Need help setting up a computer bios
 

I've done it a million times BUT that was more than a decade ago. I have an old P2-233 that I just upgraded to P3-333. The bios has always been kind of funky (or so I thought) and would pop up with an error concerning the CPU settings. This was always a big deal since the computer was in one of my MAME machines and I could not see what was going on due to the arcade monitor. I learned which keystrokes to use while flying blind to close the bios without saving. I've been stuck with this bios/board for a while since it has ISA, PCI, and AGP slots (important for the MAME machine). Anyway, after changing the CPU I am still having the bios open during boot up (it does this due to the error) and I would like to get it fixed now. Any help would be appreciated on which settings to use, etc.

Award Medallion Bios v6.0
Asus P3B-F motherboard


These are the settings that the bios tries to automatically put in for the cpu:


http://www.lightweightmiata.com/misc/cpu01.JPG

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/misc/cpu02.JPG

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/misc/cpu03.JPG

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/misc/cpu04.JPG

What kind of processor and ram is in it?

That will determine all the parameters you posted.

P3-333

100 mhz ram

Wait, what?

The slowest P3 I can find is the 450 Mhz Katmai. Do you have the exact model number of the CPU available?

333 is either P2 or Celeron.

OOPS, you are correct. The chip is identified as a P3-333 when the machine boots up but that can't possibly be correct (been a long time since I have even seen a Piii). The chip is an SL35E which would make it 500 mhz.


Chart:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors


Edit:
The bios was saying 333 because that was what it was set to. Shows 500 now...

Looks like all is well now. I'm not sure why the bios never did like the P2 but now that the bios is set to 500 it is acting fine. Thanks Joe and Dimitris and Sam!

Then that tells you everything you need to know. 100 Mhz CPU bus, 33 Mhz PCI bus, 5x CPU multiplier, 1x DRAM multiplier, no AGP, VCore = 2.0V.


EDIT: Looks like you got it. Congrats.

FWIW, this is what the computer is being used for:

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/proj...ame/mame02.jpg

Nice.

Do you have a Tron-compatible panel? Years ago, I fantasized about building a Mame cabinet for that exact purpose; there is absolutely no off-the-shelf control combination which adequately emulates the spinner and flightstick on that cabinet.

(The same panel would also work nicely for Tempest / Breakout / Arkanoid / etc)

Also, what are you using for a display in there? Is that a VGA monitor, or do you have an actual 15Khz arcade tube?

what does the 2nd and 4th player do for buttons?

I need to work on the website/pics for the machines (built them back in '99 and the original website/html is long gone).

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/projects/projects01.JPG

Two cabinets, both with 25" 15khz monitors (one vertical, one horizontal). You've seen the joystick configuration for the right one in an earlier post. The left one has 3 buttons/joystick/2 buttons, then a spinner up top, a track ball in the middle (with two white buttons up and to the right), then a joystick with a button on top of it. The spinner/joystick with button is my tron setup. At one time I had a real tron joystick/spinner, a pole position wheel/pedal/shifter, and a spyhunter "wheel" with shifter. I kept them for 10 years before throwing them in a dumpster because I knew I would never use them. I did do a quick makeshift pole position control panel but never finished it. Not sure why but that is what happens when you lose interest in something. The machines get turned on twice a year now. Depressing...

Wait their turn... I built the control panels to emulate most of the arcade games out there. Sure, you can't play 4-player Gauntlet but they released a two player variation for arcades that didn't want to give up the real estate needed for the huge panel.


FWIW, the OS on the machine is Win98 Dos (in case anyone was interested). I'm using a front end called ArcadeOS which grabs the video and converts it to something that the 15KHZ monitors can use.

Back to the original question -

My machine once again crapped out. The bios loaded up automatically and my settings are gone. The bios gives an error message:

During the last boot-up, your system hung for improper cpu bus frequency.

My current settings are 500, 5.0x, 100.3/33.43,2.0v

It will use this without problems for a few boots and then go back to the settings below (trying to save itself from burning up).

Oh, the agony.


Yeah, I can sympathize with that.

Apart from the fact that I move around a lot and hate having to lug heavy things into and out of moving trucks, the fact is that I'm just not as "into" videogames as I was 25 years ago. I do occasionally fire up MAME or Nesticle on my media-center PC, but I just don't think dedicating a whole cabinet to them would be a worthwhile venture.

It's still cool as hell, though.

Yes, very cool.

Moving these things around much is not an option. They were in my last house and we moved them into this house (upstairs). I removed the control panel, monitor, and computer. All that was left was the pressed board cabinet. Moving them almost killed my two friends (250 and 325 pounders). I have a hard enough time rolling them around (they have wheels on them) to work on them.

Those are for left-handed people.

So retro-cool!!