There's a jumper at the top right corner to override I/O default voltage. Use it. Also 440BX was never designed to run stable with 3-4 RAM sticks in 133mhz mode or more. If I recall correctly, fourth slot was not even mentioned by Intel specs.

Umm stick to one stick of ram, its why I use a single 512mb stick of ram, the 440MX supports 512mb low density sticks

P3B-F have incomplete support for 133 MHz bus, as it makes abnormal frequencies on PCI and AGP buses:
On 66 and 100 MHz bus the PCI works at 33 MHz, and the AGP at 66 MHz (the frequency dividers are 1/3 and 1.5, they are built into i440BX chipset).
For 133 MHz FSB the P3B-F have a additional divider for PCI clock (1/4) that allows the PCI to work at 33MHz even when the front side bus is 133 MHz. But AGP is still clocked through 440BX's divider 1/1.5 and the AGP clock at 133 FSB is 88 Mhz. Not any video card can work at such "bus overclocking".

The RAM support in P3B-F is similar to other BX-mobos: it can work with any PC66/100/133 modules that have 128 Mbit density (or less) with size up to 256 MB. ECC and Reg. modules are supported. E.g it will work with any 16-chip 256MB modules, even if there is 4 modules installed. My P3B-F PC was equipped with 4 16-chip 256 MB modules (total 1 GB is installed), Pentium-3 733 (133 FSB), and GeForce FX 5500, and it was working very stable, both in Win98 and Win7. For test I have installed two 512 MB Reg.+ECC server modules, and they still works here (but as 256 MB each).

The Serpent Rider wrote:

There's a jumper at the top right corner to override I/O default voltage. Use it. Also 440BX was never designed to run stable with 3-4 RAM sticks in 133mhz mode or more. If I recall correctly, fourth slot was not even mentioned by Intel specs.

I can only see JP20 jumper in the manual (page 20). It changes voltage from 3.5v to 3.65v. Is this what you're talking about?

candle_86 wrote:

Umm stick to one stick of ram, its why I use a single 512mb stick of ram, the 440MX supports 512mb low density sticks

Yeah, but I've tried running with a single stick — it didn't change a thing. Besides, wouldn't I have issues with this RAM setup at 100MHz FSB as well?

Start with memtest86, it's easier than messing with Windows. If it can't pass memtest86 at your desired settings then there's no point going any further until it can.
If stability is important, I like to test with the FSB slightly faster than the target. For a 133FSB system I'd try to test it at 138-140FSB (3% over). That way you know it will stay stable and isn't on the edge of crashing.
Not all 440BX boards can run 133FSB reliably, so don't be surprised if it just doesn't work out. If the P3B-F has voltage adjustments available then that may help.

440BX supports up to 8 64-bit (or 72-bit w/ ECC) "rows" of RAM, each of which can be 128MB (the compatible 256MB modules have 2 rows of 128MB on them). However, I remember reading in some Intel doc that officially, there's a max of only 4 rows if the memory is unbuffered. So technically you aren't supposed to be able to have more than 512MB of unbuffered PC100 - more than that requires the use of registered modules.
But the 440BX is famously better than advertised, and realistically it's not a problem at PC100 speed. At least all the boards I've messed with have had no problem handling a full load (3 or 4) 256MB unbuffered modules at PC100. Lots of people break this rule without issue.
At PC133 it can get flaky though. Many years ago, I had a few P2B-F and P3B-F boards. I picked the 2 best overclockers, which happened to be P2B-Fs. I ran each of them with 4x 256MB unbuffered modules at PC133 CL2 and sometimes not all of the RAM would POST. They were stable in operation though, and if all the RAM didn't POST I'd just hit the reset switch until it did.

