Beginner needs help with clockspeed

[Split_Overlap]

Hi guys. I don’t have a lot of experience messing around under the hood of my PC, so I hope you’ll bear with me here. I’m trying to figure out what clockspeed the new AMD K6-2/500 CPU that I just swapped into my PC (upgraded from a K6-2/300) is really running at. The required voltages are the same for both chips, so all I had to do was change the clock multiplier setting, which I did very carefully, following the diagram in the Amptron MainBoard manual. I set it at the required 5.0X, and everything seems to be working just fine---except that upon startup there’s a DOS screen telling me that a K6-2/400 CPU has been “found”. Another screen follows (appears for about one second), and, among other things, says something about a clockspeed of 400 MHz. What happened to 500?

With this same CPU in place, I tried other multiplier jumper settings with the following results:
At 3.0X a K6-2/300 is “found”, and clocks at 300MHz.
At 4.0X a K6-2/400 is found, and clocks at 400MHz.
At 4.5X a K6-2/400 is found, and clocks at 400MHz.

I don’t know what to believe. How can I tell how fast this thing is really running? Is it possible that I need to do more than just change the multiplier to get it to run at 500? Or could it already be at 500 and just not indicated on that startup screen?

A guy at Amptron suggested a BIOS update, but I don’t know how much faith I have in the guy’s opinion. I really don’t want to mess with the BIOS unless I absolutely have to.

Recently, I read something about using “stepper” information to discover the true speed capability of a CPU. Do any of you know anything about this?

Any ideas?

Thanks

Rob

 

[flamethrower205]

What's the max. speed that your mobo supports?

When I rule the world, Apple will only mean the fruit.

 

[Raystonn]

Update your BIOS to the latest available. That should fix your problem. Your motherboard's current BIOS was likely made before there was a 500MHz CPU around and so it knows nothing about it.

-Raystonn

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =

 

[Crashman]

Ignore the "400" report. My K6-2 systems have said everything from 66MHz to 266MHz for a CPU at 400MHz. It's simply that BIOS is using a table instead of doing the math, and nothing above 400 is on the table. If you actually CHECK the speed with any standard testing software, such as WCPUID, you will find the correct speed listed. When I resell a computer that reports the wrong speed in BIOS, I always put WCPUID on the desktop so my clients can verify the true speed, should they doubt my word.
If you want the proper speed to be reported, a BIOS update is the only way to do it. But not all motherboards carry a recent enough BIOS to fix the erroneous report. This issue only affects the number reported, not the operation of the system, so take it easy!

I'm so tired of cookies I'd settle for spam!

 

[Split_Overlap]

Thank you all for the replys. Flamethrower, the m/board's clock multiplier can go up to 5.5X---in fact I first bought a K6-2/550, but then realized that it requires a core voltage that's .1 volt higher than the 500 and slower chips. I have nine core voltages available, but 2.3V isn't one of them. Oh well....

Raystonn, I may take a shot at updating the BIOS, but, as I said, I've heard that that's one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" sort of things. I do tend to experiment sometimes (learning by doing), but if my PC goes into a dead faint, I'm on my own...makes me nervous.

Crashman, I'm glad that you believe my CPU is actually running at 500MHz. I was hoping that might be the case. I'm interested in this WCPUID software that you mentioned. I'll do a search on the subject, but would you be willing to clue me in as to where this sort of stuff is found?

Thanks again. It is appreciated.

Rob

 

[Split_Overlap]

Crashman, I found the WCPUID program on TweakFiles.com. Haven't installed it yet, but it looks interesting, and you can't beat the price. Thanks, again.

Rob

 

[Crashman]

The program does not need to be installed, it is self contained. Simply unzip it to a file and hit the winzip.exe button and it will run, on any system, without installing any files to the system. You can even copy the file to a CD and run it from there (or a floppy, etc).

I'm so tired of cookies I'd settle for spam!

 

[Guest]

TestCPUe and Sandra are also good for checking that sort of thing.

Something that is worth remembering is that some motherboards have the multipliers jumper settings listed wrong and so sometimes experimentation is the only way.

Your nice new PC might be faster then my 286, but my 286 makes a better door stop

 

[Split_Overlap]

Well, I'm happy to say the CPU is a 500 after all---or if it wasn't, it is now. It's running at 501.13MHz. That testing software is a gas. And I found all sorts of other utilities on the TweakFiles web site. I should be able to get myself into lots of interesting trouble messing around in the registry and such....

Thanks again, guys.

Rob