M571-USB question

[wilcoxse]

HI folks,
Im glad I found this forum. I have an older M571 (v 3.2a) board that I have a K6 III 450 mhz processor running on. I am trying to get the USB function to work. I have not added the ATX form factor card that I hear mentioned, but have tried to use a Belkin USB ribbon cable with 2 USB ports. I did this becuase I dont have any free PCI slots. After enabling USB in the bios (but not the DOS support, as I have read that causes problems), windows (98 SE) recognizes the USB, installs the drivers but I get a freeze on the re-boot. If I disable in safe mode and the enable after restart...I get the NTKERN Fatal Blue Screen. Can anyone give me any other options?
Thanks,
scott

[wilcoxse]

oh..and btw....I have also tried to uodate my bios (which is presently the 6/31/1998-0831s.rom) and every time I try, the amiflash freezes.....
scott

[timmy]

Scott:

There are provisions in later BIOS revisions that you will need to get USB working. Make sure that your BIOS chip is actually flashable.

You can find the BIOS load and a flash utility that is proven to work at the site URL below.

[wilcoxse]

Hi guys,
A strange few days it has been. I was looking around for appropriate drivers and found some purporting to be for win98, but as they were installing I could tell they were for 95.....and of course....I couldn't even reboot afterwards. Well..after re-installing win98....voila!.....USB is functioning properly! And thats not the end of the story.....As my wife was listyening to some music on the computer....the screen went black....the computer shut down...and I couldn't even access the bios...(it was asking for a password dircetly after memory check....along with a smiley face....hmmm?.Anyhow....the only thing I could think to do was to use jumper 2 to clear the CMOS....phew...and it worked....all is functioning again. Any ideas on what may have happened? I have never been able to update my bios for some reason. The flash always freezes. I believe my bios is the TigerDirect bios. Thanks for your help guys!
scott

[jim chase]

I had an M571 v7 from TigerDirect and used the bios from Cain Nelsons (now timmy's) site.

Jim

[wilcoxse]

Thanks for your help guys....btw Timmy...this might sound like a dumb question, but exactly how do I check to see if my bios is flashable?.....Ive got an amibios "burn-in" chip on the board....is that what you mean?
thanks,
scott
btw...your site has been a great resource for me....I couldn't have upgraded to an AMD K6 III 450 mhz processor without it.

[timmy]

One place to start, if you think that your BIOS may not be flashable, is Wim's BIOS page at this url: http://www.wimsbios.com/

Go to the FAQ section and there is a list of flashable BIOS proms.

I'm glad that the page was helpful to you. When Cain Nelson had it, your experience was exactly the same as mine. Also, people like Jim Chase and Brad were on this board to help. I've tried to take all of this and put it on the page, continuing to record M571 issues and tips.

[wilcoxse]

Hi again Tim,
Well, I finally was able to flash my bios but it was quite an experience, and I had to return to my old bios to be able to boot again. Maybe you can tell me exactly what I encountered, eh?

I flashed the new bios succesfully, but my cumputer would only boot to identifying the hard drives and cd, then it gave me a long ..unending beeeeeeeeeep. I tried altering several bios settings, removing cards, etc. to no avail. I also could not get to the floppy drive as it would stall before then. Fortunately, I remembered reading about a "hot flash" and was able to rename my old bios amiboot.rom and stick it in my A:..while holding down the control and home keys. At first my old bios gave me the same symptoms, but on a second try worked and alloweed me to boot. Can you tell me what happened?
Thanks,
scott

[sonyfier]

Originally posted by wilcoxse
Hi again Tim,
Well, I finally was able to flash my bios but it was quite an experience, and I had to return to my old bios to be able to boot again. Maybe you can tell me exactly what I encountered, eh?

I flashed the new bios succesfully, but my cumputer would only boot to identifying the hard drives and cd, then it gave me a long ..unending beeeeeeeeeep. I tried altering several bios settings, removing cards, etc. to no avail. I also could not get to the floppy drive as it would stall before then. Fortunately, I remembered reading about a "hot flash" and was able to rename my old bios amiboot.rom and stick it in my A:..while holding down the control and home keys. At first my old bios gave me the same symptoms, but on a second try worked and alloweed me to boot. Can you tell me what happened?
Thanks,
scott

Did you clear Cmos after you flashed with the new bios? If you don't do this you can have conflicts between some of the old code/settings in bios which is retained thanks to cmos battery backup and the new code from the flash. There is a lot of revisions to the bios code in the later file and perhaps this is why you got the problem.

Always make it a point to clear cmos and or physically remove the battery for a while after a flash but before you allow the computer to reboot on the new code. Once you've cleared cmos you should then go into the bios and set it up again and then and only then can you be sure you're running 100% on the new bios code.

Another thing I would recheck is the revision of your board. You mentioned floppy drive problems and this is a symptom of using the wrong bios file for the revision of your board. There is others that know more of this here and may have comment but from my understanding... one of the M571 revisions uses a different controller chip and if you flash with the wrong file you lose the floppy drive.

[wilcoxse]

Originally posted by sonyfier
Did you clear Cmos after you flashed with the new bios? If you don't do this you can have conflicts between some of the old code/settings in bios which is retained thanks to cmos battery backup and the new code from the flash. There is a lot of revisions to the bios code in the later file and perhaps this is why you got the problem.

