Improving AM3 Support on ZOTAC GF8300-A-E

[wololo]

Hello to all,
I have some difficulties running an Athlon II X2 (260, stepping NAEGC AE) on a Zotac GF8300 motherboard. The last bios update released for this board (AWARD dated June 2009) claims to support AM3 processors. It kinda does but not really, by that i mean that:

• Recognises only some AM3 CPUs, said 260 is recognised but, for example, a Sempron 145 (random test processor i have lying around) only gets detected as "AMD processor model unknown"
  
  
• Even for the procs that get detected the machine is extremely unstable, with symptoms that at a first glance would point to bad ram: random freezes, BSODs with inconsistent error codes, graphical corruption if using the onboard graphics...
  
  Needless to say the ram is good, as it works on this board with an older first gen Phenom and on another motherboard with the A II X2 260 (an ASUS, and given how picky ASUS boards are about memory if it works on that it will work on anything)
  

Given my very little understanding on how AMD cpus work, I was wondering if an AGESA update could mend some of these issues. I don't really care about the Sempron support, but getting the Athlon working would be nice.

Here is some CPU-Z screenshots from a working configuration, and attached should be the bios file (pad4 folder).




Also I've read in the readme topic that I should link to a similar motherboard in case some parts from its bios are needed to mod this one, this Gigabyte board seems close enough (AWARD bios, MCP78 chipset and support for basically any cpu with a sane wattage). It's a Geforce 8200 rather than 8300, but the only difference between them should be the iGPU clocks.

Thank you for any help you can provide  

PS: I apologise for my English as it's not my native language.

[DeathBringer]

Boot with your Athlon II X2 260 and make TXT-report of CPU-Z.
Then make a screenshot of regedit with expanded key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\0

[wololo]

Here is the Registry:


And attached there is the CPU-Z report.

Thank You


**** EDITED ****
I forgot to attach the report, now it should be

[DeathBringer]

Install KB2818604 and make new screenshot of regedit.

[wololo]

HKLM\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\0 after installing the microcode update

[DeathBringer]

OK.
Does it help with stability problems?

[wololo]

OK.
Does it help with stability problems?

Somewhat better but still unstable, I've tried running PCMark and it freezes hard after a while.
I don't think its temperature releated either.

[DeathBringer]

So updating microcode in BIOS will not help too.
Try to test with CPU for AM3 with C2-stepping.

[wololo]

So updating microcode in BIOS will not help too.
Try to test with CPU for AM3 with C2-stepping.

I've just tried an X2 245 C2 step (ADX245OCK23GQ NAEIC AE) and it manages to be even worse, as it can barely boot up to a windows desktop before freezing with funky artifacts.

Can it even be possible for a motherboard to only support some variants of the same stepping, like for example not all C2 but only early stepping codes like AAEEC AE and CAEEC AE, the only ones around when the bios was developed?

[DeathBringer]

I think it's hardware problem. Current BIOS has native support for Athlon II X2 245 (rev. C2).
Try to use only one DIMM.
Disable Geforce 8300 and use PCI-E graphics card.
Try to reduce HT speed.