Prime95 not working right-crashing

I've got an Asus A7M266-D with 2x 1700+ DUT3Cs L5 modded to MP running 1600MHz (Windows and the BIOS still say 1700+ though), the BIOS version is 1011 Beta 3, I have 2GB of PC1600 (that ran stable for the previous owner at 2100 speeds) and my FSB is 143-146, somewhere in there. The issue I'm having is not any errors in Prime95, I think its just doing the blend tests on both instances doesn't work well in the latest version. Anybody know of a better version? I'm trying to test the stability of this machine so I can go 17x 133 or 166 and get a decent OC, then maybe I'll put mobiles in here eventually. Would a BIOS update help, or removing some PCI cards, all I have in are the Intel 1000MT, a PCI vid card (working fine at whatever the divider ended up at), and the USB2.0 card that came with the board. I bought the parts to this system used, the board and procs came together and I bought the RAM separately. The real issue seems to be the fact that just one instance of Prime will make use 1.5 gigs of RAM and the 2nd instance forces Windows to create a huge page file, sadly this is Windows 2003 on a 2GB hdd with only a few spare megs to use. I'll try pulling the USB2 card since its not working at the new divider, and maybe I solved my own problem in the above, anybody have any reasons why I should/shouldn't flash the BIOS to a newer version?

As for Cards, I know some of the older Intel NICs tolerated out of spec PCI buses well, but I have no idea on the GB NICs. USB cards hate overclocked PCI buses.

Run memtest86/+ to see if the memory is stable at 143.

It *could* be your hard drive is crapping out with the OCed PCI bus when running the blend test. If you want to test the CPUs run one of the other two torture tests. Also with two GB you could probably disable file paging and have more hard drive space.

Don't run two instances of Prime95 Torture Test, using the default "Blend" setting. If you are going to run two instances, to test for CPU stability, then do this:

Go into Options, CPU, and set the RAM to 128 MB. Run one Prime95 instance on "Small FFT's" and the other on "Large FFT's". (or run both on "Small FFT's") This will test your CPU's, hard, but not test the memory, much. If you want to test the memory a lot, then just run one instance on "Blend." "Blend" actually uses as much memory as it can and it isn't restricted by the amount set in the Options. If you try to run two instances of "Blend", then it will just crap out.

Secondly, I would recommend flashing your BIOS to a non-BETA version. BETA versions are usually released to fix certain problems, but aren't as thoroughly tested a Final Versions, so it may actually be causing problems.

As disk11 pointed out, a GREAT way to test all of your RAM is to run Memtest86+. There are a few different versions, out there, but I prefer the newer Memtest86+.

I noticed that memory usage on Prime95 rocketed to 1.5GB when doing a Blend test so I figured that's what was killing the 2nd process. A non-beta would be nice, from what I've read only the newer betas BIOSes support the mobiles very well and that's what I'd like to upgrade to later on. Anyone have any idea as to a reasonable limit for the FSB/Multi on this board? I upped the multi to 17x to have a go at 17x133 but I was forced to drop the FSB to 100MHz to get it to POST properly. I'm guessing my supposedly PC1600 RAM might be part of the problem, that and the fact that this board/BIOS only has 2.5-3-3 as the loosest memory timings. I might try flashing to a different BIOS after doing some searching to see what others have gotten on this board. There is also the VCore, I haven't tweaked with that yet, since I'm using a cheap TIM that came with a friend's video card cooler since I misplaced my AS3. Motherboard Monitor also doesn't seem to be set up quite right, I've found the "proper" settings, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet, would I be better off with the Asus Probe?

I can't recommend Asus probe. Just download the newest version of MBM and it actually lets you choose the motherboard and it sets up the sensors, for you.

I've heard that the 1010 BIOS will run Mobiles and I've been using that BIOS on my File Server (with modded XP's) for a year or so, with no problems.

Try setting the Vmem to the highest level. This is done with jumpers on the board. I think that the choices are 2.5V or 2.6V.

When using the jumpers it removes the Jumperfree options right? So I would be using a straight 133 FSB rather than incrementing it? I think that could probably help with more voltage. So far MBM has been acting a little iffy, for one thing is still only sees CPU0, and I can't figure out where to make it see the 2nd one, and then for about 5 mins after I start MBM it doesn't get a temp reading at all from what I'm assuming is the 2nd processor, then suddenly its there and slightly lower than CPU0. I'll try 1010, I also found 1011.005 so I might try that and see if there is any improvement.

The jumper that affects Vmem is separate from the other jumpers and has no effect on overclocking, just for reference...

Well I checked the Vmem and it was at 2.7, the max available on this board. Is there any way to change the Vcore without losing Jumperless mode? Otherwise I'll just have to forgo Jumperless and use the jumpers.