Unofficial eMachines Tech Info

eMachineUpgraders Forum

 

 

Trigem Napoli-2/2A End User's Upgrades

 

 

This section is dedicated to YOU, the ones who use these eMachines day in and day out, who go and find the latest drivers, look for the latest upgrades, who try to make their machine perform at its best. The following posts are comments, from end users, on what you have found out that has worked for you. Since these posts are end user contributions, use the info contained here at your own risk.
My Upgrade of the eMonster 600 - The Journey begins!!

01.01.02

I actually started this about a year ago (few months after buying the system) when I upgraded to a Radeon 32MB video card, when the prices first started falling, I think I got it for 79 dollars or so, well that was easy pop out the standard 8mb TNT AGP board that came with the system and pop in the new one. I wish I had waited, but no, I soon swapped out the 32mb Radeon for the 64MB DDR now called the Radeon 7200. But now with the GeForce's coming way down in price, I should have waited again. I also dropped in a 128MB Stick of Memory about the same time, no big deal...

I partitioned the hard drive into four drives, Main (5GB), Games(10GB), Archive(3GB) and Video/Pictures/etc(1GB)

About a month ago, I found this neat little web site (during a search for divers) that lead me here eMachines Help Site (http://e4all.freeservers.com) which had a link to the chat group on yahoo called eMachine Upgraders (http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/emachineupgraders). Reading all these messages gave me the bug, to do more!!

Gathering all the pieces - Where to start, first thing I did was a search for the various file / current hardware updates. The only thing that I successfully upgraded was the Modem Master modem, which uses the Agere/Lucent chipset and is actually a decent win-modem. I still prefer a hardware modem, but since I use DirecPC Two Way its not used that much... It is important to defrag and clean up, back up the PC prior to doing a major overhaul, that way you have a fully stable and good running machine to start with. I deleted a bunch of no longer used program and such. I had the system running good!!

Well to start I upgraded the memory again, learning a lot on the way (see first article I wrote). Yes, you can upgrade the monsters to 512MB, if you wish but I am running 384MB physical and 200MB as a swapfile and all is well. So Best Buy had the 256MB/PC133 on sale for $19.95 with a rebate of $7.00 if you actually get it.

Next I picked up Windows XP and installed it as a dual boot system placing XP where I had originally had my Archive's, just to ensure that it would run for later upgrades and when I buy a second license. I actually installed / activated XP on the sons eTower 600is downstairs. You will understand why later...

So far so good, next I spent some time researching mobo manuals, PIII documentation, asking lots of questions from various places, and finding out that no one here carries Slot 1 CPU's. Thinking maybe this is not a good idea, I finally decided on a course of action. I would go with a new power supply, CPU - PIII 850, and hard drive - 40GB/7200rpm. Well to make a long story short after researching prices it changed. All to be retrieved by online sources!!

I ordered the power supply first, there are 4 or 5 places that you can get power supply's for eMachines, most have the same standard fan that is currently used on the stock ilssan PS, but I found two places that had options for a quieter ball bearing fan, and 150 watt model. Cicro Tech (http://www.circotech.com/power.htm) has the upgraded model for $35.00 which is a great price. I actual ordered two since I will eventually upgrade the system downstairs as well.

Next, I won two auctions on ebay for a upgraded CPU heatsink w/3 fans and hard drive fans (can never have enough cooling eh) total price shipped was around $28.00, locally these would have set me back about $35.00.

Next, I tried to order a second license for XP via MS web site only to get the item is not available, huh, a number is not available, interesting... I am still awaiting a reply on this from MS.

Well, after that I ordered a PIII 1GHz CPU - 100MHz Bus 256KB Coppermine SECC2 *Retail Box* 3 YR Warranty - Manuf. P/N: BX80526H1000256 and IBM 40GB Deskstar 60GXP Ultra ATA/100 8.5ms 2MB 7200rpm Hard Drive. Total was $343.00 - Free UPS Ground Shipping promo as well from McGlen.Com (http://www.mcglen.com) Basically the 1 Ghz CPU was 229, I saw prices from 212 - 299 for the slot 1, but the drive was only 114, and that was about the best I could find.. Shipping ranged from 15 -27 dollars at most places I looked. Prices for the PIII 850 ranged from 129 - 199 if you are looking for upgrade that is not as aggressive. OEM CPU's are about 5-10 dollars less but most only have a 1 - 3 month warranty from the date of purchase, read the fine print on restocking fees and such as well.

