I was looking for an S.7 motherboard among the MBs, yes that's right, but although most are grouped, with the indication of each card, there are others that are instead in a box 📦, without it being written what the content is.
So sometimes I find motherboards, which I repaired or started to repair, or boards that after a component replacement intervention, have not given signs of life, so after some time ⏱, they are re-examined in search of a solution, hoping to make them work again.
Some time ago, I don't know exactly how long, but it could be a couple of years (?), I replaced several capacitors on an S.478 motherboard.
This is one of the first models with VIA chipset and DDR RAM, so P4/400, the card is a "AZZA P4M2-MVB", as mentioned above, I replaced several electrolytic capacitors, except for one of the SACON 3300uF 6.3V, well today as a surprise 😱, I discovered that that one also needs to be replaced, you can see a bulge at the top, and this is a sign that it needs to be changed.
I should have a spare capacitor, I would like to use a Nichicon equal to the other six, from memory I don't remember if this motherboard has been tested or not, however we will have to wait for the replacement of that capacitor, to do a start-up test.

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-10-26, 16:59:

Ciao Elio, […]
Show full quote

Ciao Elio,

Thanks to @Ydee’s nice find of the Zida BIOSes, I was able to check the latest 5SVA-E Rev 1.40e BIOS.
I has indeed K6-2 support up to 400MHz, but no K6-III or K6-2+/III+ support.
It is also limited to 32GB IDE drives.

Cheers, Jan

Hi Jan,

there is one newest BIOS for Zida, its version 1.41 - but it's very hard to detect changes from previous versions - Zida didn't mention them anywhere, and the only description was provided by the brand's former distributor in the Czech Republic, Levi International, which still maintains a site with BIOSes and manuals for old Zida boards. And BIOS v. 1.40 is already modded for support HDD bigger than 32GB ( up to 128GB, I have it on the 5SVA rev 1.2 board and the 80GB disc works without any problems).

Ydee wrote on Yesterday, 16:29:

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-10-26, 16:59:

Ciao Elio, […]
Show full quote

Ciao Elio,

Thanks to @Ydee’s nice find of the Zida BIOSes, I was able to check the latest 5SVA-E Rev 1.40e BIOS.
I has indeed K6-2 support up to 400MHz, but no K6-III or K6-2+/III+ support.
It is also limited to 32GB IDE drives.

Cheers, Jan

Hi Jan,

there is one newest BIOS for Zida, its version 1.41 - but it's very hard to detect changes from previous versions - Zida didn't mention them anywhere, and the only description was provided by the brand's former distributor in the Czech Republic, Levi International, which still maintains a site with BIOSes and manuals for old Zida boards. And BIOS v. 1.40 is already modded for support HDD bigger than 32GB ( up to 128GB, I have it on the 5SVA rev 1.2 board and the 80GB disc works without any problems).

Hi Ydee,

Thanks for these 2 additional Zida 5SVA-E BIOSes.

I found the modded v1.40 BIOS with 128GB IDE HDD support as well. It is one of the BIOS mods by the Wim’s BIOS team and team member Rainbow still maintains a website with all these BIOSes at http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php
This BIOS fixes the 32GB IDE HDD limit, but has no other improvements and has the same CPU limitations as the original v1.40.

The “unknown” v1.41 BIOS piqued my interest, so I looked at this BIOS in detail.
It appeared to be the same 06/19/1998 BIOS as v1.40, but with a few BIOS Setup default changes. The v1.41 Enables BIOS Options like Video BIOS Cacheable, System BIOS Cacheable, and OnChip USB by default. The v1.40 has these options as well but has them Disabled as default. But you can aways Enable them if you want.
The v1.41 BIOS also clears all BIOS PnP data (the ESCD block) when you select Load BIOS Defaults in the main CMOS Setup menu. This is highly unusual.

