Author Topic: ASUS A7M266/Athlon 1800/Win2K probs (Read 404 times)

oboe · « **on:** December 22, 2001, 11:43:00 AM »

Guys I finally pulled the trigger and am trying to get the machine up and running right now.

This is a bare-bones machine from MWave, so it came with mobo/cpu/memory already installed in the case. I have already installed the IBM 40Gb Deskstar hardrive, and the ASUS vid card (not the vid drivers yet though).

The problem is the machine won't boot to Win2K when I set the CPU speed to 1533MHz and System Performance to Turbo mode. I have to run CPU at 1150MHz and System Performance setting at Normal. I even had trouble installing the OS when running at the higher speed, tho it will boot to DOS.

Obviously I want to run at the higher speed, does anyone know what I could try? Is it OK to continue installing the other components and drivers?

Thanks for any help!

bloom25 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 22, 2001, 12:04:00 PM »

Sounds like your FSB is set to 100 Mhz. You need to set your FSB to 133 Mhz for that processor. There should either be a bios setting or a jumper on the motherboard to do that.

If you are wondering how I knew that, an XP 1800+ runs at 1533 Mhz.

1533 Mhz / 133 mhz = 11.5 multiplier
if your FSB was set to 100 Mhz somehow you would run at 1150 Mhz.

No big deal, just find your CPU front side bus adjustment jumper or bios setting and switch to 133 Mhz.

vatiAH · « **Reply #2 on:** December 22, 2001, 11:43:00 PM »

Hello,

I have a A7m266 board which I use with a XP1600+.

1st Your board must have Bios Revision 1005 or better to be used with the Athlon XP. If you do not have this version then you have to flash the bios to bring it to at least vers 1005.

2nd. Once you have determined you have 1005 or better. You then have to go into you bios and make a small adjustment in order for the Athlon XP to work properly.
Once you are in the bios go to Advanced then to CHIP Settings. Look for S2K Slew rate. by default it will be set to 3. This is the setting to run a regular Athlon, you need to change it to 1 in order for the Athlon XP to function correctly. ( IF you install the the Beta Bios 1006B, you do not have to adjust the slew rate. Keep in mind that 1006 is a beta version and may have some bugs in it)

With out the adjustment to the slew rate, your machine will act like it has bad memory giving you lockups, blue screens, or it may hang at boot. You may also find that Memtest ( 3rd party memory testing software) will show an error in the 5th test. Once you make the Slew rate correction, you machine should be as stable as a rock , and , Memtester will no longer report the ERROR.

Good luck Oboe. BTW, I found this all out the hardway. I have been struggling with similar problems for about a week now till I happened apon this web sight AMDMB.COM

It's a good thing I stumbled across this info this morning because I was just about ready to set fire to my system !!

bloom25 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 22, 2001, 11:53:00 PM »

I did not know about that slew rate issue Vati. I haven't yet down an Athlon XP on that board.

vatiAH · « **Reply #4 on:** December 23, 2001, 12:50:00 AM »

Bloom,

It is not documented any were on the ASUS web page. I found it by pure accident. I did a Google search ( can't remember the exact wording used) and stumbled across a post about this issue. This post was very vague but it put me on the right trail. After Rewording the search I found the answer on AMDMB.com. I thought for sure I had 2 bad 256 meg sticks of DDR. The thing that made me look deeper into it was that I Tested the memory in my sons machine ( K7-1.2 on ECS K7S5A MB useing 256 DDR) and it showed as being 100% fine. When I put it in my machine and ran the tester again that same stick also failed the 5th test. I tested all 3 stick in his machine and all were 100%. At that point I figured it was either MB issue or a CPU issue. I hit the net and by chance found the Slew rate fix. My machine is now running like a swiss watch. I wonder if it's water proof ?

Vati

Raubvogel · « **Reply #5 on:** December 23, 2001, 04:25:00 AM »

My advice: buy a ALi chipset

oboe · « **Reply #6 on:** December 23, 2001, 07:47:00 AM »

You guys are awesome! Vati, thank you - that slew rate adjustment did the trick!

Bloom, my FSB WAS in fact set to 100MHz, but the FSB setting is tied to the CPU speed selection - when you try 1533MHz, it automatically sets the FSB field to 133. I was about to check the board manual jumper settings, but I checked back here and found Vati's post.

I'm sure I'll have other questions as I set the system up. For example, I noticed my video card, NIC, and modem are all sharing Interrupt Request 9. I thought sharing IRQ's causes performance issues, but then again this is Win2K, and thought someone posted here that IRQ sharing under Win2K isn't the problem that it is under 98/ME.

What a great resource this board is!

Thank you!

vatiAH · « **Reply #7 on:** December 23, 2001, 08:01:00 AM »

My Sons machine uses the SIS 735 chip set and I have to say i'm very impressed with it. This Chip set allow the use of either SDram or DDR and the board it self look pretty damn nice. The board is Black with gold traces. This board is just begging to put in a case with a window and a neon light.

Not that I'm into the hoopty show off machines, but anything that makes my 8 year old son get involved in what goes on in the machine can't be a bad thing.

Vati