So far so good, around $500.00 (add 100 for a new GForce 400MX 64MB if you want) on the emonster 600. A machine that should run circles around the newer emachines that you may or may not get that rebate with a final price of 399.00 (Celeron 900) - 799.00 (PIIII 1.5GHz). I am sure if I spent more time looking I could have found better deals. Did I really need the extra fans, new hard drive, probably not but if you are gonna do it, might as well go for it!! I also have the satisfaction of doing this and tweaking the system, and the upgrade of the etower 600is will be much cheaper since the 20GB drive I currently have in the monster will end up supplementing the 10GB in the tower, and socket 370 cpu's can be had for under $120...

Installing the goodies - The first things that arrived on my doorstep was the cpu and drive cooler. Looking at the drive cooler it might take some modification to get it to fit.. Later that evening the UPS guy showed up with the power supplies. Opening the box, and there were two new shiny power supplies made by SPI. They are exact replacements, but are 150 W and use ball bearing fans versus the sleeved stock fans on the Ilssan. Well I did a modification to the new PS wiring, basically I removed all the wire zip ties, then took some clear 1/4 inch automotive wiring tubing and wrapped all the wires putting zip ties at the ends. This makes for nice neat plugs for all the drives and mobo plug. Installing the power supply took about 20 minutes and did not cause any problems, everything fit fine. I powered up the machine and wow that BB fan is quiet compared to the old one. It even seems like the standard cpu fan makes more noise than the PS fan. Not bad for $35 buck!! Well the next morning I received a email from McGlen (about 36 hours after ordering) saying the remaining items had been shipped. UPS tracking showed the package had left San Gabriel, Ca enroute to Denver, CO. Upon arrival I opened up the cpu and damn if it don't have the new style cpu fan on there, they are a pain to get off. Oh well maybe later, ok well I popped out the old cpu and in goes the new. Ahh well, here goes nothing powered up waiting for the beeps.... Ahhh system posts fine, showing a Pentium III and starts to boot into windows no problems, quick run of sandra shows a

PIII 1002 MHZ 100Mhz FSB 256K L2 full speed...

MSI shows; Genuine Intel x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6

Piece of cake, but the system still is slagging it seems all though benchmarks are rating up there. Ok I went to install the hard drive, with IBM's disk utility it was easy, I partitioned up the drive and copied my old drive over and was set to go. Ahh here we go, I noticed a bit of speed gain here going from the older IDE to UDMA 33, 7200 rpm. Next step will be to flash the board once I have a new motherboard in hand, and do some testing to see what it improves.

Basic online tests show also show a good jump from 292 to 538 (PC world)

Which is almost as fast as some low end P4's...

Bottomline - Was it worth it, as a learning experience yes, price NO!! If I were to do it again, I would go with a newer motherboard, and Socket 370 PIII CPU.

I do plan on getting a newer more current motherboard and such for this CPU, then head off to XP Land. And I also plan a completely different route for the 600IS since XP is already installed hehehehe lets see how far I can stretch the activation routine…

Grizz

 


Memory Explanation

Most later version emachines using Anaheim / Napoli mobo's and probably others...

Confusion sets in when "the big E" says your machine is not capable of doing above 256MB

NOT TRUE!!

In fact you are capable of going to 512 MB - if you are running windows 98/SE/ME, you don't and probably wont need much more the 256 MB (but that's another lesson).

So how is this possible, well lets look at a DIMM/SIMM confusion itself, most of these TriGem motherboards were in development/production when DIMM Sticks came about so the written knowledge about things was based on SIMM technology / theory.

SIMM - memory chips on one side of the stick

DIMM - memory chips on both sides of the stick

Basically your board has 2 DIMM slots, Okay each slot is actually broken up into two banks, one for each side of the DIMM stick. When originally written the max

DIMM stick was 128MB or 64MB on each side, i.e. two slots = 4 banks (64MBea) = 256MB

Now if you actually read the mobo manuals you will soon figure out that in actuality what the engineers are trying to say is that each bank is limited to 128MB, not each slot so each slot can handle a 256MB Stick.

