I posted in the AMD forum in February "A7M266 - first impressions" and later about modifications so that the multiplier can bet changed. I'm still getting tons of e-mails, how to modify the board. The A7M266 is perfect, the only thing missing is the mutliplier change, and only GOD knows, why Asus took the dip switch off from the retail boards, although they even show it in the manual and in their press release picture.

Instructions how to modify the A7M266 with a dip switch to change the mutliplier

Step 1
In the upper right corner of the A7M266 you will find the soldering points where Asus originally placed the multiplier switch. If you are not sure where it is, just have a look in the manual, page 13, or at the A7M266 pictures that Asus showed in their press release from October 2000. That is the location where you have to place the replacement switch

Step 2
Remove the solder from the contact points to clear up the holes. They should be completely clear otherwise the dipswitch is difficult to fit in. Then attach the dipswitch block by pressing it in and heating up each pin from the back.

Step 3
Remove the (4.7K Ohm) 8 pin resistors from locations RN19 and RN20. They are located above the CPU socket and are labeled. Use a flat edge solder tip and place it against one side of the resistor. After a while both ends with all eight pins should be hot enough to melt the solder and the resistor can be removed.

Step 4
Now you need the replacement 330 Ohm to 560 Ohm resistors. Position them on the motherboard, lining them up with the contact points. Hold them down and solder each leg of the block resister to the contact pad. A magnifying glass will help here. Make sure, that none of the connections on the resistor is shortened. .

Now it's done and you can change the multiplier. The setting scheme is printed on the board (both revisions 1.03 and 1.04 have it). Only one interesting exception: the print on the board says that switch 5 has to be "OFF" to enable the multiplier setting via the dipswitch. This is wrong! Switch 5 must be in the "ON" position (closed) in order to change the multiplier. The dipswitch allows to set the multiplier between 5 and 12.5 by setting pins 1 to 4 in "OFF" or "ON" according to the printed scheme. Pin 5 always has to stay in "ON".

I'm using currently a 1.2 Giga Tbird EV266: Without changing the multiplier this CPU is maxing out at 9x144=1296MHz, using the multiplier switch this CPU is reaching 10x143=1430 just with regular air-cooling.

Note from Agg: Of course, attacking your motherboard with a soldering iron is inviting disaster if you don't know what you're doing. OCAU and Chainbolt take no responsibility if something bad happens..