I've got an INTEL Socket 7 Mobo SB82437FX66 with a 266Mhz (on detects 200Mhz) with 128mb EDO RAM and a CD-ROM drive. When I put my XP Pro CD in, the computer says to take out the CD and restart (I'm trying to install XP on it). Why won't it let the XP CD boot?

The BIOS version is 1.00.02.CN0T

I would like to update the BIOS but I cannot find any connection to this motherboard anywhere.

Except:

http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-Socket-7-...

"Why won't it let the XP CD boot?"

That's an old machine, and may not support CD booting - it hardly seems a suitable candidate for XP.

"with a 266Mhz (on detects 200Mhz"

If it's detected at 200MHz, then it's running at that speed. Socket7 boards rarely supported higher than 200 - 233MHz unless a K-6 processor is installed - some could only be jumpered to 200MHz period.

Minimum required for XP is 233MHz (300MHz recommended)

I have machines like that running Win95 -> ME

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

i agree that xp is not suitable for it. if that was mine i would put windows98SE on it, and it would be fine

Yah, I probably will put 98se on it, but I thought I would try XP just because it is easier to install things on it. I only need this PC to do internet stuff, mp3's and maybe view pictures. If I had the pdf manual for the motherboard, it would be easier to find an update for the BIOS.

I was hoping that a BIOS update would allow CD booting. Maybe there is a jumper somewhere that would allow this.

SB82437FX66 doesn't sound like a model number. The CN0T indicates it's a Gateway OEM version of Intel Thor. You'd need to go to gateway's support site for a bios upgrade. There should be a gateway part number on a sticker on the motherboard.

I believe SB82437FX66 is the chipset number...aka Intel 430FX. It's not a good candidate for WinXP, stick with Win98. The chipset doesn't cache more then 64MB RAM so you may get better performance if you lower the RAM amount to 64MB. A board that old probably doesn't support multiplier settings above 3.5x, so the best you can do it 233MHz (3.5 x 66MHz). Look for jumper settings printed on the board & set the multiplier to 1.5x. If there's a jumper setting for 75MHz, give that a try. That will put the CPU at 262.5MHz (3.5 x 75MHz). Your RAM will also run at 75MHz & your PCI devices will run at 37.5MHz...so if you encounter instability, drop the FSB back to 66MHz again.

Just so you know, 1.5x multiplier was NOT a typo. Socket 7 CPUs interpret the 1.5x setting as 3.5x.

If you install Win 98 or 98SE....

IMPORTANT : NOTE that for Win 98 and 98SE need to use a special procedure to install Windows on a mboard with a 430FX chipset!!
See this:
http://www.lanyoncomputers.com.au/c...
.....

Retail Upgrade versions of Win 98 or 98SE are not bootable. I don't think Retail Full versions are either. OEM versions, which are always full versions, are bootable.
OEM versions have: "For Distribution with a New PC Only" printed on the original CD.

If you have an Upgrade version, you will need to insert a CD of a previous version of Windows during Setup - e.g. a Win95 CD, point it to the \Win95 directory.
......

Copies of bootable CDs are most likely to be read properly on most CD drives if they are on a CD-R disk. Some old CD drives cannot read CD-RW disks, and some drives that can may not read a CD-RW made in another drive properly.
.......

If you think your Windows CD version is bootable (you can confirm whether it is on a newer computer)........

Look in your bios Setup -
In order to be able to boot with a bootable CD, you must be able to specify a CD drive in the boot order before a hard drive.

Also, the CD drive you boot from must be able to recognize a bootable CD - some old CD drives cannot.
......

If you can't boot from a CD, with the Windows CD in the drive .....

- for Win 98, 98SE you should use a Win98 or 98SE Startup Disk, or if you have the original floppy that came with the CD, that is a slightly modified Startup Disk.
Let it load cdrom support (the default), and when the loading has finished type Setup at the prompt.

- for Win ME - ??

I don't recommend you using Win 2000 or XP since it appears the cpu on this mboard can run no faster than 200mhz. Both will be pokey in comparisin to Win 98/98SE/ME

- for Win 2000, there is a utility on the CD that makes a four? floppy Setup set. You can make that set, on another computer if necessary, boot with the first one on your computer, load it and the other floppy contents, and at that point you can run Setup from the CD.

- for Win XP, you can go to the Microsoft site, on another computer if necessary get a 6 floppy Setup set download for XP, boot with the first one on your computer, load it and the other floppy contents, and at that point you can run Setup from the CD.
.............

