BSOD's w/chaintech 7nif2 and mobile athlon 2400

[merk]

I'm tyring to put together a mini-pc to use as an entertainment center. The hardware put together for this is:

antec aria case
chaintech 7nif2 microatx mobo
mobile athlon xp 2400
1 stick of ddr400 512meg ram
HD and dvd burner (i'll be adding tv tuner cards later if/when i get the thing working).

i spent several hours just trying to get windows installed and couldnt do it. The machine gives me BSOD with various error messages at various points during the install process. the most common error is irql_not_less_or equal or driver_irql_not_less_or_equal

i get this even before windows actually starts installing, when its just copying files from the cd. Its also come back and said the HD was bad and it couldnt format it (tried it with 2 different drives). And it also fails sometimes with no specific error, just saying there was a hardware failure. I've tried disabling everything on the board that i dont need to just get xp installed, but it doesnt help.

I did get xp to install just once, the very first time i tried. but it BSOD 5 seconds after i logged in.

Also, not sure if this is related, but when i boot up, the bios screen says the cpu is a mobile athlon 800mhz. I believe the mobile 2400 should show up as 1.6ghz or 1.8ghz.

There is nothing i can see in the bios (or jumpers) to set the voltage or multiplier speed. Just the FSB speed which i set to 133.

I dont think its overheating... the cpu temp seems to stay at around 110f.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what going wrong here?

thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

 

[hairygit1]

Might be that the mobo doesn't support pci3200 DDR when using the system as 2700/2400.

 

[hairygit1]

Or pc2100 - silly me.
next time, i'll try reading the post first!!!


Also, try taking everything out of the box that you don't need - ie dvd burner
try to use cd/cdrw to install win.

Also, might want to reset the cmos - just see what the defaults do, then play around with them.

good luck,

please post any results with your experiments

 

[merk]

well i think i have the BSOD's resolved. Looks like it was the memory causing it. I found a little note on chaintechs site which said when you use the onboard video you cant use pc3200, you can only use pc2700.

the memory i bought is 3200. I pulled a stick of memory out of another machine. I'm not sure what speed this memory is, but since i got windows installed and i am typing this message from the machine now i think its safe to say it was the memory.

I still have it saying its an 800mhz processor though. Havent been able to figure out how to change that. Cant find anything in the manual/website which mentions being able to change the multiplier, which is what most people seem to be saying i need to look at to get the correct processor speed.

There's also a program i remember seeing which would identify which cpu you have... cpuid or something like that. I wonder if its possible i just have the wrong cpu? I'd rather not pull the cpu out to check the label since i'd have to take the whole machine apart to get it out safely.

 

[merk]

well i ran cpu-z, and it says the multiplier is a 6. Also says the memory is 2700. So that pretty much confirms my BSOD's were from the 3200 memory and using the onboard video. I also found a link to an article which also says you cant change the multiplier:

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/chaintech/amd/7nif2/index.shtml

So, does this mean i am stuck at 800mhz?

Here's all the info cpu-z is reporting:

athlon xp-m
barton
1.5~ voltage
family 6
ext family 7
model a
ex model a
stepping 0

core speed 801.8mhz
multiplier 6
fsb 133
bus speed 267.3