Incorrect CPU speed

[Mammoth]

I am running W2KPro on a msi-5169(Aladdin Chipset) MoBo w/ a AMD K62 450. After a fresh install of W2K I check the system info. , and it is reporting only half the speed --"226" to be exact. It also shows my BIOS to be a DMI bios that is dated 1995. I have updated the BIOS to the most recent BIOS. I do belive it is more than just a misreport because all of my apps now run EXTREMELY slower than normal.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

 

[Karl Blessing]

question: have you actually check to see if your Bios indeed supports the 450, for example, I orderd an AMD K6-2/450 for one of the Socket7 machines in the office, as it turns out the motherboard, due a bios limitation(unfixble with updates) is only able to support a maximum of 233 Mhtz, mainly because the motherboard is only capable of 66Mhtz Front Side Bus. If you have such a motherboard, you cannot get upto the 450 speed, check your motherboard manual, it should have the jumper settings to change, if it does support it, (unlike the newer Athlon boards, Socket7 board, do not automatically detect your CPU speed and voltage, you have to set them with the dip switches on the motherboard, and so forth)

so it could be one of two things

1) You did not set the proper switches to identify the CPU
2) The Bios will not support higher because of the FSB speed

Lets just hope it's not #2. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

I appreciate the feedback although that's not it at all. I have had the motherboard for about a year now running 98se. It's not a problem between my processor and MoBo. For some reason W2K just doesn't agree with my BIOS. I have yet to see a fix for this or any other situation like it. I know it is not random because I have tried doing a clean install about 4 times and every time it returns the same result. I hate to have to buy a new MoBo and Processor but I guess now with the market being the way it is, it would be a good idea to to move in that direction. Thanks though!

 

[Karl Blessing]

ah I see, I thought it was like an upgrade to a new cpu, and you wanted to get win2k running on it.

hrm, I've heard of Win2k, not agreeing with various devices and such, but dont recall bios being a likely one, have you downloaded whaterver required drivers for your motherboard chipset, and bios and such? (much like how people with VIa chipset download the Via 4in1 drivers often) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

Yeah I have all the new drivers. Unfortunately this is not a new problem. I have been trying this for months. I figured I would give it another shot. W2K for some reason is showing my BIOS to be a DMI bios dated 1995. That to me is the weirdest part. I know that my bios supports DMI, but I wouldn't think that would affect (physically) the CPU speed.

 

[Karl Blessing]

If i recall correctly, the K6 were one of the first (among intel chips) to allow software to affect it's speed (from norm to slower, not other way around) , like those little cooling appz called rain and watefall, that shut down part of a CPU when idel, to cool it.

but anyways, yea it does sound really weird, you wouldnt happen to have a full system spec would ya? Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

>If i recall correctly, the K6 were one of the first (among intel chips) to allow software to affect it's speed

K6 chip's are AMD. Intel makes a speedstep that reduces clock speed when running low on battery life. I haven't ever heard that any AMD K6 series chip supports any kind of adjustable clock speed feature. As far as specs are concerned what is it you wanted to know?

 

[Karl Blessing]

yes I know they're AMD, but they too had similar features.

Specs basically stuff like

CPU
Motherboard (Brand, Chipset, Bus Speed, etc)
Card adapters you are using
Powersupply

I think that covers what I may need to know Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

CPU=AMD k62 450
MoBo=MS-5169 ALI 100mhz bus
Sound Blaster Live Value
390 Ram
3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
Linksys 10/100 LNETx
Modem Blaster 56K PCI
POWER SUPPLY????

 

[Karl Blessing]

The wattage on the power supply I mean (for example, that V5 is a very hungry power eater, so I just wana know the wattage) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

probably 250 not sure off hand

 

[Karl Blessing]

if it's a 250, I would strongly recomend upgrading to a 300 or 350 (although unrelated to your current problem, with the cards, and stuff you use in your machine, you are probally on the brink of maxing that 250 watt out, the V5 takes alot)

Are you sure, that your CPU wasnt already 233Mhtz when you were running win98, windows 98 does not require as much reasources as Windows 2000, and I have gotten 98SE to run very nicely on Pentium 166Mhtz systems, the reason I asked is that I looked up the specifications for your motherboard, and it does not exceed 233Mhtz for AMD K6 type CPUs

as you can see from the jumper settings, there is no settings for higher than 233Mhtz

http://www.censuspc.com/biosdrv/jmpset/5169jps.htm

(Spec Sheet)

http://www.censuspc.com/products/motherbd_html/5169.htm

yours is apparently the classic original socket7 that did not support past 233Mhtz.

Now unless of course, microstar isnt showing me something, but from the jumper settings, I dont see how you could possibly been running at 450 (you would not have noticed the speed as much on 98, or lower systems, you would have on win2k)

[ 10 minutes later ]
now I am looking at the manual for the 4th revision of that board, and it does show K6-2 450 jumpers, so my next question is, what revision is your motherboard (usually shown on the boot screen as rev.) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Karl Blessing]

disregard that last question

http://203.69.93.66/faq/view.asp?Page=1&Serial=21

according to that, just updating the bios would have given you support, so it wouldnt matter what revision. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

It is a Revision 4 and I am absolutely positive that it runs at 450 under 98. The reason I think that this issue is so strange is because of the noticable decrease in performance. Yes 2k is a resource hog, but I know that I have more than ample amount of memory to support 2k. I am going to have to breakdown and call MSI's tech support. EEEK! I hate tech support!!

 

[Karl Blessing]

Have you actually ever talked with anyone who ran Win2k on a K6-2 Processor?, not exactly a powerhouse compared to athlons , especially the chips that dont have either fast L2 cache, or ondie cache.

but yea, I'm stumped at the moment Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

I have never talked to anyone who has this same combo, but I do know that regardless of the cache, it shouldn't be doing this. Ha, you think your stumped. The guys at MSI Tech support were even more clueless than we are! I knew I should never have called those guys. I think I will just buy a Epox Mobo and use this 5169 as an anchor!

 

[Karl Blessing]

why not move upto a AMD Tbird(or duron) and get a socketA motherboard, would be relativly cheaper for you in the long run, and besides, you have SDrams already.

about the only thing you might need is a 300watt power supply (for the sake of the Voodoo5 at least)

cuz you can get a duron 750 for about 35$ (or a 900 for about 80$) , and the board would probally come around 100 , to about 150 , depending on the quality of the board (check socketa.com for board reviews, pricewatch.com for prices on any computer parts, and resellerratings.com to make sure you are buying from a company that has decent ratings by customers)

if you plan to just buy new.

because for roughtly the same ammount you could just pump it up. and it would help win2k a bit too. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Mammoth]

check out this link

http://www.nether.net/~mammoth

this has the output of a cpu test that I ran on my machine with w2kpro running. Notice the FSB was cut in half too. Something is very strange about this!

 

[silentwitness]

Get rid of that Linksys....It won't solve your problem but it will save you headaches in the future. Our Win2k machines at work do not do well at all with the Linksys cards.

 

[Mammoth]

Actually I have several machines running with a Linksys nic under W2KAS and W2KPro, and they run without a glitch. You may have a bad revision. I also have a linksys card in a linux box that runs smooth as well.