Q: Tyan S1830S & PIII 1GHz CPU

Hello,

On my Tyan S1830S "Tsunami" (a venerable AT mainboard, with AMI BIOS
V2.00.02), I recently replaced an Intel Pentium III 600E processor (Slot
1) with a PIII 1GHz (FCPGA Socket 370, product number RB80526PY001256).

Each of these "Coppermine" chips is of the 100MHz FSB variety, which is
the fastest the S1830S's 440BX chipset officially supports. (I also
needed an adapter, so I bought an inexpensive "Super Slocket III," off
eBay http://www.ebay.com.)

Anyway, everything seemed to go smoothly, except for the fact that the
new CPU only runs at 900MHz! The BIOS and various utilities [including
the latest version (7.1) of Intel's own "Processor Frequency ID"] all
agree on this issue, too.

The RB80526PY001256 is using a 9x multiplier (i.e., 9 x 100MHz =
900MHz), instead of the proper 10x, apparently. I've tried different
BIOS settings, such as temporarily increasing the FSB to 112MHz, which
results in approximately 1GHz (9 x 112MHz). Alas, that causes system
instability (e.g., AVI files always crash).

As all PIII's are "multiplier locked," how can I safely get the full
1GHz out of my purchase?

Incidentally, according to an Intel Web page, the RB80526PY001256 is
"for existing embedded applications using the Intel® 440BX chipset
only." Could this have anything to do with my current problem?

Please, reply to the newsgroup, exclusively; thank you, in advance, for
any helpful information.


Cordially,
John Turco

John Turco wrote:
Hello,

On my Tyan S1830S "Tsunami" (a venerable AT mainboard, with AMI BIOS
V2.00.02), I recently replaced an Intel Pentium III 600E processor (Slot
1) with a PIII 1GHz (FCPGA Socket 370, product number RB80526PY001256).

Each of these "Coppermine" chips is of the 100MHz FSB variety, which is
the fastest the S1830S's 440BX chipset officially supports. (I also
needed an adapter, so I bought an inexpensive "Super Slocket III," off
eBay http://www.ebay.com.)

Anyway, everything seemed to go smoothly, except for the fact that the
new CPU only runs at 900MHz! The BIOS and various utilities [including
the latest version (7.1) of Intel's own "Processor Frequency ID"] all
agree on this issue, too.

The RB80526PY001256 is using a 9x multiplier (i.e., 9 x 100MHz =
900MHz), instead of the proper 10x, apparently. I've tried different
BIOS settings, such as temporarily increasing the FSB to 112MHz, which
results in approximately 1GHz (9 x 112MHz). Alas, that causes system
instability (e.g., AVI files always crash).

As all PIII's are "multiplier locked," how can I safely get the full
1GHz out of my purchase?

Incidentally, according to an Intel Web page, the RB80526PY001256 is
"for existing embedded applications using the Intel® 440BX chipset
only." Could this have anything to do with my current problem?

Unlikely, the problem seems to be that you have a chip with the wrong
multiplier. It's possible that this is a legitimate marking error, but
there are other possibilities.

If you can try some faster memory or alternate memory settings you may
be able to improve stability, or you can (a) live with it or (b)
complain to the vendor who supplied the CPU chip. I don't see how a 9x
chip ever ran at 1GHz using any standard clock.

--
bill davidsen )
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
Project Leader, USENET news
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com

Bill Davidsen wrote:

John Turco wrote:
Hello,

On my Tyan S1830S "Tsunami" (a venerable AT mainboard, with AMI BIOS
V2.00.02), I recently replaced an Intel Pentium III 600E processor (Slot
1) with a PIII 1GHz (FCPGA Socket 370, product number RB80526PY001256).

Each of these "Coppermine" chips is of the 100MHz FSB variety, which is
the fastest the S1830S's 440BX chipset officially supports. (I also
needed an adapter, so I bought an inexpensive "Super Slocket III," off
eBay http://www.ebay.com.)

Anyway, everything seemed to go smoothly, except for the fact that the
new CPU only runs at 900MHz! The BIOS and various utilities [including
the latest version (7.1) of Intel's own "Processor Frequency ID"] all
agree on this issue, too.

The RB80526PY001256 is using a 9x multiplier (i.e., 9 x 100MHz =
900MHz), instead of the proper 10x, apparently. I've tried different
BIOS settings, such as temporarily increasing the FSB to 112MHz, which
results in approximately 1GHz (9 x 112MHz). Alas, that causes system
instability (e.g., AVI files always crash).

As all PIII's are "multiplier locked," how can I safely get the full
1GHz out of my purchase?

Incidentally, according to an Intel Web page, the RB80526PY001256 is
"for existing embedded applications using the Intel® 440BX chipset
only." Could this have anything to do with my current problem?

Unlikely, the problem seems to be that you have a chip with the wrong
multiplier. It's possible that this is a legitimate marking error, but
there are other possibilities.

Hello, Bill:

"RB80526PY001256" is silk-screened directly on the processor, itself,
not printed on the sticker -- which makes it a bit doubtful it was
deliberately mismarked, I guess.

