xp1600+ on ECSk7s5a ...clocking error

[koalacom]

got an xp1600+ installed in an ECS k7s5a mb. running win98se, 512 mb 133 sdram, 64mb geforce 2 mx, 40 gig ata 100 WD hd. Cmos sees the processor as 100/100 & clocks it at 1052 mhz. I can change the settings to 133/133 but if the system boots at all; it locks up almost immediately. Any suggestions on this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Koalacom

[Milenko]

You sure the Athlon XP is even compatible with that board?

[Darthtanion]

Yes... the SiS chipset used in this board is compatible with the AthlonXP processor.

koalacom,
Also double check the BIOS to make sure that you're not trying to give conflicting instructions to the system (jumper to 133 and BIOS to 100) or something similar. If you search around the web, you should be able to find any number of optimization guides for the chipset you're using.

Also, if the board is automatically trying to pick up your processor multiplier, it should be set to 10.5 as default. If it is a locked processor (likely), then it won't work at anything other than this setting.

Good luck. :D

[Wiggo]

There's no jumper but are you using memory that will run at 133Mhz is my thought. :?:
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[Beefy]

I've got a similar question. I've got a MSI K7T Pro2-A board, and was wondering if I could run a XP 1600+ from my board....

[Darthtanion]

Sorry Beefy, but your board uses the older KT133 chipset and it isn't compatible with the Athlon XP processors. May want to double check the MSI site for a BIOS update to make sure, but I haven't heard of any of these chipset boards being able to use the XP yet.

[koalacom]

Tried changing the settings in cmos to 133/100 and it runs but of course this doesn't utilize the 1600's full potential. There are no other settings I've found to tweak in the cmos and no jumpers on the board to manually set. Bought and installed 512 mb of SD133 Kingston ram today thinking there was possibly a mis-match since the previous ram was specific to a SIS 630 chipset on a VIA KX133 board. Changing the ram didn't help at all. The AMI bios I'm running is the latest available, so I don't believe that's the problem. Presently, the system is booting at 1052mhz........which is't bad; but it's not the 1400 I expected so I'm still searching for the answer. The ECS site is about useless and the company I purchased the barebones from is even worse.....for potential customers; American Computech is their name.....beware. Thanks to all of you trying to help me with this problem. By the way; I'm running on a different computer. Mine is an Athlon 900. My son's system is the one with the problem. I guess it's tough when all the shooters don't work right aye?

[Wiggo]

Sounds very strange as I've got one here with a 1.2GHz C Athlon in it and it runs great and hasn't crashed since being assembled about 2 months ago so maybe ya just got a bad board. :smokin:
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[sKuLLsHoT]

it hasn't got one of those "+33" ram speed settings has it, maybe your ram is running at 166 by accident when u choose 133 fsb...

just a thought

[Wiggo]

No sks it doesn't as it just shows the CPU to Mem ratio. ;)

[koalacom]

After a lengthy discussion with a couple tech friends of mine who work tech support for a local ISP, it was suggested that I remove some memory and drop the system back down to 256mb. This is exactly contradictory to everything I've ever seen or heard to get a system running better. Since nothing else I've tried seemed to do any good, I tried it. After resetting cmos to 133/133, the system booted at xp1600+. Usually, the system would crash almost immediately. We put the system through the paces by running every big-time game out there at maximum settings trying to make it crash. It still hasn't. That was Saturday & it's rocking along. The Geforce 2 mx seems to be using the 64megs properly...it's never run smoother. I was told Microsoft had designed a 256 limit in some of it's Win os's whereby it doesn't address anything over 256 properly. Personally, that sounds like bull to me but the fact is, the system is now working fine; so maybe there's something to it. I'm sure there's a way to tweak the memory manually but that's something I'm not quite willing to jump into just yet. I thank you all for your ideas and suggestions.

[Darthtanion]

While Win9x won't effectively use memory over 256MB, it will normally at least run with it. Is there a chance that the other stick of memory is bad? Just a thought.

[Beefy]

and if it wasn't booting up with all the extra RAM in there, then it's got nothing to do with Windows, cos it obviously didn't get that far..

[Wiggo]

Most likely either a bad DIMM slot or memory stick. :smokin:

[Chihuahua]

I have a K7S5a with a TBird 1400 in it. I have tinkered with it quite a bit and have found that the Ram timings in some of the older bios versions is flaky with more than 1 Dimm.

I have tried unofficial Overclockers Bioses and all of the official Bioses. The current bios is very good with both Dimm slots populated. Flash that baby and try it with 2 sticks again.

Try the bios with this version info:

V.02/01/12
Release Date: 01/25/2002

http://www.ecsusa.com/ecsusa/www.ecs.com.tw/download/k7s5a.htm

Good Luck


ECSK7S5A
Athlon 1800XP+
512 Crucial DDR 2.5 running at CL2
Radeon AIW
2-40GB IBM 60GXP's
Tekram DC395U SCSI controller
HP 9200i 8x4x32 SCSI
Pioneer 106S 16X DVD
Antec SX1030 (I love that case)
2-front fans below hdd's, 1 -front fan in front of hdd's,
2-rear exhaust fans
HEC 350LD 350 watt Power Supply Intake and exhaust fans
Alpha Pal8045 Heatsink with Sanyo Denki 80MM fan
Diamond Monster Sound MX400
Sis 900 onboard PCI Fast Ethernet
Antec EZ USB front USB ports for 5 1/4" bay
:afro: