Might be right about the "illusive" vs "elusive" looking at FIC's 2008 support site, only the good ole VXA41 file from 2003 there.

BitWrangler wrote on Today, 04:49:

Might be right about the "illusive" vs "elusive" looking at FIC's 2008 support site, only the good ole VXA41 file from 2003 there.

At least my poor grammar caught your attention! Lol

Also, seems we noticed the support page at the same time.

It might be possible to inject the microcode into the BIOS file and flash the modified BIOS.

Will it work? Who knows? Will the voltage regulation section of the board be able to work with the newer CPUs?

You will probably want to use a known good CPU that you don't can about frying as well as an EEPROM programmer so you can flash the chip back to stock if it doesn't work at all after the BIOS mod.

The filenames on those WIM updates seem to be 2003 despite saying newer.
Possible they were user modded.

Might be faster to look for microcode and integrate it

myne wrote on Today, 05:51:

The filenames on those WIM updates seem to be 2003 despite saying newer.
Possible they were user modded.

Might be faster to look for microcode and integrate it

Where can I find microcode? Lol
If I am understanding correctly, the post string would remain the same for later updates? Maybe I am not following what you are saying though. 12/15/2003-K8T800-8237-6A7L0F0BC-00
That is still the post string/BIOS ID for the known official December 24th 2003 update and the supposed later updates as you saw, not completely sure what I can conclude from that but that brings this question to mind: should the post string be different for different versions of the bios? I might be remember incorrectly, but I think the post string was suppose to match the release date, but overall I'm not sure.

cyclone3d wrote on Today, 05:27:

It might be possible to inject the microcode into the BIOS file and flash the modified BIOS.

Will it work? Who knows? Will the voltage regulation section of the board be able to work with the newer CPUs?

You will probably want to use a known good CPU that you don't can about frying as well as an EEPROM programmer so you can flash the chip back to stock if it doesn't work at all after the BIOS mod.

I don't have the board on hand yet to actually check the VRM chip, but I am fairly certain it can handle the lower voltage required by the venice, 1.50v vs. 1.40v.

Definitely sounds like the reprogramming method would be more of a financial investment.

Matt The Cat wrote on Today, 04:07:

Hey there. So I recently got an FIC K8-800T motherboard, and for guarenteed functionality I paired it with a clawhammer Athlon 64 3200+, essentially launch year AMD64 setup. However if I want SSE3 support (and at least one other added instruction set), I am going to need to get a venice Althlon 64 running on this motherboard.

Hi.
There is a mATX FIC mainboard K8M-800T that has a BIOS update VWB42
07/16/2004-K8T800-8237-6A7L0F0CC-00.

1                          ** Micro Code Information **
2Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
3------------------+--------------------+--------------------+------------------
4     0039   0048  |       003A   004A  |       0041   0150  |

Maybe it will be a compatible one.
The mATX mainboard has fewer PCI and DDR slots. So your ATX K8-800T mainboard may not work properly with PCI devices in those slots which are not presented on mATX K8M-800T. With third DDR slot it isn't a problem - it's really not usable in any case (DDR400 gets DDR333). What about PCI slots, I guess, if swaps ACPITBL.BIN BIOS modules they will do.
The most important thing is the mainboard may be bricked if BIOS update is incompatible. Then a hardware programmer or hotswap method only helps.

This is an AGP Via board, not a good fit for SSE3 cpu anyway. 1mb cache is better to have. This board is a great fit for Windows 98 system + early Windows XP. You don't need SSE3 for those games.

SSE3 cpus make sense mostly in nforce4 boards with pcie.

AlexZ wrote on Today, 16:21:

This is an AGP Via board, not a good fit for SSE3 cpu anyway. 1mb cache is better to have. This board is a great fit for Windows 98 system + early Windows XP. You don't need SSE3 for those games.

SSE3 cpus make sense mostly in nforce4 boards with pcie.

