ECS K7S5A & 2600+ troubles

[huesmann]

Hey all, I gotta friend with an ECS K7S5A who is trying to install an XP2600+. I can only assume that it's a Barton; are there T-bred 2600s?

Anyway, his BIOS first detected the chip as a Duron 750 or something like that. Thinking his RAM was limiting his CPU detection, I lent him a stick of DDR400 to test. He seems to have solved the problem of being recognized as a Duron, but it won't recognize the full chip speed, I think setting it as a 2100+ or something like that. He's tried the latest offical BIOS which is still pretty old, and a tweaked BIOS, with no better results.

Anyone here successfully used a K7S5A with a 2600+?

 

[johnjkr1]

Did he manually set the FSB and Mem speeds to 166?

 

[huesmann]

Think so.

 

[johnjkr1]

Think so, or know so? The bios will recognize the CPU as whatever speed you set it at.

 

[JK949]

The xp2600 is a t-bird core and the front buss speed should be set to 133 in the bios.
All xp chips use a double pump to set the fbs. if it was set to 166 it would result in a
fsb of 333 and fry the chip. sounds like your friend needs to join this forum to give
people more info and get more feed back.

 

[mechBgon]

They made the 2600+ in several versions. Besides the popular Barton-core 2600+ (using a DDR333 or 166MHz bus), there were two Tbred models, one at DDR266 / 133MHz bus speed, and the other at DDR333 / 166MHz.

The Tbred DDR266 version is quite rare, and it's the only model that a K7S5A could recognize at full speed. Why's that? Because the K7S5A tops out with a DDR266 FSB. So if it's either of the DDR333 variants, he has a perfect excuse to treat himself to a shiny blue $54 Shuttle AN35N Ultra. He'll need at least PC2700 RAM to go with it. If he has PC3200 / DDR400 RAM then he can do some overclocking too.

The Shuttle does use an ATX12V plug, so you'll want a respectable ~300W+ power supply to go with that. If he has a PSU without an ATX12V plug, it's probably time for a replacement anyway unless it's something very burly like an old Antec PP403X, in which case you might consider an Asus A7N8X that doesn't require an ATX12V plug.

Hope that helps a little Alternate solution: sell off the DDR333-based CPU and get an AthlonXP 2400+ for the K7S5A

 

[johnjkr1]

I would avoid the AN35N due to its horrible coil whine problems. While the K7S5a does not officially support your cpu, there are unofficial bioses out there that can add support. The board can really only boot at 133/133 ,but software in windows can set it to 166/166. Not the best of solutions, but a cheap one. Check out google and you can find all kinds of info on the K7S5A, it is a very popular board.

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: johnjkr1
Think so, or know so? The bios will recognize the CPU as whatever speed you set it at.

Can't recall fo' sho'. Was trying to help him out by phone, looking at K7S5A PDF manual on my PC.

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
They made the 2600+ in several versions. Besides the popular Barton-core 2600+ (using a DDR333 or 166MHz bus), there were two Tbred models, one at DDR266 / 133MHz bus speed, and the other at DDR333 / 166MHz.

Yeah, I myself have a 166 bus 2600+. Can't recall if it's Barton or Tbred, because it's been relegated to a secondary machine. Is there a way to tell which variety my friend's is from the markings on the CPU?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: huesmann

Originally posted by: mechBgon
They made the 2600+ in several versions. Besides the popular Barton-core 2600+ (using a DDR333 or 166MHz bus), there were two Tbred models, one at DDR266 / 133MHz bus speed, and the other at DDR333 / 166MHz.

Yeah, I myself have a 166 bus 2600+. Can't recall if it's Barton or Tbred, because it's been relegated to a secondary machine. Is there a way to tell which variety my friend's is from the markings on the CPU?

Maybe even simpler, he could run CPU-Z: link But if he has the CPU out, you can tell a Barton visually by its distinctly-rectangular core: link to comparison photo, Barton on the right

 

[JK949]

The 2600 barton core ? i have never seen or read about it. i have seen some veriations of
amd cores but the only one i know of is the athlon 64 at 2800.
You are problabley correct but i have never seen it.
And the ram is completly dependent on what the mother board will accept.
I've run ddr 2100 with an barton core 2500 without any problems concerning the
cpu speed. they run indipendent of each other for the most part.

 

[johnjkr1]

jk949,

The barton core has nothing to do with AMD athlon 64 chips, that is an entirely different generations. Barton simply means an Athlon XP with 512 cache. Barton 2600's exist, and are for sale on newegg:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ "Barton", 333MHz FSB, 512K Cache Processor - OEM
(limit 5 per customer)
- Specifications -
Model: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Core: Barton
Operating Frequency: 1.9GHz


Also, if you are running ddr2100 with a barton 2500, you are either overclocking your memory (to 166 to match the fsb) or you are not running synchronously with the FSB. With Athlon XP cpu's, you always want to run the FSB and the MEM in synch.

 

[huesmann]

I have a Barton 2600+ in one machine and a Tbred 2600+ in another (the one that's giving me IRQL_NOT_LESS_THANs). My buddy has a Tbred.