It's strange how some boards escape dead caps.... Why do some caps fail and others not, when they are all made with the same "mix"?

Amigaz wrote:

Board arrived yesterday.... 😀

I understand you have the 1.1 revision board. Does it say 1.1 on it anywhere? (I want to ask a seller what revision board he's got - sometimes it's easier to say "look in top right hand corner, next to battery" - just for example.) Thanks a lot.

retro games 100 wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

Board arrived yesterday.... 😀

I understand you have the 1.1 revision board. Does it say 1.1 on it anywhere? (I want to ask a seller what revision board he's got - sometimes it's easier to say "look in top right hand corner, next to battery" - just for example.) Thanks a lot.

The version number is written on the bar code label which is located on the left hand side of the motherboard.

Going to fire up the motherboard tomorrow....fingers crossed it works

First thing I'll do if it works is to first install Windows 98SE then Win2000..might throw in Xubunto on top of that 😉

Still haven't decided if I should use a high quality GF 5500 FX together with two Voodoo 2's or just a Voodoo 5.....

Thanks a lot Amigaz. BTW, I just spotted this -

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/faq/faqpop.php … =20020415105430

retro games 100 wrote:

Thanks a lot Amigaz. BTW, I just spotted this -

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/faq/faqpop.php … =20020415105430

...and its wrong. So you didnt really do yourself a favor 😀

@Amigaz
be careful with installing ubuntu, it tends to destroy RAID array if its not detected properly. It might detect hard drives separately and completely wipe out the system you already (might) have on it.

I have major problems with my promise fasttrak because of this... 🙁

swaaye wrote:

It's strange how some boards escape dead caps.... Why do some caps fail and others not, when they are all made with the same "mix"?

Probably some of the capacitors were filled with proper electrolyte instead of the cooking/exploding kind 😉

It also depends on other circumstances like environment temperature and how hard they are driven.
For example, back in 2000 I bought several Epox KTA2 boards at work:
Some of them were equipped with 1200 MHz Athlons and 3DLabs video cards and got deployed in labs where it could get very hot in the summer. In the second summer the caps on these boards went off like popcorn. 🤣
The others got 650 MHz Durons and were used as servers in an air-conditioned room. One of these was running 24/7 until last year!

prophase_j wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

No sign of bulging caps or anything

... and use the older 4-in-1's from VIA, I found 4.37 to be the most stable for me.

Or better yet: dont use it at all. System works perfectly fine without problematic drivers from VIA! Besides, windows 98 SE has newer drivers then VIA for the chipset and memory controller. Windows XP too.

Just fired up the mobo with 2x512mb PC133 RAM sticks, the Athlon XP 2000+ CPU.
Having some issues...the CPU isn't properly recognized so I went into the BIOS to the Soft Menu III and juiced it up a bit...saved the BIOS settings and reboot...system doesn't post...the power led light also goes off after circa 10 seconds.
I clear the CMOS...system posts and boots...but as soon as I save a BIOS settings it doesn't post.
I upgraded the BIOS to the latest A9 version...the CPU is properly recognized but only rund at 1250mhz by the BIOS defaults so I go into the BIOS to crank it up to 1450mhz....same stuff happens again...no post

😵 😕 😳

Is there something I must consider in the BIOS settings I've missed?
First time I'm using this sort of mobo + cpu

My Asus Nforce2 mobo + Athlon XP 3200+ is the nearest I've been to this sort of setup

Update:

Got it working now..

loaded the fail safe defaults in the BIOS setup...saved the BIOS settings..rebooted..successful post and boot attempt

Cranked up the CPU to it's full 1667mhz in the soft menu III settings...saved the BIOS settings...rebooted...SUCCESS!! 😁

Not sure what caused the problem...off to create the raid 0 array of my four discs and install Windoze 98SE...but it's too damn hot here to do anything right now....high summer temps has suddently struck Sweden 😎

Amigaz wrote:

Got it working now..

Congrats! 😀 I just contacted the mothership* and put in an order for a KT7A. 😉 No Raid onboard, but it's a rev 1.3.

* um...ebay

retro games 100 wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

Got it working now..

Congrats! 😀 I just contacted the mothership* and put in an order for a KT7A. 😉 No Raid onboard, but it's a rev 1.3.

* um...ebay

nice, nice 😀

I guess the later rev will let you use a more modern CPU with less headaches

I had a KT7A back when they were the hottest thing around. 😀

That board had the most exciting death of any piece of PC hardware I've had. One day, while I was tweaking stuff (volt modding actually), one of the HDD power cables connected to a mobo USB header. Wow!!! The drive power cable melted down and glowed all pretty like!

I'm still using that PSU today. PC Power & Cooling 300W. Only thing that melted was an extension I had plugged in. I unplugged the power very, very fast.

The mobo, however, only powered on one more time momentarily. Oh great sadness. Bought my fabulous Shuttle AK31A that day to replace it.

Amigaz wrote:

nice, nice 😀

I guess the later rev will let you use a more modern CPU with less headaches

Now, as I already stated - its possible to run them all, also on V1.0 - just not officially and not at 133MHz FSB.

BTW, judging from the voltage you are using Palomino XP 2000+. That one is usually stove-hot. Why didnt you go for a much cooler tbred? You are going to need one hell of a cooling system (probably loud one) now...

I doubt even the final revisions of these boards would know what a 130nm Athlon XP is....

That might still work. I ran a Barton in a KT266A mobo without trouble even though the BIOS called it "Unknown CPU Type".

I still have my old Palomino XP 2000+ at work. It is hot, but it's not THAT hot. Put a nice copper cooler with a 80mm fan on there and it can be quiet enough. Maybe even try undervolting.

Well, since amigaz solved his dilemma of his, I'll borrow this thread briefly (if noone minds, that is 😀 )
I don't want to start a new thread only to have the same title as this one.
Can someone run a quick comparison on these two boards:
Asus CUBX
-intel bx chipset, s370, 6 pci slots, 1 isa,1 agp, 2 ata33+ 2 ata66)
Qdi Advance 10T
-VIA apollo pro 133t chipset, 5 pci, 1 isa, 1 agp, 1 amr, 2 ata100.
I have to return one of them tomorrow so I was wandering which one should I keep. I plan on plugging a p3 733 in the one I keep for my mame project.

Keep the first one:
1) Its Asus
2) Its good old BX

Asus it is than. One thing though, few posts on this forum mention some kind of adapter for tualatin cpu. Can this be used here with 1.2ghz celeron on cubx?.

esnaff wrote:

Asus it is than. One thing though, few posts on this forum mention some kind of adapter for tualatin cpu. Can this be used here with 1.2ghz celeron on cubx?.

Yes, I don't see any reason why it would not work. But you don't need any of the common slot-1 adapters, you need the (more rare) socket 370 adapter instead.

All socketed P3/Celeron CPUs are 370 pins. The 130nm "Tualatin" cpus have a different pin out, that's the issue.

I have a Upgradeware Slot-T in my Abit BF6 440BX mobo. Runs a Tualatin great.

I have a question regarding an Abit KT7A rev 1.3 (non Raid) board. I have put a T-Bred 1700+ CPU in it, and when I switch on power, the screen displays the line "Unknown flash type" just before the line "Starting MS-DOS..." as my HDD boots up. I have downloaded the latest flash BIOS program from the Abit website, and it's called kt7sb4.exe. When I run the "runme.bat" program inside this .exe package, the BIOS flash utility displays the error message "Unknown flash type!"

Any ideas please people? Thanks a lot for any help. 😀