Odd I have one of these boards and I never thought of it as server-grade as it has little in common with my other PII & PIII server boards. I guess they can have optional LAN controller and port so maybe. Mine has the Double Row Front Panel Connector (Optional) so the reset is there but blanked out on the single row pin layout of course.

I have never had much luck with CF cards on my machines unless they are older such as 8088 and such.

Which OS you're using? msdos 6.22 doesn't know about LBA, you'd want at least 7.0 or higher.

Not sure how close it is, but I have a Gateway 440BX board that was giving me issues.

I disabled everything “advanced” in the IDE configuration in the BIOS except LBA and actually partitioned the CF card on my main PC using a USB adapter. After doing that, it works fine.

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2.

Try setting the BIOS disk detection to manual (auto doesn't work properly on CF), LBA enabled. FDISK. Blow out all of the partitions. When you create the partitions, you should see full space available (don't forget to ensure primary partition is marked active). If not, then we're stuck.

If it did work, now you go back into the BIOS, and leave disk detection at manual, but disable LBA. When you boot into a Windows 9X command prompt (supporting FAT32, of course), you should be able to format the full disk. FDISK will see only 473MB, but you can ignore it. I have a full write up in the link below, but it's for a SSE440BX-2, if you need more details and steps (page 2):

Can't make Compact Flash work on Intel SE440BX2

Also, I'm pretty sure 16GB was the maximum size I had success with SE440BX-2 - maybe 32GB, but I can't remember, using regular consumer grade CFs (I have never tried the industrial types). Since your board and mine are not 1:1, you might have better luck.

Grem Five wrote on 2023-04-22, 22:16:

Odd I have one of these boards and I never thought of it as server-grade as it has little in common with my other PII & PIII server boards. I guess they can have optional LAN controller and port so maybe. Mine has the Double Row Front Panel Connector (Optional) so the reset is there but blanked out on the single row pin layout of course.

I have never had much luck with CF cards on my machines unless they are older such as 8088 and such.

Yeah it's a weird one. The manual makes points to specify it's a "single processor" board - I don't recall seeing that specified on any other mainboard's manual. What made me think it was server-oriented is the stripped down nature, including the very basic BIOS, and the fact that upon BIOS reset it goes into "boot on power on" mode. I've rarely seen that in 30-odd years of dealing with this stuff. Maybe it's not "server grade" but it doesn't strike me as the classic consumer-grade products of the era. I guess it's just that it's essentially a standard Intel board, mostly shoved into pre-built systems back then.

vstrakh wrote on 2023-04-23, 18:42:

Which OS you're using? msdos 6.22 doesn't know about LBA, you'd want at least 7.0 or higher.

WIn98SE boot disk.

deepthaw wrote on 2023-04-23, 20:54:

Not sure how close it is, but I have a Gateway 440BX board that was giving me issues.

I disabled everything “advanced” in the IDE configuration in the BIOS except LBA and actually partitioned the CF card on my main PC using a USB adapter. After doing that, it works fine.

There is VERY little to be configured IDE-wise. The BIOS is very basic. Yet, I'll give it a second look once I have a different CPU to try it with (more to that below).

Meatball wrote on 2023-04-23, 21:17:

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2. […]
Show full quote

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2.

Try setting the BIOS disk detection to manual (auto doesn't work properly on CF), LBA enabled. FDISK. Blow out all of the partitions. When you create the partitions, you should see full space available (don't forget to ensure primary partition is marked active). If not, then we're stuck.

If it did work, now you go back into the BIOS, and leave disk detection at manual, but disable LBA. When you boot into a Windows 9X command prompt (supporting FAT32, of course), you should be able to format the full disk. FDISK will see only 473MB, but you can ignore it. I have a full write up in the link below, but it's for a SSE440BX-2, if you need more details and steps (page 2):

Can't make Compact Flash work on Intel SE440BX2

Also, I'm pretty sure 16GB was the maximum size I had success with SE440BX-2 - maybe 32GB, but I can't remember, using regular consumer grade CFs (I have never tried the industrial types). Since your board and mine are not 1:1, you might have better luck.