How does the machine handle this, well the bios comes into play. It is written that the bios identifies type, size, and speed of the memory. Yes it does for any stick 128MB and below, since that was the standard a few years ago. It will tell you who makes it and such, if you put in a 256MB stick it will not give the information, but you should see 128MB per bank

Right now my eMonster has a 256MB / 133 Stick in slot 1 and a 128MB / 133 Stick in Slot 2. When I run the saudra program I show:

< System Mainboard >

Manufacturer: TriGem Computer Inc.

MP Support: No

Model: NAPOLI

Version: 1.0

Serial Number: 00000000

< System Memory Summary >

Total System Memory: 495MB

Total Physical Memory: 383MB

Maximum Page File: 200MB

< Memory Controller >

Error Detection Method: 32-bit ECC

Error Correction Capability: 1-bit

Supported/Current Memory Interleave: 1 way / 1 way

Number of Memory Slots: 2

Maximum Installable Memory: 256MB

Maximum Module Size: 128MB

Supported SDRAM Speeds: PC66, PC100

Supported Memory Types: DIMM, SDRAM

Supported Memory Voltages: 3.3V

< Physical/BIOS Memory Banks >

Micron-1 (RASL-0 RASL-0): 128MB DIMM single-bank

< Logical/Chipset Memory Banks >

Bank 0 Setting: 128MB SDRAM 8-1-1-1R 6-1-1-1W 3-2-2CL

Bank 1 Setting: 128MB SDRAM 8-1-1-1R 6-1-1-1W 3-2-2CL

Bank 2 Setting: 128MB SDRAM 8-1-1-1R 6-1-1-1W 3-2-2CL

Bus Speed: 1x 100MHz (100MHz data rate)

Bus Multiplier: 1/1x

Refresh Rate: 15.60µs

Power Down Mode: No

Fixed Hole Present: No

What this all means... The bios only tells what its been programmed to tell i.e. look at the memory controller info and the Bios Memory bank. Now look at the actual banks and you see that in fact the system sees three banks of 128MB or 384MB. But Grizz, your Physical Memory shows 383MB, what happened to the 1 MB... Remember that the first 640KB is used by the OS to load dos and such, hence 383MB.

Grizzly_80911


Emonster 600 Upgrade Result

I ordered a used Coppermine based PIII 750 from Computer Geeks. It came came today. It is a standard Slot 1 SECC2 750 Mhz Processor. It is Coppermine, 100 Mhz Bus. Voltage would be in the 1.6 - 1.7 range (My major concern). Well it works. Works great, in fact.

My Emonster has a Napoli-2A (CR4281 based) motherboard. Fairly standard on Emonsters 550 & 600, OEM BIOS,

Since the Napoli-2 supports Coppermines the Emonster should be able to be upgraded to a PIII 850. Because Copper mines perform about 25% faster than Katmais at the same speed the increase in performance my computer should experience is about 66%. Several of the benchmarks I have run bear this out.

jto1963


Successful Upgrade Emonster 550 to 850

Per request the details of my circumstance: My Emonster 550 had an older bios. The version was Napoli2 1.0.4. dated early 99' When I initially installed the 850 Mhz Coppermine 100 FSB S.E.C.C. processor my boxes performance was poor to say the least. The bios recognized the 256 cache on the processor, but it showed that the cache as disabled (with no option to enable it). Also the bios reported the processor as operating at 200Mhz. After reinstalling the original processor, and doing some more research, I came to the conclusion that I would risk flashing the AMI bios with a later release. I would recommend that you install the new processor before flashing your bios to see if your current bios will recognize it. Only flash your bios after seriously weighing the consequences!!! I used the bios update found at the following link: http://www.e4all.info/motherboards/napoli2_download.htm: and followed the instructions for flashing the bios found here: http://www.tyan.com/support/html/how_to_flash.html

After the procedure was completed I installed the new 850mhz coppermine again and EUREKA!!! The bios recognized the new processor's 256k cache and the processor's speed of 850 mhz. A problem that I ran into was the bios not being able to find the boot sector on the hard drive and defaulting to booting from the floppy drive.

