XP 1800 & Asus A7A266-E Problem

[mikecx]

I recently aquired an Athlon XP 1800+ from my friend and decided to put it in my machine. I installed it right, the machine posts but then the problems begin. I set the processor to run at the dafault 1533mhz. Saved the BIOS settings, when it went to restart there was nothing displayed on the monitors ( dual monitor setup ). I turned it off and then back on, got into the BIOS and it had a message to check the processor speed as it caused it to crash after the restart. Checked the speed, it was set to where it was supposed to be. Tried it a few more times with the same result. After some google'ing I decided to try a small aresenal of things.
1.) Check BIOS version. It is latest non-beta version
2.) Make sure power supply is strong enough. I assume 430w is.
3.) Try different ram. I switched it out for 3 different ram sticks, one from crucial the other is kingston.
4.) Try changing all the settings in the BIOS that I can change. No effect.
5.) Screw around with FSB. I decided to set the FSB lower. After I got to 122mhz FSB it works. Not exactly ideal, i got the 1800+ so that I could run it at full speed.
6.) Try setting speed with jumpers instead of bios. Nothing.
7.) Make sure CPU isn't to hot. It's on the warmer side but 120F isn't all that bad. I've ran at 144F before.

That's why I turn to you guys ( and gals ). I'm completely out of ideas as to why it wont work. I plan on calling AMD and ASUS tommorow but I am looking for a more informed answer from you guys. If you have any clues as to what it might be, if you've seen it before, or just wanna be nice and send me a A7N8X i'd appreciate any of those.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[paparazi]

Not being able to run at full default FSB settings is typical of a hardware fault, usually memory! but this same symptom can also be caused by a damaged CPU or motherboard.
XP processors can be damaged very easily, if they have been allowed to overheat even for a few seconds, typically when the heatsink is fitted without thermal paste or the wrong way around.
Once damaged that's it I'm afraid.
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[mikecx]

I'm pretty sure it's not the memmory as this board supports DDR and SDR. I used both with multiple different sticks only one stick at a time. As for damaging the processor, if it was damaged would the computer still be able to boot into the OS at a lower clock?

 

[mikecx]

No one has seen this problem before?

 

[Comtech]

I have. Turned out that the RAM (DDR) was not capable of running at CAS2, and had to be dropped to CAS 3, then the system posted at full speed. Not sure if that mobo has those options though (It should, it's an Asus).
Maybe try underclocking the RAM to 100mhz (or 200mhz) depending on how BIOS reads it, instead of 133mhz x 2 (266mhz). Sometimes even the best RAM chips can't really run at spec.
The only other time I have seen these symptoms, is when the L2 cache on the CPU was burned out, and it wouldn't run at full speed, usually caused by heat. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[paparazi]

Yes, I have seen several systems like yours that would boot into windows quite happily but at lower memory or FSB settings only, one in particular, an XP2.2+ had clearly had it's heatsink fitted the wrong way around at some point(you could tell by looking at the marks made on the heatsink base)
It took some argueing but the customer finally admitted to the incorrect fitment of the heatsink and paid for a replacement. He said that it had only been on that way for a few seconds.
Well, a few seconds is all it takes I'm afraid on a socket "A" processor. Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[zen2002]

You looked here ?

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx

Then you can go here;

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_182_869_4348^4378|132_1_XP,00.html

The moral here is that Asus sort of says if you use the latest bios it "should" support the processor,in practice it's hit and miss.The second link is the boards that AMD have tested to support their processors.

I bought an Asus A7V133-C and was going to fit an XP 2100+,but the advice was Don't(unless you want grief),recommendation....A7V333-X that's what I'm using now ,with no problems.The link below goes to AMD's forums,browse thru here and see what problems others have:

http://www.amdforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=6de9bb1617de4a0acd137355d5f1f05d&forumid=8

 

[mikecx]

Thanks, I tried the ram suggestion earlier with multple sticks, and I dont have the options for CAS3, just 2 and 2.5 and I just left it set to default ( BY SPD ).

paparazi, you might be correct in thinking that it is slightly damaged. It didn't appear to have any visual scratches, cracks, chips, or other marks but since it is not new and retail it's always an option. It still confuses my as to why it will work at a lower FSB when broken.

I've contacted AMD about it and if I can find the serial from off the stock fan I can get an rma setup. This isn't a problem for me since I have 2 stock fans sitting at my house and have never used either one for an RMA before.

I'm still hoping and praying for someone to say that there is an easy answer but I don't think that will happen. Anyways, I'm just glad that I still have my 1700+ sitting right near that I can swap back in.

 

[ceh4702]

I forgot to plug in my cpu cooler fan once and it ran fine till it got hot. Then it would slow down and quit. I plugged the fan in and now it works great. This was on a Celeron 1.2 Gig processor. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

This is the opposite problem. iSeriesCodePoet
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer

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