Yeah, as I said, the BIOS essentially sucks - even the latest available version ("latest" being 1999 😁 ). I've tried every "manual" option for the drive - as soon as I enable LBA, the board freezed upon trying to load the basic OS from a WIn98 boot floppy (which works no problem on every other system I have).

I've put this board aside for now, it's got other idiosyncrasies - it refuses to boot with a bog-standard Slot 1 Pentium III/500 I have; Everything turns on, the CPU gets warm but the screen remains black with not even the numlock light on the keyboard turning on (they just do the "power on flash" and then stay shut). It's the only Slot 1 CPU I have, but weirdly enough the board DOES boot with an S370 Pentium III/866 in a "slotket" - and JUST with that one. I have three other S370 CPUs, two PIII/800 and a Celeron, and it doesn't boot with any of them. The CPUs are all hardware I basically scavenged in the late '90s/early 2000s as a poor student/rookie programmer 😁, well stored in the same box with a bunch other processors spanning from 486s to Pentium MMX to K6/K6-2s, they ALL work fine; Seems extremely unlikely that of the whole lot, just ALL the PIIIs except for one died while in storage.

That said, I can't totally rule out the single CPU I have working might have some issues, so I bought supposedly working Pentium II/400 off eBay - it's currently stuck in the Brexit customs hell, I guess I'll just have to wait 😒

So the PII/400 arrived and it works flawlessly. Either the board doesn't like my other CPUs, or they are ALL mysteriously dead. Why only the PIIIs out of a box of dozens of CPUs, I can't bring my head around it.

I managed to format a CF and install Win 98...

Meatball wrote on 2023-04-23, 21:17:

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2. […]
Show full quote

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2.

Try setting the BIOS disk detection to manual (auto doesn't work properly on CF), LBA enabled. FDISK. Blow out all of the partitions. When you create the partitions, you should see full space available (don't forget to ensure primary partition is marked active). If not, then we're stuck.

If it did work, now you go back into the BIOS, and leave disk detection at manual, but disable LBA. When you boot into a Windows 9X command prompt (supporting FAT32, of course), you should be able to format the full disk. FDISK will see only 473MB, but you can ignore it. I have a full write up in the link below, but it's for a SSE440BX-2, if you need more details and steps (page 2):

Can't make Compact Flash work on Intel SE440BX2

Also, I'm pretty sure 16GB was the maximum size I had success with SE440BX-2 - maybe 32GB, but I can't remember, using regular consumer grade CFs (I have never tried the industrial types). Since your board and mine are not 1:1, you might have better luck.

Yep, this worked. I'm not sure how/why, 'cause on any other board, if I change away from LBA at any point after partitioning, the drive doesn't work anymore. But it does on this one. Great catch, thanks!

And for the maximum size, I seem I read somewhere it should actually support up to 127GB...would take that with a whole bucket of salt. But I can check, I have a 120GB SSD with a SATA->IDE adapter that works very well on a SS7 motherboard...I'll try to connect to the WS440BX and see what happens 😳

H3llR4iser wrote on 2023-04-27, 15:31:

So the PII/400 arrived and it works flawlessly. Either the board doesn't like my other CPUs, or they are ALL mysteriously dead. […]
Show full quote

So the PII/400 arrived and it works flawlessly. Either the board doesn't like my other CPUs, or they are ALL mysteriously dead. Why only the PIIIs out of a box of dozens of CPUs, I can't bring my head around it.

I managed to format a CF and install Win 98...

Meatball wrote on 2023-04-23, 21:17:

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2. […]
Show full quote

I'm guessing because this is a Gateway, it's using the rudimentary BIOS similar to the SE440BX-2.

Try setting the BIOS disk detection to manual (auto doesn't work properly on CF), LBA enabled. FDISK. Blow out all of the partitions. When you create the partitions, you should see full space available (don't forget to ensure primary partition is marked active). If not, then we're stuck.