1.00.xx.CN0T - Gateway OEM version of Intel Thor

Intel Thor Gateway Motherboard P5-75 TO P5-166 "CNOT" BIOS
Gateway No 4000261 , 4000117
Manufacturer Intel for Gateway
http://www.pcpartsohio.com/gateway_...

Intel Thor M/B 82430FX w/P200MMX
http://www.factorydirect.ca/cgi-bin...

From that and other "hits" it appears top cpu speed for this mboard is 200mhz.

1.00.xx.CN0T Gateway OEM version of Intel Thor
1.00.xx.CN0 Advanced/ATX (Thor)

Take a look at this - it may be the same as your mboard, except yours has a Gateway bios version, or you have have a slightly newer version or revision of this:
Intel manual - Advanced/ATX baseboards
http://www.x86.org/ftp/manuals/moth...

page 19 of the pdf - J10C - "Reserved" is 3X on your revision/version??

same page - 66mhz fsb max.

*************************************************

"OEM versions have: "For Distribution with a New PC Only" printed on the original CD."

The 98 and 98SE OEM CDs I have have no graphics on them, just printing. Newer 98SE CDs have graphics/holograms on them, and I'm not sure if "For Distribution with a New PC Only" is printed on them, but there should be something on it that is similar.

"- for Win ME - ??"

I have installed ME only once, from the ME CD.

Most people prefer Win 98SE over Win 98, and 98SE over ME.
You can't update 98 to be 100% the same as 98SE; you can't get 98 drivers for some newer devices.
There are some devices that no ME drivers were ever made for and won't work in ME with 98 or 98SE drivers - check out whether you can get ME drivers for the devices you want to use - if you can you may want to try it.
If you have old Dos games or other old programs that require Dos support, it is much easier to get them to work in 98 or 98SE - MSDos mode is crippled in ME.
On the other hand, ME has a lot more drivers for devices built in than 98 or 98SE does.

Win 98 and 98SE will rull very well with 128mb; I recommend 96mb minimum - in tests I determined with less ram than that the hard drive can't achieve it's full maximum speed; ME runs as well with a little more, say, 32mb more, 160mb.

"Win 98 and 98SE will rull very well with 128mb"

That's true, but you're not taking the cache limitations of the FX chipset into consideration.

If more than 64MB RAM is installed, the performance will decrease because the cache is taken completely out of the picture & the RAM is read from directly...this is MUCH slower than using the cache. The only time exceeding the 64MB limit is recommended is if memory intensive apps are being used & the system has to continually resort to using virtual memory. Using virtual memory is even slower than direct use of the RAM, so adding more RAM would be justifiable, but really it's just a case of going with the lesser of two evils.

"Intel's popular 430FX ("Triton I"), 430VX (one of the "Triton II"s, also called "Triton III") and 430TX chipsets, do not cache more than 64 MB of main memory. There are millions and millions of these PCs on the market.

If you put more memory in a system than can be cached, the result is a performance decrease. The speed differential between the cache and memory is significant; that's why we use it. :^) When some of that memory is not cached, the system must go to memory for every access to that uncached memory, which is much slower. In addition, when using a multitasking operating system (pretty much anything other than DOS these days) you can't really control what ends up in cached memory and what ends up in non-cached memory..."

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/ca...

I have 128mb of RAM which the PC recognizes. And in the BIOS, CD-ROM is the first boot device.

On the motherboard:

Multipliers: 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, RSVD
Frequency: 50, 60, 66, RSVD

1.5 is actually 1.5, not 3.5, and I don't know what RSVD means.

There are some other jumpers that say:

PSWD: DIS, ENA
Setup: DIS, ENA
CMOS: CLR, Keep
SCLK: 1/3, 1/4 (I don't understand this one)

There is another jumper that says: VRE STD

The only sticker on the motherboard says:

1T1JP 9651

The 2 chipsets say:

Intel PCIset
SB82437FX66
L6475018
SZ999

and

Intel PCIset
SB82371FB
L6462261
SZ997

It is Gateway and says AmiBIOS

I thought I could run XP because XP's minimum requirements are a 266Hhz and 64mb RAM and I've heard other people running XP on systems less than this.

On the side of the case I noticed some numbers:

Gateway 0006402140
PC EMP00475972
0060974D1A29

"1.5 is actually 1.5, not 3.5"

The setting is interpretted by the CPU, not the motherboard. If you have the proper CPU, 1.5x will be "seen" as 3.5x. It works for *most* Intel & AMD socket 7 CPUs, except lowend models (less than 166MHz), & there are *some* Intel models that are locked.

