bad bios?

[edcentric]

I am reworking my fleet of KT7As.
-My wifes (no folding) got the new 9a bios, a XP1600, areo7+ and a replacement for ANOTHER dead IBM hdd. works fine.
-folding box #1 gets 9a bios also, still running a 1.4 tbird at 1.6.

-now trouble, folding box #2, going to get XP1700 after the 9a update. flash bios, reboot, change a few settings, reboot....... no reboot. Power off, power on and it launches. Try again to go into bios to change settings, no reboot. It just sits with no video signal. Now nothing at all.

reseated mem, removed all cards except pci video, tried second pci video card, disconected all drives, cleared bios.......I am about to go put an old 900tbird in it and see if it matters.

I have an unused KT7. Dare I swap bios chips and try that trick?
I used the same damn bios disc for all three. I am guessing that it is a bad floppy drive.

Help meeeeee.

[Straight_Man]

Um, swap floppy drive and drive cable, reboot, reflash??? SAME version board??? Go to site, get new older BIOS,make boot floppy on working box, flash from thatt??? Swap BIOS chip from non-working box INTO wokring box, to see if BIOS is corrupt or something else in box is??? Yes, if same version and same mfr and same model number, possible to transplant BIOS chips if ZERO static and CMOS battery pulled when removeing AND inserting and box completely unplugged. STATIC MAT work, board OUT of box work if not having a good big chip extractor, rock up alternate ends of BIOS with a jewler's number 00 and then a 0 flat screwdriver, VERY gently, use a chip pin straightener, or order a BIOS chip from the mfr or a supplier of same (if ned be, can name some).

John-- who has gone ALL those routes one time or another-- at one time, I also transplanted a Sinclair BIOS chip with a ruler for straightening chip pins held along pins with one long edge to bottom of chip, a TACK puller, and two small flat screwdrivers. Then went out and bought a radio shack pin straightener

[csimon]

which version of the kt7a do you have ed? xp's hardly work on the 1.1 revision and maybe on the 1.2 ...I don't remember which revisions there were but I know I never tried anything over t-bird 1.4 on my v1.1

[edcentric]

Sorry for the pannic. It will not recognise the cpu. It will run an XP1600 since it is 1.4, but no higher.

When I loaded this bios on my wifes kt7a-r it gave me options to higher speeds. On this kt7a it only goes to 1.4. They are all rev1 boards (2 kt7a-r, kt7a, kt7-r and a kt7). Who knows (or cares) why they are different.

I guess that I'll try the XP1700 in my wifes and put the 1600 in the folder. It will run a lot cooler than a 1.33tbird.

but for now it is folding again.
The EHF lives up to its name again.

[csimon]

hehe ..dont swap chips swap mobo's w/ the wifey!!! You can probably get a great oc with that xp1700

[edcentric]

well I have no mobo for it otherwise.
My MSI has a 2400 that is running very nicely, and it isn't an oc mobo. Right now I just want boxes running. If I can get a few more hz or a few less deg I will be happy.

[edcentric]

OK, so it is not quite folding yet. I'll do a repair install of w2k tomorrow and then we will be fine (I hope).

[edcentric]

I was way over optimistic. I atleast have it booting. I'll build a new boot disk and change floppy drives.
My wifes kt7a-r running the 9a bios gives options for XPs 1600 through 2000. This kt7a should do hte same according to everything that I can find.
If it blows up I'll be back.

[profdlp]

Since my secondary rig had a CPU burnout (a first for me...:banghead: ) I was looking for a replacement just to keep it Folding. I'm buying a new system to replace my main computer (see my sig) and was thinking of putting the Thunderbird 1200 in the rig which had the CPU croak, and buying an Athlon XP for the KT7A-RAID. I know it's a hit-or-miss thing as far as having them work (and I'm 99.9% certain I have a rev. 1.1). So the basic questions are:

1) Could I safely test compatibility by temporarily "borrowing" the Athlon XP 1700 from the girlfriends computer without risk to the CPU?

2) The BIOS on the KT7A-RAID is from 7/11/2002, which is the latest available from Abit. Is a hacked BIOS necessary to get it to work? Right now it only gives me the option of 1400 (actual) MHz as a top end.

Don't mean to threadjack, it just seemed to fit right in with this discussion.

And by the way - good luck to you, Ed! :wave: :fold:

PS - I intend to put something in there, but since an OEM 1333 T-Bird (the fastest I can find available) is about $40, I would just as soon spend a few bucks more for a low-end Athlon XP.

[edcentric]

Yes you can safely test the 1700, mine has been in and out of a few mobos and runs fine.

I have decided that the Abit rev lables lie. All three of mine say rev1, two of them give options for XP16-21 after loading the 9a bios. One is fubar. This one will need to get an older bios and an w2k repair. I hope that that works. It will run a 1.33, should reach 1.5.

If you loaded 9a and still only get 1400 max you are out of luck as far as I can tell.