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Hello. For some reason my motherboard won't let my AMD Athlon 2600+ run at full speed. I bought a CPU\Mobo combo (details below). I know that for the 2600 the speed needs to be set to 166MHz. However, when I do that all I see on the screen is the blinking - at the top left corner of the screen.
However, when I set the speed to 133MHz it works fine, only the CPU is recognized as an Athlon 2000, instead of 2600. This means it's not operating at it's full speed.
I'm changing the speed via jumpers on the motherboard, and yes I have the jumpers set right for the 166MHz speed (I've used the manual infinite times). Here's my PC's contents:
ECS K7VTA3 v1 Motherboard
1GB of PC2100 DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 8500 (128MB)
Philips SonicEdge 5.1 Sound Card
IBM 80GB Hard Drive
Maxtor 60GB Hard Drive
Emperex 4x DVD Burner
BTC 52x CD WriterCould it be possibly a conflict with the memory? Is there any settings I could change in the BIOS to get this to work?
TIA
Go into the bios and look for CPU PnP Setup page.
Change the CPU frequency and the Dram frequency.
The Bios should have picked up the correct setting automatically.
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In addition to the above. If you manually set the wrong speed reboot and press the page up key while the machine is booting. This should give you the default setting.( he says with fingers crossed!)
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I think Tony nailed it...your PC2100 RAM is holding you back. You can try raising your RAM voltage from 2.5v to 2.7v to see if that helps...& there may also be a jumper that needs to be set on your board to enable 166mhz(333) FSB.
You may be able to run the CPU at 166 & RAM at 133, but your performance will suffer
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Yes, I have the jumper set to 166MHz, so that's not the problem. Is the RAM voltage the same as latency? Because that's all I could really find that could be the voltage. If so, it only had to choices: 2 and 2.5. I couldn't get it higher.
Anyway, I'll probably just have to get PC2700 RAM to get it to its full speed. Until then, running at an Athlon 2000+ is fast enough for now.
Does anyone know the bect place online to buy memory?
Thanks everyone for the help.
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rubbish pc2100 ram will still allow you to run your cpu at the correct speed,
My 2600+ ran fine with a piece of 256 ddr 2100 untill i changed it. infact the differece will be hardly noticed by the average pc user.
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Are you sure the processor you have is supposed to run at 166FSB? AMD makes the 2600 in both 133FSB and 166FSB.
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Yes, I'm sure it's 166MHz. It's an Athlon 2600+ with 333MHz FSB. That's what the package says.
Could there be a way to run it at 133MHz, but still as a 2600+? (so it would perform like the regular 2600+ 133MHz CPU's). If so, that would be better. I doubt I would be able to because I have it set at 133MHz now and it's showing up as a 2000+.
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I beleive as vnralll states, your memory may be the problem. That said, depending on your BIOS options you may be able to overcome the problem. If you set to AUTO, the memory timing will default the CPU FSB to 133 also. You may have some options to run the FSB at 166 and the memory at 133. If the CPU is unlocked you may try setting the multiplier to 16 with the FSB at 133 for 2.128GHz. You are better off running the FSB 166 if you can.
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Could you point me to an article or guide, or maybe just tell me how to unlock the CPU? Also, is unlocking CPU's successful for most people? I just got it so I dont want to damage it.If I can unlock it, then I may just run at 133MHz FSB with the multiplier at 16.
Also, I've looked around quite a bit in the BIOS and there's an option to manually change the DMRAM clock. The choices are 100MHz, 133MHz, and 166MHz.
It'll change to 166MHz with no problem and remain that speed. However, when I change the speed for the CPU's FSB to 166MHZ, the computer wont come fully on. What I mean is, it wont turn on the monitor display or anything. The PC itself and the fans turn on and everything but nothing happens.
Could I try any of these other settings in the BIOS for the RAM:
CAS Latency
Bank Interleave
Burst Length
Queue Depth
Command RateIs the latency the voltage? If so, I would change it to 2.7, but it wont go that high. I can only change it to 2 and 2.5.
Sorry for all the questions. I'm just trying to get as much use out of my CPU as I can, since I dont have much money to buy new memory right now.
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I just looked at your original post again. I see that you have an ECS K7VTA3v.1 MB. http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7vta3_2.html According to the ECS website, even version 2 of your MB supports only 200/266 FSB and DDR2100 ram. I don't understand what settings you are finding that allow for 333FSB or 166 memory. Later versions of this model do support higher FSB, but have different chipsets. I don't think you will be able to run that CPU at 333FSB. Your best bet now would be a MB upgrade. I just bought an Albatron nForce2 MB for $62us at newegg.com. This MB supports that CPU and up to DDR3200. Another option may be to return that CPU and get one that runs on a 266FSB.
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Hmm. In the manual it says it supports FSB speeds up to 166MHz. It also says it has the VIA KT333CE + VT8235 chipset.
The link you posted is v2.x but I looked on the site and there's not a page for v1.x. Mine is 1.x and I can also tell because it only has 2 DIMM slots. And on the motherboard's box itself, it said it big words: "Supports DDR333!".
Also, the motherboard and CPU came in an all-in-one packaged deal, so they should be compatible.
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Sorry, I was wrong. It's a K7VTA3 v6.0 motherboard, not 1.0. The System tool AIDA32 reported the wrong version. It showed it as 1.0. However, I looked on the motherboard itself and it says 6.0. Here's the link for the info about it:
http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7vta3_6.html
However, this still doesnt help with my problem. I think that the only way to get around it is buy RAM. I just dont want to have to buy RAM and have it still not work. :(
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You could buy ram at Bestbuy or somewhere like that, try it and return it. Officemax has a sale on Kingston value ram often. I bought DDR2700 for $70 with a $20 rebate, making it $50 plus tax.
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Well, good news. I was able to get it running at 160MHz FSB, so now it's clocking in at 1.84GHz and seems to be working just fine.
Here's what I did. My motherboard has an option to change the FSB speed in increments of 1MHz at a time, up to 165MHz (since the jumper is set at 133MHz, it wont go all the way to 166). Anyway, At 165MHz it would come on sometimes, but when I reset the PC it would work anymore.
After lots of testing and messing around, I found that setting it at 160MHz, it would work everytime I reset and turned on my computer. So now I'm able to run at 160MHz and keep my existing 1GB PC2100 RAM.
Although it's not quite up to its full speed, it's good enough. :)
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ECS K7VTA3 v8
I have the jumper set to 133Mhz, AMD Anthlon XP 2400 266Mhz FSB & 512 DDR PC333/266 installed. My bios is seeing the CPU as 133Mhz and 166 memory speed. Is this right what should it be? It appears 1/2 of what it is suppose to be. Any recommendations?
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I have the same mobo with the same CPU and I have pc2700 ram. I cant get mine to work either by setting the jumpers to 166mhz. What the hell. I dont understand, any suggestions?
PC Tech
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