For the rest, this v1.41 BIOS is identical to the v1.40, so it is not a new build.
The changes in v1.41 can easily be made with Award’s MODBIN tool and it looks like the distributor made these changes themselves, maybe on request of a client.
I personally prefer the defaults in the v1.40 BIOS. 😉

Cheers, Jan

Ydee wrote on Yesterday, 16:29:

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-10-26, 16:59:

Ciao Elio, […]
Show full quote

Ciao Elio,

Thanks to @Ydee’s nice find of the Zida BIOSes, I was able to check the latest 5SVA-E Rev 1.40e BIOS.
I has indeed K6-2 support up to 400MHz, but no K6-III or K6-2+/III+ support.
It is also limited to 32GB IDE drives.

Cheers, Jan

Hi Jan,

there is one newest BIOS for Zida, its version 1.41 - but it's very hard to detect changes from previous versions - Zida didn't mention them anywhere, and the only description was provided by the brand's former distributor in the Czech Republic, Levi International, which still maintains a site with BIOSes and manuals for old Zida boards. And BIOS v. 1.40 is already modded for support HDD bigger than 32GB ( up to 128GB, I have it on the 5SVA rev 1.2 board and the 80GB disc works without any problems).

Chkcpu wrote on Yesterday, 19:16:

Hi Ydee, […]
Show full quote

Ydee wrote on Yesterday, 16:29:

Chkcpu wrote on 2025-10-26, 16:59:

Ciao Elio, […]
Show full quote

Ciao Elio,

Thanks to @Ydee’s nice find of the Zida BIOSes, I was able to check the latest 5SVA-E Rev 1.40e BIOS.
I has indeed K6-2 support up to 400MHz, but no K6-III or K6-2+/III+ support.
It is also limited to 32GB IDE drives.

Cheers, Jan

Hi Jan,

there is one newest BIOS for Zida, its version 1.41 - but it's very hard to detect changes from previous versions - Zida didn't mention them anywhere, and the only description was provided by the brand's former distributor in the Czech Republic, Levi International, which still maintains a site with BIOSes and manuals for old Zida boards. And BIOS v. 1.40 is already modded for support HDD bigger than 32GB ( up to 128GB, I have it on the 5SVA rev 1.2 board and the 80GB disc works without any problems).

Hi Ydee,

Thanks for these 2 additional Zida 5SVA-E BIOSes.

I found the modded v1.40 BIOS with 128GB IDE HDD support as well. It is one of the BIOS mods by the Wim’s BIOS team and team member Rainbow still maintains a website with all these BIOSes at http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php
This BIOS fixes the 32GB IDE HDD limit, but has no other improvements and has the same CPU limitations as the original v1.40.

The “unknown” v1.41 BIOS piqued my interest, so I looked at this BIOS in detail.
It appeared to be the same 06/19/1998 BIOS as v1.40, but with a few BIOS Setup default changes. The v1.41 Enables BIOS Options like Video BIOS Cacheable, System BIOS Cacheable, and OnChip USB by default. The v1.40 has these options as well but has them Disabled as default. But you can aways Enable them if you want.
The v1.41 BIOS also clears all BIOS PnP data (the ESCD block) when you select Load BIOS Defaults in the main CMOS Setup menu. This is highly unusual.

For the rest, this v1.41 BIOS is identical to the v1.40, so it is not a new build.
The changes in v1.41 can easily be made with Award’s MODBIN tool and it looks like the distributor made these changes themselves, maybe on request of a client.
I personally prefer the defaults in the v1.40 BIOS. 😉

Cheers, Jan

Thank you both very much for the suggestions and for the info on the BIOS.
Reading in fact I would say that I would also go to update the original BIOS, with the VER:1.40 one.
Greetings

Going back to the PC socket 7, since in the one with MB ACORP A-5VIA3P it is not possible to use the Cyrix M II-333GP, because it does not work stably beyond 233 MHz, I should see among the Cyrix CPUs that I have in my collection, if I have any that I can try, I think I have the 300GP that I had put, before changing it years ago with the 333GP.

