I started this thread earlier at a different site, all the responses are here but no solution yet.

I have a PcChips m811lu v3.1. It has the ECS K7VTA3 v.6.0c loaded, fixing the Ultra ATA issue. CPU= 2100+ (AX2100DMT3C), Mem= Kingston pc2100 (kvr266x64c25/256), HDD=Western Digital 30GB (WD300), Graphics Card= GeForce2 MX400 (AGP 4x 64Mb), PSU= AGI 300W (HEC-300AR-T) The board posts fine. To get XP Home installed I had to set the fsb ,via jumper, to 100mhz. I also had previously set the BIOS to "Failsafe Default" in an early attempt to resolve the installation problem. With the exception of enabling the onboard LAN, the Bios is still in "Failsafe mode". If at 133 the install process produced many BSoD's with errors like, "page_fault_in_nonpaged_area" or "irq_not_less_or_equal" or "driver_irq_not_less_or_equal". I now have XP Home installed with SP-2 and all other critical updates, all hardware updates as well as some optional updates installed. All from Windows Update. I have NOT installed the software/drivers from the PcChips CD, I read that the embedded drivers on XP ran as well or better. OK here's my problem: When set fsb to 133 the system becomes unstable. Windows will boot normally, but after a few min. the system restarts as if I hit the reset sw. I let the system reboot and the "restarts" occur increasingly more frequent.

Sounds like a heat issue? What is your CPU temp in bios? Let it cool down to ambient, turn it on and watch the temp in your Bios.

I would look for bulging capacitors. I had a similar problem with an ECS board.

I had the same thought about the temp. CPU temp maxed out at 52c. I have checked after it starts "restarting" AND just let it set in bios and monitored the cpu temp. I also phisically checked the graphics card and...well everything I could touch. Nothing is getting warmer when running windows than when idling at bios screen. Oh ya I checked at both 100 and 133 fsb.

I've already checked for bulging (and leaky or loose caps). I had a M810 that I successfully recaped. I did notice that this board had the original caps. Thanks for the ideas and help. Please keep them coming.

Next I would try setting the FSB to 133 and running Memtest. Do you have a PSU tester?

Another thing I tought of. Under System> Advanced> start up and recovery> System failure> Make sure automatically restart is unchecked.

I have tried a different mem stick and psu.....no change.

I left the system on at a bios screen for an hour or so. Then tried to reboot. It made it to the "F8 Safe Mode" screen since windows hadn't shut down properly. No matter which I selected it would very shortly (2-4 sec.) revert to the graphics bios and try to reboot again, if left alone it would continue this cycle, since the "F8" screen has a timer. All of this seems to support the hardware overheat theory to me.

So while the system is still "HOT" I very quickly changed the fsb jumper back to 100mhz. It just booted windows normaly. I was now able to check and the Automatic Restart was in fact selected. I have now disabled that option. Windows is running and seemingly stable with the cpu underclocked @100mhz.

Bios gives acccess to fsb as follows. When jumped @ 100mhz, 100 thru 132. and when jumped 133, 133 thru 165. Both single digit increments. I have not found access to the multiplier.

I may try setting jumper to 100mhz and slowly moving up in bios to see if there's a failure point. Right now 132 sounds good. If I do this, does that effect other functions by limiting the fsb to 100mhz while the bios raises the cpu bus speed or does the jumper just tell bios which options to display, and actually let me adjust the fsb.

It's been nearly 70min and the system is still stable at 100mhz.

"Next I would try setting the FSB to 133 and running Memtest"

Well, did you run memtest at 133MHz? Do you even have a floppy drive in your system?

I did run memtest @ 133MHz. Yes, I do have a floppy drive. It ran for almost 1 1/2 Hrs and reported 0 errors.

"I did run memtest @ 133MHz"

OK, just making sure.

"It has the ECS K7VTA3 v.6.0c loaded"

Is there a reason why you loaded that particular ECS BIOS rather than the BIOS for ECS K7VTA3(PCB:3.1)? I would think you'd wanna stick with the same board revision. You listed your PCChips board as "m811lu v3.1" so you may wanna give BIOS v3.0d a try:

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Do...

