Jan Steunebrink is currently looking for beta testers for a modified BIOS for this board according to his website: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm
He's a member here, but you can't write dm's yet. I'll quote a post of his so he'll be notified and can get in touch with you.

Chkcpu wrote on 2021-11-14, 13:18:

Doornkaat wrote on 2022-11-12, 17:06:

Jan Steunebrink is currently looking for beta testers for a modified BIOS for this board according to his website: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm
He's a member here, but you can't write dm's yet. I'll quote a post of his so he'll be notified and can get in touch with you.

Chkcpu wrote on 2021-11-14, 13:18:

Thank you so much!!

DIY Bios Modding guide Jan Steunebrink k6-2+/3+ 128gb

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/qdi-p5 … ib-titanium-iib

Your max clock will be 400-500mhz I suspect depending on clock gen.

Max ram should be 256mb sd ram. But it will be very picky about which sticks work. I used a single stick of double sided 256 on my tx mobo.

Hdd max (with patch) is 128gb

Best video card will probably be a radeon 9100 pci, a 7500 pci a geforce 2 or a quadro 2

430tx supports acpi so max windows is windows 7 but 98se or windows ME will run much faster.

You probably have hidden settings for 2.1v or 2.0v

@Doornkaat, thanks for the heads-up. 😀

@ederra, Yes I have a patched Titanium IIB v2.0 BIOS for you to try but first a friendly Warning:
DON’T run you nice K6-III+ 2.0V CPU on the original BIOS! The unpatched BIOS will put a very unhealthy 2.9V Vcore on your K6-III+!!

The problem with these jumper-less boards is that you can’t simply try if the BIOS will run your new CPU by setting jumpers for the correct Vcore, Bus frequency and multiplier. In this case, the original BIOS on the Titanium IIB fully controls the Vcore and if it detects an unknown AMD CPU, it sets Vcore to the AMD K5 default which is 2.9V! To make matters worse, the BIOS doesn’t even allow you to set the Vcore in the lower 2.0V-2.4V range…

So you need to flash an updated BIOS before you put the K6-III+ in! 😉

A while ago I’ve patched the latest ODI Titanium IIB V2.3SL BIOS for K6-III, K6-2+, and K6-III+ support, and here is a copy:

In the zip, I've included a txt-file with more information about what I've changed.
Note that this BIOS is for the Titanium IIB V2.0 boards and can’t be used on TIIB V3.0 boards.

In this patched BIOS I’ve changed the SpeedEasy CPU Setup detection so that all K6 CPUs with CPUID 0590h or higher are now dectected as "AMD-K6 3D" i.s.o. K5.
This will set the Vcore to the 2.2V default, just as for the K6-2, and allows it to be changed from 2.0V to 2.4V for K6-III(P), K6-2+, and K6-III+ CPUs.
Note that this patch 0.2 BIOS is still an interim version that doesn’t support the x6 multiplier yet. But it has been tested with a 60GB HDD and a K6-2/350 CPU and worked well.

The filename of the patched BIOS is T2B_J02.BIN and you can flash it with the QDI Flash program, just as any other TIIB BIOS.
You have to flash the patched BIOS with the present CPU, before you put a K6plus CPU in.

Now, irrespective of your current CPU, here are some guidelines for using a K6plus on this board:
1) After flashing the patched BIOS, but before installing a K6plus CPU, enter the BIOS Setup and check/set the "System BIOS Cacheable" option at Disabled (CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP menu). The K6+ needs this setting to work properly with the 430TX chipset.

2) At the first boot with the K6plus installed, enter the BIOS Setup and select the "SpeedEasy CPU SETUP".
- Check what is indicated as CPU Model. Must be "AMD-K6 3D".
- Check/set the following CPU settings:
Speed Mode : Jumper Emulation
Bus Clock : 75MHz
Multiplier : x5, BF2.1.0=0/0/1
CPU Voltage Ctrl : Manual
IO Voltage : 3.3V
Core Voltage : 2.2V
Please let me know if any of the above is different.

3) Now set the Core Voltage to 2.0V, exit the menu and select SAVE & EXIT. The PC will now reboot.

4) Some things to check:
- After reboot, does the boot screen indicate the correct CPU Type string?
(In case of a "plus" CPU you should see "AMD-K6(tm)-2+"or "AMD-K6(tm)-III+") And is the correct CPU Frequency indicated? (5x75 will be indicated as 366 i.s.o. 375MHz.)
- If your board has the System Monitor, is the indicated Vcore in the System Monitor Setup 2.0V now?
- When you are going to use a 40GB or larger IDE drive, let me know if you can use the whole drive. And I'm also curious about the indicated drive size on the BIOS summary screen. Is it still correct, for both your present drive(s) and any new larger drive?