You never did say what CPU you have. The socket 7 Intel 266MHz MMX was a bit of a rarity, unless you have a mobile/laptop CPU. I believe the Intel MMX desktop line all ran at 2.8v...if you have a mobile version, the voltage would be lower. But there were also IBM/Cyrix S7 CPUs, & they were "Performance Rated". The PR266 IBM/Cyrix was actually clocked at 208, 225, or 233MHz with a FSB of either 66, 75 or 83MHz, depending on the version. And of course, there's also the AMD K5, K6, & K6-2.

"I don't know what RSVD means"

RSVD = Reserved

Searched for: thor on the Gateway web site

This is probably why XP quits when you try to install it!!

According to this, the Thor mboard cannot support Win ME, 2000, and XP.
I would guess this is because the bios and mboard do not have compatiple ACPI support, or some other bios feature is not compatible or is missing, which is the case for a lot of old mboards.
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHER...
.......

The only download for Advanced/ATX (Thor) still on the Intel site is this - the last bios update, 1.00.0.6 CNO:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...

So if there is any bios update for the Gateway version of the bios, it would be unlikely that it would be any higher than 1.00.0.6 CNOT

I do not recommend you use that. If the flashing does not flash the entire bios including the boot block portion, your mboard may not boot after you flash the bios.

The files in that are dated 9/27/96.
Going by that date and previous findings.....
If it is based on an Award bios version, it can't support the recognition of hard drives larger than 8.4gb because of bugs in the Award code.
If it is based on an AMI bios version, it probably cannot support the recognition of hard drives larger than 32gb because of bugs in the AMI code. The same is probably true for the bios version you alreay have.

In the Advanced/ATX manual I pointed you to, I found it has an AMI bios.

Therefore, there is probably no bios update that will support the recognition of drives larger than 32gb, even if you can find one.
.........

""1.5 is actually 1.5, not 3.5""
"The setting is interpretted by the CPU, not the motherboard. If you have the proper CPU, 1.5x will be "seen" as 3.5x. It works for *most* Intel & AMD socket 7 CPUs,"

I believe that can be true only for K6 cpu's, maybe some Cyrix cpus.
K6-2 cpu's interpret X2 as X6, but this mboard can't support the core voltage they need, or the current required.
I doubt this mboard can handle anything other than Intel cpus.

Check some old S7 boards. The jumper settings for 1.5x & 3.5x are the same. Some boards list them separately, others list them combined...1.5x/3.5x

That's what was "special" about the Pentium-1 233MMX CPU. It allowed people with older boards to upgrade to the fastest CPU available at the time, w/o having to upgrade the board...simply by using the "1.5x = 3.5x" trick. Obviously the board would also need to support the proper vcore settings, plus it had to support "dual voltage" CPUs.

The "2x = 6x" trick for the K6-2 could also be used on older socket 7 boards, provided they met the voltage requiremets. That meant that 400MHz (6 x 66mhz) or 450MHz (6 x 75MHz) was a possibility.

"The jumper settings for 1.5x & 3.5x are the same. Some boards list them separately, others list them combined...1.5x/3.5x"

I've fiddled with a lot of old Socket 7 mboards, and have looked at many manuals for them, and have never encountered that.

The bios of the mboard has to be compatible with a K6-2 cpu (or a K6 or Cyrix cpu for that matter) on old mboards, even if the mboard meets other requirements.
I have an Evergreen Spectra - a cpu socket adapter with onboard voltage regulator that comes a K6-2 400mhz cpu that allows many Socket 5 and 7 mboards to run at 400mhz (6 X 66mhz), but not all old mboards will handle the current required. It comes with a CD full of bios updates, and will test the bios and install an update if required.
Powerquest had a similar cpu upgrade but did not include bios updates - the bios of the mboard has to be comptible.

The CPU is a Pentium MMX FV80503233
SL27S 2.8v
Malay
L818607-0107

I'm going to put on 98se and see how that goes. But, as I was prying off the heatsink with a screwdriver and pliers, I shattered a resistor on the mobo closest to the CPU. It still seems to bootup OK. What will this affect?

I tried to put my 98se Startup disk in but it gives me the "NTDLR is missing". It does this even when there is no disk or CD in any drive. So now I have to get around this.

Since the gateway motherboard is still inside the gateway case (a fact that should have been initially disclosed) there should be a serial number on the back of the case as well as the side. I ran the '0006402140' number in the gateway support link above as it had the form of their serial numbers but nothing was found that was associated with that number. Or your system is so old that gateway isn't listing support for them. But you may want to click on the 'how do I find my serial number link' on that same page.

