RE: Continous BIOS Looping

[diablura]

Can anyone help? I'm trying to install a Powerleap K62/400 upgrade processor into a QDI Titanium IB motherboard running an Award BIOS dated 11/27/97. Every time I boot-up, the BIOS executes the post operation, checks the memory and then starts all over. If I hit the escape key at exactly the right time I can boot into Windows (WIN95-SR2). If I hit the delete key at exactly the right time I can get into the BIOS. It seems to be a timing issue but I don't know how to fix.

I've flashed to the most current BIOS and applied the Microsoft AMD patch.

Any ideas, comments or suggestions?

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

[Alzarius]

Have you tried shutting off the memory check in the bios? Maybe there's some sort of glitch when the check runs with the new chip. If that doesn't work, you might want to reset the bios to defaults. If that doesn't work with the defaults, go through and set any options you would normally change in the bios from their defaults. See if one of the settings clears up the problems. I had a problem where the computer wouldn't boot if I had USB enabled in the bios. I DO have the option to plug in an ATX form factor card with USB ports, but I figured it didn't like being enabled without that form factor card.

[Marty]

I had the same symptom when trying to install a cryix m2 chip on an older motherboard. The bios could not determine what proccessor was installed. I found a new
updated bios that cured it. I would try tech
support for the powerleap,unless you can find
a newer bios update. I had to buy an Intel
p100 to reflash my bios to use the cyrix!

[corvettedoctor]

Also add turning off the PNP in BIOS and in device mgr.

[Mingus74]

If Im not mistaken I beleive that the latest version of Award is the A06. It was realeased on 7/10/98 and added the cpu code to support the following CPU's: AMD K6-2, Cyrix MII, IDT WinChip 2 ans WinChip 2-3D. Hope that helps.

[800XL]

Add Disable summary screen to that list. Sometimes that gets around the CPUID section of the bios that is typically what chokes with an unsupported CPU type. Basically, look to disable any POST tests you can, and/or enable "quick boot" or POST speed up options. That may eliminate the particular test that is failing.
Powerleap does not include any bios upgrades with their chip so if you can tweak it into working, there is not much more you can do. If you end up totally stuck, the Evergreen 400Mhz K6-2 upgrade comes with a raft of bios upgrades.