Intel D975XBX "Bad Axe" Mod Thread (including "Conroe" support for rev 303 and lower)

[new-b]

im having some issues here with my D975XBX and i could really use a hand. i cant seem to boot with the 1333 strap. ive dont the conductive pen mod but when i select the 1333 strap it wont boot, just gives me the black screen and i have to jump the pin and go into "ohh noes" mode to readjust the strap so it will boot.

ive tried relaxing my memory timmings as high as they will go, setting the memory to 1:1 [677 for 1333 strap] ive upped all the voltage but still no luck. does anyone have some suggestions, perhaps a certain bios i should be using that boots the 1333 strap better? i can boot the 1066 strap just fine, even at 30% over clocking witch ends up being even higher than the base 1333 strap but once i select the 1333 strap she wont even boot. id just like to be able to start with the 1333 strap and then use the default override to move up from there so i have more headroom.

heres my specs

core 2 duo E6700
mushkin REDLINE 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
duro 900 AND Juice Box EP-450CD UNI
intel D975XBX
bios version 1479
SONY FDW-900
74 gig raptor

many thanks to anyone that can shed some light on my situation.

Selecting the 1333 strap on my board simply causes the board to boot at 1066 strap + 50% oc (once I raised the volts enough to boot, I was able to confirm this).....the 1333 strap just doesn't work.
Also... be aware that Intel "nerfed" raising Vcore after bios 1463 (you can still change the value in bios but it has no effect )

[INFECTED]

argggg, not good but i swear i saw a few people in this thread even say they are booting into the 1333 strap. are they just mistaken about really booting that strap?
also does that mean im pretty much stuck at 3.4 as a top end since thats the 1066 strap plus 30%?

What I wanted to say is that the option works but not very well, it's not stable!

Selecting the 1333 strap on my board simply causes the board to boot at 1066 strap + 50% oc (once I raised the volts enough to boot, I was able to confirm this).....the 1333 strap just doesn't work.
Also... be aware that Intel "nerfed" raising Vcore after bios 1463 (you can still change the value in bios but it has no effect )

Quote

[fern420]

well i certainly appreciate the help. does anyone have a good suggestion on a motherboard that i can overclock well and performs in crossfire well? i just got these two new 2900xt cards, i read the anandtech review that said the new chipset isnt as good with crossfire as the 975. i know im not going to get allot more out of my chip since im at 3.4 already but id still like to give it a shot.

[Barr3l Rid3r]

I just bypass bios 1463, but the 1487 is very stable for average overclock.

You can use bios 1463 to select vcore range till 1.6v, but u still needing to bridge the overclocking debug jumper to have all overclocking settings enabled.

Remember that even newer bioses (1487) let u enable the enhaced power slope to give a small vcore and stability increment.

so E6600 B2 Lapped @ 3.45Ghz 1.30V (Default) Tt Big Typhoon Lapped 45º C Full Load| 1066Mhz Boot strap + 40% | 1500Mhz FSB | 4x 1GB Corsair 667 C4 XMS2 @ 950Mhz C5 5-5-15 | Bios 1487

24H Orthos dual, blended stable and cpu also. Rev 305, very nice board

[Dr.Spankenstein]

Not that there are many users of this board still out there, but maybe someone from the old-skool can help brotha out.

I have been noticing that my Vcore settings are not sticking lately. As info, I have been running the 1463 bios. I cleared CMOS, flashed back to 1334 bios...no love. Everest, Speedfan and Intel Desktop Utilities all show ony 1.30 Vcore max even when I have it set to 1.5 in BIOS.

What could be happening? Granted, I only cleared the CMOS for a few minutes. As I write, the battery has been out for 8 hrs and I will try one last attempt with the 1334 bios.

Beyond that, any other suggestions?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Bryan

*UPDATE*

Purchased a new battery and still no-go.

[pumero]

got my hands on an old 975XBX rev. 202 and was wondering if someone ever tried the mod with this revision?
looking at the pictures, the same parts are missing as on rev.302, except that there is already a resistor in place at the position of step 4 but the one to the left is missing. (see here)
does someone know the value of this part or have proof that the mod works on rev. 202 too?

