Dale Mirenda wrote:
On Jun 10, 2004, at 5:03 PM, Sid Boyce wrote:
I had EXACTLY the same problems with this new A7N8X-E and XP2600+, the motherboard and memory were changed and finally we found it was the CPU that was bad, now running an XP2800+ with no problems. What a run around that caused as it seemed anything other than a CPU, post ran and it would boot so far, then fail in different places in init.
That is pretty interesting, because that describes very neatly what I am seeing in repeated attempts to run this CPU at the highest (and, it seems, should be the default) frequency of 200 MHz. However...
Rikard kindly suggested that I increase the frequency in steps to see what would happen. I did so. At 100 MHz, the CPU is reported as Athlon 1100+ and is very slow but everything works, stable. At 133 MHz, it is reported as a 1900+ and again, I get a flawless boot, all devices and applications I have tried work fine, and the machine is noticeably faster. At 166 MHz, the CPU claims to be a 2500+, boots fine, and my apps are much faster still. Going back to 200 MHz, boot fails every time.
My XP2600+ would only run at 133 Mhz on the A7N8X-E. I was able to get Pete's machine with an ASROCK motherboard to run the CPU at 166Mhz reporting it as something like XP1500+. Messed about with voltages, speeds and just about every BIOS setting, but it just wouldn't run as a 2600.
I also tried stripping the box down to just the boot drive, a CD-ROM drive, and the AGP graphics card, removing all other pci cards and extraneous disk drives. That seemed to make no difference whatsoever.
Did all of that, swapped the graphics card from another box, new memory, new motherboard -- the works.
Sid, does it still seem to you that the CPU is probably bad? Did you try running your CPU at various speeds?
Yes, see my comments above.
Rikard, is this what you expected when you suggested that I take this tack?
Although I cannot say that I'm satisfied with things as they are, this certainly is some gratifying progress and I deeply thank the both of you for your insights.
Dale
I liked all the stuff that came as standard on the motherboard, that's why I tried everything before considering a swap. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Hamradio G3VBV and keen Flyer ===== LINUX ONLY USED HERE =====