This page is intended to offer support to the many owners of the First International Computer VA-503+ Mainboard.

The VA-503+ is certainly among the very best and most flexible Baby AT Super Seven Motherboards available today. However, it is also among the most difficult boards to configure properly. I hope that this page becomes a kind of focal point for the VA-503+ community - a place where we can accumulate information concerning hardware compatibility, configuration info, etc. I monitor the FIC newsgroup daily and will put up any snazzy information I find there on this site.

I hope that it goes without saying that this web site is in no way supported by or connected to First International Computers. And, to add the ubiquitous disclaimer, the information presented on this site is only an expression of my own opinion and I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur as a result of reading, or acting upon, the information on this site.

• Well, hello again! As you have, without doubt, noticed I haven't updated this page for over a year. Without going into details, I just didn't have the time to do updates, answer emails or anything else regarding this site. Still, I thought that someone might get some use out of the content, hence I left the site up.
  
  Recently, I have set up my own web server - running on a K6-2 450 / VA-503+, of course :) - here . The site is based on Slashcode and, hence, users can submit stories and make comments about stories. The content of the site is pretty freeform - just whatever piques my interest. But it occurs to me that all of us who are still using the venerable VA-503+ might find it useful to trade information. So, I added the VA-503+ faq's to the site and will try to add more VA-503+ stuff as time goes by.

• For those of you who haven't heard about this already, I have some moderately bad news. :( The word on the web is that AMD has canceled plans to introduce the K6-2+. The K6-2+ was, according to reliable rumor, going to be a .18 micron part with 128 KB of full speed L2 cache. This site posted the following note:
  
  "According to our very reliable source AMD canceled the release of AMD K6-2+ CPU. So, K6-2 550 is planned to be the fastest Socket7 processor. But AMD also speeds up the release of Athlon ThunderBird and Athlon Spitfire - they will appear in May (not in June as it was planned earlier). At the same time the first Socket-A mainboards will appear."
  
  I have read elsewhere that AMD may introduce the K6-2+ in a mobile version. At any rate, so much for squeezing another couple of years out of our VA-503+'s ...
  
  Oh, well, that just gives me a good excuse to cough it up for an Athlon system. :)
  
  My two VA-503+ will, of course, be in operation for the foreseeable future, so this site will continue to be updated in the spotty fashion you've come to expect. :)
  
  

• In the course of building a second VA-503+ machine (to practice for my remaining MCSE tests) and making some upgrades to my main system, I came across some things that may be of interest to other VA-503+ owners. These, um, "insights" will appear on the FAQ and compatibility list in a day or two. For now, I'll just give a brief list of what I've found.
  
  
  • I can personally confirm that the Belkin F3U001 USB Cables do indeed work fine with the VA-503+. Just make sure that you plug them in with the red ("hot") wires toward the rear of the motherboard.
  • USB support on the VA-503+ has worked fine with the two USB devices that I have attached (a mouse and a Microtek C6 scanner). This is under Windows 98 First Edition. Once again, the only USB devices that seem to be giving VA-503+ owners a really hard time are cameras.
  • I picked up a Hercules Terminator Beast video card (Savage 3d) at (of all places) Hastings Books for $30. I got it because I wanted to try a "true" AGP card on the VA-503+. The card seems to work fine in Direct 3d with the 2.9 AGP GART drivers in "turbo" (2x) mode. Picture quality in direct 3d is excellent. The picture quality appears to be excellent in Opengl also - at least for the ten seconds before the machine locks up hard. In short, Opengl seems to be broken all to hell. For reasons that it is not worthwhile to go into to, I believe that the Opengl problems may be related to the fact that the system has a Cyrix processor in it. Besides the Opengl situation, the installation was at least as straightforward as the Voodoo 3 2000 AGP installation.
  • I also picked up a HP 8250i CD-RW drive (4/4/24). This is a damned nice piece of equipment that can be had for a fair price. It has given me no trouble at all. Needless to say, it's very cool to have a way to back up your cd's.
  • Just for those of you who haven't already read this in the newsgroup, in order to enable AGP 2X support in the weirdo 1.15JE37 bios, highlight "spread spectrum modulated." As soon as you highlight it, it will change to "AGP 2X support." Strange, but true ...
  • The 1.15JE37 bios gives me two Cyrix related options that are not documented in the VA-503+ manual. One ("Cyrix 6x86/MII CPUID") seems pretty self explanatory. But I wonder if someone could tell me what "Cyrix MII Weak Locking" does? When I originally set up my second machine with a Cyrix PR200, I had to disable "Weak Locking" in order to get it to boot all the way. I've since slipped in a Cyrix PR233 (woohoo! I just hope I can handle all the power) and "Weak Locking" doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever. What is it?

