Problem with a Coppermine 600E?

[Victorian]

First message and, of course, it's a problem.

Just upgraded my system from a Celeron 500 to a Coppermine 600E and weird stuff is happening.

When I cold boot I see the lights of my various peripherals flashing as they start to power up and then... nothing. Screen stays blank and no boot. If I hit the reset button the system boots normally (most of the time). One oddity that I noticed is that when my peripherals seem to be powering up (and then stopping) the moniter light stays yellow (it shows green when the system is booting up normally). Also while the system refuses to boot on the initial power-up I know that power is flowing as the case fans are working.

I've also had a few secondary problems such as my Promise Ultra66 not being recognized (has happened twice), weird streaking effects in NHL 2000 (the only 3d game that I'm playing at the moment) and, once, the system halting the boot process with a strange vxd load failure (sorry, can't remember what the exact message was).

Now everything worked just fine with the Celeron 500( and that's the only thing that's changed) and I'm rather puzzeled as to what could be causing these problems. Anyone have any ideas?

What I'm running:

Aopen AX6BC Pro Gold
600E (not overclocked)

Promise Ultra66 (connected to Maxtor 13 gig and WD 10 gig as masters and a Zip drive as secondary slave)

Quantum 3 gig drive as primary master on the motherboard Acer 50x cdrom as primary slave on the motherboard and HP 9310i CD Writer as the secondary master on the mother board.

Matrox G400 Max (overclocked to 110% using the Matrox overclocking utility)

D-Link network card

Diamond Supra Express modem

Optiquest V55 monitor

Oh yeah, running Windows 98SE

No IRQ conflicts, etc.

As I said, everything was running smooth as silk with the Celeron. The problems started as soon as I changed the chip.

[CHHAS]

On Aopen's homepage it is stated that certain 'lot'-numbers of the AX6BC Gold are recommended for use with Coppermine processors

see ( http://www.aopen.nl/tech/report/cpuref/p2cpu.htm )

maybe your board simply doesn't like Coppermines ? (hopefully that won't be the case....)


------------------
P3 500, 224 MB ram, G400 16SH,
Maxtor DM 40+ 30GB, IBM Deskstar 16GP 10GB, Maxtor 4320 13 GB
SB Live Value

[Victorian]

They have never listed anything re the lot numbers for the Pro Gold. What I've heard, 2nd hand, is that the Gold lot #'s are the same as the Pro II #'s. If that's true, my lot number should be compatible.

Unfortunately, trying to get information direct from AOpen on the issue of compatibility is like trying to pull teeth from a chicken.

[CHHAS]

That's a damn shame

Have you tried the Coppermine in another board ? (maybe it doesn't work)


------------------
P3 500, 224 MB ram, G400 16SH,
Maxtor DM 40+ 30GB, IBM Deskstar 16GP 10GB, Maxtor 4320 13 GB
SB Live Value

[Victorian]

Nope, don't have access to another board to test it in. Once I actually get the sytem booted it seems to run fine (other than the problem I noticed in NHL 2000 which may, or may not be related).

I know that something is wonky, just can't figure out what. I'm guessing that it's related to the motherboard but damned if I can think of why/what.

If I don't get any ideas from the forum I'm thinking that I may have to buy a new board (possibly the MSI BXMaster) but if I can avoid it it would be nice. I just got the AOpen last August and it's been a great board.

[Bixler]

Backing up Jim here:

Based on they symptoms you describe it certainly sounds like a core voltage problem on your coppermine. Maybe you should try increasing/decreasing in .05v steps...the worst that could happen if you are careful is that it won't boot, and you can always drop back to your original settings.

Greebe, our legendary Athlon overclocker held my hand through some O/C testing on my rig, and as we were finding the sweet spot, I noticed much the same symptoms during several tests.

I'd also recommend that you drop that Max back to factory settings while you're sorting through this, just to make sure of that variable.

[paulcs]

Spec on the PIII 600E is 1.65 V. If you find that it runs fine at a higher voltage, at 600 MHz, then you have a lemon and you should return it.

Is is it a Flip Chip or a Slot 1 model?

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Wombat]

Not so fast Paul. Even if it is a voltage problem, the MB or the power supply might not be able to provide a good signal. The CPU may be fine at 1.65V, but it may not be getting it.

[Victorian]

Durango: Yep, voltage is spec. 1.65.

Bixler: I'll try upping the voltage and see what happens.

Paulcs: It's a flip chip with a MSI MS-6905 Master (2) adaptor.

[Victorian]

Ooops. something else I forgot to mention in the way of a possible problem. When I was running the Celeron 500 my memory (3 sticks of 128) was running at Cas 2. With the 600E it will only run at Cas 3.

[DuRaNgO[MU]]

Victorian,
have you checked to see if the voltage is set correctly?
just a thought
jim

------------------
Abit BE6 with P3 500 @ 5*124=620
14.6 gb Maxtor ata66 and 128mb ram
G400 vanilla 32mb @ 168/210
Sblive with Altec Lansing speaker combo
384k DSL and Realtek nic
Windows 98se with DX7a
3dMark2000 = 2956
Worn out reset button :O)

[Victorian]

OK, tried upping the voltage on the 600E (first to 1.7 and then to 1.75) and no change. Cold boot, peripherals seem to be powering up, the monitor stays off and then no boot. Hit the reset button and it boots up. Still can't get my memory back to Cas 2 and still getting the occasional streak in NHL 2000. Funny thing though, thecold boot problem only seems to happen when I turn the computer on after its been off for a few hours. I was playing around a bit yesterday and it seems to cold boot ok if I shut down and then turn it right back on. <sigh>

Starting to think that it's got to be the AOpen board (although on the AOpen newsgroup seems that a number of folks have had successful matches of Coppermines and Pro Gold boards with the same 'lot' number).

Anyone have anything to say about the MSI BXMaster boards? Looks like it's been getting good reviews and it's compatible with Coppermines and the quality seems to be comparable to the AOpen board.

Unless anyone has any ideas re my current system problems I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and try a new board.

[Vlip]

I don't think it should apply to your problem. But I got exactly the same one as you.
My system juste seemed not beeing able to boot the first time I powered it up. Always had to reset the system to make him start.

I fixed the problem.

Now here is my system:
Asus K7M
Athlon 500
...

So you see my system has absolutely nothing to do whith yours so I'd be really surprised it would be the same problem.

The solution of my problem was a "flawed" BIOS in my K7M, this bug was fixed in later release of the bios.

So if you don't have the latest BIOS for your mobo, give it a try. Even if I don't believe it will help ;-)

Vlip

[Victorian]

I have the most recent bios for the board (it was released last a few months ago) but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to re-flash it. I still suspect that the board just isn't completely compatible with the chip. Unfortunately AOpen refuses to discuss the issue of lot #'s and Coppemine chips.

[CHHAS]

Maybe it's your Slocket.

Does it contain a voltage regulator or does it just tell the MB what voltage to supply ?

If it is of the latter type, you could have a voltage problem, I've read about boards that displayed a voltage lower than 2.0v in the bios, but still supplied 2.0v.

I checked Microstar's homepage but couldn't find anything to determine which kind of voltage regulation your converter has.

------------------
P3 500, 224 MB ram, G400 16SH,
Maxtor DM 40+ 30GB, IBM Deskstar 16GP 10GB, Maxtor 4320 13 GB
SB Live Value

[This message has been edited by CHHAS (edited 05 April 2000).]