Asus CUSL2 and FC-PGA2 CPUs

Bosco

Would I have to mess with a Tualatin CPU (specifically an FCPGA2 celeron 1.2 or 1.3) in order to get it working with my Asus CUSL2 (FC-PGA) mainboard? (The CUSL2 has an Intel 815E chipset)

Can I use FCPGA2 chips at all?

Gerry

You will have to prevent some of the pins of the cpu from making contact with the socket, and possibly wire 2 other pins together.

Bosco

Thanks for the reply.

I saw that Tualatin thread alright, though wasn't sure if my board would be suitable. Any idea what the success rate is like with 815E mainboards?

Another question....Will my FC-PGA heatsink fit the Tualatin?

Gerry

I think the cusl2 has been modded by a lot of people successfully. I don't have time to dig up a link, but try searching the motherboard and intel cpu forums at www.overclockers.com. A lot of the threads will be talking about bx boards, but afaik its almost the same procedure for an i815 board.
Yes your heatsink will fit fine, the sockets are only different electrically.

Bosco

I got myself a Celeron 1.3 and I performed the mod as described here and here, i.e. insulated pins AN3, AK4 and AJ3 and connected pin AL35(VID0) to pin AK36(VID25mv , also called VID4?). I did not connect AK4(VttPWRGD) to AK26(PWRGD) as suggested because someone says here that their CUSL2-C (not identical to my board but very close) would not even post with these pins connected. Maybe this person just did it wrong, but connecting AK4 to AK26 is a lot of hassle to go through just to find that my machine won't post afterwards.

The machine identifies the CPU as a 1.3GHz Pentium3 and all seems well (VCore = 1.55volts, temp. 40-42C) but nine times out of ten it boots into windows but then immediately resets. When it does boot properly it's very unstable.

It is mentioned (see links above) that you have to reinstall windows after doing the mod, but I can't because the machine resets unexpectedly, early in the windows installation process. I really don't want the hassle of a full format and install and besides, I don't understand why a reinstallation should be necessary anyway.

I'm stumped. Any suggestions?

Gerry

You are going to have to give ak4 - ak26 a shot, it has been described by many people to improve stability.

Bosco

And improve stability it does I've connected AK4 to AK26 (fiddly job but not too bad) and haven't experienced any problems whatsoever since. 633Mhz up to 1.3Ghz for only €105

No Windows re-install was needed (WinME). I'll post again if I have any more problems (in case anyone else is thinking about doing this) Thanks for the help Gerry.

Gerry

you lucky bastard My 1.2 still won't boot on my bx board ( plenty of people have got it working on this board, an abit be6-2 v2.0 ). I've connected ak4 to ak26 ok, didn't bother with the vid pins though. I'm also not sure whether I've properly insulated the 3 pins which need to be insulated, as I wasn't able to get every trace of metal out of the socket hole. I'm thinking of breaking 2 of the pins off now, or else getting a tiny drill bit and drilling out the slotket.

JustHalf

With your luck Phil, I'd recommend drilling out the slotket to be honest.

Bosco

Drilling? Pin breaking? :eek:

I used tiny lengths of the insulation from the wire I used to connect AK4 to AK26 (which must be extremely thin stranded wire BTW , taken in my case from a broken mouse lead) cut to length with a razor blade as little 'condoms' for the pins that needed to be insulated. I had to use a small needle to widen the pieces of insulation to get them to fit over the CPU pins.

I then used a needle held with pliars and heated over a flame, (together with a razor blade to tidy up) to widen the 3 holes on the socket so that the insulated pins would fit easily. The attached image (from one of those threads) shows what I mean by widened holes.

You don't have to damage anything

Gerry

I used enamelled copper wire for the bridge, I'll sort out the other pins somehow anyways.

Bosco

Originally posted by Gerry
I've connected ak4 to ak26 ok, didn't bother with the vid pins though.

I've read in one of those other threads (or linked-to material, can't remember) that ignoring the VID pins means that the CPU will run at 2.3V or something. I'm not certain but I think it's due to VID pin differences between FC-PGA and FC-PGA2.