Need BIOS help: crashing with NF7-S, Buffalo 3200 x 2, AMD 2100+

[sinajahn]

All I want is a stable system.
But BIOS is too crazy for me to understand.
Just received 2 sticks of Buffalo 3200s and hooked up to my Abit NF7-S.
I've got an XP Athalon 2100+ and it should all work together but... it doesn't.
Can't do Sandra burn-in test: crazy beeping noises til I unplug the system.
Can't play Call of Duty: freezes indefinetely.

Can someone please, for the love of god, walk me through the BIOS setting steps? I tried the 'agressive' setting (mild OC?) and now I'm back to 'optimal.'
Please explain 11-3-2-2.0 and proper settings for optimal memory intensive (i.e. gaming/video editing) performance.

Why can I NOT even run Burn-In utility? I don't know...
Please help!

 

[myocardia]

How old is this Buffalo ram, because the new stuff is horrible. I had a gig of PC3200 that would not do 200mhz at 2.5-3-3-11 timings (it's rated speed and timings). Buffalo used to be made with Winbond CH6 chips, but not anymore. Anyway, you'll probably need to raise your ram voltage (called vdimm in the bios), since I'm sure you're trying to run it in dual-channel mode. And you aren't going to be able to get any discernible overclock with that processor, so you'd be much better off putting it back to stock settings.

 

[sinajahn]

Thanks dude...
As far as I know the ram is CH5 cause it says so on the chips...
what should i up the voltage to?
and how do i know what the stock settings are?

 

[sinajahn]

...and for the record I bought the sticks a couple days ago....

 

[Soulkeeper]

2.8v for the vdimm should be plenty
try setting the mem timings by spd and see what that gets for you
if it is an athlon 2100+ then set the fsb speed accordingly to 133mhz (266)
you might need to use a divider other than 1:1 in order to run your memory at 200mhz(400) or 166mhz (333)
your motherboard manual should explain this pretty clear

but first you'll need to get the system stable at it's default speeds
also make sure you disable the gaming memory optimizations in the bios, those also make my system unstable at any memory speed with my bh-6 chips

your memory should handle 2-3-3-7, 2-3-2-11, etc. or even 2-2-2-6 with the right voltage and prob no more than 215mhz

good luck

btw i had a 256mb stick of corsair xms with ch-5 (maybe ch-6) chips and it didn't work in my abit nf7-s and ic7 max3
so you could have DOA memory if the system isn't stable and everything is set right

 

[bootoo]

You might even drop it down to 2.7 on the memory; the internal voltage regulator kicks in around there and anything higher just gets wasted as heat unless you volt it up to over 3.0 which I wouldn't do.

I would try each stick separately also to rule out a bad stick. Also maybe try single channel after that if the sticks are OK. My guess is the memory might be bad. I have ch-5 also and they run fine by spd or auto or the settings I give them but I don't have an nf-7s (yet) so can't say what settings you need in bios, sorry.

 

[Super56K]

If that's true about the Buffalo memory then that stinks. I've got the same stick as sinajahn does(well only 1x512) and it is awesome for the $85 I spent on it. It's running now at the default 200mhz with 2-3-3-7 timings and 2.6vdimm in a biostar m7ncd pro board.

I'm thinking you may have a bad stick of ram maybe also because my Buffalo ram isn't very old at all. It was purchased around March and has the CH-5 chips in it.

 

[Fern]

Links to BIOS settings for the NF7 series.

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3

Link #4

Link #5 In-depth General BIOS Data

 

[sinajahn]

I've been trying the various methods to attain system stability, but get this:
I run memtest an it's all good for 800% coverage etc. But then I try to run Sandra's burn-in and I'll immediately get the long beeps. This is when I'm SPD and super-stable settings. But I'll try to open and run Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and play a movie simultaneously, and it's all good; nice and quick.
So either I'm doing something way wrong, or 2100 Palominos and Buffalo and NF7-S aren't good friends?

(sigh)

 

[Fern]

Forget Sandra, maybe you got a bad install. D/l and run Prime95 (torture test) if it passes that you're OK. Seems you say your stable in running actual apps.