Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Has anybody been successful in updating the highpoint hpt370a controller on this board to bios version 2.351?

Everytime I try to update the bios with the load tool from highpoint (load.exe) I get the message "No loadable Eprom found". The exact command I am entering in DOS (windows 98 boot disk) is load 3XXV2351.p4e

Thanks

It has to be implemented into the motherboard's BIOS ROM. You have to take the motherboard's BIOS and use lovely CBROM.EXE to embed it, then reflash the motherboard BIOS.

[theiba]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Hope someone still reads these forums, anyways:

I've had my dvd266u-rn since spring of 2001, and it's yet to fail me... well, the first board I got had a bad pathway somewhere on it, and would crash anytime something video related came up, a "quick" RMA and problem solved, and it's pretty much worked flawlessly since.

But with all these new fancy games and whatnot coming out, and reading about your modded BIOS, I figured I'd give it a try, as well as the better heatsinks on the NB and VRMS.

Well, it's definitely noticeably better, not that I can complain for a 5 year old computer that still gets half decent performance, that was never intended to be a gaming machine to begin with. But, with that BIOS a problem arose. I've got an add-in ATA controller card, and with it in, it locks up just after showing the DMI message at boot.

Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, because I'd just move my two 300gb drives to the secondary port on the highpoint controller, but with the two drives on that, windows stops at the loading screen.

I don't mind picking up a new ide controller, but which ones would you suggest, or is there something I'm missing that can resolve the lock up at the DMI message?

[SCB2525]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Anyone happen to have one of these boards that they'd like to sell?

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Anyone happen to have one of these boards that they'd like to sell?

I unloaded 2 of them about a month or so ago... Sorry... Might post an ad in the wanted to buy section, someone may have one. Also, check ebay. When you find one, get it recapped if it hasn't been already. The Hermie caps they use are complete trash, I see DVD266U-RN's all the time for recapping.

[SCB2525]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Been looking on Ebay every few days for a few weeks now....no luck. Will do on the posting in the wanted section. Thanks for the advice on that and the capacitors.

[xmaster]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

The site was changed around a little. Here's all the BIOS's

http://root.kabalsrealm.com/index.ph...ds;catd=1;ss=0

Glad I found this site. Need to replace my dying hard drive with a newer higher capacity drive and will require a bios update, I think.

TOPCAT, what is the login/pw to get into the site above?

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

^
I can't tell you that, it's classified..... but here's the BIOS:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...tid=5355&stc=1

[tonka]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Topcat,
I stumbled across this site, as I had one of these boards lying around. Have tried all your fixes and bios and can now say this board is stable for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! and to all the others that have contributed.

Tonka

[surfeagle]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

I have one those boards now, and I'd like to know which cpu fans you used. I don't have the original ones as I bought the board and now a couple 1266 CPU's.

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Well I never did sell this board but after laying it aside for another year I am now in the process of setting everything up. So far after using all the information on this site I am well pleased with its performance, especially considering the old technology. Right now I'm using only 2 sticks of Kingston KVR400X72C3A/512 memory but wish to install the maximum allowed 4gbs, which I believe can be set within the BIOS to use interleaving process. As I referred to before, this manual is pretty lame and concerning memory information it really stinks, even to the point of being contradictory. This manual appears to be a sloppy reincarnation of the earlier boards so it's no wonder! I know that unbuffered non-ecc is somewhat speedier but prefer using ECC RAM. If there is anyone out there that knows whether or not this will accept the registered type I would appreciate a heads up. If not I will order a stick and post the results for future reference.

[networkerror]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

well it seems my DVD266u-RN has some issues with its AGP slot, using anything newer than my Voodoo5 pixelates big time, it never causes a lockup...it makes me wonder if it is becuase it is not supplying enough voltage? I assume that this would be impossible to do with this board/bios setup.

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

Well I never did sell this board but after laying it aside for another year I am now in the process of setting everything up. So far after using all the information on this site I am well pleased with its performance, especially considering the old technology. Right now I'm using only 2 sticks of Kingston KVR400X72C3A/512 memory but wish to install the maximum allowed 4gbs, which I believe can be set within the BIOS to use interleaving process. As I referred to before, this manual is pretty lame and concerning memory information it really stinks, even to the point of being contradictory. This manual appears to be a sloppy reincarnation of the earlier boards so it's no wonder! I know that unbuffered non-ecc is somewhat speedier but prefer using ECC RAM. If there is anyone out there that knows whether or not this will accept the registered type I would appreciate a heads up. If not I will order a stick and post the results for future reference.

