T-Bird 1GHz runs only at 750MHz. Please Help!

[sys2064]

I've assembled my new machine last week with a new ABIT KT7A mainboard and an AMD thunderbird 1GHz. The problem is that I can't clock the CPU to 1GHz without having a FSB speed of 133MHz.
But with the 133MHz FSB speed my system becomes very unstable. I've got crashes almost every 2 hours.

I've tried to set different multipliers in the BIOS (let's say x10, so the CPU is at 1GHz and the FSB is at 100MHz) but when booting it is always at 750MHz with a multiplier of 7.5 again.

Can somebody tell me whats wrong and what I have to do?

First I thought they sold me a 750 Tbird but on the chip is A1000... written and the CPU heat is always at a stable 40-46 degrees C (also at 1GHz/133MHz).
TIA,
sascha

[wildone]

If you just built it you may wanna check the cmos battery and the jumpers associated with the battery,it may just be resetting the bios , or you may have a problem like I had ,it was a bad bios,but if it has an overide jumper to where you can set jumpers for the multiplier to not auto-detect , that is about the only things I can see causing that , hope this helps

[Neptune]

sys2064 (Mar 24, 2001 07:30 a.m.):
I've assembled my new machine last week with a new ABIT KT7A mainboard and an AMD thunderbird 1GHz. The problem is that I can't clock the CPU to 1GHz without having a FSB speed of 133MHz.
But with the 133MHz FSB speed my system becomes very unstable. I've got crashes almost every 2 hours.

I've tried to set different multipliers in the BIOS (let's say x10, so the CPU is at 1GHz and the FSB is at 100MHz) but when booting it is always at 750MHz with a multiplier of 7.5 again.

Can somebody tell me whats wrong and what I have to do?

First I thought they sold me a 750 Tbird but on the chip is A1000... written and the CPU heat is always at a stable 40-46 degrees C (also at 1GHz/133MHz).
TIA,
sascha

You did pencil in the L1 Bridges, right?

[sys2064]

You did pencil in the L1 Bridges, right?


i didn't penciled any bridges. I think a 1GHz CPU should run on 1GHz without any modification, shouldn't it?!

Do I have to wipe the cmos maybe for make it working?
When I've switched the PC first time on with the new CPU, the BIOS set it to 750MHz.

[wildone]

did you check the battery

[Commited]

Try a better HSF, like a taisol or globalwin.
Try doing the pencil trick, then youll be able to run it at 10x100..
Definately sounds like a HSF problem to me....
Get the bios revision...
If none of this works, Bring it back to the shop where you bought it..

[BigAir]

Sounds like the bios or the bios battery to me....

[sys2064]

Commited (Mar 24, 2001 11:02 a.m.):
Try a better HSF, like a taisol or globalwin.
Try doing the pencil trick, then youll be able to run it at 10x100..
Definately sounds like a HSF problem to me....
Get the bios revision...
If none of this works, Bring it back to the shop where you bought it..

excuse me i'm rather new to this stuff. What is the HSF??

[diehrd]

Do this, Unplug the computer !!Now clear the cmos if you dont know how READ the MANUAL.

After you clear it set the jumper back to were it started reconnect power and boot.

At post enter bios and if processor is not set to 10x100 YOU set it to that ok.hit F-10 click enter and let it reboot at post it should read 1000.

[Kriegster]

your problem also could be that you didn't pencil the bridges correctly. what type of ram are you using? try going into the bios and setting your memory timings as slow as you can and then see how high your cpu will overclock using the fsb. A 1000 at 133 is a good deal faster than a 1000 at 100. If that helps you get higher, find the speed you wish to run your cpu at and then speed up your memory until it becomes unstable. Then back of your memory so it's stable. I would suggest using a permenent method of unlocking your cpu as well, as I've heard the pencil marks can wear out over time and you may have to redo them :( also if your ram is not up to par for around 90 bucks you can get 256 mb that can do near 160 fsb. Might be worth selling your ram and scoring some fast ram. You may not have to unlock your bridges at all as 7.5 x 150 = 1125 mhz (how fast do you plan on overclocking?)

also, HSF = heat sink fan

[Staz]

sys2064 (Mar 24, 2001 10:49 a.m.):

You did pencil in the L1 Bridges, right?


i didn't penciled any bridges. I think a 1GHz CPU should run on 1GHz without any modification, shouldn't it?!

Do I have to wipe the cmos maybe for make it working?
When I've switched the PC first time on with the new CPU, the BIOS set it to 750MHz.

actuall a 1Ghz processor (266MHz FSB) will not run at 1GHz on a 100MHz FSB. The processor was locked at 7.5x133=1000. If you do not unlock it (pencil in the bridges) Then it will auto detect the multiplier at 7.5 and run it at 7.5x whatever your FSB is set to. In this case 7.5x100=750.