AGP at 89MHz seems to work easily with period nVidia cards. At least that was my experience with a Geforce2 MX, Geforce3, and a Geforce4 Ti4200. Outside of those, I don't know.
Your Voodoo5 is valuable, so I'd be a bit paranoid about it. But I don't know whether it's a real danger or not.

shamino wrote:

AGP at 89MHz seems to work easily with period nVidia cards. At least that was my experience with a Geforce2 MX, Geforce3, and a Geforce4 Ti4200. Outside of those, I don't know.
Your Voodoo5 is valuable, so I'd be a bit paranoid about it. But I don't know whether it's a real danger or not.

Yeah, I don't feel good about overclocking AGP already, but messing with voltages definitely doesn't feel like a good idea to me.

shamino wrote:

AGP at 89MHz seems to work easily with period nVidia cards. At least that was my experience with a Geforce2 MX, Geforce3, and a Geforce4 Ti4200. Outside of those, I don't know.

I'm have successfully runned here many nVidia cards at 89 Mhz: TNT2 M64, Geforce 2 MX400, GF4 MX420, GF FX5200, FX5500, FX5700. All of them were working properly and very fast, like AGP 4x. 😀 Intel 740 shows some garbage on the screen, but works too. The OSes were WinME and Win2000 Pro (dual boot).

jheronimus wrote:

but messing with voltages definitely doesn't feel like a good idea to me.

It is a safe operation. At least, I haven't fried anything with JP20.

shamino wrote:

Start with memtest86, it's easier than messing with Windows. If it can't pass memtest86 at your desired settings then there's no point going any further until it can.

Second that, particularly if the issues encountered while overclocking seem memory-related.

440BX supports up to 8 64-bit (or 72-bit w/ ECC) "rows" of RAM, each of which can be 128MB (the compatible 256MB modules have 2 rows of 128MB on them). However, I remember reading in some Intel doc that officially, there's a max of only 4 rows if the memory is unbuffered. So technically you aren't supposed to be able to have more than 512MB of unbuffered PC100 - more than that requires the use of registered modules.
But the 440BX is famously better than advertised, and realistically it's not a problem at PC100 speed. At least all the boards I've messed with have had no problem handling a full load (3 or 4) 256MB unbuffered modules at PC100. Lots of people break this rule without issue.
At PC133 it can get flaky though. Many years ago, I had a few P2B-F and P3B-F boards. I picked the 2 best overclockers, which happened to be P2B-Fs. I ran each of them with 4x 256MB unbuffered modules at PC133 CL2 and sometimes not all of the RAM would POST. They were stable in operation though, and if all the RAM didn't POST I'd just hit the reset switch until it did.

Yes, using CL2 PC133 256MB DIMMs (with 16 16Mx8 chips) is the way to go for max memory, with CL2 spec giving most headroom on the DIMM side (although that is rarely likely to be the limiting factor with BX). Depending on the config of those 128MB DIMMs is might solve a lot - if they are all double-sided that means currently using 8 rows for 512MB, whereas you could get the same 512MB with two 256MB DIMMs. I certaintly have no issues with my nicely overclocking BX boards with two 256MB DIMMs.

AGP at 89MHz seems to work easily with period nVidia cards. At least that was my experience with a Geforce2 MX, Geforce3, and a Geforce4 Ti4200. Outside of those, I don't know.

I can add a few to that list. I'm working on an 'ultimate' MSI MS-6168 system with BX and onboard Voodoo3 2000 (but with only 8MB RAM). That works fine at 133MHz FSB so 88MHz AGP. I also had an old ATi Rage Pro and a Diamond Viper V770 on an AOpen AX6B Plus. No problems with any of them. I had an S3 Savage 4 card that did NOT like anything over 75MHz AGP though...

Your Voodoo5 is valuable, so I'd be a bit paranoid about it. But I don't know whether it's a real danger or not.

Meh, it's not its core that's being overclocked; the issue with overclocking the bus is one of timings. If it can't handle the timings at the higher clock, no damage is done, the transfers just get garbled.

Okay, so I ran the memtest — it gave me no errors. I've also tried setting voltage to 3.65v — still freezes at boot.