I found some gateway Thor part numbers here:

http://www.skyline-eng.com/catalog/...

and plugged them into the 'part number' locater but again found nothing so I think gateway has dropped active support for it. However there is still a bios upgrade for Thor motherboards on their FTP site:

ftp://ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/bios/pentium/thor/

Also, if you can find an intel bios upgrade for that board you can usually force the upgrade using the 'recovery' mode. Otherwise the intel upgrade won't work because the bios is branded as a gateway.

I set the bootup to floppy only and first. Now it says "insert bootable media in the proper drive" as it reads A:\

Maybe I should just get a better motherboard that supports all the stuff I connected it to:

2 gig drive
floppy
CD-ROM
128 (32mb x 4) EDO RAM
ATX power supply
Pentium 266Mhz CPU
4mb PCI video card

Any suggestions for a board with this material?

Welcome to the I-screwed-up-my-motherboard-when-I-removed-the-heatsink club. Best to replace the busted item if possible.

The 'NTLDR missing' probably means you're attempting to boot form the HD instead of the floppy.

Yeah, the obvious thing to do is get a better motherboard. You may have a problem getting one to fit in the existing case as the rear connections of your existing one are non-standard.

"The CPU is a Pentium MMX
FV80503233"

The CPU is 233MHz, not 266MHz. The correct jumper settings are 1.5 x 66MHz.

You're getting the "NTDLR is missing" because you didn't properly format the HDD. Since you attempted to install XP on it, it's probably NTFS & Win98 can't use NTFS...you need to format as FAT32.

"Some boards list them separately, others list them combined...1.5x/3.5x""

"I've fiddled with a lot of old Socket 7 mboards, and have looked at many manuals for them, and have never encountered that"

Sorry, but I gotta prove you wrong. I've got quite a collection of socket 7 boards, not to mention others. Here's a quick pic I just snapped showing the 1.5/3.5:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i...

jam
It dawned on me what you were getting at with the 1.5X /3.5X thing.
It's true some mboards have that labelling, on the mboard and/or in the manual, but the 3.5X only applies to certain cpus - the K6's I believe.
Similarly, X2 could be labelled 2X/6X on later socket 7 mboards, the X6 applying only to e.g. K6-2's, but I haven't seen that myself.
The jumper on the mboard being 1.5X or 2X doesn't change - the difference is there is a multiplier within the cpu package on certain cpus, such as K6s and K6-2s.

"The CPU is 233MHz, not 266MHz. The correct jumper settings are 1.5 x 66MHz."

He's going to get 100mhz from that cpu. That cpu does not have an multiplier within the cpu package.
I confirmed that in a mboard manual.
...

raiden1701

"I shattered a resistor on the mobo closest to the CPU. "

This mboard is old enough it may have a conventional discrete resistor with wire leads, e.g. one end in the mboard, the other a loop from the top to the mboard, rather than the resistors on newer mboards that are flat rectangles soldered flat to the mboard that have no leads. If so, all you need to do is replace it with one of the same physical size or larger that has the same colored stripes on it, which identify it's tolerance (e.g. within + or - 5%)and it's resistive value (size in ohms).
Are you sure it was a resistor? E.g. If it is a flat disk it's a ceramic capacitor, which has it's value marked on its side(s).

If you're going to install Win 98 or 98SE see the first part of response 8 and the link I pointed to!
If you don't want a big puzzle to figure out you must remove all your cards except the video card and follow that procedure!!

See the last link in response 8 - that manual probably applies to your mboard!

I took Electronics in high school (although didn't pay much attension) and I believe it was a resistor I broke. It is a small flat rectangle, I wouldn't be able to find a replacement for it around here. So far it hasn't impacted anything (yet).

I tried all combos with the jumpers and the highest I got was 200Mhz with settings:

clock: 66
freq: RSVD

When set both sets of jumpers to RSVD, it only shows 66Mhz and doesn't recongise the mouse or keyboard. Seems strange.

I looked at the manual from Response 8 and it doesn't mention a CPU with less than 3.135V, but mine is 2.8V (should I reposition the Voltage jumper?).

By the way, THANKS tons for all the help you guys have given me!!!!!!

raiden1701

Why did you want to update the bios?
If it was to support larger hard drives, the update DAVEINCAPS found won't help.

The bios update download 1003cn0t.exe here has bios update files dated 10/10/96 within it.
See 1003cn0t.txt for info about what it updates.

ftp://ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/bios/pentium/thor/
(DAVEINCAPS - good find!)