I thought that this might be because of a mismatch between the timing of the bios requesting the boot sector from the hard drive and the time that my upgraded 7200 RPM hard drive needs to reach full speed. To fix this I removed the floppy drive from the boot sequence, and disabled the quikboot option in the bios. After that everything worked, and I must say things move MUCH faster. I also adjusted the bios to not show the Korean post screen. My personal preference.

dskelto


ATI Radeon 7000 64Mb Video Card

If you can't get your eMonster to boot up after installing this video card, upgrade your bios to Version 1.13 found in the "Napoli-2 Download Section" at this site.


Celeron Support

Looks like the Napoli-2 will support some Celerons on a slocket card; I just installed a 533Mhz (PPGA) and it works like a champ.

TD25x


Upgraded from a TNT Vanta 8mb to a Geforce2 mx 400 64mb SDRAM

07.21.02
Emonster 600
Napoli-2 Mobo - BIOS 1.13
256mb RAM
2 20gig Hard drives
DvD Rom
OS is Win XP Pro

The very first problem with the Geforce2 was the drivers. In the quick guide it says

"IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have model number TNT2 100, GeForce100, or Gefroce400 (my model) you do not need to install a driver in windows XP"

for some reason the card did not do this which should have keyed me into thinking the card was defective. After that I load the drivers from the CD to run OpenGL and Direct 3D and I random freezing during Half-Life, Carmegeddon, and Hitman. The Video mode Direct 3D was the most problematic, the computer froze after a few seconds of game play, Opengl would usually freeze about a half-hour to an hour in game. So I thought it was driver problem and Installed nVidia's Detonator XP drivers but ended up with the same exact problems. I then called Best Data technical support and was asked if the AGP version is 2.0 or higher.. The Emonster Napoli-2 is AGP 2x which I did not know at the time so I flashed the bios up to 1.13 hoping to alleviate the problem. No dice. So I called Tech support again and was asked if the card has its own IRQ, mine did. Then they wondered if the Motherboard Chipset wasn't compatible with the video card which it was. At the end of the conversation I was told that Geforce2 cards need at least 250w power supply to function correctly.

After I hung up I promptly mounted a 250w power supply on top of the case and plugged it in. Again the same problems. I called tech support again and they told me they couldn't find nothing else wrong with my system so it must be a defective card. The next day I took the card back to Fry's Electronics for an exchange, luckily with no hassle. Oddly enough the new card was smaller and had a fan on it and the first one didn't, I doubt that was a problem though, so I installed it with the 250w power supply on and it ran flawlessly even under all video modes and no drivers needed to be installed.

Changes I made are:

-Updated the BIOS

-Added a 250w Power Supply

If you do have problems follow these guidelines:

-Follow the Install instructions! They help.

-Make sure VGA Palette Snooping and/or Video cache RAM is disabled.

-Make sure you have APG version 2x, the napoli 2 does, and most will.

-Make sure you BIOS is compatible with the card, if not upgrade the BIOS (use only as a last resort).

-Find out what company makes your Motherboard Chipset and make sure it is compatible with the Video card, updates are available.

-Make sure the Card has is on its own IRQ.

-Use a 250w or higher power supply if it freezes often.

-Emonster600 specific make sure that the "Primary Display Adapter" in the CMOS is set to VGA, the default is PCI. May or may not change anything.

-Emonster600 specific make sure "Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA" is set to AUTO

-Windows XP specific If there are no Geforce tabs under Display Properties>Settings>Advanced after installing the card it may be defective.

Tips

-Under Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>Gefroce2 MX/MX 400>Additional Properties>OpenGL settings Turn off Vertical Sync for better frame rates.

-Under Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>Monitor Uncheck "Hide video modes the monitor cannot display" For higher Screen resolutions. If you have problems re-enable it. DO NOT set it to the highest Resolution!

-If the card comes with Benchmark software, try it, its fun to watch.