[Hoot]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you buy a 1Ghz 266 T-bird, you get one that does 7.5x133, not 10x100. When you buy a 1Ghz 200 T-bird you get one that does 10x100 and probably will do 7x133 also. Look at Pricewatch. The 200 chips cost more than 266 equivalents. Better core?

Hoot

[trimai]

I think Staz is right. The 1Ghz CPU is probably "C" type and therefore has the default 7.5 multiplier. sys2064, I think I know why you could not run stable at 133 FSB. For some reason, the KT7A do not use 1/4 divider at 133 Mhz. It still used the 1/3 divider!!! As a result, your PCI bus is run at 44 Mhz which is quite high for most PCI devices. Keep the default multiplier (7.5) and then set your FSB to136 Mhz. At this FSB, the 1/4 divider goes into effect and your PCI bus will run at 34 Mhz. If my guess is correct, you should be running very stable at 7.5*136=1022 Mhz. Of course, you can still have the option of using higher FSB. Look at the KT7A manual (page 3-4) and you see the following setting: 133/44, 136/34,140/35..

[Kriegster]

the kt7a doesn't use a 1/4 divider at 133+ fsb? ? ? ? Anyway it doesn't matter much as you really want to raise your fsb. 100 fsb was yesterday, 150+ fsb is today. Reduce your memory timings and crank that fsb up and forget about those bridges unless you want to crank the fsb up even more :) a 1000 mhz 150 bus pc = 1150 mhz 100 bus pc (give or take depending on the application). You shouldn't have any troubles with your pci cards at 150 unless you have a scsi controller or a 3com nic maybe :) I would definately suggest getting some better memory if you can find a sucker to buy yours.

[sys2064]

I've tried to clock it on 7.5x136=~1022MHz .... it worked but my system runs even more unstable.

btw: I have a 133'er SDIMM memory (256MB). I don't plan to buy a new one since I've just bought this one recently.
So how far can I go with this CPU/Mem?

I will try it with decreasing the memory speed. Let's see what comes out....

Thanks so far....

[trimai]

Kriegster,

Are you sure the KT7A does not have the 1/4 divider? I thought that the purpose of buying this motherboard is to use the 133 Mhz FSB. If the PCI bus has a speed of 44 Mhz @ 133 and even higher if you use the higher FSB then I think the KT133A chipset is useless. What about those setting specified in the KT7A motherboard manual?

[sys2064]

I think my gfx card don't likes it. The crashes always happen in games (BG2, The Sims, Half-Life) and when I do graphic actions, for example when zooming a picture in ACDSee and then scrolling it with the mouse, the system crashes without exception.

My PCI Config looks like this:
RivaTNT2 Vanta
Terratec Xlerate Pro
and a noname network card.

anyone hints on this?

[[UCE]iCEMAN]

I've the same problem and I think I've found a solution for that.
I am also using you board with a TB 1000/133MB with 133er Dimms.

Please try the following.
Disconnect the power supply (IMPORTANT!!!) and then set the clear CMOS jumper.
Wait a few second and then set back the jumper. Plug in the power cable again and turn on the F***in machine.
Flash the latest bios cause it include 2 1000Mhz CPU's now. The second one is the 1000/133.
Set it and turn of the system again.

Turn on again and it should work.
I also got a new beta bios to fix some errors with SCSI Cards and Dimms on the board so if the latest official release does not help you turn back to me and I will send you the bios file!

[sys2064]

[UCE]iCEMAN:
I've tried this before with wiping the cmos and all but it didn't helped. besides the crashes happen with a 100mhz FSB too.
The crashes always happen in the same programs at the same actions. I think this must be something with my gfx card.

I've had different 1000Mhz CPU settings in the BIOS before and updated now to the lastest version but the crashed are like before.

[Kriegster]

trimai (Mar 24, 2001 11:46 p.m.):
Kriegster,

Are you sure the KT7A does not have the 1/4 divider? I thought that the purpose of buying this motherboard is to use the 133 Mhz FSB. If the PCI bus has a speed of 44 Mhz @ 133 and even higher if you use the higher FSB then I think the KT133A chipset is useless. What about those setting specified in the KT7A motherboard manual?