Always make it a point to clear cmos and or physically remove the battery for a while after a flash but before you allow the computer to reboot on the new code. Once you've cleared cmos you should then go into the bios and set it up again and then and only then can you be sure you're running 100% on the new bios code.


Scott: I did clear the cmos but did not remove the battery. When I did the "hotflash" , everything was fine without clearing the cmos or anything. When trying the new bios I even removed all but one drive and set all the settings to a minimum and it would still freeze after first drive.


Another thing I would recheck is the revision of your board. You mentioned floppy drive problems and this is a symptom of using the wrong bios file for the revision of your board. There is others that know more of this here and may have comment but from my understanding... one of the M571 revisions uses a different controller chip and if you flash with the wrong file you lose the floppy drive.

My board is definitelt version 3.2a.....but it was the one with the unique tiger bios however. Is that one different?

Thanks again,
scott

[sonyfier]

Originally posted by wilcoxse
My board is definitelt version 3.2a.....but it was the one with the unique tiger bios however. Is that one different?

Thanks again,
scott

I've no idea Scott although someone here probably would know. :)

[jim chase]

Originally posted by wilcoxse
My board is definitelt version 3.2a.....but it was the one with the unique tiger bios however. Is that one different?

Thanks again,
scott

I had a version 7.0, M571 from TigerDirect and flashed it with one from timmy's site. I don't know if mine was a tiger bios or not. If you have confirmed your version by checking on the M/B near the keyboard socket then I would get the matching bios from timmy and go for it. I have used M/B manufacturer bios flashes to replace second party bios' before with no problem, as long as I had the model and version correct (this is not a guarantee of success though).

Jim

[jozlod]

i've got the m571 board, with an amd 333, i wanted usb for my digital camera, i enabled it in bios, but not for dos, then it wouldn't install, i reformated and installed windows 98 second edition, no problems, the usb is installed and working properly.
only prbolem is, i can't figure out where to plug in my usb bracket, the manual i got tells me which pins for which wire, but doesn't show me where these pins are on the motherboard.
any help with where to plug in would be appreciated thanks.

[rob grant]

jozlod, Your USB connection on the M571 is at "J 7" (between PCI 1 and PCI 2 slots.

[rocha]

Dear folks,

I found this thread looking for some answer about USB X M571 v7.0. My wife's computer has this board and there was no USB ports outside. Since here in Brazil it would be impossible to get the ATX Form, the only thing I could find was a 10 pin 2 USB ports. J7 has many pins, including #5 (which belongs to ps/2 mouse +5Vdc) gets on some black wire which is connects to the ports "chasis" causing some sort of short circuit. Cutting this wire solved this little problem (may have been a big mistake).

After that windows 98 SE boots and installs USB capabilities with no conflits and stuff. Now the USB camera. Same driver I have sucessfully installed on my ATX computer, same windows, same camera. I asks me if I want to install it at the COM1, COM2, COM4 of LPT1!!! I have upgraded to BIOS, everything alright, but it keeps not working.

I'm not quite sure to USB cord instalation was perfect and I have the feeling there is no power at the USB port ...

I may sound kind of lame, but can anyone give me any hint about this?? My imagination is over ...

Thanks in advance for the help I may get here!

Rocha

[rob grant]

rocha,

Excuse me for a second while I pull the cover off this machine and take a look at how I have the twin USB ports with cables installed...

"Rattle, Rattle, #!%... drop screw driver, etc." now I know why those perspex side covers are so popular!<g>

O.K., each USB port I have (two) has a separate cable with 4 wires and a female plug. The wire colors are red,white,green and black
The plugs are connected to the first four pins of each row at J7. In other words one plug goes on pins 1-7 and one plug goes on pins 2-8. The red wire on my "rig" for both plugs is connected to pins 1 and 2 respectively.
Don't know if the above helps, but it works for me.

[rob grant]

rocha,

Also... get on to Timmy's site @: http://www.m571.com/m571/

Tim is a "gold mine" of help and information for anyone using the old M571 board.

[rocha]

Rob, thanks for you quick reply.

I have plugged exactelly on pins 1-7 and 2-8, but my cord has 10 pins pairs of red, white, green and black wires (connected to the inner pins of the USB port) and a extra pair of black wires (thicker ones) connected to the outter part of the USB ports (the part where you put the screw on your computer cabinet). This pair is the one I have to cut because of the "unpaired" pin of J7, whick has +5Vdc on it.

I have plugged the camera on another computer for a test and it's led is on ... what leads me to believe is a problem on the power suply to USB port (J7 has power correctly, I could check this). Unless, the leds only turns on when the driver is correctely installed.

Hope I can get any more insights like this around here.

Thanks again.

Rocha

[rob grant]

rocha,

I have heard of cases where someone wires the USB leads wrong on J7 and "fries" the trace thereby making the onboard USB inoperative. Be careful with your test leads when poking around J7... a steady hand is a necessity!

[rocha]

Thats a good point Rob, there have been so many "tries" 'till I found out that the problem was sending +5V to the computer chassis that a J7 fried may be my problem now. I'll be checking it.

I got some tech information that my cord's 5th pin, the second ground is just a chassis ground which is not really necessary (if it is not necessary why is it there?).

Anyway, while I check is I still have an active J7, I'll be waiting for more thoughts about.

I have checked also about the camera led, if I disable the camera driver, it shuts down, so, nothing to do with power to the camera.

Rocha