Need Help With Asus A7N8X Deluxe Bios Settings

[atb112]

I had to reset the Bios since I was getting No Post after changing the memory frequency.

Everything is working now, but when I start up the PC it shows the Main Processor
as AMD Athlon XP 1500+, even though I have a 2700 processor. Before I had to clear
the Bios, it read 2700. Are there some settings I should change?

In the bios some current settings are:

CPU External Frequency (MHz): 100MHz
CPU Frequency Multiple Setting: Auto
xCPU Frequency Multiple: 13.0x
System Performance: Optimal
xCPU Interface: Optimal
Memory Frequency: By SPD
Resulting Frequency: 166MHz
CPU Vcore Setting: Auto

If there are other important settings I should look at, let me know.

My Current Setup is:
1003 Bios
1.16 Nforce from Asus
AMD Athlon XP 2700
SLK-800 with Panaflow low flow
Artic Silver 3 Thermal Compound
Micron 512MB PC 2700 DDR (single stick)
Geforce 2 GTS 32MB
Soundblaster Live 5.1
40GB Maxtor 7200 Fluid Bearing
Antec Truepower 330W
Panaflow low flow case fan


Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Change the CPU External Frequency to 166MHz and you'll have it back at 2700+ speeds.

 

[atb112]

Thanks! It is back to 2700.

Now I need help with another problem .

I am getting random rebooting of the PC. That is why i was messing around with
the memory frequency in the first place. I have no idea what is causing the problem.
Its getting annoying now, since when it does reboot, for some reason I can't boot windows
in normal mode. I have to go into safe mode, uninstal my Nvidia video drivers, then reinstall
them.

Some of the current memory bios settings are:
Memory Frequency: By SPD
Resulting Frequency: 166MHz
xMemory Timings: Optimal
xSDRAM Active Precharge Delay: 7
xSDRAM RAS to CAS Delay: 3
xSDRAM RAS Precharge Delay: 3
xSDRAM CAS Latency: 2.5T
FSB Spread Spectrum: .50%
DDR Reference Voltage: 2.6V

Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

To help with the occasional reboots, I would start by bumping the DDR Reference Voltage to 2.7 volts (see page 55 and 57 in the manual for where to find it). Also, is your system running off of a good-quality power supply such as Enermax, Antec, Sparkle Power, Enlight, Heroichi, etc? There's a lot of junk out there.

I would disable the spread-spectrum settings, too... it's intended to reduce electromagnetic emissions from the PC so it doesn't mess up your television reception, etc.

Also, how's the CPU temperature looking, if you go check it in the BIOS after the system has idled for a few minutes? What heatsink/fan unit do you have, a stock retail AMD one or an aftermarket one?

 

[atb112]

Using an Antec Truepower 330W, CPU Temp is fine after idle, and also right
after it boots I check it and it is in the the low 40's.

Using a SLK-800 with Panaflow low flow with Arctic Silver 3 Thermal Compound, and
the RAM I am using is Micron 512MB PC 2700 DDR (single stick).

Could the voltage be causing the reboots? I'm not going to end up
with no post by changing the voltage right?

Also, by default I had the Primary VGA Bios Set to PCI VGA Card, even though I use an AGP Card.
I just changed it to AGP, could that have caused the driver issue?

Also could the crashing be caused by AGP Frequency or Voltage Settings?

Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Some of those factors could cause a random-reboot situation, yeah. 2.7 volts on the memory modules is less than 10% out of spec (Micron states 2.6V as the official spec in their documentation) so that should be fine. AGP frequency should be locked to 66MHz, but if you're not overclocking yoru system to start with, that's what it would be even if it weren't locked. AGP voltage should be 1.5V and it's not common to need to boost that at all.

I don't think the VGA BIOS setting is going to matter either way, it certainly hasn't in any of the Asus nForce1 boards I've dealt with. If you did have a PCI video card installed, that would clue the motherboard to use the PCI video card for the primary display.

The other thing I notice is that you've got a Soundblaster card installed. If you do want that in there, I'd put it in the #4 PCI slot and disable the motherboard's onboard MIDI, gameport and APU in the BIOS, since the Soundblaster has one of each too. But I would lean towards using the superior onboard audio features of the A7N8X-Deluxe, if it were mine. Nice rig, by the way

 

[atb112]

hehe thanks

I had to put in the SB Live Card since with the onboard sound I was getting crackling/static
when just moving the mouse around.

Also could the RAM be in the wrong slot? I think it's in slot 3 right now, farthest from the CPU.

Thanks for your help

 

[mechBgon]

The RAM ought to work equally well in any of the three slots. See how it goes with the 2.7V for the memory and the onboard audio features disabled. Come to think of it, you might want to disable the onboard Serial ATA as well, until such time as you actually need it.

Also, what operating system do you use? If it's Win2000 or WinXP, perhaps looking at the system logs will give some clues about what's going wrong.

 

[atb112]

Changed the voltage to 2.7, and it hasn't crashed yet, hopefully it stays that way .

Using WinXP, does it keep logs of crashes?

 

[mechBgon]

I don't have WinXP so I'm not familiar enough with it to tell you where the logs are being kept. Try Windows Help and search for "Event viewer" perhaps

 

[atb112]

cool, thanks for all your help