I'm sure you know that "Failsafe Default" BIOS settings are not ideal. I doubt that the settings have anything to do with your problem, but they should be manually configured for best performance.

Hey, look what I found:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/2...

"I have NOT installed the software/drivers from the PcChips CD"

I suggest that you go to viaarena.com & download/install the "Retro chipset VIA 4in1 drivers" for the KT266A chipset:

http://www.viaarena.com/default.asp...

"CPU temp maxed out at 52c"

Under load or at idle? If that's the @ idle temp, it's running pretty warm. What's the system temp? What HSF are you using? Did you use a thermal pad or paste? If you used paste, did you apply a small dab approx the size of a BB & spread it thinly & evenly over the core?

The reason for many of the things you asked I found here. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1... Also, I just got this board and it came with that bios. I did try the m811811 bios when I was having trouble installing....no change, so i flashed back the original.

Since it was a new install of the OS I have not installed OS based monitoring software. As soon as the system "restarted" I hit del and then checked temp in bios..never over 52c.

At it's worst, (maybe hotest) and shortest cycle time, it will cycle back to graphic's bios screen before bios finishes detecting IDE devices. I'm always able to access BOIS menu. and it's never restarted while in bios menu. That(short cycle) and the fact that I couldn't install OS (read above) in 133MHz lead me to believe it not software related.

I have since up'ed the bios settings to "optimal" and made a few manual changes... all while jumper set to 100MHz... and every thing stays stable.

When jumped to 100Mhz and set bios to 132... system unstable same as jumped to 133. let me know what to try next, thanks

"When jumped to 100Mhz and set bios to 132... system unstable"

Of course it's unstable. When raising the FSB from a 100MHz base to 132MHz, the PCI bus jumps up to 44MHz & the AGP jumps up to 88MHz. I wouldn't expect it to be anything but unstable. The max safe setting is 112MHz, unless you can lock the PCI/AGP at their defaults of 33/66MHz. And VIA based boards generally don't have the option to lock the PCI/AGP.

"I have since up'ed the bios settings to "optimal" and made a few manual changes..."

Optimized is better than Fail-safe, but no "single click" setting is gonna be 100% correct. IMO, the BIOS should ALWAYS be 100% manually configured.

I just had a look at the manual for the ECS K7VTA3. The BIOS has plenty of DRAM settings to play with but I can't really make any recommendations because I don't know your RAM specs. Other than that, Spread Spectrum should always be disabled, AGP Aperture should be 128MB & PnP OS should be set to NO.

When you look at the "Current FSB Frequency" & "Current DRAM Frequency" are they the same? or is the FSB @ 100MHz & the DRAM @ 133MHz? They should ALWAYS be the same...whether it's 100/100, 133/133, 112/112, etc. Anything else will result in poor performance.

I'm still leaning toward a hot CPU. 52C is pretty high for an idle temp...it should be at least 10C lower. Are you sure the HSF is installed correctly? How many case fans do you have & how are they configured? Have you tried temporarily running with the case's side panel removed? Do you have a small room fan that you can position to blow cool air into the open case?

It has finally just quit!!

It won't POST, the HDD won't spin-up unless the IDE is unplugged.

I used the jumper to reset the bios.

I disconnected everything non-essential - USB, CDRom, floppy, Hard drive, case fans...

I have switched one at a time the CPU(to a 1700+), RAM, video card, PSU. Still no change.

The last thing I did Cgristmas Eve before leaving for the night was: let it cycle for a few min. since the longer it cycled, the shorter the cycles. So I thought maybe warmer = shorter cycle. Then check the cpu temp, which was 48c. power off then Ieven unplugged the PSU. Came home Christmas Night, tried to power up and nothing.

Maybe Santa broke it?! Thanks for all the help so far, I love troubleshooting. It's a great way to learn. Brad