If you have any questions about this upgrade, contact: eaeo@cox.net


Voodoo 5 5500 + P3 1.0Ghz = EZ Upgrade

08.03.02

Looks like the Napoli-2 will support the old Voodoo 5 cards as well. I had already upgraded the BIOS to version 1.13, removed the old Vanta card and plugged in the Voodoo....booted right up and then installed the drivers. I also added a Intel Pentium III 1000/256/100 Slot 1 SECC2 CPU into Napoli-2 mobo. Didn't have to mess with any of the DIP switches or jumpers. Simply removed old cpu installed new one and booted up. Still using the OEM 120W PSU! No problems so far.

TD25x


GeForce4 Upgrade!

09.15.02

Just put in a NVIDIA Geforce4 Ti 4600 that seems to run superbly...knock on wood........

rumandtonic


512Mb RAM

12.18.02

I had to send back Kingston memory sticks a couple of times before I got it right. The specific valueRAM part number is KVR133X64C3Q/256. I know that its a CAS Latency 3, but the most important part is that 'Q'. Get that part, and it will definitely work on the eMonster and you will have 512 MB Ram.

niknapr


1.4 Celeron in Napoli-2!

02.09.03

I successfully use Napoli-2 & Tualatin Celeron (with PowerLeap PL-iP3/T Ver2 ).
Used with tuned BIOS (Ver1.13s base).
The experiment page http://gyaian-web.hp.infoseek.co.jp/pchard/lab/napoli2/napoli2.htm [This is a Japanese site, TD]


GYAIAN


Another PowerLeap 1.4Ghz PL-iP3/T Upgrade

04.05.03
I swapped out my Pentium III 1000/256/100 Slot 1 SECC2 CPU for a Powerleap 1.4GHz Celeron Slot 1 PL-IP3T. I flashed the BIOS using napoli2_2.zip located in the Napoli-2 download section BEFORE installing the adapter. Shut down, pulled out the P3 1.0Ghz CPU and then installed the Powerleap adapter. It fired right up and I verified clock speed was indeed 1.4Ghz with Sandra and WCPUID.

TD25x


512Mb Memory upgrade and explanation

06.10.03
[Use] Two 256MB SDRAM DIMM, PC100/133 double-sided (8 chips on each side,
aka 16x8), CAS latency 2, (aka CS2 or CL2) low density (aka 32x64 configuration) memory modules; brand and model number: Infineon HYB39S128800CT-7.

Just a word about "high density" and "low density" in regards to memory modules" "High density" and "low density" can refer to either the module itself or the chips on the module. A high density module means that it has more chips on the module than usual. A double-sided module is usually "high density". A high density chip is a chip that has more memory than your average chip. What Napoli-2 mobo users should be looking for is a high-density module (like 8 chips on each side) with low-density chips. Higher-density chips are cheaper (in quality? and cost), but only the newest mobos can recognize them. When you see ads for modules referencing "high density" or "low density" be sure you know whether the ad is referring to the module itself or the chips on it.
Finally, just a reminder, these modules I bought are CL2. If you are going to overclock, now or in the future, this is the type of module you want to get. The CL3 are not really for overclocking. Anyway, I've got 512MB working on my eMonster 500a now, and with Windows XP it's a great help.

observ8tor


Overclock using CPUFSB

The pll-ic/clock generator on the Napoli-2 is made by ICS and is model 9148-26.

enigmadeadsouls


Upgrading in Japan

04.18.04

In Japan, the reconstruction BIOS of Napoli-2&2A was used and the user who exchanged for Tualatin exceeded 80 persons only by the report.

I experimented about the combination of Napoli-2&2A and Tualatin Celeron between winter that possibilities should be checked.

Test System
CPU     Intel Celeron 1.4G(with PowerLeap PL-iP3/T)
Memory  PC100 256MB x2
HDD     Maxtor 54610H6 46.1G(ATA100 7200prm)
ATA     EIO(InnoVISION) AP-1600 ATA133
FDD     Mitsumi D353 2mode
DVD     Panasonic CW-8572
S/C     Onboard with Creative Sound Blaster16
LAN     No Brand VIA VT86C100A
OS      Windows2000SP4
API     DirectX9.0b
DRIVER  nVidia Detonator53.03
        ATI    Catalyst3.9
(ATI is not supporting AGP1.0 of RADEON9800PRO.Own risk!)