Clearly, I would also avoid CPUs with FSB 75, because even at this frequency, I had problems.

Maybe it could be solved by changing some components of the line of regulators, then electrolytic capacitors and linear regulators, but honestly it doesn't seem like the case, because maybe they are ruined, for use at higher frequencies (more heat), and so if I initially solve, later I could find myself with the same problem, which for the record has already happened with an i430VX and a P200.

Regarding the ZIDA 5SVA-E, I was waiting for news about the BIOS, thanks to the friends of Vogons, I will use a BIOS VER: 1.40 correct, there is a VER: 1.41 but it has some slight difference, although in practice it is almost the same.

Finally I was looking for another S.7, which I haven't found yet, it would be an ASUS VX97, with damaged chipset pins, for convenience it would have to be replaced, even if with patience and the right tools, the pins could be fixed, and recreated the missing ones (possibly), which I remember has a VRM with switching regulators, and supports various CPUs beyond the 3.5X, it seems to me that it has the third jumper for the multi from 4X to 5.5X, but I go from memory, it may not be like that.

I downloaded all the BIOS of the links, there are both the first and the last, that is, the REV: 1.0 up to 1.41.
Looking at the files contained, regarding the updates, I noticed that it would seem the same for both motherboard models, that is, both the 5SVA and the 5SVA-E, use the same BIOS (?).
You have to pay attention to the REV of the MB, and to the two VT82C587 chips near the SDRAM, it seems that there may be differences, and in some cases it cannot be used.
So I looked at my card, just to see if it's among those that have no problems.
I can't say for sure, but there's a line written on the chips, which could be the right one.
But it also talks about 64 MB DIMM, so I don't know if the reference is for the RAM or for the BIOS (?).
One last warning ⚠️, it says not to use BIOS 1.3 or later on VER: 1.2 cards, it's not very clear to me if it includes VER: 1.0 cards or only 1.2.
Looking on the Internet, I found some info about it, it says that the BIOS is not the same for 5SVA and 5SVA-E, in short, if there was a doubt, now it has not disappeared.
Other info about the memory, it says that the maximum capacity DIMM modules are 64 MB, in fact I don't remember if in the past I tried 64 MB SDRAM, eventually I could try, if you want you could use the DIMMs together with the SIMMs, it's not something I would do, but I could do if you need to have more RAM than 64 MB.

Found that ASUS VX97, with damaged chipset pins, it was right among the cataloged cards but I hadn't noticed it, today looking better, I found it right away.

Let's start by saying that there is no third jumper for the multi, there are BF0 and BF1, and from what I see, in this card it was not expected, maybe it was added in the subsequent REV., on my 1.01. so you can't put CPU with multi from 4X to 5.5X, except with a change to the MB, fortunately it is possible to use for the K6-CXT the 2X, which is automatically remapped to 6X.

For FSBs I read the settings for 50 60 66.6 55 75, with the corresponding 25 30 33.3 27.5 37.5 MHz of the PCI.

On the motherboard it says for the VCORE, 3.5V 3.4V 2.9V 2.8V 3.2V, but there could be the possibility of getting lower voltages, even if it only has three jumpers, and this could be a limit, for now I don't think you need to know anything else, since the board can't work.

Already because it has almost a row of damaged PINs, on the side towards the ISA slot, of the Intel SB82371SB chip, some seem to have vanished, the rest is quite bent, and could be fixed, only if you are able to reconstruct the missing ones.

I don't know how you can damage a chip like that, maybe they were trying to do something nearby, the simplest solution is to replace the chip with another replacement one, but replacing it is not so easy, for me it is impossible since I don't have the right equipment to do this job, but given the current conditions, I could start straightening the pins, and see if the missing ones are connected to something, that is, if maybe they are not needed, I would avoid work in trying to rebuild them.