• Happy Y2K! Via has, yet again, flown a driver update in beneath my radar. As always, the new 4 in 1 drivers(1/03/00) can be found here or here.

• I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas! For your Christmas reading pleasure here is an excellent (and lengthy) VA-503+ and PA-2013 FAQ done by Dean Kent at Real World Technologies. The text of the FAQ is (or at least should be) just as it was posted by Tom Jaszewski to the FIC Newsgroup. I only added a few HTML formatting tags. Enjoy!
  Note: The new FAQ appears to have a couple of dead links at the end. I will recheck them in a day or so and do any necessary pruning.
• Tim Stinnett has put together a very informative discussion of how to flash an AWARD bios (the AMI bios section is still under construction) here. Given that the bios chip on the VA-503+ is soldered onto the board rathered than socketed, no VA-503+ owner should consider flashing their bios without thorough preparation. So, give it a read.

• New VIA 4 in 1 Drivers (12/06/99) are available here or here.

• Well, here is the Voodoo 3 2000 AGP Review that no one was waiting for :) For my next trick, I will perform a set of benchmarks on various VA-503+ bios settings. Stay tuned.

• I am informed that the Value America offer (wherein they gave new members $100 in "value dollars") has expired (indeed, has been expired for some time now). I hope that some of you were able to take advantage of this deal. For those interested in more such opportunities, you might try Techdeals ("Tipping the scale in the ever difficult food vs. hardware upgrade decision............" as the site puts it.)
  
  

• Darin over at Bjorn's 3d World has written a review of the Nvidia GeForce based Guillemot 3D Prophet. What do we need with another GeForce review? Well, Darin ran his GeForce on a FIC VA-503+ . . . and, apparently, it worked just fine (although the color saturation wasn't to his liking). Here is a quote

  I had a great time with the 3D Prophet and encountered practically none of the hang ups or incompatibilities usually associated with brand new hardware. The card performed like a champ, and even helped out my K6-2 by a noticeable degree.

  Now, let us juxtapose this finding with FIC's own recent announcement in the Official VA-503+ FAQ:

  Q: What kinds of AGP I can use for PA-2013, or VA-503+ board?(10/19/99)
  A: There are more and more high-end AGP device rolled out to market now, except our previous warning of VooDoo3 3000/3500 with PA-2013 PCB 2.0, here we suggest in general that do not implement AGP device with on board memory more than 16MB, and do not waste 4X mode AGP devices on it.

  <RANT>They "suggest in general," eh? What, precisely, does this mean? I think it means that FIC is basically engaging in a little CYA. If you can't get your new GeForce working then, well, they told ya so. It is rather ironic that VA-503+ owners are being dissuaded from getting a GeForce (or a Savage 2000, by implication) when it is precisely owners of relatively weak-kneed (fpu-wise) K6-2's and III's who could most benefit from the onboard T and L engines offered by the new generation of video cards. I suppose that, once again, we have to find out for ourselves whether the new cards will really work or what . . . </RANT>
  