In any event, since my original article, I noticed something suspicious
(pressing my keyboard's "Pause/Break" key), during POST:

"BSP CPU...Err: Microcode"

After a search, on Google Groups http://groups.google.com, I learned
that updating the Tsunami's BIOS will eliminate the error message and,
far more importantly, may allow the board to recognize the CPU's true
speed.

I'm hesitant to flash my BIOS, for obvious (and potentially hazardous)
reasons, unless I can be nearly certain of success (i.e., achieving
1GHz).

What do you think...is it worth the risk?

If you can try some faster memory or alternate memory settings you may
be able to improve stability, or you can (a) live with it or (b)
complain to the vendor who supplied the CPU chip. I don't see how a 9x
chip ever ran at 1GHz using any standard clock.

--
bill davidsen )
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
Project Leader, USENET news
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com

My RAM is Micron OEM (1GB: 4 x 256MB DIMM, PC/133, ECC), by the way; I
hope I can find a solution, that doesn't involve overclocking the FSB.

Thanks, for replying!


Cordially,
John Turco

John Turco wrote:

Hello,

On my Tyan S1830S "Tsunami" (a venerable AT mainboard, with AMI BIOS
V2.00.02), I recently replaced an Intel Pentium III 600E processor (Slot
1) with a PIII 1GHz (FCPGA Socket 370, product number RB80526PY001256).

Each of these "Coppermine" chips is of the 100MHz FSB variety, which is
the fastest the S1830S's 440BX chipset officially supports. (I also
needed an adapter, so I bought an inexpensive "Super Slocket III," off
eBay http://www.ebay.com.)

Anyway, everything seemed to go smoothly, except for the fact that the
new CPU only runs at 900MHz! The BIOS and various utilities [including
the latest version (7.1) of Intel's own "Processor Frequency ID"] all
agree on this issue, too.

The RB80526PY001256 is using a 9x multiplier (i.e., 9 x 100MHz =
900MHz), instead of the proper 10x, apparently. I've tried different
BIOS settings, such as temporarily increasing the FSB to 112MHz, which
results in approximately 1GHz (9 x 112MHz). Alas, that causes system
instability (e.g., AVI files always crash).

As all PIII's are "multiplier locked," how can I safely get the full
1GHz out of my purchase?

Incidentally, according to an Intel Web page, the RB80526PY001256 is
"for existing embedded applications using the Intel® 440BX chipset
only." Could this have anything to do with my current problem?

Please, reply to the newsgroup, exclusively; thank you, in advance, for
any helpful information.

Cordially,
John Turco


Hello,

I originally posted the article, above, on 11-22-04...and yet, only
stumbled upon the solution, within the past week or so.

You see, my particular SL5QV/RB80526PY001256 processor happens to be a
rare engineering/evaluation sample, boasting an unlocked multiplier.
Instead of ignoring the mainboard's manual multiplier settings, as all
of Intel's modern production (i.e., multiplier locked) CPU's do, it
obeys them!

Hence, on my primary PC (which had been limited to 900MHz, with the
SL5QV installed), the relevant jumper configuration was:

JP8 - ON
JP9 - OFF
JP10 - OFF
JP11 - ON

However, a secondary computer (with an identical S1830S board) ran the
SL5QV at full tilt, and even a little beyond (1050MHz). Its settings
we

JP8 - ON
JP9 - ON
JP10 - ON
JP11 - OFF

The Tsunami's 1999 users booklet (written before the Pentium III's
release) states that those multiplier settings are x3 and x4,
respectively; whereas, the SL5QV interpreted them as x9 and x10.5,
obviously.

Surprisingly, with all the jumpers open, it bottomed out at a mere
400MHz. (Which, therefore, had to be the processor's actual x4
multiplier.)

Trying the '99 book's x4.5 and x5 settings allowed me to reach a seeming
1000MHz, but, WinME refused to load. I concluded that the SL5QV was
running much faster than the POST screen displayed, and Windows simply
couldn't take it.

(All testing was done with the Tsunami's default 100MHz FSB, by the
way.)

I'd already upgraded both boards' BIOSes to the final Beta version
(V2.00.03, extracted from 1830c28.exe), although, I'm not entirely
certain it was absolutely necessary. They can always be flashed back
to the previous V2.00.02, regardless.

Thus, I now possess a slightly speedier CPU (1050MHz vs 1000MHz) than
advertised. I'd ordered it from Star Micro http://www.starmicro.net,
on 10-3-04, for a rather reasonable $69 (free UPS Ground Shipping,
included). I was a bit stunned to see that it's still being offered,
nearly a year later:

Star Micro/PIII 1GHz 100MHz FSB 256K FCPGA Socket 370 CPU OEM: $75
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=94

Further details of my long struggle can be viewed, over at TechIMO
http://www.techimo.com:

TechIMO Forums PC Hardware and Tech Processors, Memory, and
Overclocking Tyan S1830S & PIII 1GHz
http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...8&page=1&pp=20

Happy reading, and good luck, to all the interested S1830S owners out
there!


Cordially,
John Turco