With 2GB DDR1, Athlon 64 3200+ (clawhammer), ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP, I intended to at least use Windows 7 64 bit. This setup should work fine without too much struggle I'd assume.
Windows 10 32 bit should also run, maybe not great, but I think the 32 bit application limit is worse than the Windows 7 limits. (I also intend to use a sata SSD to IDE down the line to max out the responsiveness)

Just a shame the clawhammer only has up to SSE2. Mainly cause I really wanted to push it to a Tiny 10 x64 installation. The only instruction venice Athlon 64 is missing for regular Windows 10 64 bit is CMPXCHG16b. I can't say for certain but I imagine that could be worked around more easily than something major like sse3, and a stripped windows 10 x64 would be the target candidate for that or perhaps a basic bypass or WinPE. Edit: I honestly don't know if there would be a way to bypass the requirement of CMPXCHG16b, or an already available modded version of Windows 10 admittedly, and I guess also PrefetchW, cause answers on the required instructions are unclear. And I guess windows 10 x64 doesn't require sse3 so, in terms of running Windows 10 x64, the clawhammar and venice would be in the same boat, nonetheless, the following still applies:

Additionally, while on Windows 7 64bit, I imagine there is application support that would benefit from SSE3 availability.

That is the motivation. But I am definitely not limited to Win 98 or RTM XP. 64 bit Win 7 is fair within reason.
I ran Windows 7 32bit on a slot 1 pentium 3 450mhz with an NVIDIA8400gs PCI and 768MBS ram and it wasn't that bad, mainly newer applications failed because of missing CPU instruction sets. This Athlon 64 setup is on a whole 'nother level from that and at least adequately capable. I am assuming, but it is based on experience that Windows 7 isn't so heavy as you might expect.
I thought about using Win XP x64 with one core api, but it is just not all there yet from my testing.
Windows 2k with BWC kernel extension is pretty cool, but I have used it so much and need a break from it.

Roman555 wrote on Today, 16:12:

Hi. There is a mATX FIC mainboard K8M-800T that has a BIOS update VWB42 07/16/2004-K8T800-8237-6A7L0F0CC-00. […]
Show full quote

Matt The Cat wrote on Today, 04:07:

Hey there. So I recently got an FIC K8-800T motherboard, and for guarenteed functionality I paired it with a clawhammer Athlon 64 3200+, essentially launch year AMD64 setup. However if I want SSE3 support (and at least one other added instruction set), I am going to need to get a venice Althlon 64 running on this motherboard.

Hi.
There is a mATX FIC mainboard K8M-800T that has a BIOS update VWB42
07/16/2004-K8T800-8237-6A7L0F0CC-00.

Copy code to clipboard

1                          ** Micro Code Information **
2Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID  |  Update ID  CPUID
3------------------+--------------------+--------------------+------------------
4     0039   0048  |       003A   004A  |       0041   0150  |

Maybe it will be a compatible one.
The mATX mainboard has fewer PCI and DDR slots. So your ATX K8-800T mainboard may not work properly with PCI devices in those slots which are not presented on mATX K8M-800T. With third DDR slot it isn't a problem - it's really not usable in any case (DDR400 gets DDR333). What about PCI slots, I guess, if swaps ACPITBL.BIN BIOS modules they will do.
The most important thing is the mainboard may be bricked if BIOS update is incompatible. Then a hardware programmer or hotswap method only helps.

I appreciate it. I did see some similar motherboards either based on the same or related chipset had newer BIOS files available. I am definitely apprehensive to that for the risk and I don't have a programmer. And unfortunately, even the one on retroweb for the k8m-800t is pre 2005 so not entirely promising in terms of Venice CPU support.

s754 is not a good fit for Windows 7. Windows 7 era benefits from X4 CPU. Vista era benefits from X2 CPU. s754 is great for Windows XP (PCIe) or Windows 98 (AGP). The platform can cover up to year 2006 for gaming with a few games running at about 50-60 fps. You can in theory build what you intend, but the result will be very suboptimal regarding capabilities. The hardware you have is a great fit for Windows 98, you just need GeForce 4/FX.

ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP is about as powerful as Radeon X1950 Pro, as it only has DDR2 memory. It's still a very powerful AGP card, but completely outclassed by PCIe. See Re: Battle of the platforms: socket 754! for comparison of Clawhammer 3400+ Radeon X1950 Pro vs Turion 64 @ 2.2Ghz + GeForce GTX 275. AGP stands no chance, the difference is so huge. A forward looking s754 should be using nForce4 + SSE3 capable CPU + SSD. The best candidate is Turion 64 (clocked at 2.2-2.4Ghz) and GeForce GTX 275/280/285.

Matt The Cat wrote on Today, 18:26:

I appreciate it. I did see some similar motherboards either based on the same or related chipset had newer BIOS files available. I am definitely apprehensive to that for the risk and I don't have a programmer. And unfortunately, even the one on retroweb for the k8m-800t is pre 2005 so not entirely promising in terms of Venice CPU support.

I've looked into Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 BIOS image which supports Venice E6 Athlon 64 3200+ - it has the same bundle of CPU Micro Code Information that VWB42 of mATX K8M-800T has. So I suppose there is a big chance (but also there is a risk).

AlexZ wrote on Today, 19:46:

s754 is not a good fit for Windows 7. Windows 7 era benefits from X4 CPU. Vista era benefits from X2 CPU. s754 is great for Windows XP (PCIe) or Windows 98 (AGP). The platform can cover up to year 2006 for gaming with a few games running at about 50-60 fps. You can in theory build what you intend, but the result will be very suboptimal regarding capabilities. The hardware you have is a great fit for Windows 98, you just need GeForce 4/FX.

ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP is about as powerful as Radeon X1950 Pro, as it only has DDR2 memory. It's still a very powerful AGP card, but completely outclassed by PCIe. See Re: Battle of the platforms: socket 754! for comparison of Clawhammer 3400+ Radeon X1950 Pro vs Turion 64 @ 2.2Ghz + GeForce GTX 275. AGP stands no chance, the difference is so huge. A forward looking s754 should be using nForce4 + SSE3 capable CPU + SSD. The best candidate is Turion 64 (clocked at 2.2-2.4Ghz) and GeForce GTX 275/280/285.

My main goal here was pushing the oldest x64 hardware to run the most modern applications. Maybe it is technically suboptimal, but I think it should work demonstratively to show a 2003 motherboard running late 2010s and perhaps even early 2020s software. The first PCI-E board wasn't released until August 2004. I actually have a GTX 260 PCI-E I got from a friend recently, but I don't have an old PCI-E board to use it with. I also have a FIC K8M-800M, but it also lacks PCI-E, and I don't have a spare cpu to put in it, spare ram, or power supply with molex, so it is going in storage. I really need to get a case for these, but I haven't been able to test their booting with the ram, gpu, and cpu yet cause it hasn't showed up yet, should work though.

And beyond that, while all the caps appear healthy now, no leaking or bulging, I am aware that I should replace them. I don't even own a soldiering gun and have no experience with it, so not a great idea that I try to recap.

I am sorry if I come off rude. It really isn't intentional. I understand a lot of my goals probably seem like pipedreams, some of them kinda work, usually it really helps to get my hands on it and just manually test and see what works. But I don't have much low level knowledge in terms of hardware or programming.

Roman555 wrote on Today, 19:52:

Matt The Cat wrote on Today, 18:26:

I appreciate it. I did see some similar motherboards either based on the same or related chipset had newer BIOS files available. I am definitely apprehensive to that for the risk and I don't have a programmer. And unfortunately, even the one on retroweb for the k8m-800t is pre 2005 so not entirely promising in terms of Venice CPU support.

I've looked into Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 BIOS image which supports Venice E6 Athlon 64 3200+ - it has the same bundle of CPU Micro Code Information that VWB42 of mATX K8M-800T has. So I suppose there is a big chance (but also there is a risk).

Thank you for looking into that. I will try to learn what I can and make a decision from there. Maybe someday, someone might stumble upon this thread and already personally have the files I am looking for. It is a long shot, but that is what it is.