Hello. In summary, on start-up my Shuttle AN35N Ultra NForce2 board frequently enters Safe Mode, detecting the processor as an 1100+ Athlon and 200 MHz (as opposed to 400 MHz) RAM frequency regardless of whether I run my Athlon XP 2500+ (multiplier-locked 166 MHz) Barton at stock speed or slightly raise the FSB from 166 MHz to 200 MHz on the motherboard to achieve the performance of a 3200+ CPU.
Details: I recently put together a system using a Shuttle AN35 Ultra motherboard, a 2500+ Barton with the stock heatsink and fan, a stick of 512MB pc3200 Buffalotech RAM (CL 2.5), a 400 watt Turbolink (made by Channel Well) power supply, and a Geforce 2 video card. The BIOS shows temps to be in the 40s C under load and high 30s C idle. PS voltage rails are tight. I took the standard approach with this setup, upping the board's FSB to 200MHz in the BIOS from 166MHz to give me a resulting processor speed of a 3200+ Athlon (2.21 GHz) and synchronous with the stock speed of pc3200 RAM. No other significant changes were made in the BIOS. Windows XP Home SP1 was freshly installed on the computer and I continued with customizing and testing the setup. The system worked flawlessly, but after a couple of restarts I ran into a problem. When the board would POST, instead of my CPU being detected as a 2.21 GHz 3200+ and my memory speed being 400 MHz, my Barton was showing up as an 1100+ at 1.1 GHz and the memory speed as 200 MHz. At the bottom of the screen a warning was displayed telling me to either enter the BIOS or press F1 to continue with the safe mode settings. I entered the BIOS to try and determine the problem. No settings had been changed, however, including my setting the board's FSB to 200MHz (which again should result in a memory speed of 400MHz on the POST screen). I saved and exited the BIOS to see what would happen and the CPU and RAM were now being detected at the proper speeds. After using the system for a while and restarting again, however, I had the same problem with the Safe Mode settings. This time I decided to set everything to stock speeds. The board then POSTed showing the expected stock speeds. The next time I started the computer it once again went into Safe Mode even though I wasn?t overclocking.
Just entering the BIOS (either saving or not when I exit) temporarily fixes the problem every time as when I exit and the board POSTs again it will always detect the settings that are listed in the BIOS (which don't change unless I change them). Sometimes it does remember my settings when I restart and I may be able to restart several times without the board entering Safe Mode but eventually it will. I also tried continuing in Safe Mode to see what Windows would detect my processor as but it showed up under SYSTEM as a 1.1 GHz 1100+. There were also a couple of rare instances when the system would simply display a black screen after a restart and have to be manually shut down or on other occasions would freeze when trying to enter the BIOS.
I've tried EVERY combination of the following: Changing the settings from Optimal to Aggressive or Expert and then back again, manually putting in the CPU multiplier at x11 and then back to Auto, changing the memory speed controller from auto to by SPD and back again, and everything else that I could think of but I still have the problem. There's simply no rhyme or reason for what's happening and any help anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Details: I recently put together a system using a Shuttle AN35 Ultra motherboard, a 2500+ Barton with the stock heatsink and fan, a stick of 512MB pc3200 Buffalotech RAM (CL 2.5), a 400 watt Turbolink (made by Channel Well) power supply, and a Geforce 2 video card. The BIOS shows temps to be in the 40s C under load and high 30s C idle. PS voltage rails are tight. I took the standard approach with this setup, upping the board's FSB to 200MHz in the BIOS from 166MHz to give me a resulting processor speed of a 3200+ Athlon (2.21 GHz) and synchronous with the stock speed of pc3200 RAM. No other significant changes were made in the BIOS. Windows XP Home SP1 was freshly installed on the computer and I continued with customizing and testing the setup. The system worked flawlessly, but after a couple of restarts I ran into a problem. When the board would POST, instead of my CPU being detected as a 2.21 GHz 3200+ and my memory speed being 400 MHz, my Barton was showing up as an 1100+ at 1.1 GHz and the memory speed as 200 MHz. At the bottom of the screen a warning was displayed telling me to either enter the BIOS or press F1 to continue with the safe mode settings. I entered the BIOS to try and determine the problem. No settings had been changed, however, including my setting the board's FSB to 200MHz (which again should result in a memory speed of 400MHz on the POST screen). I saved and exited the BIOS to see what would happen and the CPU and RAM were now being detected at the proper speeds. After using the system for a while and restarting again, however, I had the same problem with the Safe Mode settings. This time I decided to set everything to stock speeds. The board then POSTed showing the expected stock speeds. The next time I started the computer it once again went into Safe Mode even though I wasn?t overclocking.
Just entering the BIOS (either saving or not when I exit) temporarily fixes the problem every time as when I exit and the board POSTs again it will always detect the settings that are listed in the BIOS (which don't change unless I change them). Sometimes it does remember my settings when I restart and I may be able to restart several times without the board entering Safe Mode but eventually it will. I also tried continuing in Safe Mode to see what Windows would detect my processor as but it showed up under SYSTEM as a 1.1 GHz 1100+. There were also a couple of rare instances when the system would simply display a black screen after a restart and have to be manually shut down or on other occasions would freeze when trying to enter the BIOS.
I've tried EVERY combination of the following: Changing the settings from Optimal to Aggressive or Expert and then back again, manually putting in the CPU multiplier at x11 and then back to Auto, changing the memory speed controller from auto to by SPD and back again, and everything else that I could think of but I still have the problem. There's simply no rhyme or reason for what's happening and any help anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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