would do compared to where I am at now. Like can I get a lower multiplier than 5.5? I wasn't able to do that while modifying the BIOS.

Con 2 botones - I think this board requires a modified BIOS to show the ACPI setting.

Cool, thanks... So these are all just MODBIN 'unhide' mods then, yes?

I don't remember, but absolutely you can go lower than 5.5 in software (with a mobile Powernow chip). See the KT7A thread that discusses that. You need to run PCISET to change a PCI register beforehand... I've gone as low as 3 on my KT7A.

I think BP 4.51B mentioned something in the output about adding multipliers, try that version...

mockingbird wrote on 2022-05-06, 18:09:

Cool, thanks... So these are all just MODBIN 'unhide' mods then, yes? […]
Show full quote

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-06, 17:49:

I unlocked the same stuff as the "turbo" BIOS down on the right side of this page. https://web.archive.org/web/20030813042423/h […]
Show full quote

I unlocked the same stuff as the "turbo" BIOS down on the right side of this page.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030813042423/ht … k266faqbios.htm

I didn't keep the backup, but I ought to be able to pull it off the machine if you would like to see a copy. I may do that just to run the BIOS Patcher on it. I'm really curious as to what it would do compared to where I am at now. Like can I get a lower multiplier than 5.5? I wasn't able to do that while modifying the BIOS.

Con 2 botones - I think this board requires a modified BIOS to show the ACPI setting.

Cool, thanks... So these are all just MODBIN 'unhide' mods then, yes?

I don't remember, but absolutely you can go lower than 5.5 in software (with a mobile Powernow chip). See the KT7A thread that discusses that. You need to run PCISET to change a PCI register beforehand... I've gone as low as 3 on my KT7A.

I think BP 4.51B mentioned something in the output about adding multipliers, try that version...

Yes it was all done through MODBIN. I have attached my BIOS. I am going to try the BIOS patcher 6a9 on it. I didn't see where 4.51b had more features than 6a9.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-06, 20:50:

Yes it was all done through MODBIN. I have attached my BIOS. I am going to try the BIOS patcher 6a9 on it. I didn't see where 4.51b had more features than 6a9.

What I meant was that I tried it in both, and when I ran it in 4.51b, it mentioned modifications to the multiplier selections in the result log, whereas 6a9 did not... I didn't check afterwards to see if there were actual additions.

The BIOS Patcher is giving me nothing but problems... I'm not going to mess with it anymore.

On the other hand, I'm going to buy a few more of these boards as they seem to perform great. I may recap and sell one.

i got a board from the same guy on ebay, but the capacitors are really rough so i don't use it. i wanted to buy more, but the guy wouldn't budge on combining/discounting shipping for additional units. he said he had something like 40 boards left. (i guess if i wanted to keep gambling i'll just buy them 1 at a time.)

what board revisions is everyone getting? i got a kk266 plus non-raid rev1.0.

i was already running a kk266-r plus rev2.0 i obtained elsewhere, but one of the capacitors is starting to bulge badly (hence my additional purchase). i have quite a lot of experience ruining things by trying to solder them.

irq sharing caused me headaches. in the end i had to move a pci card from slot 4 > 5 and reserve irq 14 for legacy isa before everything would play together nicely.

I got the same thing currently, stanwebber.

You're right as this board doesn't present many IRQs. I think that's an APIC thing, that this board doesn't support but I'm no expert.

Mine finally arrived.
Surprisingly it boots (and does it fast) !

I say surprisingly for two motives, on one side the packaging was almost dreadful, no box, just bubble bag, covered by another plastic bag.
And on the other, the board is full of bulging capacitors.

The seller included a courtesy XP 1700+ (AX17000DMT3C) CPU, it seems.
I´d rather have received a less capacitor problematic board instead, but...it is what it is.

Very nice!

You got a Revision 2 (non-raid) board...

Maybe you can try a Thoroughbred or Barton for us please? (though I doubt Rev2 works with them either)...

my capacitors are in worse shape--a few of the big ones have burst. all of your smaller capacitors look bulged, whereas i only have a couple. i also got a pristine xp 1700 with mine as well. original bios detects it correctly.

what area did you get the board revision from? i don't see it.

stanwebber, the caps on my board looked the same as yours. I replaced all the larger ones with Rubycon ZLJ, ZLH or PX.

