Need BIOS help: crashing with Palomino 2100+, NF7-S, Buffalo 3200 x 2

[sinajahn]

All I want is a stable system.
But BIOS is too crazy for me to understand.
Just received 2 sticks of Buffalo 3200s and hooked up to my Abit NF7-S.
I've got an XP Athalon 2100+ and it should all work together but... it doesn't.
Can't do Sandra burn-in test: crazy beeping noises til I unplug the system.
Can't play Call of Duty: freezes indefinetely.

Can someone please, for the love of god, walk me through the BIOS setting steps? I tried the 'agressive' setting (mild OC?) and now I'm back to 'optimal.'
Please explain 11-3-2-2.0 and proper settings for optimal memory intensive (i.e. gaming/video editing) performance.

Why can I NOT even run Burn-In utility? I don't know...
Please help!

[sinajahn]

I've been trying the various methods to attain system stability, but get this: I run memtest an it's all good for 800% coverage etc. But then I try to run Sandra's burn-in and I'll immediately get the long beeps. This is when I'm SPD and super-stable settings. But I'll try to open and run Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and play a movie simultaneously, and it's all good; nice and quick. So either I'm doing something way wrong, or 2100 Palominos and Buffalo and NF7-S aren't good friends? (sigh)

[sJetski]

Have you tried switching dimm slots yet? Make sure they are secure in their respective slots.

Maybe manually set timings by shutting off spd, then trying combinations such as cas 2.5-3-3-11 to experiment some more. Cas 2-2-2-11 would be fastest for your chipset (if ram allows) but i suspect that ram is winbond ch5 and will do cas 2-3-2-11 max (not much slower btw).

Bios flashes have helped with memory compatability so that should be on your short list as well.

Good luck and report back.