Athlon XP 2800+ Detects as 1.25 Ghz

nullptr

Member
Aug 20, 2004
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Hey all -- hardware n00b here who just put together a box last night for the first time. Things are working pretty well, generally speaking, but the BIOS (and subsequently, the operating system) is detecting my Athlon XP 2800+ as a 1.25 Ghz processor. I thought the clock speed was supposed to be around 2 Ghz on this processor, so I'm a bit confused if I've misconfigured something. Performance is quite good regardless, so it's not a huge concern, but I want to make sure everything is aligned the way it should be. Here's my hardware:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=909280

Thanks in advance.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
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Welcome to the Forums!

No biggie. The mobo is prolly using a FSB speed of 100 when it s/b 166. Go into BIOS and change it, Save and Exit and you s/b fine.

Fern
 

nullptr

Member
Aug 20, 2004
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Thanks, that's almost certainly the problem (can't confirm it until I get home, unfortunately). I was confused because the speeds of the memory and m/b were advertised as 333/400Mhz but the BIOS only allowed a maximum setting of 300Mhz. After reading your response, I finally came across this bit of info which cleared things up (from [1]):

"One issue of confusion is the labeling of front side bus speeds. Typically a FSB today is dual or quad channel, meaning a FSB speed advertised as being "333 MHz" may actually be 166 MHz dual channel, effectively meaning 333 MHz of speed. Nowadays, PC (X86) CPUs work with front side bus speeds ranging from 133 MHz dual channel (266 MHz effective) to 200 MHz quad channel (800 MHz effective)."

1. http://www.fact-index.com/f/fr/front_side_bus.html

Thanks again!
 

imported_Kiwi

Golden Member
Jul 17, 2004
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The same thing happened with an XP 2600 Thoroughbred, and I *have* reset the Setup for the BIOS to 133, but when the system is running, it wants to be 100 instead, with a 12.5 multiplier. Gigabyte's Easy Tune will go up to what it claims is 112 MHz, and rolls over from there. That's 1400 MHz.

More description here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1377963&enterthread=y

The MB has a trio of jumpers for the 100/133 also, practically impossible to read the tiny on-board labels and decide which is which (OK, I have one cataract, and nearsighted in the other eye; even with a hand magnifier it was about half just a guess), and the MB manual offered no detail.

I suspect that Gigabyte was bragging about what processors their oldie could run when describing it on their web page -- and it treats anythng better than an XP 1600 as just another of the same!

:(
 

nullptr

Member
Aug 20, 2004
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Hmmm ... well, interestingly enough, I changed the BIOS setting as suggested and it seems to not make a difference. Spooky ... any other suggestions?
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Originally posted by: nullptr
Hmmm ... well, interestingly enough, I changed the BIOS setting as suggested and it seems to not make a difference. Spooky ... any other suggestions?
Read Kiwi's post right above you there :) Jumpers are where you start, with that board.