Quick question is there a heatsink on the NB?

EDIT: Can you upload a pic of your system showing what coolers that you are using? Second if there is a cooler on the NB is it stick on or thermal epoxy? BX doesn't like heat much at all and is easy to nerf when allowed to get hot.

Here's some pics of the inside.

And here's what Memtest had to say about it.

Try adding a small fan near the second cpu to help cool the nb better and performance should improve. This is very slow for a BX even for two cpus installed. Should be getting 200mb+ in that config. Does the cooler you thermal tape or epoxy?

You said you tried different CPUs. What speed CPUs did you try? Did you try anything pre-coppermine, like 450-600 MHz CPUs? What happens when you downgrade the BIOS to an older version?

Attached is a Memtest v4.00 screenshot of what my Dell Precision Workstation 410 gets. It is also a dual slot 1 850 MHz machine based on the 440BX chipset.

Tried a few different BIOS revisions and getting the same results. Might have to shelf this one for a while.

Try forcing some air flow beneath the second cpu to help cool the NB and there should be some improvement. The memory controller in the NB doesn't like heat. You can experiment on a different BX board.

Chewhacca, please try a single non-coppermine CPU with a single stick of 128 MB PC100 RAM and report back.

It would also be helpful if you provided BIOS photos of which settings you are using.

I'll give it a try then. 😀

OK, the results with PC100 RAM and a single P2-450 are exactly the same. Here are the bios settings:

There are way more BIOS setting options on your motherboard than on any other board I have. I'd suggest going through the 500-page BIOS Companion Book to determine if any of these settings are crippling your RAM throughput. There is a PDF of the book online. Before you do that, have you fiddled with these:

Method of Memory Detection
DRAM Refresh Rate
SDRAM RAS# to CAS# delay
SDRAM RAS# Precharge

What other options do you have for Method of Memory Detection? It is improbable that the combination of these settings have halved your memory throughput. Have you confirmed board jumpers to see if the RAM speed jumper has been seet slower than the CPU FSB jumper?

This is pobably not important to your memory issues, but any idea why PCI IDE Busmater is set to disabled?

Dram refreshrate: 15.6ns. GOOD LORD THATS BAD! If memory serves me (pun intended), then 15.6ns equates to 66mhz ram. set that as low as possible. 7.8 is for 133mhz I think.

luckybob wrote:

Dram refreshrate: 15.6ns. GOOD LORD THATS BAD! If memory serves me (pun intended), then 15.6ns equates to 66mhz ram. set that as low as possible. 7.8 is for 133mhz I think.

If my understanding is correct, you want the slowest refresh possible so as to free up resources. The less times the system as to refresh the status of the RAM, the more time it has to do other things. If you RAM can maintain the status of its memory for 15.6 ns without needing to be re-told what data it is holding, that should be more optimal.

Well, that explains quite a lot. Unfortunately, thats the lowest setting available.

Wait, sorry, I misunderstood. I'll try a higher setting.

I've always set my refresh rate at the lowest setting possible. I suggest setting that to the smallest number and trying to benchmark again.

Well, I'd almost given up hope. Then I found this: http://www.linuxmisc.com/5-linux-x/6d66a8f8bbff93d4.htm

So I just had to try it. And guess what:

feipoa wrote:

There are way more BIOS setting options on your motherboard than on any other board I have.

Actually its a pretty STANDARD for a Tyan board of the era. I have the same board but with a 440GX chipset. it has just as many options. 😜

@Chewhacca

YAY!!! I love undocumented jumper settings!!! This reminds me of my p65up5 board. there is a bios setting labeled "turbo" and the default is on. Turn it off, and it is like turning the turbo button off on a 486, the board slows to a 386 crawl! Well, in the latest bios from Asus, they turned the DEFAULT OFF.

That was "fun" to troubleshoot.

As an added bonus the thing now seems a tad unstable. Might be time to move on to the Athlon Classic I was putting together. 😁

Chewhacca wrote:

As an added bonus the thing now seems a tad unstable. Might be time to move on to the Athlon Classic I was putting together. 😁

It could be because this:

Greetings there! […]
Show full quote

Greetings there!

Yeah. But it's need to know that if you are using _dual_ CPU configuration
and remove JP2 you'll got
a crash after several hours of hard job (WinNT4.0 Stress test for example).
So use it carefully.

See ya guys
Paul

This is posted in the page you linked