K7N2 Delta updated Bios instability

[jevansent]

I'm running a K7N2 Delta-L with a Barton 2500+. I flashed the BIOS from 5.4 to 5.7 and immediately set my FSB in one dumb move to the original limits of the 5.4 BIOS. The system started to act funny even after clearing CMOS and would crash certainly under load but sometimes also when idling. I have since reformatted my drive to clear the possibility of a HDD corruption but it is still crashing. I have also reflashed it back to 5.4 (still unstable) and now back to 5.7 again, still no difference in stability even when I'm running default BIOS and even when I set the J10 jumper to run in safe mode.

I would greatly appreciate any help or insight into what's going on. Did I likely fry something or is there a BIOS setting that I have overlooked? The com would normally run for about 15 - 20 minutes sometimes less. Most program would work fine but some would run into errors and shut down.

 

[wonkanoby]

bit more detail like ram in use timmings voltages etc

you must set fsb /ddr ratio at 1.1 with this chipset

 

[jevansent]

Thanks for the reply, apologies for the scant details, not very used to posting on forums...

Prior to flashing BIOS, I was running the FSB : DRAM at 5:6 and overclocking at FSB 180 : DRAM 432 - stable. Memory timings havent been changed at all - using 2 x 512MB Kingston Value Ram DDR 400. Voltages have not been changed for RAM at all.

I have since ran Memtest86 and found that upon using Dual Channel configuration, there are always errors in test #5. No errors in using single piece of RAM in either of the Dual Channel sockets or in using 2 pieces in Single Channel configuration. ? incompatible pieces of RAM but unlikely because it was running fine in Dual Channel for 1 month prior to flashing BIOS and doing that stupid FSB jump from stock 166 to 181 on the new BIOS.

Another thing to note (unsure of relevancy) is while I was flashing back from 5.7 to 5.4 and back to 5.7 again, there were two squares in the BIOS update graphic lines that were purple (not updated) instead of the normal white (updated normally). I'm not entirely sure but I think there were no purple squares at all when I flashed from 5.4 to 5.7 the first time around.

For some peculiar reason, my Windows has also been operating a bit funky, most disturbing feature would be an inability to keep Windows Task Manager open for anything more than a second. It would pop out then auto close. This is post reformat and reinstall + one repair installation after that.

Thanks for the help, Wonkanoby...

 

[wonkanoby]

you are wasting your time running any thing other than 1.1 with the nforce

it will not be faster but slower

thats been proved time after time

kingston and the board are for most a match made in hell

they work for a small minority but not for most

if a section of code in the bios is unaltered then that bits not touched during the flash ,its normal