I have been working on a final patch BIOS with native x6 multiplier support. However, I was unsuccessful.
You could help me here by trying the available multiplier settings in the SpeedEasy CPU SETUP when running a K6-2 or K6+ CPU, and tell me what CPU speed you get with each setting.
You can use the CHKCPU tool from my homepage to check the actual CPU speed and multiplier setting.

Happy testing!
Jan.

Edit: Clarified the first step after flashing the patched BIOS.

A wealth of help and information as usual, thanks Jan!

Wouldn’t you just set that to 2x 2x=6x. Or are you actually trying to get the bios to show a 6 somewhere?

Actually, its the possibility to set 6x (or 2x) that I'm after.
The BIOS is clearly capable of controlling all three BF lines, because it can set multipliers above 3.5x. But from the 8 possible combinations, only 4 can be selected in the BIOS Setup.
These are X3.5, X4, X4.5, and X5.

The logic the BIOS uses to control the BF lines still eludes me.
But when found, changing one of the four selections to 6x is easy. 😉

Cheers, Jan

It would be cool if it could also control intel bf2 (which is a different pin, a 4th pin. See tillamook datasheet or multiplier mini under pcb projects in my sig)

Hi,
first of all, I would like to thank you for warning about the possibility of frying the K6-III+ with the original BIOS (certainly there were many options for it to hapen because i had planned to carry out the tests this weekend) and for the patched BIOS that you have provided.

As soon as possible I will carry out and post the results of the tests that you indicate in your post

Thanks very very much

a greeting

A k6-3 non plus would make a good crash test dummy here. If you have one. It would be very close to a 3+ but have a better chance of surviving a voltage mishap.

To check your voltage: measure case to center pin on the notched corner of socket with a resistor leg in that hole. lever down no cpu. open lever then close on the wire like a cpu pin.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-11-17, 22:55:

...
To check your voltage: measure case to center pin on the notched corner of socket with a resistor leg in that hole. lever down no cpu. open lever then close on the wire like a cpu pin.

Hi Sphere478,
Thanks for the Vcore measurement tip. I’ve often used it myself when unsure about the supplied Core voltage on Socket 7 boards.
Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work on the jumper-less QDI Titanium IIB board. The Vcore is fully software controlled here,
so No CPU -> No running BIOS code -> No Vcore control.

After power-on, the Vcore control circuitry on this board does a controlled Vcore step-up from low to high until the CPU starts executing code and the BIOS takes over. Without a CPU fitted, the circuitry will probably raise the Vcore all the way up to 3.3V and this is what you will measure.

As the original BIOS already had Vcore support for the 2.2V K6-2, I took care that the same logic is used for the K6-III/K6-2+/K6-III+ in the patched BIOS, so I’m not worried about a too high Vcore when using the patched BIOS. In addition, the SpeedEasy menu in the BIOS Setup will clearly show what Vcore is supplied to the CPU.

But if you want to be absolutely sure about the supplied Vcore on these jumper-less boards, it should be measured with a CPU fitted and then using a K6-III non-plus as crash test dummy is an excellent idea. 😉

Jan

Derp, makes sense. Forgot about the weird jumperless thing.

In that case. Check out voltage interposer tweaker project. Link under pcb projects in my sig 😀

Chkcpu wrote on 2022-11-14, 21:59:

@Doornkaat, thanks for the heads-up. :) […]
Show full quote

@Doornkaat, thanks for the heads-up. 😀

@ederra, Yes I have a patched Titanium IIB v2.0 BIOS for you to try but first a friendly Warning:
DON’T run you nice K6-III+ 2.0V CPU on the original BIOS! The unpatched BIOS will put a very unhealthy 2.9V Vcore on your K6-III+!!

The problem with these jumper-less boards is that you can’t simply try if the BIOS will run your new CPU by setting jumpers for the correct Vcore, Bus frequency and multiplier. In this case, the original BIOS on the Titanium IIB fully controls the Vcore and if it detects an unknown AMD CPU, it sets Vcore to the AMD K5 default which is 2.9V! To make matters worse, the BIOS doesn’t even allow you to set the Vcore in the lower 2.0V-2.4V range…

So you need to flash an updated BIOS before you put the K6-III+ in! 😉

A while ago I’ve patched the latest ODI Titanium IIB V2.3SL BIOS for K6-III, K6-2+, and K6-III+ support, and here is a copy:
T2b_j02.zip

In the zip, I've included a txt-file with more information about what I've changed.
Note that this BIOS is for the Titanium IIB V2.0 boards and can’t be used on TIIB V3.0 boards.