See Response 14 for why this bios update will probably not support the recognition of hard drives larger than 32gb.

I only wanted to update the BIOS for XP, but I think I'm only going to install 98se due to that the motherboard won't work well with XP.

But I can't even install 98se because the PC keeps telling me to install a valid bootup disk even though I insert several versions of the 98se startup disk and have tried many bootup configs.

Sorry to bother you guys with old crappy hardware, it's just that I like to keep old stuff going so it doesn't go to waste!

Locally here in my town of 10,000, I am the cheapest way of helping the locals with their old PC's (charging only $20 for 15 hours of work!).

"the 3.5X only applies to certain cpus - the K6's I believe"

It definitely applies to the Pentium 233MMX, but it was a crap-shoot with the 166MMX & 200MMX...some worked, some didn't. It also works with K6/K6-2's depending on the default clock speed.

"That cpu does not have an multiplier within the cpu package.
I confirmed that in a mboard manual."

It seems to me it would have to work. The "1.5x = 3.5x" is programmed into the CPU itself, not the board. If the board has the 1.5x multiplier setting as an option & this CPU is in fact a 233MMX, I don't see how it can't work?

"I looked at the manual from Response 8 and it doesn't mention a CPU with less than 3.135V, but mine is 2.8V"

Run it at 3.135v for any length of time & it will fry.

Did you try the multiplier at 1.5x & the CPU ran at 100MHz??

The Voltage jumper is set for VRE which I believe is good.

Something else good:

Jumpers set to 66 freq and 1.5 multiplier make 233Mhz for some reason. So that means that the 1.5 is also 3.5. It still doesn't reach the advertised 266Mhz but it is close enough!!!!!!!

This is all good, but I still need the PC to read my 98 Startup disk to install 98. I think the NTDLR error was caused because I had XP on this 2gb drive before. But aside from that I still get the "put in proper boot disk" when I startup with the floppy.

The CPU is NOT a 266MHz! You listed the markings in response #17:

The CPU is a Pentium MMX
FV80503233
SL27S 2.8v
Malay
L818607-0107

Look closely at the last 3 numbers in "FV80503233". The CPU is a 233, NOT a 266! I already said that in response #24. If you don't wanna take my word for it, maybe this will convince you:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Penti...

"I think the NTDLR error was caused because I had XP on this 2gb drive before"

Exactly! It appears that you didn't properly format the drive for Win98...if you did, you wouldn't be getting a message about NTDLR. Pop in the WinXP CD, delete the partiton, create a new partiton, then format the drive using FAT32. Once that's done, cancel out of the XP installation.

Try a creating a new Win98 boot disk:

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

"I took Electronics in high school (although didn't pay much attension) and I believe it was a resistor I broke. It is a small flat rectangle,..."

Oh. If it's flat to the mboard you're probably right. It probably doesn't have a code on it that would be easy to decipher, even if you can still read it. In that case, can you press the pieces together and put an ohmeter across it's ends and get a guess-timate of it's resistance? If you can, you could solder a regular resistor of about that value in place of it. To get the old pieces off is easy, just heat it up and flick it away, but try not to use too much heat or leave the soldering iron in one place too long or you may unsolder nearby components - those flat rectangles are very difficult to solder by hand. Use as small a wattage of soldering iron as you can. If all you have is a soldering gun, that's way too much wattage - borrow a soldering iron, or buy one - some dollar stores have them if you're miserly.

"I tried all combos with the jumpers and the highest I got was 200Mhz with settings:"

I assume the highest was with the multiplier jumpers in the positions shown as Reserved in the manual I pointed to. Sometimes later versions of a mboard will have a use for such, or the capabilty was aleady there but there were no cpus that could use that multiplier at the time that particular mboard version was made. E.g. I recall there was a delay between 166 and 200 mhz cpus coming out at that time, and another delay before MMX cpus came out.

"When set both sets of jumpers to RSVD, it only shows 66Mhz and doesn't recongise the mouse or keyboard. Seems strange."

Sometimes the ones marked that way aren't connected or are shorting something.

"I looked at the manual from Response 8 and it doesn't mention a CPU with less than 3.135V, but mine is 2.8V (should I reposition the Voltage jumper?)."

Ew. That's right - MMX cpus use a lower voltage.

See page 19 in the pdf and thereabouts - set it to standard voltage if it isn't already set to that so it's as low as it will go.

Two ways to go.....
1. it may still be okay as long as it doesn't get too hot.

