Bug in the Abit SA6R...

[awise]

I read a review on another web site (cant remember wich one) a couple weeks ago about the Abit SA6R MB, in which it stated that the MB had a problem with the AGP divider when using the user defined section of the SoftMenu III. When for example you set the FSB ratio to 3:3:1 on 100mhz bus and are using say a celeron 566 with a 8.5 multiplier, the AGP divider is incorrectly calculated and makes the AGP bus speed way out of spec. Well it just so happens that I had already ordered a SA6R MB before reading this article and I have a Celeron 566, and sure enough when I set the SoftMenu options as stated above I get the same problem. I was able to boot to Windows using the 83 mhz FSB setting and checked the AGP bus with Sandra 2000 and it showed the AGP running at 83 mhz or 1/1, but there is no way to manually set the AGP divider. If I set it to 100mhz FSB the system wont even post, I suppose due to the AGP bus being so far out of spec. I have had this processor upto 850mhz with no problem on another MB so I know it isnt the CPU and I have PC133 RAM. I have revision 1.0 of the MB and have dowloaded the latest BIOS update for it. Has anyone else had or heard about this problem?? Does anyone know what website this was on? I forgot...

Thanks...

 

[rhinohide]

It was a review of the SA6R on www.BXBOARDS.com . I have the same problem. :disgust: I haven't tried the new "VW" bios to see if it fixes it. I am also disapointed because I bought this board based on all the reviews that show it to be exceptionaly stable and a great overclocking rig... then I ran into this problem and found the review on bxboards, you know the rest of the sad story. WIth all the Celeron overclockers out there, you would think this would become a bigger stink!

 

[awise]

With all that I have read I think they will issue a BIOS update to correct those problems as well as some of the features that were in older versions of the Soft Menu II.

 

[athoennes]

I've noticed a similar problem. PIII 700 (FSB 100) Soft Menu III User settings. My machine will not post with any of the "4" dividers - 4:4:1, 4:3:1. It does run fine with the 3:3:1 though, just not at the speed I would like. This happens with both VJ and VW bios. I also notice that the onboard video will run at faster rate than the Leadtek GeForce 2 MX. I also tried the 96MHZ rate with 2:3:1 since I have 133MHZ memory. As I recall this did not work (too fast for the PCI I suppose). This might work for Celeron's too?

 

[shiner]

Anyone foudn out if this is fixed yet?

 

[bonkers325]

i have no probs running 4:4:1 or 4:3:1 or 3:3:1 with the sa6r upto 160fsb


btw this is my pIII cc0 testing rig so i know this thing works
btw my using vw bios fine