VOGONS


P3B-F Slowdown Utility

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First post, by aitotat

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I made utility to slow down Asus P3B-F motherboard from DOS prompt. It will also work on other motherboards with ICS 9250-08 clock generator and Intel PIIX4/E/M southbridge (most likely all of those use BX chipset). Please let me know if you know some motherboard other than P3B-F that can be used with this utility. I believe it will be a short list but I'd like to know them.

P3B-F Slowdown Utility is meant to be used together with SetMul. Just make sure SetMul is somewhere in PATH and you are good to go.

Here is the readme for instructions:

P3BF Slowdown Utility - Release 1 - 2026.6.9
Copyright (C) 2026-2026 by Tomi Tilli

This utility is for changing FSB speed from DOS command prompt on systems with
Asus P3B-F motherboard. It will also work with other systems that have Intel
PIIX4/E/M southbridge (like Intel BX chipset) and ICS 9250-08 clock generator
chip (it is important that it is the same ICS model).

P3BF Slowdown Utility can also execute SETMUL.EXE for easier and faster use.
SETMUL.EXE must be in the same directory as P3BF.COM or somewhere in the PATH.

SETMUL by gerwin can be found at https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=38613

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P3BF [parameter(s)] [SETMUL parameter(s)]
[H or HELP] Prints (this very same) help
[UNLK] Leaves Asus P3B-F access to ICS 9250-08 visible
Meant to be used to leave access available for other programs
[LOCK] Locks Asus P3B-F access to ICS 9250-08
[newFSBclock] Valid clock rates (MHz) for ICS 9250-08 Clock Generator are:
66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 105, 110, 112, 115, 120, 124, 133, 140 and 150
124 and 133 MHz allow two different PCI divisors:
124/3 and 133/3 will divide FSB by 3 for PCI clock (41.3 and 44.3 MHz)
124/4 and 133/4 will divide FSB by 4 for PCI clock (31 and 33.3 MHz)
Divisor for slower PCI clock will be selected if divisor is not specified
ISA clock is always PCI clock / 4
[SETMUL] SETMUL is executed if any of these parameters are set:
CPU_MULTIPLIER single number like 4 or 12, also halves like 4.5 or 6.5
L1D Disables L1 cache, L1E Enables L1 cache
L2D Disables L2 cache, L2E Enables L2 cache
- Below SETMUL parameters are only for VIA C3 CPUs -
ICD Disables L1 I-cache, ICE Enables L1 I-cache
BPD Disables Branch Prediction, BPE Enables Branch Prediction

Important!
Soft boot (Ctrl-Alt-Del) does not reset FSB speed back to original because
BIOS only programs the clock generator on cold boot. You should set P3BF.COM
to execute from autoexec.bat if you know you are not going to remember to
reset the FSB back to fast when you no longer need it to be slow.

Known issues:
124/3 (124MHz FSB and 41MHz PCI) does not work on my system. Power LED starts
to blink and you hear continuous beep from PC-speaker. This is a hardware
issue and not a software bug. Use 124 MHz with 31 MHz PCI instead.

Here is introduction video (and a bit of making of video as well)

You can download release 1 from here.

My youtube channel

Reply 1 of 6, by zyzzle

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I thank you for this tool. I have a motherboard with Intel BX chipset (Abit BX6) that I'd like to test on. I'm not sure it if uses the ICS 9250-08 southbridge, though I'm certain it uses the Intel BX chipset.

But I have one important suggestion: why do you rely on your own external program to change cpu multiplier? Why not merge the code between the two programs, combine them, and release a single binary that does both (change FSB and sets multiplier) on the ICS 9250-08? It will be a much more self-contained and elegant solution.

Reply 2 of 6, by aitotat

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Setmul isn't my program. I decided to simplify things because Setmul is already well known and I'm sure many already knows its parameters and have it installed. It does everything very well. So I wanted to continue using it since I'm going to have it in my other retro builds anyway. And for it to be useful, it is already in PATH anyway. P3BF Slowdown Utility simply extends Setmul with ability to change FSB frequency.

The ICS 9250-08 is a clock generator, not a southbridge. I strongly recommend to identify that correct chip is on the motherboard and not just try if it works or not. Since there is no detection mechanism on the ICS and other ICS clock generator models (and there are many) have same address but different meaning for frequency bits, well that can lead to a lot of trouble. And this is the reason why a list of motherboards with ICS 9250-08 would be such a nice thing to have. But unfortunately not even retro web list what clock generator motherboard uses.

This is what to look for:

The attachment ICS9250CF-08.jpg is no longer available

My youtube channel

Reply 3 of 6, by mockingbird

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Thank you! Finally, an alternative to RayeR's SMB.

mslrlv.png
(Decommissioned:)
7ivtic.png

Reply 4 of 6, by such

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aitotat wrote on Today, 15:57:

The ICS 9250-08 is a clock generator, not a southbridge. I strongly recommend to identify that correct chip is on the motherboard and not just try if it works or not. Since there is no detection mechanism on the ICS and other ICS clock generator models (and there are many) have same address but different meaning for frequency bits, well that can lead to a lot of trouble. And this is the reason why a list of motherboards with ICS 9250-08 would be such a nice thing to have. But unfortunately not even retro web list what clock generator motherboard uses.

This is what to look for:

The attachment ICS9250CF-08.jpg is no longer available

On this point: would a 9250BF-08 be functionally different from a 9250CF-08? What I've managed to read up on the topic indicates likely not.

Reply 5 of 6, by aitotat

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According to datasheet the B and C are revisions. But it does not mention if there are any differences so most likely they work the same.

My youtube channel

Reply 6 of 6, by such

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That was my interpretation as well, thanks for checking.