Your cpu may have a heatsink, usually one that is low profile which may or may not be clamped in place, or a dinky cpu fan, usually without a heatsink.
If it has a heatsink, after the computer has been on a while, say, 15 minutes, touch it - you should be able to hold your fingertip on it for a few seconds or longer before it becomes too uncomfortable to leave it there - if it's hotter than than that, you need more cooling.
If it's too hot, the heatsink may be glued on, or thermal gfrease may have been used, or if thermal paste was used it may have dried out badly and it is as if it were glued. Warm up the cpu for a while, shut down the compouter, remove the power to the case, reve the clamp if there is one, press directly down on the heatsink and try to gently twist the heatsink off the cpu - if it won't twist it's probably glued. If it has thermal grease it will twist off easily.
If it won't twist off, you'll need to mount a fan in the case somewhere blowing at the cpu - e.g. an 80mm case fan (it has to be bigger than a cpu fan if it not directly on the cpu).

If it has a dinky cpu fan and no heatsink, after the computer has been on a while, say, 15 minutes, shut down the computer, remove the power to the case, and quickly remove the cpu fan - try the same fingertip test. If it's too hot, get a bigger cpu fan (more cfm).

If it has a not so dinky cpu fan and a clamped heatsink meant for a faster cpu it should be fine.

2. There may be a way of reducing the voltage to the cpu core by rigging up resistors and tiny insulated wires to certain pin positions - you remove the cpu, connect the wiring, install the cpu again. If you want to try that, I know of a site that has such info.
www.plasma-online.de
Look on the left side.
It may re-direct to a newer site.

Last call....

- the CPU is a 233MHz MMX & it appears that you finally got it running at that speed by using the 1.5x multi (imagine that)

- the NTDLR error means that the hard drive wasn't formatted correctly. Try again using the XP CD as I explained above.

- check the BIOS & make sure the floppy is set as the 1st boot device. If necessary, create a new Win98 boot floppy.

raiden1701
"The Voltage jumper is set for VRE which I believe is good."

Nope. That's higher. You need to set it to Standard. See Response 37.

jam
"The "1.5x = 3.5x" is programmed into the CPU itself,"

raiden1701
"Jumpers set to 66 freq and 1.5 multiplier make 233Mhz for some reason. So that means that the 1.5 is also 3.5."

jam
You have bested me this time jam!

So how come my Epox MVP3-G5 lists 233MMX as using X3.5? - that mboard doesn't have X1.5.

Well, on the other hand K6-2 cpu's don't multiply the mboard multiplier by 3 when they are used with other than X2, so it must be programmed or toggled according to what frequency it senses rather than being hard wired within the cpu.
The 233MMX must be able to set itself to X3.5 overall when the mboard is set to X1.5, and turn off it's internal multiplier when the mboard is set to X3.5.
I didn't know the MMX cpus could do that! - now I know.

"I took Electronics in high school (although didn't pay much attension) and I believe it was a resistor I broke. It is a small flat rectangle,..."

Oh. If it's flat to the mboard you're probably right. It probably doesn't have a code on it that would be easy to decipher, even if you can still read it. In that case, can you press the pieces together and put an ohmeter across it's ends and get a guess-timate of it's resistance? If you can, you could solder a regular resistor of about that value in place of it. To get the old pieces off is easy, just heat it up and flick it away, but try not to use too much heat or leave the soldering iron in one place too long or you may unsolder nearby components - those flat rectangles are very difficult to solder by hand. Use as small a wattage of soldering iron as you can. If all you have is a soldering gun, that's way too much wattage - borrow a soldering iron, or buy one - some dollar stores have them if you're miserly.

"I tried all combos with the jumpers and the highest I got was 200Mhz with settings:"

I assume the highest was with the multiplier jumpers in the positions shown as Reserved in the manual I pointed to. Sometimes later versions of a mboard will have a use for such, or the capabilty was aleady there but there were no cpus that could use that multiplier at the time that particular mboard version was made. E.g. I recall there was a delay between 166 and 200 mhz cpus coming out at that time, and another delay before MMX cpus came out.

"When set both sets of jumpers to RSVD, it only shows 66Mhz and doesn't recongise the mouse or keyboard. Seems strange."

Sometimes the ones marked that way aren't connected or are shorting something.

"I looked at the manual from Response 8 and it doesn't mention a CPU with less than 3.135V, but mine is 2.8V (should I reposition the Voltage jumper?)."

Ew. That's right - MMX cpus use a lower voltage.

See page 19 in the pdf and thereabouts - set it to standard voltage if it isn't already set to that so it's as low as it will go.