In this patched BIOS I’ve changed the SpeedEasy CPU Setup detection so that all K6 CPUs with CPUID 0590h or higher are now dectected as "AMD-K6 3D" i.s.o. K5.
This will set the Vcore to the 2.2V default, just as for the K6-2, and allows it to be changed from 2.0V to 2.4V for K6-III(P), K6-2+, and K6-III+ CPUs.
Note that this patch 0.2 BIOS is still an interim version that doesn’t support the x6 multiplier yet. But it has been tested with a 60GB HDD and a K6-2/350 CPU and worked well.

The filename of the patched BIOS is T2B_J02.BIN and you can flash it with the QDI Flash program, just as any other TIIB BIOS.
You have to flash the patched BIOS with the present CPU, before you put a K6plus CPU in.

Now, irrespective of your current CPU, here are some guidelines for using a K6plus on this board:
1) After flashing the patched BIOS, but before installing a K6plus CPU, enter the BIOS Setup and check/set the "System BIOS Cacheable" option at Disabled (CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP menu). The K6+ needs this setting to work properly with the 430TX chipset.

2) At the first boot with the K6plus installed, enter the BIOS Setup and select the "SpeedEasy CPU SETUP".
- Check what is indicated as CPU Model. Must be "AMD-K6 3D".
- Check/set the following CPU settings:
Speed Mode : Jumper Emulation
Bus Clock : 75MHz
Multiplier : x5, BF2.1.0=0/0/1
CPU Voltage Ctrl : Manual
IO Voltage : 3.3V
Core Voltage : 2.2V
Please let me know if any of the above is different.

3) Now set the Core Voltage to 2.0V, exit the menu and select SAVE & EXIT. The PC will now reboot.

4) Some things to check:
- After reboot, does the boot screen indicate the correct CPU Type string?
(In case of a "plus" CPU you should see "AMD-K6(tm)-2+"or "AMD-K6(tm)-III+") And is the correct CPU Frequency indicated? (5x75 will be indicated as 366 i.s.o. 375MHz.)
- If your board has the System Monitor, is the indicated Vcore in the System Monitor Setup 2.0V now?
- When you are going to use a 40GB or larger IDE drive, let me know if you can use the whole drive. And I'm also curious about the indicated drive size on the BIOS summary screen. Is it still correct, for both your present drive(s) and any new larger drive?

I have been working on a final patch BIOS with native x6 multiplier support. However, I was unsuccessful.
You could help me here by trying the available multiplier settings in the SpeedEasy CPU SETUP when running a K6-2 or K6+ CPU, and tell me what CPU speed you get with each setting.
You can use the CHKCPU tool from my homepage to check the actual CPU speed and multiplier setting.

Happy testing!
Jan.

Edit: Clarified the first step after flashing the patched BIOS.

Hi,
although delayed, these are the test data

2) At the first boot with the K6plus installed, enter the BIOS Setup and select the "SpeedEasy CPU SETUP".
- Check what is indicated as CPU Model. Must be "AMD-K6 3D".
- Check/set the following CPU settings:
Speed Mode : Jumper Emulation
Bus Clock : 75MHz
Multiplier : x5, BF2.1.0=0/0/1
CPU Voltage Ctrl : Manual
IO Voltage : 3.3V
Core Voltage : 2.2V
Please let me know if any of the above is different.

all fine, without problems.

4) Some things to check:
- After reboot, does the boot screen indicate the correct CPU Type string?

The boot screen indicate the correct CPU Type string.

(In case of a "plus" CPU you should see "AMD-K6(tm)-2+"or "AMD-K6(tm)-III+") And is the correct CPU Frequency indicated? (5x75 will be indicated as 366 i.s.o. 375MHz.)

The indicated CPU frequency I think is correct for K6-2 but not for K6-III+ (speed and multiplier configuration lists attached. K6-2/450 MHz and K6-III+/400 MHz).

- If your board has the System Monitor, is the indicated Vcore in the System Monitor Setup 2.0V now?

This board does not have a System Monitor.

- When you are going to use a 40GB or larger IDE drive, let me know if you can use the whole drive. And I'm also curious about the indicated drive size on the BIOS summary screen. Is it still correct, for both your present drive(s) and any new larger drive?

About storage (in my case).
- Supports HD / MicroSD up to 128 gigabytes.
- Passive adapter with MicroSD. It works fine but blocks detection of any other drives connected on the secondary channel. (In my case, the DVD connected to that channel disappears).
- Active adapter with MicroSD. It works correctly without generating any setback.
- In none of the previous cases has it been possible to activate DMA for HDs, on the other hand it has been possible in the case of optical drives.

