What speed does the 1900xp really run at?

[jwhaynes]

I have a gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard and a 1900xp processor. When I bood the system it says that the processor is running at 1200mhz. I thought that the 1900xp ran more like 1600mhz. I also noticed that the system bus frequency is set at 100. Is this the Frount Side Bus? When I set it to 133 my system is totally unstable (I think due to my new Abit TI 4400).

 

[toft-dk]

An XP1900+ should use a 133 Front Side Bus making it run 1600 Mhz

it seems like you have it run 12 x 100 FSB thus making it a 1200 Mhz.

Why it's unstable i cant tell !!!

Are the cooler seated proberly ?

What kinda RAM are you running ? (and at what settings ? )

What's up with that TI 4400 ?

 

[jwhaynes]

Thanks for the info.

My memory is 512mb pc2700 333mhz

I have to say that I'm not sure that my video card has a problem but 3 out 5 times my system crashes XP tells me that it was because of a video problem and wants to send a messege to microsoft. I'm going to down my system and let you know what the processor is running at with a FSB of 100 vs 133.

Thanks for your help
Jeff Haynes

 

[jwhaynes]

Ok here is the setup.

100mhz FSB 133mhz FSB
AGP Volt 1.5 1.5
DDR Volt 2.5 2.5
CPU TMP 49c 54c
System TMP 40c 41c


I'm not sure if this is the RAM info you requested
SDRAM CAS# 2.5
SDRAM Command Rate 2T Command
AGP Mode 2x

Should my AGP mode be set at 4X for a Geforce 4 TI 4400
Jeff Haynes

 

[jwhaynes]

I was running fine with a FSB of 133 and CPU at 1600mhz. The cpu temp was 54c and I had Dungeon Siege running the the back ground while I burned a CD. Everything looked stable until I went into Dungeon siege and played for 2 seconds. The screen locked up and I had to power off the system. I'm back up and running with a FSB of 133 and everything seems to be fine right now.
Jeff

 

[BarMan]

Who makes the ram you bought?
Your 1900+ is running a bit hot for stock speeds... what kind of heatsink/fan you have on there?

Another thing to try is setting your ram(dram) settings to Normal in the bios (not fast, fastest, nor turbo). Normal settings uses the ram spec settings that the ram is supposed to run at.

Let us know what happens 🙂

 

[jwhaynes]

The Cooler I"m running is the Volcano 5 with a cooper spacer that surronds the chip. I'm not sure about who made the ram but I will check that out when I get home. I will check the ram settings tonight also. I did try and set the AGP to 4x instead of 2X. The system wouldn't even boot.
Thanks for your help
Jeff

 

[jwhaynes]

Here are my memory specs.

Memory Heat Spreader
333MHz CL2.5/CAS 2.5 DDR
SDRAM DIMM
CAS 2 Upgrade

I'm going to invest in a better heat sink. What's the best one out there?

 

[Crucial]

thermalright AX-7 will do you fine. you can find it all over the place. kdcomputers.com is a good place to shop.

 

[BarMan]

I have the Volcano 7+ myself, it's really nice!
You might want to switch that ram... it's maybe the biggest problem.
Run the ram at all of the lowest settings and then bump your CPU
up to 133 and see if that works.

Also a newet HS might help out

 

[N8Magic]

Have you tried another video card in the system?

Did you use thermal grease when putting the heatsink/fan on?

Do you have a large enough power supply? (>300W is recommended)

Is there a jumper on the motherboard that needs to be set to 133MHz? (some motherboards need the jumper set and the BIOS to read 133MHz)

 

[jwhaynes]

Hi
Yes there is a jumper on the mother board and it's set to 133. My system was stable at 133 as long as I don't touch the mouse or the key board. As soon as I try and do something it locks up. I was told that for a stock system 54c was a little hot so I have switched out my Valcano 5 with a Valcano 7. Now I have other issues. The system will only run for about 15 seconds before shutting down. I put on the valcano as per the instructions and used Articsilver. After the 1st crash I double and triple checked that I had put the cooler on right. When I take the cooler off I can see that it is makeing contact. The Articsilver also seems to be heating up. I did notice a smell like something was burning LOL. I guessing that a burning smell is a bad thing. My power supply is a 400w unit in an Antec case. I have 2 fans pumping air into the case and 2 fans pumping fans out the back. I have not tried a diffrent video card yet but as soon as I'm done frying my processor I will try and burn up a couple of TI4400's.

I have not tried switching out the ram yet. What type of ram would your suggest?
Thank in advance for all of your help
Jeff Haynes

 

[BarMan]

for some reason it just seems like a setting is running your machine hot.

ram I'd suggest is are any brand really EXCEPT for no name off brands
some brands are:
Kingmax
Corsair
Samsung
Mushkin
Crucial
etc...

pretty much anyone that will put a name on there ram!
If it's labeled house brand or general... it's just not good enough.
just like general use batteries... 😉 get the idea?

As far as the arctic silver, did you put a thin coat of it only on the CORE of the processor?
you should use a credit card size card to smooth out the AS on the CORE.
As far as he video card goes... I've heard nothing of them causing the CPU to become
hot, but usually that's what makes PC unstable is the heat the CPU is running at.
I'm sure your PC runs fine when it's set at a 100 fsb and the heat is also lower, right?

Well I'd suggest trying other ram first to see the stablity of your machine. The cheaper
of those named above are usually Kingmax and Samsung, yet most ram use Samsung chips
now a days (Cause they are great chips for OCing).

Personally the only things that don't seem fine with your PC is the temp of your CPU
running idle and the no name ram you have. Think you can get the HS off of the ram
without voiding warranty or something? The type of chips on the ram maybe help out.
Also I'm guessing that's a Gigabyte board... check there site and forums (if they have one)
for any info on over heating or any problems with your specific board.

 

[kyarky]

I had really similar issues 2-3 weeks ago with an athlon XP 2000+. It was downright miserable, it would run fine at FSB 100 but when I shifted to 133 It would sometimes run stably for an hour, sometimes it would go to a blue screen of death in win2000. It ended up on mine the memory was the primary problem. I wouldn't worry about the heat unless you're running above 68 deg C, and AMD whitepapers say you don't risk damage until you're in the 85-90 deg C range.

I tried 3 different sticks of memory before I found some than ran stably. I also had some issues with the Mobo. We have all Gigabyte mobos, but 3 diff versions. The 7VTXe+ and 7DX just didn't run too stably. I recently put it into a 7DX+ and it has been rock solid. I can't say any of these apply to your problem - but I would recommend trying some different ram first off it seems the xp/gigabyte/ram combo is picky from my experience.

JG