Amd athlon 2500xp: help!

I just ordered an amd athlon 2500 xp and installed it, but it won't post as a 2500! It keeps reading the same ol 1800 speed I had in it before. I reformatted my raid array and installed a fresh xp on it. Before that I reset the cmos/bios but that didn't help. When I try to set the correct bus speed in the bios to 166, I get a bsod that says something about my bios not supporting apci or something like that. Anyone have any ideas?

When I had first installed it, the post screen told me to go into te bios to reset the cpu settings but I didn't know what I was looking for. I do have the latest bios and chipset drivers so that can't be it.

My setup:

Amd Athlon 2500xp
DFI Lanparty Nforce 2 Rev b.
Generic pc 2100 ram
Zalman 400 watt psu
2 80 gb Barracudas
Geforce 3 Ti200
Audigy X-Gamer

I think the problem is your ram which has a max operating frequency of 266Mhz (PC2100) you will need at least 333Mhz ram (PC2700). If you plan on doing any overclocking with that chip I recommend you get 400Mhz ram (PC3200).

Keep in mind that your FSP is doubled so 133 = 266, 166 = 333 200 = 400

EDIT: Dont forget the multiplier (Barton2500 defaults as 11x166Mhz at a voltage of 1.65)

-p.s. w00t this is my first post about helping sumone out i feel good.

So basically, my ram cannot handle the cpu at stock clock speeds? I just want to run it at stock speeds right now. Im currently running it as a 1900 because it wont post as a 2500. Might it just be a bad cpu?

[edit] that's the problem. my 1800 was running at 100xdefault multiplier for some reason. I don't know if that's what an 1800 stock is supposed to be or not but the 2500 right now is running at 150xdefault multiplier. If I change the multiplier or up the fsb it gives me the bsod.

I would get a new stick of PC2700 or PC3200 ram if I were you to take full advantage of your chip.

Anyone else have any ideas? Or did he hit the nail on the head?

your gonna need faster or better ram to get that 2500 to run at stock speeds. The ram you have is pc2100, ram with the minimum speeds you want to run that cpu stock is gonna be pc2700, so yah he did hit the nail on the head

2500's run either at 133 or 166. If you're running at 150, and it is coming up at lower than stock speeds overall, it must be a 333. Do you know if it's a Barton?

You won't be able to get stock speeds out of a barton with PC2100 memory unless you're very very lucky and know what you're doing.

Ah I see. Yea Im 100% sure it is a Barton but I do have a gb of ram so I figured it would be able to handle it. O well, I was planning on upgrading my ram next anyway. Im gonna get that Mushkin blak Hi performance pc3200 ram. From what I understand, the pc3500 would be a better choice for overclocking but Im not sure it would be smart to do that. I will run dual channel when I get it.