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mike@mikeshardware.co.uk

Hardware Tips

How do I track down fatal Power On errors?

If your machine does not output a beep sequence, or you are getting no display & the machine does not sound like it is working, reseat and then remove components one by one from your machine to get a minimal system.

1. Reseat the following components - Memory, AGP graphics card, All PCI and ISA cards, IDE and floppy cables (all connections), Motherboard power connector, Hard disk and Floppy disk power cables.

2. Remove all external connectors from your machine except video and keyboard (try turning on without the keyboard connected as well).

3. Remove all unnecessary components from your system - Disconnect IDE and FDD cables from the motherboard. Remove all cards (PCI, ISA etc) except the Video card (if you have a spare video card, try this). If you have known good memory, try this. If you don't, try each DIMM (or SIMM pair) in turn.

4. Remove power from your internal peripherals (i.e. pull out the power connectors) - Floppy disk, Hard disk(s), CDROM(s) etc.

5. Pull out all case to motherboard connectors (Speaker, Reset, HDD LED etc), with the exception of the Power lead.

At this point you should have a system which just consists of a PSU, Motherboard (power cable only connected), CPU, minimal memory and connected keyboard and monitor.

6. Reseat the CPU.

7. Take the motherboard out of the case & place it on an anti-static surface. Attempt to booting the system up from here.

8. If you have spare components, try replacing each of the aforementioned components in turn.

9. Clear the CMOS using the jumper on the motherboard (generally you unplug the power lead from the PSU, change the CMOS clear jumper, leave it for a few (e.g. 10) seconds, put the jumper back again, plug the power cord back in & start up the machine. Please refer to your motherboard manual before attempting this procedure).

If none of the above tactics work, one of your components which you haven't replaced has failed. Try to eliminate components by borrowing known good samples or using your components in a known good system.

What do the BIOS POST beep sequences mean?

If your machine has an Award BIOS, there are only two valid beep codes. One long and two short beeps indicates a video adapter error - try reseating the graphics card or exchange it for another card. Repeating beeps, or any other beep sequence, indicates a memory error - reseat your memory or test the board with known good memory.

If your machine has an AMI BIOS, there are a number of possible beep codes:

My Motherboard has become unstable / has failed

One common reason for motherboard failure is the capacitors on the board becoming faulty over time. Take a look at the Badcaps website for additional information.

I am having hardware conflicts and cant seem to get rid of them!

Try deleting the offending devices from Device Manager, rebooting and letting Windows redetect & install your drivers.

Have you got the latest drivers for all your peripherals? New drivers can resolve certain conflicts.

Try inserting the offending card into a different PCI slot, or swap slots with another card. PCI slots share IRQ's with each other and with on-board hardware such as USB controllers. If you own an Abit motherboard, the following table of IRQ shares may be of interest:

* - Slave PCI slot. Can only be used by cards which do not require a master slot, e.g. some graphics cards, a Voodoo 2 & some Ethernet cards.
Slots marked 'Share AGP/Own' may share an IRQ with the AGP slot, depending whether the other similarly marked slot is populated.

It should be noted that in majority of BX boards, PCI3 does not share an IRQ, so this is the ideal place for 'problem' PCI cards to be located. 

Why doesn't PCI Slot 5 / 6 work on my motherboard?

Most BX boards (i.e. those without an external PCI arbiter chip) can only have 5 PCI master slots, so unless you have a card that can be used in a slave slot you effectively cannot use the 6th slot (or indeed the 5th slot if the board has an on-board PCI device such as a UDMA-66 controller). Slave slots can only be used by cards which do not require a master slot, e.g. some graphics cards, a Voodoo 2 & some Ethernet cards.

What are the differences between current Intel chipsets?

The table below contains an outline specification of Intel's current chipsets.

What do all the numbers in the memory specification mean?

SDRAM is specified in the following format: PCxxx x-x-x, e.g. PC100 3-2-2. The individual terms are as follows:

PCnnn x-x-x: This specifies the standard to which the memory modules conform, where the number equates to the speed in Mhz, e.g. PC100 means the memory will run reliably at 100Mhz and PC133 means the memory will run reliably at 133Mhz.

