Upgrading Older System

I think the biggest bang for the buck would come from upgrading the
processor. Faster K6-2 chips are available both new and used (i.e. on
eBay). You might also use a K6-III (basically a K6-2 with on-die L2
cache). This board may be able to use a K6-2+ or K6-III+ chip. (See
below link for info.)
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm

For info relating to the K6-X chips try the K6-X forum at
www.amdzone.com

Also, I would not put XP on such and old system uless you absolutely
need to.

"Ed_" wrote in message
...
I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older
system. Here
are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I have put the Promise card with the WD 40G drive on after doing a
clean install
of XP on the old Seagate 4G. The 4G took XP SP1 (NTFS) just fine and
is running
for 24 hours with almost no problems. The Promise card took some arm
twisting
but all is fine with that and the system sees the WD 40g and I have
formatted it
NTFS as the E drive with the SG as C.

I am going to install a TNT2 32mb graphics card that I have tomorrow
and I don't
expect any problems. The system runs fairly smooth but I have a few
questions
since I am not very familiar with older systems.

In Device Manager under hidden devices is something called "NT AMP
Legacy
Support" showing NT AMP Legacy Interface Node. This is redXed as
disabled error
code 22. WTH is this?? Any suggestions as to what I should do with
it? All
othe devices are functioning just fine.

Also, I was thinking of installing XP on the WD40 on the Promise card
and
removing the old Seagate. The SG just doesn't have the space to
install anymore
programs.

Will I have any problems installing XP on the Promise card and booting
from it
if I remove the Seagate? I was afraid that if I tried to put the WD
on the IDE
channel that the MB wouldn't recognize a drive that big and it would
run slower.
Also, is ther any chance that I could clone the XP install to the WD
using Ghost
2003??

Any suggestions or pointers and criticisms would really be
appreciated. I am a
little lost as I am not real experienced with older systems. I know
that this
is a borderline system but it's for kids and I would just like to get
it running
as best that it will for the least amount of expenditure.

TIA, Ed

Ed_ wrote:

I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older system.
Here are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I have put the Promise card with the WD 40G drive on after doing a clean
install
of XP on the old Seagate 4G. The 4G took XP SP1 (NTFS) just fine and is
running
for 24 hours with almost no problems. The Promise card took some arm
twisting but all is fine with that and the system sees the WD 40g and I
have formatted it NTFS as the E drive with the SG as C.

I am going to install a TNT2 32mb graphics card that I have tomorrow and I
don't
expect any problems. The system runs fairly smooth but I have a few
questions since I am not very familiar with older systems.




Yep, ditch the seagate as that WD drive is a BUNCH faster! I also agree it
would run faster with 98SE rather than XP, you are really pushing what that
OS can run on. So toss the seagate, install the WD on the promise card and
find/buy a copy of 98SE would be what I'd do..

--

Stacey

In article k.net, "Biff"
says...

I think the biggest bang for the buck would come from upgrading the
processor. Faster K6-2 chips are available both new and used (i.e. on
eBay). You might also use a K6-III (basically a K6-2 with on-die L2
cache). This board may be able to use a K6-2+ or K6-III+ chip. (See
below link for info.)
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm

For info relating to the K6-X chips try the K6-X forum at
www.amdzone.com

Also, I would not put XP on such and old system uless you absolutely
need to.

"Ed_" wrote in message
...
I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older
system. Here
are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I have put the Promise card with the WD 40G drive on after doing a
clean install
of XP on the old Seagate 4G. The 4G took XP SP1 (NTFS) just fine and
is running
for 24 hours with almost no problems. The Promise card took some arm
twisting
but all is fine with that and the system sees the WD 40g and I have
formatted it
NTFS as the E drive with the SG as C.

I am going to install a TNT2 32mb graphics card that I have tomorrow
and I don't
expect any problems. The system runs fairly smooth but I have a few
questions
since I am not very familiar with older systems.

In Device Manager under hidden devices is something called "NT AMP
Legacy
Support" showing NT AMP Legacy Interface Node. This is redXed as
disabled error
code 22. WTH is this?? Any suggestions as to what I should do with
it? All
othe devices are functioning just fine.

Also, I was thinking of installing XP on the WD40 on the Promise card
and
removing the old Seagate. The SG just doesn't have the space to
install anymore
programs.

Will I have any problems installing XP on the Promise card and booting
from it
if I remove the Seagate? I was afraid that if I tried to put the WD
on the IDE
channel that the MB wouldn't recognize a drive that big and it would
run slower.
Also, is ther any chance that I could clone the XP install to the WD
using Ghost
2003??

Any suggestions or pointers and criticisms would really be
appreciated. I am a
little lost as I am not real experienced with older systems. I know
that this
is a borderline system but it's for kids and I would just like to get
it running
as best that it will for the least amount of expenditure.

