Athlon XP 3200+ won't run at intended speed

[nicolasg]

Hi. I'm trying to squeeze a little more power out of my (prehistoric, oh well, still does the job for me) system by upgrading a few things. Most notably, I want to replace my Athlon XP 2500+ with a 3200+ since it's the fastest CPU supported by my motherboard. System specs are as follow :

■ ASUS A7V600 motherboard with latest BIOS revision (tried both 1008 and 1009 beta 005)
■ 2 x Kingston PC3200 512mb + 1 x Kingston PC3200 1024mb
■ AMD Athlon XP 3200+
■ 500W PSU
That's pretty much it, I disconnect everything else when I do my tests, as to take any other variable out of the equation.

My problem is : the damn thing just won't run at it's intended speed. It powers up, runs for about 10 seconds tops and then shuts down. I got it to be stable at 1100mhz and that's it, anything higher than that will cause it to shut down. Needless to say, we're pretty far from 2200mhz.

To get a few things out of the way :

■ Counterfeit Athlon XPs : done some research on that, mine seems like the real deal. L12 bridges are open, no apparent hand soldering, model # is right, no blurry labelling.
■ Heat : Even with stock cooling, it's highly improbable that it would overheat so fast, right?
■ Motherboard and/or memory having trouble running at 400FSB : I've done the test with my 2500+ and got it to run at 2200mhz, so it does work. The thing is, I'm not too interested in overclocking, in fact that's the reason I bought the 3200+ in the first place.

Any help is much appreciated, I'm baffled...

 

[magneezo]

Sounds to me like you need an update to the Motherboard BIOS in order to properly run that new chip.

 

[amdfangirl]

For what it's worth, don't bother.

Athlon XPs these days are all second hand.

For about $150, you could rebuild your Athlon XP rig.

 

[FALC0N]

Sounds to me like you need an update to the Motherboard BIOS in order to properly run that new chip.

The 3200 Barton was supported by that motherboard out of the box. So I doubt that the issue.


Can you give us more background?

You said you got it to run at half speed but it shuts down when you run faster. Can you decribe this in detail?

Does it boot at half speed or full speed?
If its booting at full how are you slowing it down, and vice versa?
Which speeds can get into the bios?
Have you tried the old processor again since?

The more you can tell us about the whole process, the better.

 

[FALC0N]

Is the CPU the only thing you have changed out? You listed your current setup, but is it identical to when you had the XP 2500 in?

 

[nicolasg]

The 3200 Barton was supported by that motherboard out of the box.

You are correct, BIOS revision shouldn't be an issue. Like I said, I tried both the last official revision (1008) and the beta (1009 005), also tried downgrading to some older revisions, doesn't make any change.

You said you got it to run at half speed but it shuts down when you run faster. Can you decribe this in detail?

Here's what I do :
■ Install the CPU on the board
■ Clear CMOS using jumper to make a fresh start
■ Computer boots with default/safe CPU settings : 11.0 x 100mhz = 1100mhz
■ It runs fine if I keep those settings, but any attempt at bumping the FSB to 133, 166 or 200 will result in a system hang after 5-10 seconds. It simply shuts down the whole PC, as if overheating (although it is obviously not, the CPU barely has time to warm up).

Which speeds can get into the bios?

As far as I know, the multiplier for this CPU is locked at 11, I can change it in the BIOS but I don't think it would have any effect. The FSB can be set anywhere between 100 and 250. If you mean which speed setting is stable enough to allow me to go into the BIOS, the answer is 1100mhz.

Have you tried the old processor again since?

Yes, it works perfectly

Is the CPU the only thing you have changed out? You listed your current setup, but is it identical to when you had the XP 2500 in?

The 1gig stick is also new. Someone on another forum just mentioned that according to the motherboard manual you can't use 3 sticks of PC3200, now that's a limitation I did not know about. It seems to work fine with 3 sticks at 1100mhz, I can see all 2048mb of ram in the BIOS and in Windows, but maybe that's what preventing me from using any other FSB setting. I'm pretty sure I already did some tests using only 1 or 2 sticks, but I'll try again.

Thank you sir.

 

[nicolasg]

Someone on another forum just mentioned that according to the motherboard manual you can't use 3 sticks of PC3200

Just a little update : I tried using only 1 or 2 sticks in every possible combination (1 x 512, 1 x 1024, 2 x 512, 1 x 1024 + 1 x 512) but it did not make any difference. The person also suggested setting FSB to 200mhz but memory to 333mhz, didn't work either. Still it's good to know about that limitation, from now on I'll try to make it work with 2 sticks instead of 3. But clearly, that's not the main cause of the problem...

 

[FALC0N]

I do have a couple of answers, a few new questions, and a few more things to try.

1) The low CPU speed is a result of the FSB at 100 MHz. The reference clock on that processor is 200. Since it is half, so is the cpu speed. I have installed 1 barton 3200 in the past and it defaulted to 100 FSB for me also. Like yours, it was a cpu upgrade. But that doesn't explain why it shuts down when you turn the speed up.

2) Memory controller on socket A is on the motherboard. So cpu shouldn't affect memory control the way it would on later AMD setups. I would stick with 1 memory stick your sure about until this problem is sorted out. But run the Memory at "2T" for now.

3) Since the processor is the only new item not working, what is its source? New or used? Store, friend, ebay, ect.

4) Since it works at 1100 Mhz, leave it at that for now and load the OS. Install and run CPUZ and see what information it kicks back. Lets confirm this is actually a 3200 barton.

5) When the board posts, does it say the memory clock speeds? If so, what are the speeds at each FSB setting? Not the bios, the actual speed at post. I read somewhere that this board doesn't display it, but check just in case.

6) Try dropping your memory speed from 400 or auto(whichever it is currently) to 266 and see if you can increase the FSB at that point, in 33 Mhz increments. 133, then 166, finally 200.

7) If its incorrectly reading FSB speed, maybe its using the incorrect voltage as well. See if you can find out how much cpu voltage the board is using. Careful not to change it yet.

8) what video card are you using? And what are the settings on the AGP bus? I seem to remember the AGP bus being linked to the FSB on those VIA chipsets.


Let me know the results and I can give you more info as soon as we rule out/gather data on these items.

 

[Guest]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but when I upgraded to a Barton XP 3200 chip, I had to change two jumper settings on the MB (Abit A7N8X) in order to get up to the 400 front side bus speed and full functionality. If you have your MB manual, or can find it online (if I found the Abit, you should find yours!) it'll give specific jumper settings for your new needs. Solved this problem for me.......good luck.