Two ways to go.....
1. it may still be okay as long as it doesn't get too hot.

Your cpu may have a heatsink, usually one that is low profile which may or may not be clamped in place, or a dinky cpu fan, usually without a heatsink.
If it has a heatsink, after the computer has been on a while, say, 15 minutes, touch it - you should be able to hold your fingertip on it for a few seconds or longer before it becomes too uncomfortable to leave it there - if it's hotter than than that, you need more cooling.
If it's too hot, the heatsink may be glued on, or thermal gfrease may have been used, or if thermal paste was used it may have dried out badly and it is as if it were glued. Warm up the cpu for a while, shut down the compouter, remove the power to the case, reve the clamp if there is one, press directly down on the heatsink and try to gently twist the heatsink off the cpu - if it won't twist it's probably glued. If it has thermal grease it will twist off easily.
If it won't twist off, you'll need to mount a fan in the case somewhere blowing at the cpu - e.g. an 80mm case fan (it has to be bigger than a cpu fan if it not directly on the cpu).

If it has a dinky cpu fan and no heatsink, after the computer has been on a while, say, 15 minutes, shut down the computer, remove the power to the case, and quickly remove the cpu fan - try the same fingertip test. If it's too hot, get a bigger cpu fan (more cfm).

If it has a not so dinky cpu fan and a clamped heatsink meant for a faster cpu it should be fine.

2. There may be a way of reducing the voltage to the cpu core by rigging up resistors and tiny insulated wires to certain pin positions - you remove the cpu, connect the wiring, install the cpu again. If you want to try that, I know of a site that has such info.
www.plasma-online.de
Look on the left side.
It may re-direct to a newer site.

Wierd!
I thought I posted the contents of response 40 before 39, a lot more than 6 minutes apart!

The 54C pentium processors had an I/O voltage of between 3.135 and 3.6 with a general setting of 3.3. The VRE processors had a range of 3.4 to 3.6. That's why the motherboards sometimes had a VRE jumper.

The 55C processors were the MMX ones. They were dual voltage cpu's with an additional core voltage of 2.8.

I'm kind of suprised that motherboard is seeing the cpu right. Is it identified as MMX on the posting screen? If that motherboard isn't MMX capable eventually it, the cpu or both will be ruined.

Your right in that it is a 233Mhz. I'll change the voltage to Standard.

I can't use the XP CD because the PC reads the CD and tells me to take it out.

I set the floppy to be first and the PC tells me to insert a proper boot device.

Either your bootdisk is bad, the floppy drive is bad, it's not connected right or it's misidentified in cmos.

Actually now I set floppy first, then hard drive and I get the bloody "NTDLR is missing". I could put this hard drive to another PC and format it with Fat32 (with the startup disk) and see how that does.

Although you've set the floppy first, either your floppy drive isn't being detected or the disk in it isn't detected. So the boot process goes on to the hard drive from where you get the error message.

I suppose you could put the HD in another computer but fixing the floppy problem needs to be done eventually.

If the floppy drive worked fine previously and you have not changed any connections,
if the CD is before the floppy drive in the boot order in the bios setup, most if not all computer bioses can't boot a bootable floppy in that case - the floppy has to be before the CD drive.
If you can set floppy drive first, CD drive second, hard drive third, you don't normally ever have to change it (you can't set that boot order in some older bioses).

If you were fiddling with connections for the floppy drive:

If the floppy led is on all the time one end of it's data cable is installed backwards.

If it doesn't come on at all, either you don't have it set up as recognized properly in the bios (3 1/2" 1.44mb), you have it connected to the middle connector or to the wrong end connector instead of to the proper end one that has flipped wiring between it and the middle connector, you haven't got it correctly on the pins in the drive or the mboard (easy to do if there is no shroud around the pins), the drive is dead or does not have it's power connector plugged in or it's not on it's connector right (it's not hard to misalign it on the pins on some drives), or the data cable is damaged - look for broken wires at the edges of the cable at each connector or under the cable clamps there.

If the led lights up briefly when you boot, and lights up again when trying to read the floppy, then goes out after a while, it's probably okay, and it's your boot disk that is the problem.

If the led lights up briefly when you boot, and lights up again when trying to read the floppy, but the led stays on for a long time, or as long as the floppy is in the drive, the boot disk is really bad, or the drive is bad.

Everything works well as you have described and I've used 2 known working 98 startup disks. But I will download another startup disk and try it. I does seem that the 2 disks are screwed up.

I used a fully verified startup disk with floppy being the only bootup option and it still gives me the "insert proper bootup media" thing. Or the NTDLR thing. I don't know what the heck is going on!

