My CPU isn't running to it's full capacity!

[Starkweather]

My Socket A motherboard got damaged a few days ago, but I couldn't find
another exactly like it, so had to buy a different Socket A board - An
Asrock K7NF2-Raid - and then reinstall Windows XP.

Trouble is, My CPU seems to be running slower. I have a 2800 Athlon XP but
when I right-click on 'My Computer' and go to properties it says '1.25 ghz'
which isn't right. It usually says '2800 Athlon XP'. You can tell just being
on the PC that it isn't running as fast as it usually is.

I tried changing the CPU frequency from Auto to 166, but my PC simply
wouldn't boot up - my monitor displayed a 'no signal' warning. So I had to
unplug and switch off my PSU for my PC to enable me back into the bios.

The MB itself is a DDR400, and although my two sticks of 512mb of ram are
333, the MB guide says it takes 266, 333 and 400. I'm at a loss.

Can anyone help?

___
Starkweather

 

[Poly-poly man]

My Socket A motherboard got damaged a few days ago, but I couldn't find
another exactly like it, so had to buy a different Socket A board - An
Asrock K7NF2-Raid - and then reinstall Windows XP.

Trouble is, My CPU seems to be running slower. I have a 2800 Athlon XP but
when I right-click on 'My Computer' and go to properties it says '1.25 ghz'
which isn't right. It usually says '2800 Athlon XP'. You can tell just being
on the PC that it isn't running as fast as it usually is.

I tried changing the CPU frequency from Auto to 166, but my PC simply
wouldn't boot up - my monitor displayed a 'no signal' warning. So I had to
unplug and switch off my PSU for my PC to enable me back into the bios.

The MB itself is a DDR400, and although my two sticks of 512mb of ram are
333, the MB guide says it takes 266, 333 and 400. I'm at a loss.

Can anyone help?

___
Starkweather

First, look up your processor based on the code on top of the die of the
chip. Then, use http://download.asrock.com/manual/K7NF2-RAID.pdf to set
the FID jumpers and FSB jumpers. With luck, this will work.

It looks like a nice board; I might look into it.

hih,
poly-p man

 

[Starkweather]

First, look up your processor based on the code on top of the die of the
chip. Then, use http://download.asrock.com/manual/K7NF2-RAID.pdf to set
the FID jumpers and FSB jumpers. With luck, this will work.

It looks like a nice board; I might look into it.

hih,
poly-p man

Looks like you could be right. It says in the manual that you MUST set FSB
jumper according to your AMD CPU before you use the manual option as the FSB
setting in your bios set-up to perform over clocking.

Does that make sense?

__
Starkweather

 

[Paul]

Looks like you could be right. It says in the manual that you MUST set FSB
jumper according to your AMD CPU before you use the manual option as the FSB
setting in your bios set-up to perform over clocking.

Does that make sense?

__
Starkweather

FSB_SEL0 and FSB_SEL1 would connect to the clock generator
chip. They select the startup frequency, the frequency that
applies when the first instructions of the BIOS are executed.

Once the POST code has been running for a while, the BIOS
will get around to programming the clock generator via
the SMBUS. At that point, the user value (stepless manual value)
will be applied.

Say you own a 166x12.5 2800+ processor. You could set the
FSB_SEL0 and FSB_SEL1 to 166MHz, as that is your processor's
normal clock value. If you are having problems with the
processor, you could also try setting the jumpers to 133MHz.

Once you can get into the BIOS, then you can change the CPU
frequency to "Manual" and set a value for the clock there.
That allows more precise overclocking.

The multiplier jumper block does not need any jumpers on it.
(It is a 3x5 array of pins.) With no jumpers, the bridges on
the top of the processor establish the multiplier value. The
processor may also be multiplier locked, in which case changing
the jumper block would not help.

If you had an AthlonXP-M mobile processor, which has an
unlocked multiplier, you could use the multiplier block
to select a new multiplier value. Again, that allows you
to overclock in a more flexible manner, than with just the
CPU clock alone.

So start by setting your FSB_SEL0 and FSB_SEL1, to normal
or slightly less than the normal value. Then when you
get into the BIOS, you can change the clock further via
the Manual option in the BIOS.

The memory should also have a programmable clock speed
setting. But to change it, you have to get into the BIOS
first. If your CPU clock is going to be 166Mhz, I would
set the memory to DDR333, as that causes memory transfers
to be synchronous to the FSB. Now, the BIOS should read
the SPD EEPROM on the DIMM and get the memory clock and
timing information from there. So when you get into the
BIOS, it will already say it is running at DDR333 and
there is no further work to do.

If you do manage to get the motherboard booted, you can
check all the parameters using CPUZ:

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

HTH,
Paul