Very Very Strange!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter -=Matt=-
  • Start date Start date
M

-=Matt=-

Hi there,

I recently suffered a small setback with my pc, when it's psu died. The
company I bought it from decided that the 'best' option (for them!) was to
bring it back to base rather than honour our on site warranty. Now, it has
returned right as rain!

I ran the game 'Call of Duty' to see how it ran. The message "Your computer
appears to have changed -detecting new optimal settings" did not inspire me
with confidence. Especially when it reset all its graphics options to low.

The computer I sent away had been an Athlon 3000+ with a nVidia 5600se
graphics card. I checked in Windows - it was now calling itself a measly
Athlon 1800+ (1.4ghz).
What the *&ck!?
I tried the windows system info program and sure enough it also claims to be
an 1800+. I was (am) livid!

I've been conned!!! I'll be sure to call them in anger in the morning and
get an engineer out to replace it back to what it was. (I'm loath to open it
up to see for myself -which would be an option for many.)

The strange twist in the tale, is that when I put all the graphics option in
that game back up to max, how they were before, the game seemed to run
perfectly. You would have thought that there would be some slowdown.

In fact in another game, Knights if the Old Republic, I was experiencing
some slight stuttering, and had the game running in an average resolution
with a couple of high end options off. When I tried that game, it too
appeared to be running exactly as it was before!

Now wouldn't you expect to notice a difference in performance when running
two very modern, reasonably power hungry games if the processor had indeed
been halved in power!?

Now I conclude that either, Windows is reporting the processor wrongly
(which I didn't think it could do), or that we have always had this bad
processor, and that now it is reporting it correctly!!!

I did indeed find it surprising to begin with that the latter game didn't
run amazingly fast.


What do you guys think? (apart from 'if it dont appear broke dont fix it')

Cheers,

-=Matt=-
 
Just a guess, but they may have had to replace the motherboard (a common
casualty when the PSU dies) and they simply forgot to switch the
jumper/switch on the board from 100mhz to 166mhz. Look in your
motherboard manual for the location of this switch, then unplug your
computer, open it up, and find the switch on the actual board. Check and
see if it is set correctly. Or call the store and have them do it.
 
sooky grumper said:
Just a guess, but they may have had to replace the motherboard (a common
casualty when the PSU dies) and they simply forgot to switch the
jumper/switch on the board from 100mhz to 166mhz. Look in your
motherboard manual for the location of this switch, then unplug your
computer, open it up, and find the switch on the actual board. Check and
see if it is set correctly. Or call the store and have them do it.
Click to expand...

On "jumperless" motherboards, the FSB setting may be in the BIOS.

Jeff
 
All that the previous posters are saying is true. However, since it's under
warranty any tampering you may benevolently want to do may void that
warranty. Give them the call back.
 
jeff findley said:
On "jumperless" motherboards, the FSB setting may be in the BIOS.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm not sure about this being the case though. If the jumper or BIOS is
set incorrectly then I can see how the actual Ghz would be set wrong. But
why would windows detect it as an Athlon 1800+, an entirley different chip
to the 3000+?
 
Jan Alter said:
All that the previous posters are saying is true. However, since it's under
warranty any tampering you may benevolently want to do may void that
warranty. Give them the call back.
Click to expand...
I think you're right! When the power supply died in the first place, I tried
to trip the fuse switch at the back. Only it was the voltage switch of
course (oh the ignorance!)!!

"Bang!!!"

I didn't tell them *that* bit though!
 
windows gets its info from the bios...so what does the post screen say
it is?

-=Matt=- said:
jeff findley said:
it.

On "jumperless" motherboards, the FSB setting may be in the BIOS.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm not sure about this being the case though. If the jumper or BIOS is
set incorrectly then I can see how the actual Ghz would be set wrong. But
why would windows detect it as an Athlon 1800+, an entirley different chip
to the 3000+?
Click to expand...
 
-=Matt=- said:
Yeah I'm not sure about this being the case though. If the jumper or BIOS is
set incorrectly then I can see how the actual Ghz would be set wrong. But
why would windows detect it as an Athlon 1800+, an entirley different chip
to the 3000+?
Click to expand...



The 3000 runs at 200x10, 2.1ghz. The 1800 is a 266FSB running at 133x11.5,
1.53ghz. So unless the multiplier is also been changed, it don't add up.
Give them a call.

bluestringer
 
-=Matt=- said:
Yeah I'm not sure about this being the case though. If the jumper or BIOS is
set incorrectly then I can see how the actual Ghz would be set wrong. But
why would windows detect it as an Athlon 1800+, an entirley different chip
to the 3000+?
Click to expand...

Windows does get this wrong - I tried running my XP2100 at 100FSB to see
what happened and Windows happily reported it as a Duron 1200 or something.
 
Jan Alter said:
All that the previous posters are saying is true. However, since it's under
warranty any tampering you may benevolently want to do may void that
warranty. Give them the call back.


--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
or
(e-mail address removed)12.pa.us
Click to expand...


Hmm, everyone is right! It was the cpu multiplier. It was set to 133mhz
rather than 200mhz.

So now my processor is apparently back to being a 3000+ again!

My only question is; is there any way to tell if this is actually what it is
(other than opening and looking -dont want to invalidate warranty)? I mean I
assume if I did have a 1800, then changing this setting would have the same
effect, but of course it would probably mealt if it was a 1800 running as a
3000, so I am safe.

Currently my bios settings are:

CPU External Frequency: 200Mhz

CPU Frequency Multiplier Setting (Auto)
CPU Frequency Multiplier (10.5x)

Memory Frequency Setting (By SPD)
Memory Frequency (200mhz)


Would someone clever be so kind as to explain what they mean and if they
look ok? Nothing is over/underclocked is it?

My processor apparently is now running at 2.1Ghz (200Mhz x 10.5 i assume).
Is this correct for a 3000+, only befor I swear it was faster than this...
or perhaps it is only now set correctly.


Thanks for all your help!


-=Matt=-



 
-=Matt=- said:
Yeah I'm not sure about this being the case though. If the jumper or BIOS is
set incorrectly then I can see how the actual Ghz would be set wrong. But
why would windows detect it as an Athlon 1800+, an entirley different chip
to the 3000+?
Click to expand...

My old machine is an AMD K6/2-400. The processor is really an AMD
K6/2-500, but in the machine that it's in, it's underclocked to 400
Mhz. The Bios reports it as a K6/2-400 because it's running at 400
Mhz, not at 500Mhz.

Jeff
 
sooky grumper said:
Is your CPU multiplier locked?
Click to expand...

I have no idea! But I can choose from 100 133 166 or 200 Mhz. And I can set
the multiplier from 5 - 12.5. It does list greater numbers but they seem to
just make it run slower.
 
bluestringer said:
The 3000 runs at 200x10, 2.1ghz. The 1800 is a 266FSB running at 133x11.5,
1.53ghz. So unless the multiplier is also been changed, it don't add up.
Give them a call.

bluestringer
Click to expand...

Wrong. The 3000+ uses a 10.5 multiplier. If the switch is set to an FSB
of 133, 133x10.5 gives us out 1.4Ghz that the computer is reporting.
Change that switch to 200mhz and you'll get the proper CPU at the same
multiplier.
 
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