Fingers crossed that the next 2 boards, that I should receive Saturday, look better.

mockingbird wrote on 2022-05-11, 17:12:

Very nice!

You got a Revision 2 (non-raid) board...

Maybe you can try a Thoroughbred or Barton for us please? (though I doubt Rev2 works with them either)...

I believe I own several 2200+ (Thoroughbred) and 2600+ (Barton) to test, yes.

No way I´m not going to test my one and only 3200+in a board in such an unhealthy state 😉

stanwebber wrote on 2022-05-11, 18:15:

my capacitors are in worse shape--a few of the big ones have burst. all of your smaller capacitors look bulged, whereas i only have a couple. i also got a pristine xp 1700 with mine as well. original bios detects it correctly.

what area did you get the board revision from? i don't see it.
IMG_20220211_133120.jpg

You can read the revision right to the "KK266 Plus" line, it reads "ver 2.0".
That is situated between the first and second PCI slots (from top to bottom), see the attached pictures above.

From what I read in this post, revision 2 is a little bit worse than 1.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-11, 19:08:

stanwebber, the caps on my board looked the same as yours. I replaced all the larger ones with Rubycon ZLJ, ZLH or PX.

Fingers crossed that the next 2 boards, that I should receive Saturday, look better.

Good luck with those 2!

I must admit, I asked the seller to send a board with the less bad caps possible.
He either didn´t know what I was talking about (which I suspect is the case) or thought to himself "yeah sure...dumbass" and throw the first board at glance to be shipped 😁

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-11, 19:08:

stanwebber, the caps on my board looked the same as yours. I replaced all the larger ones with Rubycon ZLJ, ZLH or PX.

Fingers crossed that the next 2 boards, that I should receive Saturday, look better.

Don't use Rubycon PX. PX is a general purpose series and is not suitable for this application. ZLJ and ZLH (ZLK too) are ok.

I think I used a combination of Nic Components NRZJ series and Panasonic FR...

Don't do the small caps (5mm and 6.3mm) if your equipment and skills aren't that good.

I wasn't sure about the PX. I only used them in the 1000uf spots. I figured they are probably better than the Hermei caps were when new anyways. I assumed a general purpose quality cap is bound to be better than a specialized generic cap; similar thinking to power supplies.

I definitely need better skills and rig for the small ones. Getting enough heat on the board is a challenge in my basement too.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-05-11, 19:51:

I wasn't sure about the PX. I only used them in the 1000uf spots. I figured they are probably better than the Hermei caps were when new anyways. I assumed a general purpose quality cap is bound to be better than a specialized generic cap; similar thinking to power supplies.

Unfortunately, not as such. Specialized second-tier caps do meet their spec at least when new... So they will have a much lower ESR and a higher ripple suppression capability than a general purpose cap, albeit not for very long. I don't fully understand the failure mode of general purpose capacitors in high ripple applications (you pose an interesting question with regard to that), but it's either going to be stressed itself, or pass on that stress (AC ripple) to the component after it.

For the 8x11.5 1000uF spots, you're perfectly fine. No risk there, but they may bloat in the future on you. I'm coincidentally just doing the 8x11.5 caps now on my KT3-AV, replacing them with NIC NRSH series (got them for a good price).

I definitely need better skills and rig for the small ones. Getting enough heat on the board is a challenge in my basement too.

The smaller ones don't require more skill - it's just not worth the risk of damaging vias and pads for caps which usually test ok or are not that critical if they aren't ok. I personally do do them. Sometimes I leave the capacitors for the onboard audio chip because I'm probably never going to use that.

Con 2 botones wrote on 2022-05-11, 19:33:

I must admit, I asked the seller to send a board with the less bad caps possible.
He either didn´t know what I was talking about (which I suspect is the case) or thought to himself "yeah sure...dumbass" and throw the first board at glance to be shipped 😁

i can assure you the guy couldn't care less. he got stuck with maybe 100 or more of these units from a storage container auction and wants to unload them & his prices reflect it. you can't even find his listing unless your search is as generic as 'motherboard'.