No bro....i believe it does have a 1/4 divider. I was askiing it as a question and somehow the laughing boy face came up ! Anyway although I don't have 1, I would be shocked to find out the kt7a doesn't have 1/4 divider above 133+. That website that got it up to 183mhz bus would have been running the pci cards at 61 mhz!! Anyway if all the other kt133a boards have 1/4 dividers, the abit must too. Sorry about the mixup, I gotta control my sarcasm, and I still don't know how that green laughing face got there !

update..... I fixed my original post - it appears that 3 question marks in a row makes a green laughing boy....who woulda figured? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

[Kriegster]

ok i have another idea for you sys2064...fire up your pc and check your irq settings ( to do this right click on your my computer icon...select properties...select "device manager" tab .... highlight "computer".....click on properties... Now look to see if any devices like your sound card or network card are on the same irq as your video card. If there are and they are pci cards move those cards into different pci slots and check (only move them with the power of! and the pc unplugged!! ) Restart your pc and check the irq assignments again... My general rule of thumb (is there a real rule for this ? ? ? (HEY- 3 QUESTIONS MARKS AND NO LAUGHING BOY!!!)) is to have 2 or less items per irq port, and only 1 of them should be a major device like a sound, graphics, network card, etc. If this doesn't fix your pc I have 1 other idea how to fix it, but that idea will require a 10 lb. sledgehammer, an oxy-acetalene blowtorch, and 2 400 lb sumo wrestlers ??? <<<< theres the laughing boy

[sys2064]

Kriegster,

my gfx card is on IRQ 10 together with two ACPI IRQ Holders for PCI IRQ Steering and two PCI to USB Host Controllers. That makes 5 on one IRQ.
Do you really think this could be the fault?
I'm going to check it in another PCI slot then soon.
My soundcard is on IRQ 5 alone!! tztz!

[Kriegster]

sys2064 (Mar 27, 2001 03:59 p.m.):
Kriegster,

my gfx card is on IRQ 10 together with two ACPI IRQ Holders for PCI IRQ Steering and two PCI to USB Host Controllers. That makes 5 on one IRQ.
Do you really think this could be the fault?
I'm going to check it in another PCI slot then soon.
My soundcard is on IRQ 5 alone!! tztz!

aye that doesn't sound good. The pci steering is no big deal. You need to either install the usb on another irq or move the video card to another irq. Unfortunately neither are pci cards (i guess right?) so hopefully you can change their irq's in the bios under pci configurations or advanced pci config. or something like that. If you move the video card so that it is alone or with 1 other minor device you should be fine, although if you add a bunch of usb devices in the future you may run into problems with the usb and pci steering (4 devices) being on the same port. You can cross that bridge when you come to it though, for now I would make sure that your current problem is in fact the irq setup. After you get the video card moved make sure you don't have any usb devices installed and also make sure that your other devices aren't stacked up on another irq. sometimes when you move something it moves something else too!!! Damn computers are evil i tell you ???

[sys2064]

i've set my IRQ so that my gfx card is on 10 only together with one pci irq steering. i've started my test program. first 'the sims' .... crashed after about 1 minute ... same as before. .... acdsee hasn't crashed yet, but who knows ... could be by random.
I don't think this irq resetting has helped.

[Kriegster]

Sorry bro. I can tell you that by moving it you have saved yourself "some" crashes. Is your video card an agp card? If so, go into the bios and turn off agp 4x and fast writes. Also try underclocking your video card processor and memory (or if it's overclocked now, reduce it's speed to default). It is possible your video card is the problem. Also if it's an agp card you should download the latest via 4in1 drivers from viahardware.com and install them. I think they are 4.29 last I checked. Also make sure you have the latest Nvidia drivers installed, and if you do - reinstall them. Also, if your computer is only crashing while playing the sims, try uninstalling and then reinstalling the sims before you do anything else and check to see if their is an update for that program.

[Tachyon]

Kriegster (Mar 26, 2001 02:19 p.m.):
trimai (Mar 24, 2001 11:46 p.m.):
Kriegster,

Are you sure the KT7A does not have the 1/4 divider? I thought that the purpose of buying this motherboard is to use the 133 Mhz FSB. If the PCI bus has a speed of 44 Mhz @ 133 and even higher if you use the higher FSB then I think the KT133A chipset is useless. What about those setting specified in the KT7A motherboard manual?

No bro....i believe it does have a 1/4 divider. I was askiing it as a question and somehow the laughing boy face came up ! Anyway although I don't have 1, I would be shocked to find out the kt7a doesn't have 1/4 divider above 133+. That website that got it up to 183mhz bus would have been running the pci cards at 61 mhz!! Anyway if all the other kt133a boards have 1/4 dividers, the abit must too. Sorry about the mixup, I gotta control my sarcasm, and I still don't know how that green laughing face got there !

update..... I fixed my original post - it appears that 3 question marks in a row makes a green laughing boy....who woulda figured? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

The KT7A does have the 1/4 divider. You can select 133/33 in BIOS.

Terry

[sys2064]

Hi Kriegster!
my gfx card is a pci card and i've underclocked it from 125mhz to 120 and it still crashed. i also have the latest nvidia driver installed for the card.

the crashes are always system freezes where the screen freezes and only a hard reset helps.
îf only i could figure it out...