TIA, Ed




Thanks for replying and passing me the link. I will check it out.

A processor upgrade may be on the horizon for this box but for now I'd just like
to see if I can get it up and running without spending a lot of bucks.

It is a very interesting system and I'm quite impressed with this Epox mobo.
It's a real shame that the thing was built with a Socket 7 because the mobo is a
nifty board for an older model. If nothing else I have developed a whole new
attitude about the Epox products.

Thanks again, Ed

In article m, "jaster"
says...


"Biff" wrote in message
thlink.net...
I think the biggest bang for the buck would come from upgrading the
processor. Faster K6-2 chips are available both new and used (i.e. on
eBay). You might also use a K6-III (basically a K6-2 with on-die L2
cache). This board may be able to use a K6-2+ or K6-III+ chip. (See
below link for info.)
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm

For info relating to the K6-X chips try the K6-X forum at
www.amdzone.com

Also, I would not put XP on such and old system uless you absolutely
need to.

"Ed_" wrote in message
...
I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older
system. Here
are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I disagree with any more K6 upgrades even a K6-III 550 would perform about a
Celeron 466 level at best. Since his psu is ATX I'd look for a cpu/mb
combination Duron-XP, Celeron(PII)-P3.

For instance the K7S5A-XP2000 combo were on sale for $59 which is about $20
more than what he'd pay for an upgraded K6. The performance gains would
more than pay for itself and all PCI cards and maybe even the PC100 but for
about $20 he could get PC133/256.


That's very true Jaster. I have been thinking the same way about the new board
and cpu. However, the budget is tight for the moment and I'm kind of just doing
a little learning/research here. I very well expect to begin researching a
cheap build to replace this one in the next few weeks but in the meantime I hope
to at least get this system operable.

I appreciate your comments and thanks for responding.

Ed

In article , Stacey says...

Ed_ wrote:

I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older system.
Here are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I have put the Promise card with the WD 40G drive on after doing a clean
install
of XP on the old Seagate 4G. The 4G took XP SP1 (NTFS) just fine and is
running
for 24 hours with almost no problems. The Promise card took some arm
twisting but all is fine with that and the system sees the WD 40g and I
have formatted it NTFS as the E drive with the SG as C.

I am going to install a TNT2 32mb graphics card that I have tomorrow and I
don't
expect any problems. The system runs fairly smooth but I have a few
questions since I am not very familiar with older systems.




Yep, ditch the seagate as that WD drive is a BUNCH faster! I also agree it
would run faster with 98SE rather than XP, you are really pushing what that
OS can run on. So toss the seagate, install the WD on the promise card and
find/buy a copy of 98SE would be what I'd do..

--

Stacey

Hi Stacey, thanks for the response.

OK, here is where I'm at right now.

I pulled the new WD 7200 hd off the card and replaced it with a WD 5400, 17G
spare drive that I had from another computer. The 17g is a good little drive
and it's running much cooler than the new WD40 was. This is an old box with
poor ventilation and I didn't feel like burning up a brand new 40g,7200, 8mb
cache drive just for experimentation purposes. Perhaps my worries are unfounded
but I have experienced problems with the newer, faster hd's in older, hot boxes.

Anyway, I Ghosted the XP install from the old SG 4 to the WD 17 on the
controller and removed the SG. XP moved to the 17 and took the carpet and
drapes with it. Joy,

I went garage-sale shopping at my local mom and pop computer store and dug
through the "special" box and snagged a Creative Live SC for $5.00....more joy.
I've never liked Creative cards but I have to admit that this old girl sounds
real sweet on my Logitech 340's that I use as spares.
TNT2 M64 32mb VC went in today, ok again and I updated the driver to 31.03, no
problem.

Now about the PS. Only a dreamer would think of stamping 300W on this old bear.
Looks more like a combined 150W with only 10A coming on the 12V and one lead
going to all of the drives and fans. I've got an Allied 300W that I know is a
decent PS and I keep as a spare that I may switch on here.

This project is taking up my "spareparts" but I'll get them back soon enough and
there are always bargains around in used parts if you keep your eyes open. Yeh,
I know, sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth but I'm not in this
for the money, just an old guy staying out of trouble.

Now about this XP. I know that 98 would prolly be more in tune with this system
but I kind of was interested in seeing what XP would do since I always hear
folks bragging about running XP on older systems. The other thing is that I
came to this 'hobby' kind of late in life and I am really much more versed in
the tweaks and twinks in XP than in 98. I admit to being more than a little
intimidated by 98 and just feel much more comfortable working with XP. It may
not work but WTH, nothing lost but my time.