Video Card
nVidia
(1) GAINWARD FX PowerPack! Ultra/1800XP 256MB(GeForce5950Ultra)
(2) Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/960TV/DVI 128MB(GeForce5700Ultra)
(3) MSI FX5600Ultra VTD128(GeForce5600UltraFC)
(4) MSI FX5200Ultra TD128(GeForce5200Ultra)
ATI
(5) PowerColor R98PRO-CDT-A256D 256MB(RADEON9800PRO)
(6) ATI RADEON9700PRO(RADEON9700PRO)
(7) TORICA(OEM) RADEON9500PRO(RADEON9500PRO)nVidia(Emu rate)
(a) GeForce5700(5700Ultra Down Clock C425/M550MHz)
(b) GeForce5600Ultra128bit(FC-Model Down Clock C350MHz/M700MHz)
(c) GeForce5600 128bit(FC-Model Down Clock C325MHz/M550MHz)
(d) GeForce5200 128bit(5200Ultra Down Clock C250MHz/M400MHz)

Result
1 Final Fantasy XI Bench-1(2 times measurement)
(1)3137>3122 (2)3153>3246 (3)3007>3078 (4)2905>2955
(5)3211>3206(6)3192>3190 (7)3180>3176
(a)3066>3121 (b)2946>2967 (c)2952>2954 (d)2905>2955

2-1 Final Fantasy XI Bench 2Low(2 times measurement)
(1)2531>2514(2)2557>2554 (3)2497>2471 (4)2424>2426
(5)2579>2564 (6)2550>2518 (7)2554>2519
(a)2588>2578 (b)2491>2471 (c)2475>2463 (d)2412>2418

2-2 Final Fantasy XI Bench 2High(2 times measurement)
(1)2304>2314 (2)2407>2397 (3)2257>2323 (4)2084>2091
(5)2467>2449 (6)2460>2446 (7)2388>2382
(a)2313>2307 (b)2167>2159 (c)2099>2087 (d)1919>1926

3 3Dmark2001SE330
(1)8337 (2)7864 (3)7315 (4)6411
(5)9098 (6)8921 (7)8220
(a)7175 (b)6927 (c)6528 (d)5828

4 3Dmark2003 340
(1)4802 (2)3162 (3)2628 (4)1674
(5)4816 (6)4283 (7)3222
(a)2340 (b)2378 (c)2120 (d)1379

5 AquaMark3
(1)G-4314 C-4279 T-28683
(2)G-3492 C-4228 T-24718
(3)G-2736 C-4230 T-20675
(4)G-1308 C-4307 T-11340
(5)G-3219 C-4356 T-23520
(6)G-3108 C-4219 T-22709
(7)G-2865 C-4279 T-21466
(a)G-2700 C-4231 T-20472
(b)G-2418 C-4237 T-18808
(c)G-2127 C-4235 T-16996
(d)G-1155 C-4305 T-10198

6 Unreal Tounament2003 DEMO
(1)F103.1 B37.9 (2)F104.7 B38.5 (3)F103.0 B38.0 (4)F94.1 B37.8
(5)F105.6 B38.6 (6)F106.0 B38.6 (7)F105.6 B38.7
(a)F99.6 B38.5 (b)F102.0 B37.9 (c)F99,0 B38.0 (d)F80.0 B37.8

7 Consideration
 1) Other portions serve as a bottleneck and a high-end model has them in a leveling-off state efficiently.
 2) In GeForce5700(non Ultra) and all 5600 Series, there is no difference not much.
 3) When the performance of DirectX8 is compared, the Radeon9800Pro is faster than GeForce5950Ultra a little.
 4) As long as the game of DirectX8 correspondence was actually played, the difference was seldom understood above GeForce5600-Ultra(non FC). However, the distance beyond anticipation may
be felt for 5600 series and 5200 series.

In Japan, GeForce5700Ultra is recommended fundamentally. However, RADEON 9500PRO is recommended if acquisition is possible.

Since 256MB model of GeForce5900XT was put on the market, although it experiments after purchase, it is expected that it is equivalent to RADEON 9700PRO.

Even now in Japan, there is popularity of RADEON 9500PRO with good sufficient cost performance.

GYAIAN
URL: http://gyaian-web.hp.infoseek.co.jp/index.html

 

 

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