Can you just suggest a motherboard I can buy off Ebay that uses all the parts that I have?

You might check in cmos and make sure the floppy controller is enabled and the drive is identified as 1.44. Otherwise the drive is probably bad or the broken resistor is at fault.

A pentium II motherboard or even a good super socket 7 (a socket 7 board capable of up to 100 FSB) would work just fine. But as I mentioned above, the motherboard you have doesn't have the standard rear port arrangement. It's going to be hard to find a board that will match up with your existing KB, mouse, and serial and parallel port openings--assuming you plan on using the same case. Here's an ebay link for one of the Gateway Thor motherboards:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gateway-Intel-P...

I assume the rear ports on yours are the same? You'd need something with that same arrangement. Or I guess you could order one of the ones being sold there. But if I were you I wouldn't spend $15 on a crappy P-I board plus whatever shipping this guy charges. I've got a bunch of P-II motherboards I'm going to junk for gold scrap. So if you decide on something like that let me know.

I would like a slightly better motherboard. Right now I am installing 98se on the 2gig drive on my other 1400Mhz PC and then I'll see if the drive boots up on the other board. That board from Ebay is way to expensive for what it is. Maybe a PII board would be good.

I'll get back to you with my results!

Thanks again!!!!!!!

I succesfully install 98se on my 2gig drive. I implanted that drive onto the main rig here. Win 98se loads but then won't detect my CD drive, and the device manager only detects: System adapters x3 and network adapters. It has a question mark beside: other adapters, Plug and Play BIOS (fail safe). Win 98se still loads up but is fairly useless.

I don't know what to do about this. Maybe I'll buy a motherboard off you, DAVEINCAPS.

When you install 98 one on PC and then put the HD in another, it'll boot up but as 98 finds all the new hardware it tries to install drivers for it. Unfortunately it doesn't ID the cdrom until later so it makes driver installation difficult.

Usually the solution is to copy the WIN98 folder from the 98 cd onto the hard drive before swapping the drive. Then when 98 boots up the first time in the new PC and asks you to insert the 98 cd, you instead direct it to the location of the WIN98 folder you previously copied from the cd. It will find what it needs there.

I can get you a P-II board but it won't have the same port configuration as your motherboard. (Yours is like the one in the ebay link, right?) So you'd probably need a different case.

For the case thing, mine is like the Ebay link's board. In what way would the port config matter except for the port shield would be different? Is the shield really necessary? I subscribe to MaxPC, and they explained why a shield is necessay, buy I can't remember why.

raiden1701

AS I TOLD YOU you back in response 8, and reminded you of in post since that one:

If you install Win 98 or 98SE....
IMPORTANT : NOTE that for Win 98 and 98SE need to use a special procedure to install Windows on a mboard with a 430FX chipset!!
See this:

http://www.lanyoncomputers.com.au/c...

The easiest way to fix your problem is install Windows again after removing all your cards except the video card, and fixing the I/O address mistake, then install your cards after thhe hard drtive controllers a CDRom drive show up!!

In your existing PC case, if the back opening that holds the bracket--the shield I guess--is the standard size then you could just pop in a different one. But no, you wouldn't really need one. Although bugs, spiders even mice will crawl inside if you leave it open.

I also can't be certain if the mounting holes (to screw the motherboard into the case) will be the same. Gateway is usually pretty good about using the standard ATX configuration but you've got an odd board and I can't be sure.

I found one of these the other day. I haven't checked it out yet. The USB and KB/mouse ports are switched from the standard ATX but I have the shield. It (the shield) is made to fit the specific IBM case but you may be able to adapt it to your existing one. I could throw in the P-II 450 cpu and a 64 meg stick of RAM for a total of $10 plus postage.

If it doesn't check out OK I'd just send something else. But it's sitting here loose now and I wouldn't have to strip it out of a case.

I'd like a motherboard that could accept my 4 banks of EDO (32x4) and my 233 pentium mmx, if that could work for you.

Yeah, I think so. It wouldn't be as good as a P-II though.

Most of the P-I motherboards I have left are either the AT style--with the large KB port--or they're ATX like the P-II's but use SDRAM memory and not the SIMM you have. It wouldn't be practical to try to fit an AT motherboard in that case.

What state or country do you live in?

I live in lower east B.C., Canada. But I have an address Washington State. I would definetly need an ATX board with the EDO RAM support x 4.

OK, I'll look around and see what I have. I'll try to do it tomorrow.

raiden1701

After all th