A7N266-VM FSB problems......

[CurtCold]

I'm building an ASUS A7N266-VM, with a 1600+ processor. I can't get the fsb to run at 133 without the computer rebooting after about 5 seconds. I have 9x on the 40GB Maxtor, Thermaltake Volcano 9 for the Heatsink, and Aopen 12*8*32 Burner for the CD rom. I also have an HEC 300watt powersupply, I had thought that was the culpret but it's AMD approved. I also figured out that the jumper settings on the manual are bass ackwards. Still no go unless it's 100mhz fsb. I thought it was the RAM, but it works find in my A7a266 board with a 1.4T-Bird. 256Micron DDR. Is there just something that I'm missing here?
Thanks in Advance

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You are right about the BSEL0&BSEL1 being backwards so you do have both jumpers capped on 2-3 to give you 133/133 correct? You have the ram in slot1 correct? Have you tried clearing the CMOS and made sure you are letting the memory run by SPD timings? Also you can try disconnecting any drives and periphereals that aren't absolutely necessary for the moment to see if the PSU is indeed to blame or not. Another question I have is when you have it stable@100mhz have you went in the bios and monitored temps to see how high they get? perhaps the reboots could be heat related and when you up the CPU's clock speed it overheats, a long shot but still something to checkout. Another thing to check in the bios is what it says the Vcore on the CPU is, my A7N266-VM set my 1600+@1.8v what does your's read? My primary suspects for your instability@133mhz are 1. ram is flakey (I know it runs fine in your other board but different boards can be pickier about memory) 2. PSU isn't providing enough juice 3. heat related issue 4. mobo is faulty. EDIT: In case you haven't discovered it already the jumper for clearing the CMOS is non-existant so you have to pop the battery out for a minute to do so and the AApanel1 is listed@90 degrees wrong angle in the manual as well.

 

[CurtCold]

Thanks Punisher, I had hoped that you would reply to my message, as I have read your other replies about this board. Is there anyway, I can manually set the FSB in the bios, when I go in with the 100mhz bus, I cannot select the fsb. Also the board temps are fine, the cpu is running about 38-41C. I need to check the core voltages, which I will do when I get in tonight. I'm thinking something is up with the MOBO, cause when I get 9x loaded, and install the Nvidia Chipset drivers, I cannot boot back into Windblows. I've been working on this setup for about 4 days now. I have the board up and running stable with the 100mhz fsb, but perfomance is subpar with the lower fsb. It's showing the cpu at 1050 instead of 1.4 in the Bios

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Unfortunately the only CPU and ram speed selectors are the BSEL jumpers I tried everything to overclock that board short of a physical mod with no luck. Before you decide the mobo is suspect try a barebones setup (to help eliminate the PSU) after popping the battery to clear the CMOS, try your ram@100mhz and your CPU@133mhz. Also I had a b*tch of a time with 98SE on that board! I had to install everything manually including the 3 ram controllers, that may be why the board craps out after the install, carefully follow the instructions on pg.70-72 in your manual, however, I didn't reboot at all IIRC until I completely installed all the drivers EDIT: I found this board likes XP much better than 9X. if all of that fails to stabilize your system try to borrow a stick of good DDR from a friend and maybe hook it up to their PSU as well. It's a lot of work but it beats RMAing if you ask me Good luck and post back how you make out! BTW mechbgon has built many of these boards for his workplace with a perfect success rate so perhaps he can come up with some other tips or info for you

 

[CurtCold]

I will post in about 5-6 hours when I get home and let you know how everything works out. Can't wait to get home and try clearing the cmos, and poppn' in some more ram.

 

[CurtCold]

Ok Big Pun, Here's what I did, changed out the PSU, to a 400watt Enermax, it wouldn't even get the system to boot to bios with the 133/33 settings, but did fine in 100/10. I took out the ram and put another stick of 256ddr, that's running in my buddie's system, same thing. Took off the volcano9 and put on a directron cooler, after resetting the bios by removing the battery like you suggested. Still no go in 133. Took out the 1600+ and put in a Duron 1.2, up and running fine for about 30 mins now. I guess I'll just put that 1600+ on the shelf until I get another board, and let the duron roll, it's happy @ 40C. LOL
All that and 4 other days of troubleshooting, and running diagnostics on this mother, and now it's a duron. That's ok, as it will be used in my office for Office 2k, and Internet.
Thank you for all the suggestions and help Big Pun, I appreciate it.


Still doesn't make sense that it woudn't run at 133, but as long as it's rolln' with the duron, I'm content.

 

[mechBgon]

I have a confession to make: I did set up the seventh of my 13 "kids" and it would keep shutting itself off after just a few seconds, and what do you suppose the problem was...?

I FORGOT TO PULL THE PROTECTIVE TAB OFF THE THERMAL PATCH!

