Athlon XP 3200+ problem. Need help!

[camberiu]

Hello everyone,


I've just bought an Athlon 3400+ but I can't make it work right. Every time I set my Motherboard to 200mhz FSB, the system will keep reseting when either Linux or Windows XP is loading. If I set the MB to 166mhz the machine will work fine, but the CPU will operate as a 2500+. Any ideas on what might be causing this? Here are my tech specs:

Athlon XP 3200+ CPU (Volcano 11 cooler)
Shuttle AN35 Motherboard (Nvidia2 400 Ultra )
2 512MB PC2700 memory sticks from Micron (1 GB total)
ATI Radeon 9800 (128 MB)
400W power supply


I am very frustraded right now, so any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[mechBgon]

You need PC3200 memory for the memory to run synchronously with the CPU at 200MHz. If you run out-of-sync it will put a sizeable dent in your system performance. So job #1 is to round up some PC3200 memory. I suggest raising the memory voltage to whatever the RAM manufacturer has designed it for, too, don't leave the board on AUTO memory voltage. If you need a suggestion, Corsair ValueSelect PC3200 CL2.5 seems to be getting good results for people, it's about $74 per 512MB.

Secondly, what quality level is that 400W power supply, is it a proven brand or a poser brand? Antec, Enermax, Fortron and some others have earned good reputations.

Hope that helps, even if it's not all rosy news

 

[howdyduty]

Since your using PC2700 ram, either try manually setting the bios cpu settings to 13x multiplier or set cpu multiplier to 11. Could be setting the multiplier verses using 'Auto' may help. Also, you may try setting cpu to 11 and fsb to 200 but manually set the ram to run at 166fsb vs 200. The idea is to keep that automatice reconfig. PC3200 ram would be best to run the ram at the same as the cpu...but not required for good operations.

 

[Spikesoldier]

most but not all pc2700 will do 3200 at 3cas. you seem like one that owns some that doesnt.

try booting with one stick and see what happens. it could be one doesnt like 3200.

 

[camberiu]

Thank you for the advice guys. Setting the multiplier manually to 11 did the trick. Thanks again. One more question thought, I have a Volcano 11 fan, which is supposed tob e pretty good (the damn thing is LOUD), however, my CPU is reaching 49 Celsius on light web surfing, which I find pretty hot. Is that normal for a 3200+? What is the expected temperature for this thing? Thanks again for all the help.