[Niemiec]

Any news about Wolfdale support on this board?

[Thorburn]

got my hands on an old 975XBX rev. 202 and was wondering if someone ever tried the mod with this revision?
looking at the pictures, the same parts are missing as on rev.302, except that there is already a resistor in place at the position of step 4 but the one to the left is missing. (see here)
does someone know the value of this part or have proof that the mod works on rev. 202 too?

I believe this only works on 302 or 303. 301 doesn't normally work and anything older than that will be pre-production.

Any news about Wolfdale support on this board?

Not very likely I'd imagine.

[oldsarge]

I did the mod on a ver 202 and used it for over a year until a water
leak terminated it! Part were as shown on FCG's original post.

[blacksun1942]

I just want to confirm a few things:

- Any strap other than 1066 does not work with this board no matter what? Even with the conductive pen mod or ITK?

- If you didn't do the conductive pen mod, will ITK settings still actually work, even with the latest bios? I set vcore to 1.4 in ITK and it shows as 1.4 in IDC; but in every other program, like Rightmark, it shows as 1.325.

- The highest memory timings that the bios will allow are 5-5-5-15; I tried using Memset to get 5-5-5-18 (actual SPD of the RAM), but this caused my PC to crash on boot. Why?

[pH(x)]

I just want to confirm a few things:

- Any strap other than 1066 does not work with this board no matter what? Even with the conductive pen mod or ITK?

- If you didn't do the conductive pen mod, will ITK settings still actually work, even with the latest bios? I set vcore to 1.4 in ITK and it shows as 1.4 in IDC; but in every other program, like Rightmark, it shows as 1.325.

- The highest memory timings that the bios will allow are 5-5-5-15; I tried using Memset to get 5-5-5-18 (actual SPD of the RAM), but this caused my PC to crash on boot. Why?

This is primarily true, you shouldn't be trying to overclock on anything but the 1066 strap anyway.

[David_L6]

Has anyone succeded in getting a stable, decent overclock with a quad core and 8GB RAM with this board?

[likewhoa]

Has anyone succeded in getting a stable, decent overclock with a quad core and 8GB RAM with this board?

I have with some mushkin 6400 sticks 4x2gb 1.84v 266/667 5-5-5-15 CPU at 347x10 1.450v/1.4v/1.6v.

[David_L6]

I have with some mushkin 6400 sticks 4x2gb 1.84v 266/667 5-5-5-15 CPU at 347x10 1.450v/1.4v/1.6v.

Great information likewhoa. Thank you for posting all your settings too.

[celemine1Gig]

BTW guys, the BadAxe 1 is limited to a max. of 30-50% FSB overclocking, depending on the BIOS used, right? And some weeks ago I read that the 1333 strap doesn't work anymore with the latest bios.

Well, I'm asking because I think I found a way to increase the FSB more than these values on BIOS level. I'm using a D955XBK (BlackCreek) right now, which was the predecessor to the BadAxe. This board is usually limited to a max of 266Mhz FSB + 10% using BIOS directly, or 30% using a EE CPU or the ITK.
Now, I'm sitting in front of this exact system running it at 400MHz FSB, which means 51% overclock.
So if anyone of you is interested, I'll share my method. It should work on the BadAxe1 and 2 as well

Edit: If you didn't understand, I found a way set a higher overclock on BIOS level. That means more than 50%.

[Barr3l Rid3r]

BTW guys, the BadAxe 1 is limited to a max. of 30-50% FSB overclocking, depending on the BIOS used, right? And some weeks ago I read that the 1333 strap doesn't work anymore with the latest bios.

Well, I'm asking because I think I found a way to increase the FSB more than these values on BIOS level. I'm using a D955XBK (BlackCreek) right now, which was the predecessor to the BadAxe. This board is usually limited to a max of 266Mhz FSB + 10% using BIOS directly, or 30% using a EE CPU or the ITK.
Now, I'm sitting in front of this exact system running it at 400MHz FSB, which means 51% overclock.
So if anyone of you is interested, I'll share my method. It should work on the BadAxe1 and 2 as well

Edit: If you didn't understand, I found a way set a higher overclock on BIOS level. That means more than 50%.