I've tried running the system with a single stick of RAM before, both PC100 and PC133.

Is there anything else I should try, or I better just get a faster motherboard like TUSL2-C?

Slotket problem?

Any reason you specifically want a 733? If you're using a slocket, 100 FSB 700, 750, and 800 Pentium III's are pretty common. If you want to stick to a proper slot 1 CPU, a 933 model will run at 700 on 100 FSB, which is a pretty good compromise.

Katmai500 wrote:

Any reason you specifically want a 733? If you're using a slocket, 100 FSB 700, 750, and 800 Pentium III's are pretty common. If you want to stick to a proper slot 1 CPU, a 933 model will run at 700 on 100 FSB, which is a pretty good compromise.

I actually want to get a 1GGhz CPU. And all of the P3s I’ve seen in my city are 133MHz. I had this 733 laying around, so I figured I’d sort out all the issues with FSB before sourcing a better CPU.

I would test with PCI video card, just in case.

jheronimus wrote:

I've tried running the system with a single stick of RAM before, both PC100 and PC133.

Is there anything else I should try, or I better just get a faster motherboard like TUSL2-C?

The Voodoo seems to be incompatible with 88MHz AGP. It is not a RAM trouble. If you install another video card (like an nVidia's one) then you will get a working 133-Mhz bus machine with P3B-F.

jheronimus wrote:

I actually want to get a 1GGhz CPU. And all of the P3s I’ve seen in my city are 133MHz.

You may install a Celeron-Tualatin and get a very fast Slot-1 PC with 100 MHz FSB. All you need is a FCPGA2 slocket and a patched BIOS (like "Tualatin Noa" from http://www.rom.by). The most top Celeron CPU for S370 is rare Celeron-1.5GHz. It should work here even with Voodoo graphics.

Tualerons have same L2 cache as Pentium-III (but not Pentium-III-S which have 512KB cache), but their FSB is 100 MHz. Some early models (like 900A...1300) sometimes may be overclocked to 133 MHz bus and became a 1,3...1,8 GHz Pentium-3.

Yeah, I guess I'll go with a S370 build — they are pretty cheap.

Just seems weird to me — P3B-F is a pretty well-regarded board, and running 440BX at 133 definitely was a big thing back in the day. Didn't expect to have issues like that.

jheronimus wrote:

Yeah, I guess I'll go with a S370 build — they are pretty cheap.

Just seems weird to me — P3B-F is a pretty well-regarded board, and running 440BX at 133 definitely was a big thing back in the day. Didn't expect to have issues like that.

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P3B-F is a great board but if yours is not stable at fsb 133 and if money is an issue you could opt for a slotket with Coppermine Celeron 1000 or 1100 Mhz. The 1100 Mhz Celeron is only approximately 5% slower than a 1Ghz Coppermine and that is because of the smaller 128 cache. The 1000 Mhz Celeron is approximately 10% slower for ditto reasons.

Just arranged to get a bundle of Asus TUSL2-C and a 1.4 Tualatin Pentium 3 for 16 bucks with 512MB RAM and a cooler. Yeah, 370 stuff is definitely cheaper — a 1 GGhz Slot 1 Pentium alone would cost me around 25 bucks.

The last time I saw a slot 1 PIII 1Ghz fsb 100 passing by on Ebay it went, or seemed to go, for well over 200 US dollars.

[edit]
But your original question was about getting your BX board running with a 1Ghz cpu - buying an Intel 815 board is not really a solution for that, or is it ?

jheronimus wrote:

Just arranged to get a bundle of Asus TUSL2-C and a 1.4 Tualatin Pentium 3 for 16 bucks with 512MB RAM and a cooler. Yeah, 370 stuff is definitely cheaper — a 1 GGhz Slot 1 Pentium alone would cost me around 25 bucks.

You got yourself a sweet deal! Enjoy 😀.