I have been working on a final patch BIOS with native x6 multiplier support. However, I was unsuccessful.
You could help me here by trying the available multiplier settings in the SpeedEasy CPU SETUP when running a K6-2 or K6+ CPU, and tell me what CPU speed you get with each setting.
You can use the CHKCPU tool from my homepage to check the actual CPU speed and multiplier setting.

speed and multiplier configuration lists attached. K6-2/450 MHz and K6-III+/400 MHz

I hope you find the information provided useful.
best regards

Hi ederra,

Thank you for the detailed testing and extensive reports. This is exactly what I needed! 😀

Great that your K6-III+/400 is running fine, and selecting 2.0V Vcore is no problem.
About storage, looks good as well but I have no idea why the passive adapter blocks the secondary IDE channel while the active one doesn’t.
By the inability to active DMA on Harddisks, I assume you mean under Win98 selecting DMA in Device Manager won’t stick?

Last year I was working on another i430TX board and I noticed that the BIOS summary screen indicated that the drives where running in UDMA 5 or 6 mode.
Because the i430TX chipset supports ATA33, any drive should be indicated as running in UDMA 2 max.
I’ve seen this before and always considered this a cosmetic issue and that the BIOS just displayed the capability of the drive and not the actual transfer mode.
However, I found that Windows 98 doesn’t like the BIOS reporting higher UDMA modes on older hardware and refuses to use any DMA mode when set in Device Manager. This results in a fall-back to PIO mode 4 with reduced Harddisk performance.
I’ve tested this on my i430TX board with an 11/1998 Award BIOS and a clean Win98 install, so I was using the standard Microsoft Bus Master IDE drivers.
Indeed the DMA mode would not stick and the atto disk benchmark measured a poor 9MB/s.
Luckily most Award BIOSes from 03/1999 or later have a fix for this UDMA bug and I found a way to apply this fix to older Award BIOSes as well.
I’ve tested this fix on my TX board and now Win98 allowed to select DMA in device manager and after a reboot I got 30MB/s in atto disk benchmark! 😀

Now that I have a patch for this UDMA bug, I will apply it to the next TIIB patched BIOS version as well.

The results from your multiplier testing really surprised me!

The K6-2/450 CPU reacts exactly as expected, but with the K6-III+/400 fitted all multipliers, except X3.5, miraculously changed. Looking more closely into your nice table, I found that with the K6-III+ fitted the BF2 line must be forced high somehow.
This will explain why X3.5 stays X3.5 because BF2 is already high here, X4 becomes X2 (= X6 on K6-2CXT/-III/-2+/-III+), X4.5 becomes X2.5 (= X2 on K6-2+/-III+), and X5 becomes X3.

So now I have to find-out why this is happening on the K6-III+ and not on the K6-2.
But hey, you found the X6 multiplier and are able to run your K6-III+ at 500MHz!! 😀

I will report back when I have more, hopefully with a new BIOS.
Jan

Yeah, I have noticed quite a few times that the multi you wish to set ends up not being what is set.

I’ve just resorted to playing with the bf jumpers until the right thing happens.

Pentium/ mmx chips are really bad about this.

Chkcpu wrote on 2023-01-16, 18:57:

Hi ederra, […]
Show full quote

Hi ederra,

Thank you for the detailed testing and extensive reports. This is exactly what I needed! 😀

The results from your multiplier testing really surprised me!

The K6-2/450 CPU reacts exactly as expected, but with the K6-III+/400 fitted all multipliers, except X3.5, miraculously changed. Looking more closely into your nice table, I found that with the K6-III+ fitted the BF2 line must be forced high somehow.
This will explain why X3.5 stays X3.5 because BF2 is already high here, X4 becomes X2 (= X6 on K6-2CXT/-III/-2+/-III+), X4.5 becomes X2.5 (= X2 on K6-2+/-III+), and X5 becomes X3.

So now I have to find-out why this is happening on the K6-III+ and not on the K6-2.
But hey, you found the X6 multiplier and are able to run your K6-III+ at 500MHz!! 😀

I will report back when I have more, hopefully with a new BIOS.
Jan

Hi ederra,

It took me more than a year, but thanks to your test reports I finally found out how the SpeedEasy multiplier logic works and how to change it to get the x5.5 and x6.0 multipliers for the K6-2CXT, K6-III, and K6-2+/III+ CPUs, in the BIOS of this jumperless board. 😉

Testing by you and @carlostex showed that all changes in the final patch J.3 BIOS work as planned. Thanks for testing this final, and the previous beta versions, guys!
So here is this new patch J.3 BIOS for the QDI Titanium IIB v2.0 board:

As usual, there is a PATCH.TXT file in the zip that documents all the changes I’ve made.

This was a very interesting project, and together with the patch J.3 BIOS for the similar Titanium IB+ board, it is probably the most elaborate BIOS patch I’ve ever made! 😉

Cheers, Jan

Btw, if you happen to be playing with pentium 1 (non tillamook) cpus on this board and the multipliers aren’t setting properly, it’s probably the cpu its self, I’ve noticed some of the locked cpus got their multis scrambled. Everything is fine, you’ll just have to try multis randomly until it does or does not go to the one you want.