PCxxx n-x-x: The first number specified is the CAS, or Column Access Strobe, latency measured in clock cycles. The CAS latency defines the number of clock cycles between when the read command is issued and the data is made available.

PCxxx x-n-x: The second number specifies the CAS to RAS (Row Access Strobe) delay in clock cycles. tRCD is the number of clock cycles taken between the issuing of the active command and the read or write command.

PCxxx x-x-n: The third number specifies the RAS precharge delay in clock cycles. tRP is the number of clock cycles taken between the issuing of the precharge command and the active command.

The fastest memory conforms to the highest PCxxx specification and has the lowest CAS, tRCD and tRP delays.

The Highpoint UDMA66 controller on my Abit Motherboard (BE6, BE6-II, BP6) causes my machine to hang! 

Download and flash the latest BIOS for your board, containing the V1.22 Highpoint BIOS or later (try ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/beta/ for Beta BIOS's). Install the latest drivers - at least 1.23.1 for Windows 2000 (note that these may also be in the beta directory of Abit's FTP site).

Why does my Abit BE6-II default to a 3.5V I/O voltage?

The voltage was increased from 3.3V to 3.5V to increase stability on nVidia GeForce 256 based graphics cards. The increased I/O voltage should not cause problems with other cards, but reducing it back to 3.3V will lower power consumption, reduce heat and prevent diagnostic programs such as Motherboard Monitor from raising alarms.

What Front Side Bus speeds do current Abit motherboards support?

i815 ratios are FSB:SDRAM:PCI - e.g. 4:3:1 with a 133Mhz FSB speed would give a PCI speed of 33Mhz and a memory clock of 100Mhz.

Can I increase the core voltage of my Celeron II to a higher level than my BIOS will allow?

It is possible to increase the default voltage of the Celeron II to 1.65v by wiring the VID0, VID1 and Vss pins of the CPU together. Motherboards usually allow you to change the core CPU voltage a certain percentage away from the recommended voltage for that CPU (e.g. 10%), so this trick will fool the BIOS into allowing you to select a higher voltage than you would normally be allowed. For detailed instructions, take a look at the article over at HardOCP.

How do I convert a GeForce / GeForce2 into a Quadro / Quadro2?

As the GeForce and Quadro series graphics cards are built around the same GPU, it is possible to convert a GeForce 256 or GeForce2 GTS into the equivalent Quadro. Although this hack is unlikely to affect Game performance, it can be of great benefits to professional CAD users. Take a look at the following article for additional information.

What do the numbers on my AMD Thunderbird Athlon / Duron mean?

The specification of the newer AMD CPU's (Thunderbird/Duron onwards) can be deduced from a code (the Ordering Part Number or OPM) written on top of the CPU. The code is specified in the following format:

A SSSS P V T C F (e.g. A0850APT3B, D700AST1B)

A - The architecture: A = Athlon, D = Duron
SSSS - The clock speed of the CPU, e.g. 1000 = 1Ghz
P - The package type: A=PGA, M=Slot A.
V - Core Voltage: S=1.5, V=1.6, P=1.7, M=1.75, N=1.8
T - Temperature: Q=60, X=65, R=70, Y=75, T=90
C - L2 Cache size: 1 = 64Kb, 2=128Kb, 3=256Kb
F - FSB speed: A=200Mhz, B=200Mhz, C=266Mhz

How do I release the clock multiplier lock on my AMD Thunderbird Athlon / Duron?

The best way to overclock an AMD Athlon Thunderbird or Duron Socket A processor is to release the multiplier lock and purchase a motherboard which allows you to specify the clock multiplier to be used (e.g. an Abit KT7 / KT7-RAID or ASUS A7V). Although you can overclock by changing your FSB speed, this technique is not particularly rewarding (a 10% increase in FSB, and hence CPU, speed is about the best you can hope for with the KT133 chipset - the KT7133A, however, will allow a 266Mhz or more FSB speed).

In order to unlock a Thunderbird or Duron you need to connect all of the L1 'golden bridges', found on top of the CPU, together. This can be done by using a fine tipped conductive pen, some conductive epoxy or even with a simple HB Pencil (my preferred method!).