If it did work, now you go back into the BIOS, and leave disk detection at manual, but disable LBA. When you boot into a Windows 9X command prompt (supporting FAT32, of course), you should be able to format the full disk. FDISK will see only 473MB, but you can ignore it. I have a full write up in the link below, but it's for a SSE440BX-2, if you need more details and steps (page 2):

Can't make Compact Flash work on Intel SE440BX2

Also, I'm pretty sure 16GB was the maximum size I had success with SE440BX-2 - maybe 32GB, but I can't remember, using regular consumer grade CFs (I have never tried the industrial types). Since your board and mine are not 1:1, you might have better luck.

Yep, this worked. I'm not sure how/why, 'cause on any other board, if I change away from LBA at any point after partitioning, the drive doesn't work anymore. But it does on this one. Great catch, thanks!

And for the maximum size, I seem I read somewhere it should actually support up to 127GB...would take that with a whole bucket of salt. But I can check, I have a 120GB SSD with a SATA->IDE adapter that works very well on a SS7 motherboard...I'll try to connect to the WS440BX and see what happens 😳

Good news, thanks for the update!

Maximum size, to which I was referring, was for Compact Flash. Disk sizing support for spinning hard disk-type drives of the era will be larger.

So yes, the board works perfectly with a 128GB SSD (fake-GB, in real GB it's actually 119), connected through a SATA->IDE adapter. The BIOS reads it as 65535MB, but Win98 sees the full size - I'm going out on a limb and hypothesize that it's a variable size limitation. Interestingly enough 'though, the adapted SSD is read correctly with the "AUTO" settings, LBA included. Just leaving this here for future info, in case anyone will be searching for it 😀

H3llR4iser wrote on 2023-04-25, 23:50:

I've put this board aside for now, it's got other idiosyncrasies - it refuses to boot with a bog-standard Slot 1 Pentium III/500 I have; Everything turns on, the CPU gets warm but the screen remains black with not even the numlock light on the keyboard turning on (they just do the "power on flash" and then stay shut). It's the only Slot 1 CPU I have, but weirdly enough the board DOES boot with an S370 Pentium III/866 in a "slotket" - and JUST with that one. I have three other S370 CPUs, two PIII/800 and a Celeron, and it doesn't boot with any of them. The CPUs are all hardware I basically scavenged in the late '90s/early 2000s as a poor student/rookie programmer 😁, well stored in the same box with a bunch other processors spanning from 486s to Pentium MMX to K6/K6-2s, they ALL work fine; Seems extremely unlikely that of the whole lot, just ALL the PIIIs except for one died while in storage.

That said, I can't totally rule out the single CPU I have working might have some issues, so I bought supposedly working Pentium II/400 off eBay - it's currently stuck in the Brexit customs hell, I guess I'll just have to wait 😒

Currently have a Pentium II 450 with a WS440BX motherboard - wondering best way to get faster cpu, e.g. 700-1000mhz? was the last cpu testing I did on the board for someone.

I think the best luck I had when changing CPUs was this:

You dont need to set this jumper for it to detect the CPU but it seems way more reliable if you do. Some times it doesnt seem to care and other times it does, some CPUs would not be detected until I moved the jumper. I know other Intel OEM boards have this jumper as well but most of them seem to pick up new CPUs just fine without switching it, my WS440BX is a bit more picky.

{edit} I guess I should include a pic of where the jumper is.

Yeah I tried that jumper too, no difference at all; It detected the PII-400 immediately without setting that J7B1 jumper to "maintenance" - and it did the same with a different PIII-500 I got from eBay for like 17 Euro. I fogot to set it to "maintenance mode" and it still picked it up no problem.

Looks like ALL of my PIII CPUs are busted somehow - the slot 1 surprises me the most as I've always thought to these CPUs as being build tank-like. As for all three S370s not working - could be the slotket card that is temperamental...

Anyway the "new" PIII-500 seems to be a rather sweet spot for this mainboard / time "window" I'm targeting with this machine. I had forgotten how addictive Red Alert 2 can be...

workaround can be a pci to ide card but it's not 100% sure to be working, worth a try if you got one around