DRAM problem on A7V333 mobo?

A7V333 DDR Ram problem
hey,

I'm running a Athalon XP 2500+ Barton, w/ 333 FSB. and in the bios of my Asus A7V333 mobo when checking the processing speed. (default at 1832 mhz) it gives a warning at that speed and higher that the maximum dram frequency must be atleast 333 mhz.

My questions:
1. Is that talking about the actual DDR sdram on my mobo (it is 512 mb of 333mhz DDR ram)

2. Is this just a warning or is it showing only because it's not detecting that it is correct?

and

3. If it is the DDR ram, what problems could this be?

4. If it isn't, but is more than just a warning: where can i find the settings to set it correctly and what should i set them to?


Thank you.

What settings do you have in BIOS? What brand is your memory and whats it rated for?

Regards, Szandor

Kingston 333mhz

and my bios settings for my processing speed is currently at
Multiplier: 11
FSB/Frequency: 166/33
Voltage: 1.65

ermm.. anything else you'd like to know from the bios in particular? any particular settings that may help?

Is the rig running ok and you are just getting a warning or do you have problems? Has the MoBo been flashed with a BIOS update to support the Barton? Is your Barton locked?

Regards, Balrog

rig is operating fine, other than when playing games it crashes, and I get a fatal windows error stating that a recently installed device driver is not running properly. My most recent piece of hardware is a Radeon 9600. but device manager says the drivers are operating fine.

As far as the bios, yep, I have the mobo flashed to bios v.1.017 which is the latest (other than the beta 1.1.018)

And the barton shouldn't be locked. but how would i find out for sure? just to make sure it isn't.

oh and regarding the barton being locked, I can alter the multiplier as well as FSB/Frequency, and it does alter the processing speed.
Don't know though if this counts as showing that the barton would be unlocked. (Pretty new to overclocking).

Right now though it is at the default settings for the 2500+ Barton. and I'm honestly not sure if this warning is a warning that there is something wrong with my computer or if it's simply just a warning they show all the time.

Was just worried about it.

If you can change the multi in BIOS and save it and it effects the speed then its unlocked. Do you have the extra molex plugged into your 9600? What are you running for VCore and VDimm? If you are still at default of 1.65V try upping to 1.75V and see if that smoothes things out. There are some very helpful OC guides here at Overclockers, just go to the main site webpage and look under Beginner Guides. Good Luck!

Regards, Szandor

ok so yep the barton is unlocked then, vcore was at 1.65v now is at 1.75v. I haven't been able to find a setting for vdimm in the bios though.

I'm really pretty sure it's the graphics card now the Radeon 9600. that is causing the crashes. Don't know how to go about fixing it though. the drivers are operating, but when I'm playing a game about 30 mins or so into it, it will crash and I get the critical error which is referencing to a Device Error or a VMU restart error.
Saying that the driver quit comunicating and restarted. Crashes the game. I've noticed it randomly just in Windows, but with games I can replicate the error repeatedly.

I'm honestly at loss at what to do. As I've tried returning the vid card to see if it was just the one, but I've gone through 3 so far to absolutely make sure as others have told me it's just a faulty card. And all 3 have had the same problem.

I don't want to go to Nvidia though instead.. but dont have enough money (in university) to buy a 256 mb ATI card. If that'd even change things.