Some of the latest AMD CPU's appear to have a groove between the L1 bridges, making it a little more difficult to release the clock lock. One way around this is to place a very thin strip of masking tape over the groove and between the bridges, and draw the connections on this.

How do I change the core voltage of my AMD Thunderbird Athlon / Duron?

If your motherboard will not allow you to change the voltage of your Athlon or Duron CPU, or the changes allowed are too restrictive, you can use the L7 bridges to specify a particular core voltage.

See the clock multiplier lock release tip above for details on how to join these links. 

Which Pentium III processors are SMP capable?

The table below outlines which FC-PGA Pentium III Coppermine processors are dual processor capable. It should be noted that all Katmai processors are SMP capable (and, incidentally, SECC2/Slot 1), so these are not included in the table. All SECC2/Slot 1 processors up to, but not including, 1Ghz are SMP capable. SECC2 processors of 1Ghz and up are not SMP capable. You may mix two CPU's of a different stepping together (e.g. a PIII cB0 and cC0), but not processors of different frequencies or Model revisions (e.g. Coppermine and Katami cannot be mixed).

The code specified in the table (e.g. SL3QA) is the last part of the product code printed on the side of a boxed processor (it will read something like BX80526U550256ESL5V which, in this case, is a SECC2 550Mhz cA2 Pentium III).

How do I interpret the Family, Model and Stepping numbers of my Pentium III/Pentium 4 CPU?

The Family, Model and Stepping numbers of your CPU can be retrieved from the System Properties dialog of the Control Panel or the System Information application. Use the table below to determine which core revision you own.

Families of < 6 represent Pentium processors or lower (5 = Pentium, 4 = 486, 3 = 386 etc). Family 6 Stepping 5 or less represent Pentium II, cacheless Celeron's and the original Pentium Pro.

My i815 based board becomes unstable when I fill all three DIMM slots with PC133 SDRAM!

Intel's specification for the i815 and i815E chipsets proposes that no more than 2 PC133 SDRAM DIMM's should be supported. Using three PC100 SDRAM DIMM's, however, is fine. The level of stability when using 3xPC133 DIMM's depends largely on the motherboard. Perhaps the best motherboard for 3 DIMM stability is Asus' CUSL2.

How do change the core voltage on my P4 CPU in order to overclock more successfully?

If you do not have a P4 motherboard which allows core voltage modification (the Asus P4T will allow you to do so) you can achieve the same effect by connecting VID processor pins together with copper wire.

1.75V

1.80V

1.85V

How do I overclock my nVidia TNT / TNT2/ GeForce / GeForce2 / GeForce2 MX card?

If you are using nVidia's reference drivers, it is a straightforward task to enable an Overclocking tab on the Display properties dialog. Create the registry setting outlined below as a DWORD and set its value to 3: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak\CoolBits = 3

Alternately, you can download the following file which will automatically make the necessary change.

How do I overclock my 3dfx Voodoo card?

If you are using 3dfx's reference drivers, it is a straightforward task to enable an Overclocking tab on the Display properties dialog. Create the registry setting outlined below as a DWORD and set its value to 1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\3dfx Interactive\3dfx Tools\Installed\Tools\{AB040305-8AA1-11D2-8DD1-00104BB5EAD6}\CompleteRegistration = 1

Alternately, you can download the following file which will automatically make the necessary change.

How do I enable HyperZ on my ATI Radeon LE?

Although the HyperZ function is disabled on the Radeon LE, it can easily be enabled from the registry. Download the following file to enable this feature.

My new 256Mb DIMM doesn't seem to work on my motherboard!

Newer memory modules can contain 256Mbit chips (i.e. 8 chips eith non-parity or 9 chips with ECC memory given a 256Mb module). These chip types are not supported on older motherboards based around the Apollo Pro 133, i810, BX, EX and LX chipsets.

Why doesn't my AGP 2X card / Voodoo 5 work with my i850 motherboard?

The i850 chipset only works with graphics cards supporting 1.5V signalling, which means that those cards using the older 3.3V signalling will not function. Perhaps the most modern card to feature 3.3V signalling is 3dfx's Voodoo 5 series.