Athlon64 4000+ on ECS Nforce3-a754

[arcturus999]

I am new to these forums, so if at first I don't give the full information needed for help, please forgive me.

I have an (old) ECS Elitegroup Nforce3-a754 motherboard and (very like member Peregrine) just got a good deal on a used mobile Athlon64 4000+ processor. However, when installing the processor into the board, the system won't start up at all. After a bit of searching, I've found that there are a number of Nforce3 250Gb based boards that do support this processor, but mine isn't listed. I've upgraded the Bios to ECS' most recent one (1.0f) but this makes no difference - I also flashed a Biostar bios , which works well with my Sempron 3300+, but again doesn't start with the 4000+ processor.


Please does anyone know if it's possible to fix the issue, and if so, what do I have to do?

[1234s282]

Hello arcturus999 and welcome to the forums

Please provide a download link to your boards bios , aswell as a download link to a similar board which does support the 4000+ CPU.

Then we can look at modding your BIOS to add support.

Thanks
Admin

[arcturus999]

Thanks for replying so quickly. Here is a link to my board's latest bios:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?detailid=579&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Bios&MenuID=52&LanID=0

although I've also uploaded it as an attachment (NF3916.BIN).

I think the MSI board "MSI K8NM-FISR" has the same NVidea chipset as my board, and also has support for the Mobile Athlon64 4000+ chip. The latest bios for this board is located at:

http://eu.msi.com/index.php?func=downloadfile&dno=1784&type=bios

but I have also uploaded it as an attachment (7034v15.zip).

Thank you very much for helping - it's really appreciated.

(I've added the attachments in the next post as I'm having a little trouble)

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[arcturus999]

Hi there 1234s282,
I ought to add, just to be sure, that the 4000+ processor details are as follows:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K8/AMD-Mob...KX5BU.html

What that doesn't say is that the FSB is set to 200MHz, and the clock multiplier is 13.

Thank you in advance

[arcturus999]

Hi 1234s282 - obviously you're very busy, but what's the usual turn around time on a bios modification?

[1234s282]

Hi 1234s282 - obviously you're very busy, but what's the usual turn around time on a bios modification?

Sorry arcturus999 but this isnt really my area , TheWiz is the guru for CPU Upgrades and hes just gone on a weeks holiday

Ive applied what i know but i dont know how it will turn out for you. Please read the recovery instructions in the tutorials section BEFORE flashing and make sure that you prepare for recovery first!

Looking at this screenshot , you can see the old microcode list at the bottom is smaller than the new microcode list. The old cpucode was 6k and the new one is 8k.



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/747181/ECS%20Nfo...34s282.zip

Flash at your own risk!

Good Luck!

Admin

[arcturus999]

Thanks 1234s282 - is it worth waiting for theWiz to get back and have him check it over before flashing - do you think??

[1234s282]

His trip has been postponed until monday , i will email him asking him to look.

Regards
Admin

[arcturus999]

Thank you very much 1234s282. I'll wait a little bit.

[TheWiz]

A fella takes a week off, and look what happens

OK, check it out. What 1234s282 was sorta correct. He added microcode from a similar board, but your board is so "ancient" in the CPU world it doesn't have AGESA or MEMINIT, so it doesn't matter where you get your microcode from. For this very reason, you have the latest up to date microcode. This bios link below shouldn't pose a risk to your system, its just microcode. At the same token, it may not fix your issue until you test it. Because your board is so old, most of your CPU P-STATES etc. is in ACPITBL, so if you find the mod posted below doesn't do anything, then we would have to try a riskier mod which is replacing the ACPITBL you have from the board 1234s282 used as a donor.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1525839/Bios/NF3916CPU.BIN

Here's the updated Microcode, hope this clears some things up.



TheWiz