Battlemech computer: Temperature spike detected... brace for shock wave (from Mechwarrior2 )

I guess that's what I get for trying to build 4 computers simultaneously Anyway, the board will evidently shut itself off (totally off, not reboot) if the CPU temp is rising too fast. The CPU in #7 is fine, as a result. Now, could you have had a contact problem between your heatsink and CPU? Heatsink 180 degrees reversed, or even just the clip itself? Either of those situations would cause bad cooling due to bad contact, possibly resulting in a rapid temperature spike and a shutdown. Maybe it just squeaks by at the 100MHz bus setting. That's not a very likely explaination since you did try different heatsinks, but it's about all I can think of.

 

[CurtCold]

MechBgon, I thought that might have been the prob too, so I reapplied some thermal paste, and turned the Volcano 9 up all the way to about 6k rpm, and it still did the same thing. If it's heating up too fast with that beast then something's wrong. Other than that it's sittn' here rock stable right now. I do have another question though. In win98se, if I don't load the nvidia drivers, is there going to be a problem? The 4-in-one's? So far it seems fine like it is. I would have thought a company like Asus would have equipped this board with an auto installer, like everything else I bought from them. Just a thought. It's for work, and I don't want it freakn' out on me.

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, I might have obscured my actual advice by telling my little story, let me repeat what I was suggesting to look at:

Make sure the heatsink itself has the stepped end of the base over the solid section of the CPU socket... they're both asymetrical and the heatsink can be put on "backwards" which results in it not making square contact with the chip, and therefore really bad thermal transfer. Big photo of the bottom of the V9, showing the step cut into the base

Because the solid part of the socket is at the top, the step in the base should be at the top too. The part of the clip with the receptacle for a screwdriver tip must also be at the top, since the clip is asymetrical too. I know very well how hard it is to get a screwdriver inbetween the heatsink and the power supply when the heatsink is oriented correctly, since I've done it 13+ times now but that's the only way.

If you're already doing all of that properly, then I don't know what to think. Did the HEC 300W unit power the system in your signature before? It has 180W on the 3.3V + 5V combined, which is about the least you'd want to try to get away with if using a powerful video card in the AGP slot. If some other PSU is powering your signature rig, you might want to try that PSU in the new system just to see if it makes any difference. Good luck!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

It doesn't use 4in1's those are for Via, and you need the nvidia drivers for the video Just follow the directions on pg.70-72 carefully and reboot when completely done and 98 will run fine on that board. I switched it to XP pro after a few weeks and the install was cake! so if you can go XP with that board you will be happier I think. Anyways, sorry to hear that the FSB issue didn't get resolved but it sounds like with what the usage will be it'll do great with the Morgan anyways. mechBgon, don't sweat it! we all pull a bonehead once in awhile I was having problems with a system I built detecting the HDD as UDMA2 instead of 5 after a soft boot and after spending almost an hour troubleshooting it I finally physicaly checked the cable just to discover I had it plugged in completely backwards I'm surprised it was working at all not to mention being detected correctly from a cold boot! I still can't figure out how I managed to do that

 

[mechBgon]

Hehe, all I can say is, I'm glad the motherboard is smarter than I am

 

[KF]

Maybe it's worth mentioning that NVIDIAs newer nForce drivers on their site have a single do-all setup for W98 like the XP drivers, unlike the totally screwed up and confusing thing on the ASUS CD.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: KF
Maybe it's worth mentioning that NVIDIAs newer nForce drivers on their site have a single do-all setup for W98 like the XP drivers, unlike the totally screwed up and confusing thing on the ASUS CD.

When I downloaded and tried to install the updated drivers the auot-installer said it was for M.E. and made me install them manually again :frown: However if the drivers have been updated in the last 6weeks perhaps the new self-installer has been tweaked to work with 98SE too.

 

[CurtCold]

Heh....took that Volcano 9 home, and put in on my A7v266-e, and guess what.....it's gets too hot after I've had it running for about 5 mins. HMMMMM. Reapplied thermal paste, turned it around, and Viola!. 42C Took the Volcano back to the A7n266vm, reinstalled backwards, put on nice coat of thermal paste. Viola! 42C Running great now. Put the Morgan back on the shelf, to use for a server later. I am using the onboard Video btw MechBgon. Thanks for all the help guys, can't believe I didnt' think about turning that around, guess I just thought that because it was a "Volcano 9" that it didn't matter. Preciate all the help, this lil board is up and running stable as can be.

 

[mechBgon]

Sweet! I like happy endings!

 

[mechBgon]

Oh, and did anyone else notice the new 1004 BIOS for the A7N266-VM? Supports 2400+! w00t!

 

[KF]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: KF
Maybe it's worth mentioning that NVIDIAs newer nForce drivers on their site have a single do-all setup for W98 like the XP drivers, unlike the totally screwed up and confusing thing on the ASUS CD.

When I downloaded and tried to install the updated drivers the auto-installer said it was for M.E. and made me install them manually again :frown: However if the drivers have been updated in the last 6weeks perhaps the new self-installer has been tweaked to work with 98SE too.

The driver file I got has this name:
nforce_udp_win98se_1.05.exe
nForce 98se


and NVidia claims it is for 98. I unable to check. I set up the mobo (with XP) for a person who has it now. I got the 98 file too because the person was not that sure at the time what they wanted.

I believe they have a different file for Me:

nforce_udp_winme_1.13.exe

nForce Me