Hi all, just wondering if people can give me their views on my (latest) little problem.
I have just got an Asus a7n266-vm motherboard, revision 1.05, (a freebie!), with a 256mb stick of Veritech DDR 333- CL2.5 ram, to which I've added an AthlonXP2400+. I've flashed the bios with version 1007 to ensure support for my cpu (as per the info on Asus's website), and set the board jumpers for cpu/dram to 133/133. When I power on the pc, windows xp gets as far as showing the desktop, drawing the desktop wallpaper and then shuts down with a stop error. If I try to re-install windows, I get a wide variety of stop messages just as setup is copying the files across. It boots into the bios screen fine, and will sit there happily not crashing for as long as I leave it. I have also managed to load in Knoppix 3.2 from cd (bootable Linux distro), and it seemed to run ok.
If I set the board to run the cpu @ 100mhz, and the ram @ 133mhz, windows boots fine and behaves itself, but of course now I've got a 2ghz processor running at 1500mhz. Bugger.
I'd like to know if anyone can tell me whether the problem is more likely to be the cpu itself, or if the board is the culprit and if it is, what could it be? Is the board dodgy/dead, is something loose/missing, or am I missing something obvious?
I don't fancy shelling out readies for the wrong part, if I can help it... Any info gratefully received.

Here's the actual setup:

AthlonXP 2400+
Asus a7n266-vm revision 1.05 mobo with 1007 BIOS
256MB Veritech DDR333-CL2.5 RAM
300w ATX Power supply
Seagate 40GB HDD
Maxtor 40GB HDD
Inno3D Geforce3 ti200
Lite-On LTR12101B CDRW
Relisys 12x DVD-ROM
Onboard sound (nforce220d chipset)

it could be your power supply not giving u enougth power. Problems like this suck because it can be a wide variety of things. If you can maybe get a 2nd cpu, ram stick and ps from a friend, then you could exchange them 1by1 to see if that fixes it

Windows Installation? Did you do a clean install, meaning a new format and clean installation?

Yep, a clean fresh windows install, after fdisking/formatting. The board is running fine with the cpu jumper set to 100mhz and the ram to 133mhz, but as soon as I change the cpu jumper to 133mhz (the ram is happy at 133 anyway) windows no longer boots. The psu seems ok, and I've stripped it down so the only pci device is a single hdd with no gfx card (using the onboard vga) or soundcard for minimal drain, and it does exactly the same thing. Everything has been removed and re-seated, now I'm stumped.

yes that's bc your motherboard actually doesn't support 133mhz
I had experienced this error back in when I had k7 600mhz.
mb wrote on it that is supported 200fsb I though it was the mhz
my rams were 133mhz and cpu was 100mhz. I so much wanted the cpu to run at 133. I tried a lot of different combinations (with jumpers without jumpers through bios) but, windows didn't load. I would see the dos menu (list of my hardware and all)
but after that it would just lock up.
I just said the hell with 133 and ran @ 100mhz

I don't know if this makes sense to you. I barely remember what I did back then. I wish I could give u better explanation but, I don't have the machine in front of me

The board will actually take up to an AthlonXP 2600 266fsb chip <list of supported cpu's>
Looking round the web, there seems to be lots of people happily using this same combo without problems, guess I just have to be different...

now u think; u're different than everyone else

Possibly bad RAM. got another stick handy or a friends you can borrow and see?

runs with slow FSB.. not with proper FSB... id check the RAM first definately.

Then the Mobo, it could be a bad board, a friend of mine had a soltec that behaved in a similar way, he had to take it back and the shop informed him the whole batch they had delivered where bad, all behaving similar to what you describe. He got a replacement mobo and.. boom! all worked perfect.

double check your WinXP CD hasnt got errors on the CD or damaged in anyway also.

that's not a cd issue
though you've reminded me of my solution
by the time, my xp was resetting itself abruptly. mostly after turning on the pc after I enter my username. and after I load so many programs the, It would do that.
You're right its a ram issue. I had a noname brand ram, I changed it with kingston. No problems at all. Thanks for reminding the bad old(slow) days

I also remember that I had checked the ram with a program and it reset the pc.

I also remember u used to dance (matrix) (aa too much of it)

Right, now I'm really baffled. I replaced the Ram and PSU (tried doing them seperately then both together) with the exact same results - BSOD. So, I've gotten hold of an Abit KD7A board, and this is also giving me problems. The BIOS has a setting for CPU speed, (xp1800, xp2000 etc) which apparently auto-selects itself and mine is defaulting to an xp1500 @ 1.33 ghz. :cry: When I up it any, it refuses to boot and needs the CMOS clearing. As the "operating speed" is increased, the bios shows the cpu fsb speed, the fsb/agp/pci ratio and multiplier factor all increasing. I thought Athlon XPs' left the factory multiplier locked? Another question, what should be on the die of the chip? Mine has nothing except for a little logo in the top left.
Is it the chip? It POSTs as an Athlon 2400XP , but refuses to run as one. Has it jiggled about with? Is it just plain dodgy? At the moment its running at 1353mhz with a system clock of 123.09mhz and an fsb of 246.17.
Diagnostic programs have recognised the chip as a thoroughbred core....
Baffled doesn't come close to describing how I feel..... Any further help would be appreciated


*EDIT* I've been working on the fact that the chip posts as an Athlon2400XP - I've just noticed in the latest version of CentralBrainIdentifier there's a facility to change the processor string.....hmm, is that paranoia I feel kicking in?

no the multiplier in not locked and
that's normal for the bios to show 1.33 since its internal clock is 1.33ghz
the other 1500 is just so it compares with intels 1500..
ie I've xp 2.5+Ghz its 1.866 or something like that I don't remember.

but I don't know any further issues with it.

I think you accidentally overclocked it and it refuses to open windows

Yeah, I get that, but it's supposed to be an AthlonXP 2400+, which is a clock speed of 2Ghz at the cpu with the 266mhz version (multiplier of 15 I think). The chip is currently running stable at 1.3ghz on this Abit board, and has been running stable at 1.5ghz on the Asus board, but won't run stably beyond that. I'm wondering if it isn't a remarked chip or something, having replaced everything else I reckon it can only be the cpu now. I think. Probably. Hmmm, where's that whisky....?

*EDIT* It's now running stable as an Athlon XP2000+ @ 1.69Ghz, I'll see how far I can push it before it falls over again. Getting better, but still not the Xp2400+ I paid me money for though. I'm deffo suspicious of this cpu...

throw that cpu away get a p10
or p4 3.2t will do for now:P