Thanks for all of your help. I have learned a lot by following this board for
the past 6 months. Mostly because of the tips I've picked up in here I've been
able to build three excellent systems and refurbish two more.

Ed

In article , Ed_ says...

In article , Stacey says...

Ed_ wrote:

I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older system.
Here are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I have put the Promise card with the WD 40G drive on after doing a clean
install
of XP on the old Seagate 4G. The 4G took XP SP1 (NTFS) just fine and is
running
for 24 hours with almost no problems. The Promise card took some arm
twisting but all is fine with that and the system sees the WD 40g and I
have formatted it NTFS as the E drive with the SG as C.

I am going to install a TNT2 32mb graphics card that I have tomorrow and I
don't
expect any problems. The system runs fairly smooth but I have a few
questions since I am not very familiar with older systems.




Yep, ditch the seagate as that WD drive is a BUNCH faster! I also agree it
would run faster with 98SE rather than XP, you are really pushing what that
OS can run on. So toss the seagate, install the WD on the promise card and
find/buy a copy of 98SE would be what I'd do..

--

Stacey

Hi Stacey, thanks for the response.

OK, here is where I'm at right now.

I pulled the new WD 7200 hd off the card and replaced it with a WD 5400, 17G
spare drive that I had from another computer. The 17g is a good little drive
and it's running much cooler than the new WD40 was. This is an old box with
poor ventilation and I didn't feel like burning up a brand new 40g,7200, 8mb
cache drive just for experimentation purposes. Perhaps my worries are unfounded
but I have experienced problems with the newer, faster hd's in older, hot boxes.

Anyway, I Ghosted the XP install from the old SG 4 to the WD 17 on the
controller and removed the SG. XP moved to the 17 and took the carpet and
drapes with it. Joy,

I went garage-sale shopping at my local mom and pop computer store and dug
through the "special" box and snagged a Creative Live SC for $5.00....more joy.
I've never liked Creative cards but I have to admit that this old girl sounds
real sweet on my Logitech 340's that I use as spares.
TNT2 M64 32mb VC went in today, ok again and I updated the driver to 31.03, no
problem.

Now about the PS. Only a dreamer would think of stamping 300W on this old bear.
Looks more like a combined 150W with only 10A coming on the 12V and one lead
going to all of the drives and fans. I've got an Allied 300W that I know is a
decent PS and I keep as a spare that I may switch on here.

This project is taking up my "spareparts" but I'll get them back soon enough and
there are always bargains around in used parts if you keep your eyes open. Yeh,
I know, sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth but I'm not in this
for the money, just an old guy staying out of trouble.

Now about this XP. I know that 98 would prolly be more in tune with this system
but I kind of was interested in seeing what XP would do since I always hear
folks bragging about running XP on older systems. The other thing is that I
came to this 'hobby' kind of late in life and I am really much more versed in
the tweaks and twinks in XP than in 98. I admit to being more than a little
intimidated by 98 and just feel much more comfortable working with XP. It may
not work but WTH, nothing lost but my time.

Thanks for all of your help. I have learned a lot by following this board for
the past 6 months. Mostly because of the tips I've picked up in here I've been
able to build three excellent systems and refurbish two more.

Ed

I forgot to mention that I solved this little mystery..............

"In Device Manager under hidden devices is something called "NT AMP Legacy
Support" showing NT AMP Legacy Interface Node. This is redXed as disabled error
code 22. WTH is this?? Any suggestions as to what I should do with it? All
othe devices are functioning just fine."

This device needed to be enabled as it is what enables an older mobo to do the
automatic shutdown when Windoz sees it as a "Standard Computer". The odd thing
is that when using WinME the computer was seen as ACPI.

"Ed_" wrote in message
...
In article , Ed_ says...

In article , Stacey says...

Ed_ wrote:

I am trying to squeeze a little more life out of a friends older
system.
Here are the specs, as best as I can tell.....

Epox MVP3G
AMD K6-2, 300MHz Socket7
VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
384 MB Pc-100 Sdram
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System
Trident 8m Blade 3D
ST34321A 4G, 5400rpm, Ultra-ATA33
WDC WD40 OJB-00ENA0 ATA100 7200rpm on
Promise TX2-Ultra133 Controller
VP Power 300W PS

I have put the Promise card with the WD 40G drive on after doing a
clean
install
of XP on the old Seagate 4G. The 4G took XP SP1 (NTFS) just fine and
is
running
for 24 hours with almost no problems. The Promise card took some arm
twisting but all is fine with that and the system sees the WD 40g and
I
have formatted it NTFS as the E drive with the SG as C.

I am going to install a TNT2 32mb graphics card that I have tomorrow
and I
don't
expect any problems. The system runs fairly smooth but I have a few
questions since I am not very familiar with older systems.




Yep, ditch the seagate as that WD drive is a BUNCH faster! I also agree
it
would run faster with 98SE rather than XP, you are really pushing what
that
OS can run on. So toss the seagate, install the WD on the promise card
and
find/buy a copy of 98SE would be what I'd do..

--

Stacey

Hi Stacey, thanks for the response.

OK, here is where I'm at right now.

I pulled the new WD 7200 hd off the card and replaced it with a WD 5400,
17G
spare drive that I had from another computer. The 17g is a good little
drive
and it's running much cooler than the new WD40 was. This is an old box
with
poor ventilation and I didn't feel like burning up a brand new 40g,7200,
8mb
cache drive just for experimentation purposes. Perhaps my worries are
unfounded
but I have experienced problems with the newer, faster hd's in older, hot
boxes.

Anyway, I Ghosted the XP install from the old SG 4 to the WD 17 on the
controller and removed the SG. XP moved to the 17 and took the carpet
and
drapes with it. Joy,

I went garage-sale shopping at my local mom and pop computer store and
dug
through the "special" box and snagged a Creative Live SC for
$5.00....more joy.
I've never liked Creative cards but I have to admit that this old girl
sounds
real sweet on my Logitech 340's that I use as spares.
TNT2 M64 32mb VC went in today, ok again and I updated the driver to
31.03, no
problem.

Now about the PS. Only a dreamer would think of stamping 300W on this
old bear.
Looks more like a combined 150W with only 10A coming on the 12V and one
lead
going to all of the drives and fans. I've got an Allied 300W that I
know is a
decent PS and I keep as a spare that I may switch on here.

This project is taking up my "spareparts" but I'll get them back soon
enough and
there are always bargains around in used parts if you keep your eyes
open. Yeh,
I know, sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth but I'm not in
this
for the money, just an old guy staying out of trouble.

Now about this XP. I know that 98 would prolly be more in tune with this
system
but I kind of was interested in seeing what XP would do since I always
hear
folks bragging about running XP on older systems. The other thing is
that I
came to this 'hobby' kind of late in life and I am really much more
versed in
the tweaks and twinks in XP than in 98. I admit to being more than a
little
intimidated by 98 and just feel much more comfortable working with XP.
It may
not work but WTH, nothing lost but my time.

Thanks for all of your help. I have learned a lot by following this
board for
the past 6 months. Mostly because of the tips I've picked up in here
I've been
able to build three excellent systems and refurbish two more.

Ed

I forgot to mention that I solved this little mystery..............

"In Device Manager under hidden devices is something called "NT AMP Legacy
Support" showing NT AMP Legacy Interface Node. This is redXed as disabled
error
code 22. WTH is this?? Any suggestions as to what I should do with it?
All
othe devices are functioning just fine."

This device needed to be enabled as it is what enables an older mobo to do
the
automatic shutdown when Windoz sees it as a "Standard Computer". The odd
thing
is that when using WinME the computer was seen as ACPI.

I, successfully, ran XP Pro on the very same board (MVP3G) with a Seagate
drive (not my favorite). Was my ex's box, so didn't really care about the
brand of HDD (I know, I'm a *******). I maxed out the PC100, and it ran
just fine. The processor was a K6-2 450MHz, btw. I did, however, have to
update CMOS in order for ACPI to function, correctly. I would, definitely,
put the 300W Allied in there. As for drives, I've found WD's to be the best
(for me).

Ed_ wrote:



This device needed to be enabled as it is what enables an older mobo to do
the
automatic shutdown when Windoz sees it as a "Standard Computer". The odd
thing is that when using WinME the computer was seen as ACPI.

Many computers that ran fine with win9X can't use ACPI with win2K OS's,
especially older ones so I'm not surprized. I've had issues trying to get
older boxes to run right/good on new OS's. I suppose with some tweaking you
can get it to run OK on XP but that OS will cost more than the computer
you've installed it on!

BTW ME is just a bad version of 98SE but you probably already knew that. If
you want to have some fun and learn how a real computer runs, download
mandrake! :-)

--

Stacey

"Steve" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 02:04:37 GMT, "jaster" wrote:

snip

For instance the K7S5A-XP2000 combo were on sale for $59 which is about
$20
more than what he'd pay for an upgraded K6. The performance gains would
more than pay for itself and all PCI cards and maybe even the PC100 but
for
about $20 he could get PC133/256.


Hi,

Just wondering where did you find this price?

I checked Pricewatch and they were higher. Starting at $96.

Thank you,
Steve
My real email address is dealsgalore[A-T]earthlink.net

www.cheap-land.com

Sorry Steve,

Just checked and I guess that was last week's Fry's price Texas and
California. Maybe it still available at their higher priced website
www.outpost.com or if you know a ex-girlfriend in CA that might ship it to
you.