A7V333 won't boot with Athlon XP 1700+

[Kevin Hurni]

I just installed a working Athlon XP 1700+ CPU from my "old" pc into my
A7V333 motherboard.

The motherboard already has PC2700 DDR RAM in it.

If I go into the BIOS and set CPU speed to 1.4 Ghz, I believe it sets
teh FSB to 133mHz which is what I should have for PC2700 RAM, right?

But it won't boot into Win2K. I get various STOP errors.

if I drop the CPU speed down to 1100, then it works fine, but I'm stuck
at a FSB of 100mHz

Is this a bad motherboard or do I perchase have bad RAM?

The previous cPU in the machine was an Athlon 1200 (I don't believe it
had a plus on it).

--Kevin

 

[Dick]

PC2700 DDR RAM uses 166MHz memory bus, but it will work at 133MHz.

 

[Kevin Hurni]

So I can use PC 2100 DDR for a 333 FSB?

Basically I'm trying to pair the correct memory with the CPU.

Since ASUS doesn't list what CPU is what, I've had to scour the web.

Seems that the Athlon XP 1700+ is a "333" mhz FSB.

I always thought that in order to run "optimally" you needed PC2700 DDR
to run at the 333 FSB speed?

On my K-byte MEMORY stick of PC2700 it states it PC333. It also states
that a PC2100 is 266.

so am I wrong here?

--Kevin

 

[Dick]

PC2100 is 133 (ddr266). PC2700 is 166 (ddr333). The pc2700 should work
fine at 133, but the pc2100 won't work reliably at 166 (if it will work
at all). Remember with pc2700 you can only fill 2 memory slots on this
motherboard otherwise the speed will revert to ddr266. The Athlon 1700+
uses a 133 (266) fsb.

 

[... et al.]

PC2100 is 133 (ddr266). PC2700 is 166 (ddr333). The pc2700 should work
fine at 133, but the pc2100 won't work reliably at 166 (if it will work
at all). Remember with pc2700 you can only fill 2 memory slots on this
motherboard otherwise the speed will revert to ddr266. The Athlon 1700+
uses a 133 (266) fsb.

I don't know the exact BIOS version, ca 1007, but with anything newer
this is incorrect information. With newer BIOS's the motherboard is said
to be able to use three RAM cards simultaneuosly at full speed. That
said, many A7V333 users have had problems using RAM slot #2.

To confuse things as much as possible, AMD have several (2?) different
CPU's that are called "1700+" that demand different settings of the core
voltage. The original A7V333 manual was in error on showing these
jumpers, better get an updated manual online.

There are several things to check.
First, since you are upgrading from an Athlon 1200, you need to check
that you have a BIOS version 1006 or newer[1].
Then you have have to decide if you want to set things maually or let
the board and BIOS autoconfigure things. Things being both chipset-CPU
memory and voltages as well as chipset to memory speed and voltages.

for example:
In the BIOS there is one setting, 1:1 or 4:3, for the CPU:Memory bus
speed settings. (The FSB is between the the CPU and VIA chipset only.)
There is is also a pair of undocumented jumpers (JP1 & JP2) on the board
to set the memory-bus voltage. These may be set differently coming from
the retailer.

So check out the JP1&2 settings online, download the newer A7V333 manual
and go trough all things like if you just installed the board new.


[1] <http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx>

 

[Dick]

I don't know the exact BIOS version, ca 1007, but with anything newer
this is incorrect information. With newer BIOS's the motherboard is said
to be able to use three RAM cards simultaneuosly at full speed. That
said, many A7V333 users have had problems using RAM slot #2.

I have not been able to find any information on the Asus web site to
support using 3 pc2700 modules at full speed on the A7V333. The manual
update clearly states that only 2 memory slots may be filled with pc2700
running at full speed. Putting pc2700 in all 3 slots will cause the
speed to throttle back from 333 to 266. But. There's always a but. Since
I don't have this motherboard (although I worked on one last month with
this very problem. The owner was trying to use 3 512MB pc2700 modules at
the same time and had terrible difficulty with the board. Updating the
bios didn't help. Running only 2 modules (slots 1 + 3) cured the
problem) I don't have much experience to go by.

To confuse things as much as possible, AMD have several (2?) different
CPU's that are called "1700+" that demand different settings of the core
voltage. The original A7V333 manual was in error on showing these
jumpers, better get an updated manual online.


There are several things to check.
First, since you are upgrading from an Athlon 1200, you need to check
that you have a BIOS version 1006 or newer[1].
Then you have have to decide if you want to set things maually or let
the board and BIOS autoconfigure things. Things being both chipset-CPU
memory and voltages as well as chipset to memory speed and voltages.

for example:
In the BIOS there is one setting, 1:1 or 4:3, for the CPU:Memory bus
speed settings. (The FSB is between the the CPU and VIA chipset only.)
There is is also a pair of undocumented jumpers (JP1 & JP2) on the board
to set the memory-bus voltage. These may be set differently coming from
the retailer.

So check out the JP1&2 settings online, download the newer A7V333 manual
and go trough all things like if you just installed the board new.


[1] <http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx>

 

[... et al.]

I have not been able to find any information on the Asus web site to
support using 3 pc2700 modules at full speed on the A7V333. The manual
update clearly states that only 2 memory slots may be filled with pc2700
running at full speed. Putting pc2700 in all 3 slots will cause the
speed to throttle back from 333 to 266. But. There's always a but. Since
I don't have this motherboard (although I worked on one last month with
this very problem. The owner was trying to use 3 512MB pc2700 modules at
the same time and had terrible difficulty with the board. Updating the
bios didn't help. Running only 2 modules (slots 1 + 3) cured the
problem) I don't have much experience to go by.

Since i only own two RAM-boards (PC2700) i have no own practical
experience either. Neither the nonexisting ReadMe files that comes with
the BIOS-files, nor the nowhere to be found VersionHistory of the
BIOS'es help clarifying the matter. But around the time, one and half to
two years ago, it was discussed and stated several times in this group
that since some previous BIOS version, that that had been fixed. (Not
that everything claimed on usenet has any bearing on reality.)

Also, consider that the /updated/ downloadable A7V333 manual 1.01(E1010)
is from 2002-03-28, that was at BIOS 1005. So all/any changes made with
BIOS 1006 through to 1018 couldn't have be included in that. Not to
speak of the existance of and changes with a 2.x version of the MB with
its full support for 166 MHz FSB CPU's.

- Asustek, could you please put together a 1.02 version of the manual?

 

[Dick]

or at least an updated update.

Since i only own two RAM-boards (PC2700) i have no own practical
experience either. Neither the nonexisting ReadMe files that comes with
the BIOS-files, nor the nowhere to be found VersionHistory of the
BIOS'es help clarifying the matter. But around the time, one and half to
two years ago, it was discussed and stated several times in this group
that since some previous BIOS version, that that had been fixed. (Not
that everything claimed on usenet has any bearing on reality.)

Also, consider that the /updated/ downloadable A7V333 manual 1.01(E1010)
is from 2002-03-28, that was at BIOS 1005. So all/any changes made with
BIOS 1006 through to 1018 couldn't have be included in that. Not to
speak of the existance of and changes with a 2.x version of the MB with
its full support for 166 MHz FSB CPU's.

- Asustek, could you please put together a 1.02 version of the manual?