AN7 Booting Problem

[TheSource]

Ok here is my problem.. When I restart sometime my motherboard will stop at detecting the ram. Actaully it will stop after it shows the CPU speed of which it shows wrong. It shows athlon 1500 while it is a 2400. To fix the fact that it stops there i will sometimes I will take out the CMOS battery and replace it. Also sometimes I will take out the ram and stick it right back in. Sometimes I do both but this last time it hasn't worked and I cant boot up as it wont get past showing the CPU speed.

Here are my specs if they would help at all..

ABIT "AN7" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2400
Western Digital 80 GB Serial ATA
Maxtor 40 GB IDE
Kingston DDR400 512 MB
Win XP


Also like to add that it boots up as DDR266 (i think) while its DDR400 but I never changed that so I think thats all I need to do..

And another thing is that this is all from newegg so if you guys thinnk I need to RMA something then it wont be a problem..

Thank For Any Help...

Mike

 

[mechBgon]

It's best for the memory's bus speed to match the CPU's bus speed, which is DDR266 on your AthlonXP 2400+ by design, so I recommend letting it use that setting. You may want to give it a little boost in memory voltage if it's running at Auto, because DDR400 modules often like a little more voltage, like 2.6-2.7 volts.

When motherboards stall in the middle of a POST attempt, they may revert to "fail-safe" settings to ensure that you can correct whatever the problem was (a wild overclocking attempt, for example). That's probably the explaination for the system jumping down to the 1500+ speed, and if you can cure what's causing the hangups, that should fix the downshift problem. Hope that helps

 

[TheSource]

I gotta figure out whats causing that hang up then. Im gonna see if i cna use my roomates memory and see if that works.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: TheSource
I gotta figure out whats causing that hang up then. Im gonna see if i cna use my roomates memory and see if that works.

Try boosting the memory voltage to 2.7 volts. Also, what power supply do you have, what brand & model?

 

[TheSource]

I will have to look but now i turened it on and booted into windows ( it just randomly worked ) the board started making some kind of alarm sound..

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: TheSource
I will have to look but now i turened it on and booted into windows ( it just randomly worked ) the board started making some kind of alarm sound..

Hmm, now I'm even more interested in knowing details about your power supply. There are some brands that are proven performers and rarely have issues, and there are some brands that who knows because we've never heard of the... and then, there are some brands that are Bad News? :evil:

 

[TheSource]

the model number is "ISO-500" it is 450W i belive. IT came with my Cheiftec case (think thats it)

 

[mechBgon]

Hmm, that fits the middle category, the ones I never heard of. If you happen to have like a 300W+ Antec, Enermax, Fortron, Sparkle Power, you might try that in its place if there's a possibility that the PSU is freaking out.

One other easy thing to check: look on the back of the power supply next to the fan, and ensure that the 115V / 230V slide switch is set to 115V since you're in the USA. Sometimes they come set for 230V.

Federal Way, WA huh? Was it hot over there today? I'm over in Spokane and it was cookin', although our humidity stays pretty low here. I think it must've been about 90F

 

[TheSource]

Ya it was pretty hot here today. I am gonna clean everything before work tonight and see if that will make a difference seeing as it is pretty dusty in there...I will let you know if this fixes it..

 

[TheSource]

well i went in and blew out a lot of the dust and made sure the heat sink is seated right but everytiem i get into windows sounds an alarm...

 

[TheSource]

when I go into the BIOS it says that the tempature is at 70C. Mabye thats it?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: TheSource
when I go into the BIOS it says that the tempature is at 70C. Mabye thats it?

That could be the cause of the alarm, yeah. I wonder if with the warm weather, your case is getting too hot inside. What's your ventilation setup? The case isn't trapped inside of a computer-desk cupboard or something, is it? Those are :evil:

 

[TheSource]

no it aint in a cupboard ummm. theer are thrree fans on my case. i dont know whch way there all going though. lol

 

[mechBgon]

Most people have them all blowing front-to-rear. You might check them and see if they're fighting eachother instead of working as a team.

 

[TheSource]

ok i foiund that the tow that are neearest to the top (in the middle on the back) are blowing out and the one on the side window on the bottom is blowing in. that sound ok? btw i have it on right now and i aitn getting an alarm so i will watch it and see what happens..

 

[mechBgon]

That sounds like a good arrangement of the airflow. Maybe the heat isn't getting transferred from the CPU to the heatsink very well. One thing that can be an issue, is that the stock thermal patch on an AMD heatsink is made for just one use. Once you install the heatsink and operate the CPU, it needs to stay installed. If you ever take the heatsink off after that, then you want to scrape off all the used-up thermal patch from the CPU and the heatsink, and use high-quality thermal grease from then onwards.

What kind of heatsink is this, by the way? Stock retail AMD one, or some other brand/model?

 

[TheSource]

Its a stock heatsink and fan. I havent taken it off yet but mabye I should so I can add some diff thermal paste. How would i get the paste off the cpu that will be there when i take it off?

 

[KIAman]

Mine did the same thing but had slight video corruption. I returned it for another, then I got a DFI.