ABit Web Page ABit Mainboards - The LX6

Page Update, 30th January 1999

This page has been superceded by the new ABit page, which covers three of the most popular ABit motherboards; the BH6, BX6 and LX6. Consequently you may find that some of the web links on this page are out of date - the file links, however, are all still valid.


What's this all about, then ?

I'm posting this page for two reasons - for those of you who may be thinking of building a Pentium II-based PC, this is a source of information on one of the best LX-chipset mainboards available. For those of you who already have an LX6, you've probably already tried to get files off ABit's FTP server, and after a couple of hours, given up on that 10Kb file. So, I'm posting copies of the files in my own Webspace. Oh - and I'll be updating the page as and when ABit release new BIOS, drivers etc. Three - three reasons.

The LX6 is widely regarded as just about the best single-chip Pentium II LX mainboard currently available - but don't take my word for it, check out the reviews over Tom's Hardware and Anand's Hardware Tech Page.


Where this stuff comes from.

ABit have a few Web page mirrors now - the base is in Taiwan; the quickest mirror for me is in Holland. While the ABit FTP site connections are abysmal, the Web pages are quick enough.

The Web pages offer two FTP sites, both in Taiwan - their own and another which appears to be based in an educational institution. The first is incredibly slow, and I've never managed to connect to the second...


BIOS Settings.

Let's face it - if you're building your own PC, you're probably happy browsing around the BIOS setup pages and tweaking everything in sight. If you're a BIOS virgin, though, don't worry - the manual that comes with the LX6 is comprehensive without being intimidating. It's one of the best I've worked with, and I think it's the first that explains what Palette Snooping actually does !

Once you've got the basic system up and running, and you're happy with the BIOS settings, check out Anand's LX6 BIOS Settings - an excellent table of optimal Chipset Features Setup for each bus speed setting.


Overclocking the LX6.

Overclocking your Pentium II is a breeze on the LX6, thanks to ABit's SoftMenu in the BIOS Setup. Using this feature, you set the bus speed and multiplier from a menu - no jumpers ! If what you try doesn't boot, you just restart the system two or three times and it goes back to a reliable speed. I'm running a PII-266 as a 300, by raising the bus speed from 66MHz to 75MHz - my system won't boot at the 82.5MHz bus speed, and the 100MHz option isn't supported yet - but that could be changed with a BIOS update, we'll have to wait and see...

I know a lot of you out there are wary of overclocking - if you're not happy with it, then don't bother. Whichever side of the overclocking fence you're on, though, I'd strongly recommend you check out the Overclocking Guide at Tom's Hardware Site. Then, have a peek at his Important News for Overclockers page - this explains why you can no longer overclock Pentium IIs by changing the multiplier, you have to change the bus speed.


A few words about the supporting files.

I must admit, I got a bit of a headache trying to work out the content and version of some of the supporting files that were required, especially when it came to the Bus Master IDE driver 'bmide_95.exe' - I couldn't find it on the CD-ROM that came with the board. Turns out it's uncompressed, in the folder \Drivers\IntelIDEDv\Win95. So, those files in full...

bmide_95.exe is Intel's PIIX Bus Master IDE Drivers for Windows 95, version 3.00. It's described as the Ultra DMA/33 driver in Appendix E of the LX6 manual, which also explains how to install it.

pci_tx.exe contains the ABit TX chipset drivers - you'll need to install these before Windows 95 wil recognise your PCI Bridge, and therefore any of the devices hanging off it. For some reason ABit have included the source files in the distribution, but two of the files (MainFrame.cpp and MainFrame.h) have mangled names because ABit used a compression utility which doesn't support long file names to produce the self-exracting EXE. Doesn't matter though - the installation doesn't require them. Installation of the drivers is described in Appendix F of the LX6 manual.

pci_tx1.exe contains the ABit TX chipset drivers packaged in pci_tx.exe, and a new driver which 'sorts out' the yellow question-mark you get on the USB in the Device Manager. Note that this doesn't actually fix USB support, but it resolves the Windows 95 lack of chipset recognition. I've loaded the drivers on my LX6, and sure enough the USB is now listed as a 'proper' device (in fact, it's still got a '!', but that's because I've disabled the USB interrupt in the BIOS). Note that installation under Windows 95 OSR 2.5 doesn't quite match the procedure described by ABit, but the only thing you need to know is that the uhcd.sys file Windows asks for once the PC is restarted is in \windows\system, not in PRECOPY1.CAB like Windows thinks... Other than that, just follow your nose, and the installation will be OK. If your system matches mine, you won't find any 'PCI Ports' to delete either - they mean the 'PCI Bus'. You'll need to remove the PCI devices so that a refresh of the motherboard's resources finds the PCI-AGP bridge. In my particular case, it was the PCI-PCI bridge device that had to be removed before the PCI-AGP bridge was detected.

As for the BIOS files - check the last two characters in the BIOS ID string (bottom left of the screen when the PC boots) to determine which version you're currently running.


Supporting Files for the LX6

File Date Description Info Size
pci_tx1.exe 10.04.98 ABit LX6 TX chipset drivers and USB override for Windows 95 (no version information). ABit 72Kb
pci_tx.exe 14.10.97 ABit LX6 TX chipset drivers for Windows 95 (no version information). ABit 136Kb
bmide_95.exe 20.06.97 Intel PIIX Bus Master IDE Drivers (v3.00). bmide_95.txt 584Kb