wims bios has these versions

You could always roll back to 1999 version
Epox EP-MVP3G-M VIA Apollo (M)VP3 2A5LEPA1 12/21/2000-MVP3-596-W877-2A5LEPAEC-00
Epox EP-MVP3G-M VIA Apollo (M)VP3 2A5LEPAE 2A5LEPAEC-00
Epox EP-MVP3G-M VIA Apollo (M)VP3 2A5LEPAD 07/06/1999-MVP3-596-W877-2A5LEPADC-00

Warlord wrote:

wims bios has these versions […]
Show full quote

wims bios has these versions

You could always roll back to 1999 version
Epox EP-MVP3G-M VIA Apollo (M)VP3 2A5LEPA1 12/21/2000-MVP3-596-W877-2A5LEPAEC-00
Epox EP-MVP3G-M VIA Apollo (M)VP3 2A5LEPAE 2A5LEPAEC-00
Epox EP-MVP3G-M VIA Apollo (M)VP3 2A5LEPAD 07/06/1999-MVP3-596-W877-2A5LEPADC-00

Yeah, but sadly registration is needed... for a fee 😒

The one available on Jan Steunebrink's site say that you need to upgrade to a 2 megabit BIOS chip to use it - maybe that's your best bet at this point?

Repo Man11 wrote:

The one available on Jan Steunebrink's site say that you need to upgrade to a 2 megabit BIOS chip to use it - maybe that's your best bet at this point?

Would love to! Just don't know how to tease Epox out of its grave so I can purchase the 2MB chip.. 🙁

It seriously worked excellent until this stupid up(down-)grade, because I somehow felt a 3GB drive wasn't enough. Now it's unrestartable without boot loops, it's colliding IRQ's with one VxD error after another (OK, it's 98SE, but still), unexpectedly loses FDD, CD-ROM and USB connection, and so on. Curiosity's stalking if this BIOS is right at all.

Fläskboi wrote:

Repo Man11 wrote:

The one available on Jan Steunebrink's site say that you need to upgrade to a 2 megabit BIOS chip to use it - maybe that's your best bet at this point?

Would love to! Just don't know how to tease Epox out of its grave so I can purchase the 2MB chip.. 🙁

It seriously worked excellent until this stupid up(down-)grade, because I somehow felt a 3GB drive wasn't enough. Now it's unrestartable without boot loops, it's colliding IRQ's with one VxD error after another (OK, it's 98SE, but still), unexpectedly loses FDD, CD-ROM and USB connection, and so on. Curiosity's stalking if this BIOS is right at all.

Any 2Mbit chip should do, e.g. SST39SF020A (available new from Mouser). But it's possible you would have to flash it in an external flash programmer, e.g. TL866.

My board already has the 2mbit rom so that's too bad. I do however also have the Epox mvp3c-m and that one has the 1mbit rom. I know some of these boards carry the same bios file, maybe this one might work? I can make a backup with a programmer if you want it.

EDIT: Sorry, I see now that this bios is differnet (on the steunebrink site)

According to the text file this should be the 1mbit version of 16-7-1999. Hope it helps. Comes from: https://www.infania.net/misc/moboarchive/Epox … bios/index.html

Found it available on the archived Taiwan EPOX page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030627052258/htt … _cate=07_fae_03

Already verified that the files are downloadable.

Attaching just in case - dates were ones listed on the site:
1Mb:

(Last Version) September 9, 2002 (looks like it is really August 11, 2000)

(Solve the problem that Linux cannot be shut down / Solve the Y2K problem) September 3, 2002 (looks like August 25, 1999)

From Chinese site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000620164156/htt … om.cn/index.htm

(Solving Linux shutdown problems) August 20, 1999

(July 6, 1999)
1. Support ECC error display function
2. Fix Linux system problems
3. Support SB Link
4. Solve EON Permedia 2 AGP Card compatibility issues
5. Improve the performance of the IDE interface (VT82C596 CE Version)

From Taiwan Site
2Mb:

(Added support for EON Flash ROM / This version of BIOS should not be used on the EP-58MVP3C-M motherboard) August 21, 2002

cyclone3d wrote:

Found it available on the archived Taiwan EPOX page: http://web.archive.org/web/20030627052258/htt … _cate=07_fae_03 […]
Show full quote

Found it available on the archived Taiwan EPOX page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030627052258/htt … _cate=07_fae_03

Already verified that the files are downloadable.

Attaching just in case - dates were ones listed on the site:
1Mb:

MVP30811.ZIP

(Last Version) September 9, 2002 (looks like it is really August 11, 2000)

MVP39825.ZIP

(Solve the problem that Linux cannot be shut down / Solve the Y2K problem) September 3, 2002 (looks like August 25, 1999)

From Chinese site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000620164156/htt … om.cn/index.htm

MVP39811.zip

(Solving Linux shutdown problems) August 20, 1999

mvp39706.zip

(July 6, 1999)
1. Support ECC error display function
2. Fix Linux system problems
3. Support SB Link
4. Solve EON Permedia 2 AGP Card compatibility issues
5. Improve the performance of the IDE interface (VT82C596 CE Version)

From Taiwan Site
2Mb:

VP3C0C21.ZIP

(Added support for EON Flash ROM / This version of BIOS should not be used on the EP-58MVP3C-M motherboard) August 21, 2002

Wow, many thanks for the links there mate! Actually tried the archive of the official epox site, pointing only to 302 errors. Definitely gonna give it a shot when the board is set up again (spent the night replacing it with a P5A; a good advice for solving endless incompatibility with the Matrox G400 AGP).

Back in the day I was the person who discovered that the 2Mb bios chip was required to support the K6+ CPUs on the MVP3G-M. Notes on Jan Steunebrink's web page were provided by me. 😎

The original release of the board only had a 1Mb bios chip. A hardware revision released a board with a 2Mb chip. When the K6+ CPU arrived I was disappointed that the CPU didnt work with the latest 1M bios at the time. I was able to get a 2Mb chip off the distributor and flashed it up using VP3C0C21.ZIP and the CPU overclocked like a dream and ran stable as.

About the bios chip. Mine came with a Winbond W29C020-12 2Mbit chip. This may be the "original", that Epox supplied. If not, it is at least compatible with this motherboard.