Flash KT7 with KT7A bios?

[Shukla]

Since the KT133A is basically a "certified" KT133, could I just flash my Abit KT7 with a KT7A bios and obtain 133Mhz bus?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

In a word......no.

 

[Jeff7]

Aren't there distinct differences? The KT133 supported the 133MHz RAM, but it only ran the system bus at 100MHz. KT133A made the 133MHz bus possible.
Flashing the wrong BIOS can easily disable a motherboard, making it impossible to flash back to a good BIOS, without a separate EEPROM programmer (fairly expensive device).

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I'm having trouble getting on Abit's site but the last time I was there I noticed that they use the same bios for the KT7 and KT7A and it just states what functions will only be available if you have the "A" version and/or "A" revision 1.3 or higher IIRC.

 

[Shukla]

In re-reading Anand's review of the KT133A, he stated that it was a KT133 except now the mobo's were "certified" to run the FSB at 133Mhz. So I'm assuming that Abit put a better quality resistor etc... to get to the KT133A.

A quote from the article:
Nonetheless, in late December 2000, shortly after the release of the 266MHz Athlon, VIA finally came back with the ?new? KT133A chipset, which is nothing more than the KT133 with official 133MHz support. Many have suspected that VIA intentionally disabled faster FSB speeds in the KT133 because there were no Athlons that supported such high speeds. This may even have been to appease AMD, although this is all just speculation. Regardless, the KT133A and its 133MHz FSB provided much of the performance of the AMD 760 chipset, but without the need for new and costly DDR-SDRAM. For overclockers, the KT133A promised to work with a much wider range of overclocked FSB speeds, sometimes as high as 160MHz or above.
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Soo, maybe a bios flash would work? Wonder if wpcrdet editing would work as well?