  
• Voodoo 3 2000 Review Coming Up in a week or so. What? Isn't it a little late in the Voodoo 3 product cycle to be writing another review? Well, what can I say? A lot of people still ask if Voodoo 3 AGP cards work on the VA-503+ and, since I got one of these little puppies from Value America for $53, I thought that I might as well write a review. I will cover the obvious stuff that will be of interest to VA-503+ owners (installation issues, etc.). I will also cover some issues that have not, to my mind, been accorded sufficient attention in the numerous other reviews (e.g., just how much "DVD Hardware Assist" the V3 2000 actually provides - short answer, not much ). For the moment, I can report that the V3 2000 AGP is a fairly effortless install on the VA-503+ in both Windows 95b and NT 4.0. I experienced some difficulties but most of these were a result of (1) my impulsive decision to first try the "in the box" drivers rather than spending the twenty minutes to download the latest drivers and (2) a very hasty and ill-considered decision to re-install Windows to get a "clean" system. This last move was both unnecessary and a pain in the you know what. Sheesh, I keep forgetting that a Windows 95 re-install in a K6-2 450 system means I have to clock the thing back to <350 to reinstall the AMD patch. But, that is a story for another day. . . Needless to say, speedwise, the V3 2000 rocks.
  
  
• SDRAM Prices Bottom Out. Just to complete the SDRAM price fluctuation saga: as of Thursday, Oct 28, 1999, the lowest listed price for a 128 MB stick of generic PC100 SDRAM is $126. If I recall correctly, this is still significantly higher than SDRAM prices were before the recent sharp increase. However, the situation is a whole lot better than it was two or three weeks ago. My condolences go out to those who paid $2 a MB during the "SDRAM Bubble" or whatever you want to call it :(
  
  
• Apparently there is a problem with the combination of Windows 98 SE, AMD K6-x processors over 350 mhz, and the VIA USB controller. Microsoft has released this patch to correct the problem.

  Thanks go to Rod Thompson at the VA-503+ Modification Page for this link.

• SDRAM Prices continue to Plummet. As of Wednesday, October 20, 1999, the cheapest 128 MB stick of PC100 SDRAM is going for $152 on Pricewatch. That's down $28 in four days. At this rate, ram prices ought to be back to summer prices in about, well, a week or so . . . To demonstrate my grasp of the utterly obvious, I would like to observe that this is all very, very strange.
  
  
• SDRAM Prices Begin to Drop. Ram prices seem to have dropped significantly over the past week. A 128 MB stick of PC100 SDRAM (Generic) starts at $180 on Pricewatch as of late Saturday night (Oct. 16). That's almost a reasonable price. 128 MB sticks of PC100 SDRAM were going for around $250 in late September (even for the generic stuff). I hope that this decline indicates that the money lust of the SDRAM Gods has been sated . . . at least for awhile.
  
  
• While addressing the question concerning USB cables on the Unoffical VA-503+ FAQ I ran across a disturbing post by Jeffery M Roberts at the USB Workshop. Here is a snippet from the post (which is a copy of an email he sent to VIA)
  
  "Our forum is replete with end-user problems regarding the PCI/VIA, USB host controller. Rumors of all sorts regarding the reasons pervade every USB web site on the net. For the record, would you please explain this malady with pertinent reasons? We want to know the truth so that we can help our readers to understand and resolve these issues. Peripheral manufacturers explain that the VIA/USB is defective. I don't believe that it's that simple. I think that there is more to it than that. Would you please clear the air. Is VIA USB, USB? Do the same USB issues exist in all VIA chipsets? Have any physical improvements been made to the VIA chipset regarding USB? Why don't the USB filters work? Do the newer VIA chipsets such as Apollo Pro have the same USB issues? "
  
  Good questions, those . . . I haven't used USB on the VA-503+. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone who has done so would send me an email indicating whether or not this purported VIA USB malady afflicts our beloved VA-503+ (i.e., what devices you have used, any problems you have experienced, etc.)
  
  I hope that this is a non-problem . . .
  
  
• VIA has released new drivers dated 10/6/99. I'm not sure what issues the new drivers address, but you can find them here
  
  
• Get the latest (8/26/99) BIOS from FIC (JE1537 or JK1535, depending on your board version) here