Ok tell us haw u made it...

[celemine1Gig]

I used ITK to mod the BIOS settings for my D955XBK and was quite disappointed that the max I could select was 266Mhz + 30% for FSB. The I had a look at a D975XBX BIOS and experimented a bit, as this BIOS allowed upto 50%. I had a look at the iToolkit.ini file and found out what byte was responsible for the FSB percentage setting and how to set it and also how to correct the checksum afterwards.

All you have to do is mod the bios file, as you like with the ITK and then generate the iToolkit.ini as always.
Then open it with a text editor and have a look at it.

The two important entries are:

VariableDataChecksum

and

VariableData9

Write down the checksum value before modding the file, you'll need to modify it later, according to the changed FSB percentage setting.

The actual FSB percentage setting is coded as an alphabetical two bit hex code. It is located in the "VariableData9" line and to be precise it is symbols 37 and 38. If you set 00% using the ITK, it should be "AA".

"A" stands for 0, "B" for 1, "C" for 2, ... , and finally "P" for 15 (15 is the max, as this is a hex code).
--> AA = 00 %
--> AB = 01 %
.
.
.
-->AP = 15 %
-->BA = 16 %
.
.
.



And so on. That's the code part. So, for example for 51%, you'll need a code of "DD".
Just as a little reminder. It is a hex code. So "DD" means the following:

1) "D" stands for 3
2) --> "DD" = (3 x 16^1) + (3 x 16^0) = 51

Hope that' clear now.


Now onto the hard part, the checksum.

There's a sheme for computing the checksum.

On from value 0 it's as follows:

0% = checksum start value that you wrote down, as stated above.
1% = checksum start value +1
2% = checksum start value +2
3% = checksum start value +3

4% = checksum start value -4
5% = checksum start value -3
6% = checksum start value -2
7% = checksum start value -1

8% = checksum start value +8
9% = checksum start value +9
10% = checksum start value +10
11% = checksum start value +11

12% = checksum start value +4
13% = checksum start value +5
14% = checksum start value +6
15% = checksum start value +7

-------------------------------------------------

16% = checksum start value -16
17% = checksum start value -15
18% = checksum start value -14
19% = checksum start value -13

20% = checksum start value -20
21% = checksum start value -19
22% = checksum start value -18
23% = checksum start value -17

24% = checksum start value -8
25% = checksum start value -7
26% = checksum start value -6
27% = checksum start value -5

28% = checksum start value -12
29% = checksum start value -11
30% = checksum start value -10
31% = checksum start value -9

------------------------------------------

32% = checksum start value -32
.
.
.
and so on, as before...

That's it. Works for me, at least. Change these two values, save the iToolkit.ini file and flash it, as always when using the ITK.

[Schlotkins]

Does anyone have the mod picture for the BIOS mod? (shorting the OC Debug pins?)

Thanks much!
Chris

[new-b]

Does anyone have the mod picture for the BIOS mod? (shorting the OC Debug pins?)

[celica]

hello i m news here
i need to know if i can to flash the bios of d975xbx with the bios of d975xbx2 ?
to have the bios more modificable to oc ...
thank to answer me

[blacksun1942]

hello i m news here
i need to know if i can to flash the bios of d975xbx with the bios of d975xbx2 ?
to have the bios more modificable to oc ...
thank to answer me

Answer is "no".

BTW,
I'm still using this board due to lack of financial resources; I haven't upgraded a single PC component in 2+ years.

[JLBENEDICT]

Fairly new on this forum, but to this day, I still have the original D975XBX, Bad Axe from when it was first released.
Still running a single core Pentium 4, 651 cpu... would like to upgrade to something dual core.. but apparently I will need to peform a mod..
Is this still a viable modification? Is it tough to do?