All attempts to use registered RAM with this board ended in complete failure to post so I would assume that unless the 3X1gb sticks I tried were all bad this board wasn't designed for registered modules.

[Rawhide]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

well it seems my DVD266u-RN has some issues with its AGP slot, using anything newer than my Voodoo5 pixelates big time, it never causes a lockup...it makes me wonder if it is becuase it is not supplying enough voltage? I assume that this would be impossible to do with this board/bios setup.

For what it's worth, my Iwill board works quite well using a BFG GeForce 7800 OC.

Additionally in relation to my RAM posting above; I can use 3 X 1gb sticks of unbuffered non-ECC RAM as a maximum limit. Adding any additional, even only 512mb leads to incomplete post and screwy display lettering. I tried various combinations of RAM with interleaving but no increase in speed and seems to be happiest with the 3gb maximum.

[ntabakis]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

All attempts to use registered RAM with this board ended in complete failure to post so I would assume that unless the 3X1gb sticks I tried were all bad this board wasn't designed for registered modules.

The board happily takes registered modules provided they're of x8 type. Common registered modules are of x4 type and won't work with the Pro266T chipset.

Kingston has some appropriate modules AFAIK, they end in a "D" suffix (for Double-bank in Kingston's terms), e.g. KVR266X72RC/512D or something like that.

Regards

[HockeytownWax]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

first ... amazing that this thread still exists and is somewhat active.

second ... i am the disappointed owner of a DVD266u-RN.

i bought it brand spankin' new ages ago thinking i'd slap together a new workstation with it and a pair of 1.4GHz tualatin server CPU's. extra work happened and i never had time to purchase the CPU's let alone construct an entire new box, so the mobo just sat on the shelf.

a couple of years ago, while sorting thru extra goodies on the shelves (taking inventory), i came upon the mobo and remembered the system i wanted to build, so i hit ebay and bought a matched pair of 1.4's for less than $100US (with heatsinks).

when the cpu's got here i snapped in a generic 256mb stick of non-ecc and tried to install win2k pro ... and tried ... and tried ... and tried. Blue screens repeatedly so i dismantled everything and put it all back on the shelf until i had real time to investigate.

well that "real time" came a few days ago. after may hair pulling sessions with it i have discovered i cannot enter a FSB value higher than 112 without blue screening.

yes i flashed the BIOS with the custom one provided here ... yes i upped the core voltage to 1.5v (and tried 1.475 as well) ... disabled onboard sound & LAN and have the RAID controller jumpered out ... and yes i'm using a cheapo PCI slot vid card.

i haven't gone as far as replacing the heatsink on the northbridge chip but i did place a fan over the VRM area to blow cold air on it.

my best guess is, because the original caps are still in place, they need to be replaced in order to get better performance out of this thing.

while it would be nice to get this now rare mobo working properly after all these years so i could drop a SATA controller and a couple of 1.5TB hard drives in and use it as a home server, the time it would take to make this happen seems to prohibit this from ever happening.

if anyone wants to confirm my crappy cap diagnosis or offer to buy the mobo from me, you can do so via email at ifxpwax@yahoo.com or ICQ at 2595277.

the knowledge i've gained dicking around with this thing is invaluable, but getting this thing to work at peak performance doesn't outweigh the means.

thanx for the thread and the interesting horror stories .... looking forward to a response to mine ... lol

Mike Waxman
Evergreen TV & PC

[kc8adu]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

could be bad ram or the caps may have rotted on the shelf.
post pics and we will try to help.

[Topcat]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

recap it. its going to be full of Hermei caps, those are junk when new, so sitting on a shelf won't make them any better. Yes, these boards are also very finicky about RAM. I remember that all mine really liked micron chips, and always hurled with kingston.

[HockeytownWax]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

yeah i was thinking of loading it up with some non-ecc micron ... wanted to get the cpu's up to full speed first though ... i can tell you for sure it doesn't like samsung ecc ... i have 4 sticks of 256 and they were rejected like a $2 whore.

so i gotta do a recap job eh ... can you tell how thrilled i am ? LOL

sure no one wants to buy this thing from me ??

thanx for the help guys .. i'll let ya know what happens when i tackle the caps.

[kclamer]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

How do I download the BIOS? Everytime I click on the link it taken to a login page. Do I need to register for that somehow? Everytime I put in my login information that I have for this forum I cant login. Any help would be appreciated.

[kclamer]

Re: Iwill DVD266u-RN Stability Fixes [UPDATED]

never mind it seems that I was trying to download using a wrong link. The link on this same page worked.