A7V400-MX 2600+ 266 appears to be running half speed

I have a brand new Asus A7v400-MX with a brand new Athlon 2600+ 266
bus speed. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the CPU to register at
full speed. What might be going on?
I'm using PC2100 memory. I've got the DIP switches set to 133mhz.
But, everywhere the CPU shows up as 1066mhz. I'm completely stumped.
--Mike

 

There was a warning in this group a while ago, about the paper manual
that comes with the product. Download the manual and look at page 23
for the DSW information. Trying the settings from the PDF manual
may fix your problem.

(the warning)
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=

(the manual)
http://www.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/km400a/a7v400-mx/e1817_a7v400-mx.pdf

That info doesn't affect your results. It could be, you've mixed up
the "ON" and "OFF" settings on the switch. You should go
by the "ON" and "OFF" status of each switch position, and match
the ON/OFF state shown in the manual, with the board.

HTH,
Paul

 

There was a warning in this group a while ago, about the paper manual

Thanks, Paul.
Unfortunately, the 133 setting is the same on both versions. Plus, I
had considered that perhaps I was mis-reading the switch position in
the manual, so I tried the opposite pattern. That results in no boot.
I can successfully set the DIP switches to 100mhz and that results in
an 800 reading. And the memory is always correctly identifying itself
as DDR226 on the POST screen.
I've updated to v1006 BIOS. I've fiddled with the DIP switches. This
mobo is in one of those Antec Aria cases, so things are really
cramped. (It looked like everything was working, so I had completed
the install of everything. It was only later I noticed it was
reporting itself as a 1066mhz CPU.) I guess my next step is to pull
out the CPU and put in a 2000+ 266 to see what sort of results it
generates.
I haven't run into this sort of problem since the old days when DIP
switches were the norm for configuring a CPU on the old socket 7
motherboards. It seems there's got to be an easy answer to this.
I've scoured the manual (printed and online) looking for some other
jumper or BIOS setting I may be missing, and nothing has worked so
far.
Further guesses or input are appreciated, though. I really don't want
to have to disassemble this thing.
--Mike

 

I have the same mb only with a 2000+. The dip switch diagram is
confusing sometimes, and the switches are finnicky (ie they have to be
all the off or on). I had a problem with that too, and found that the
no. 3 switch wasn't fully going into position. I pushed it a *little*
harder, and voila! it worked!

Just to clarify...
You do have your dip as follows?
1=off
2=on
3=off
4=on
5=off

If this doesn't remedy it, I would look into another mb... the switch
could be faulty?

Hope this helps

 

Thanks, Paul.
Unfortunately, the 133 setting is the same on both versions. Plus, I
had considered that perhaps I was mis-reading the switch position in
the manual, so I tried the opposite pattern. That results in no boot.
I can successfully set the DIP switches to 100mhz and that results in
an 800 reading. And the memory is always correctly identifying itself
as DDR226 on the POST screen.
I've updated to v1006 BIOS. I've fiddled with the DIP switches. This
mobo is in one of those Antec Aria cases, so things are really
cramped. (It looked like everything was working, so I had completed
the install of everything. It was only later I noticed it was
reporting itself as a 1066mhz CPU.) I guess my next step is to pull
out the CPU and put in a 2000+ 266 to see what sort of results it
generates.
I haven't run into this sort of problem since the old days when DIP
switches were the norm for configuring a CPU on the old socket 7
motherboards. It seems there's got to be an easy answer to this.
I've scoured the manual (printed and online) looking for some other
jumper or BIOS setting I may be missing, and nothing has worked so
far.
Further guesses or input are appreciated, though. I really don't want
to have to disassemble this thing.
--Mike[/QUOTE]

Another thought that occurs to me, is perhaps you bought a Mobile
Barton 2600 XP-M ? The default multiplier will be pretty low on
that.

See table entitled "Thoroughbred FSB:133" half way down the page:

http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e23.html

You could be running at 133MHz and a 6X multiplier.

Since the A7V400-MX is using a DSW to set the frequency, it could
be that the board doesn't have programmable frequency/multiplier
control. That takes either some General Purpose I/O (GPIO) pins
or it takes an "overclock control chip", to set logic levels
on the multiplier signals of the socket. In any case, I don't see
any multiplier option settings in the BIOS for the board.

If it is a mobile version of processor, and you really want to
use it in that board, this page has some info on how to either
mod the bridges on the top of the chip itself, or to mod the
bottom of the processor socket. The bridges set logic levels
on some configuration pins on the bottom of the processor, and
a user may exert control, either by modding the bridges or
by changing the logic level at the bottom of the chip.
Originally, I had considered the bottom of the socket to be
the easier mod, but if the socket has no excess pin length
on it, it can be hard to attach wires to do the job. Using
"wire tricks" shoved into the socket holes is another option,
but I don't consider that to be too easy or reliable.

http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?/html/workshop/pinmod/amd_pinmod.html

If you pull down the "Multiplier Selection" menu, and select "16 x FSB",
that would give you 2133MHz when the DIP switch is set to 133MHz.
That is equivalent to a Thoroughbred 2600+ , but of course the
model number reported by any utility should say Barton, as the core
is likely a Barton core. (Actually, with a Barton core, the bus can
run at 200MHz, and I run my 2600+ XP-M at 200x11 or 2100MHz, which
is a pretty gentle overclock. Whether a setting like this will
work reliably, may depend on how much Vcore the chip is getting,
and if the board doesn't have a Vcore setting either, then that
would be another job for jumpering...)

The "jumpers" shown on the socket, on the ocinside web page, show
you what signals need to change, to get a different multiplier.
Settings like this are a convenient BIOS setting on other boards,
and microATX boards are notorious for not having necessary settings.

I put a table of values for AthlonXP here:
http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]

Hope that gives you a few hints,
Paul

 

Wow... Paul, that's a lot of info! Thank you much.
Here's what I know... Althought I bought and paid for a Athlon 2600+
266FSB, I decided it was time to actually take the heat sink off and
see what this CPU realy was. Here's the code...
AXDA2600DKV3CF368.... I couldn't read the rest. One or two of those
numbers/letters may be off -- it's awfully hard to read them.
According to some really quick searches, it appears I do have a Barton
333. Does that sound about right?
Anyway, I haven't had time to investigate exactly what I need to do to
the CPU clock settings to get this to work. I quickly reviewed some
of the links you provided, but will have to try to digest this some
time in the future.
I guess I'll keep the CPU. It's something more than what I paid for,
but it seems some people have "issues" with Barton -- still not sure
what that's all about.
Thanks for all the help.
--Mike

 

On 4 Dec 2004 13:02:48 -0800, (Mike M.) wrote:

<snip>

A "AXDA2600DKV3C" would be a 266 FSB T-Bred.
Set FSB to 133 and CPU multiple to 16 if setting manually.

____OPN________Core___Model__MHz___FSB x Mult_
AXDA2600DKV3C T-Bred 2600+ 2133 133 x 16.0
AXDA2600DKV4D Barton 2600+ 1917 166 x 11.5
AXDA2600DKV3D T-Bred 2600+ 2083 166 x 12.5

hth,
Ed

 

Well, Ed says you got what you paid for. A T-Bred 2600+
with 133x16. Get a copy of CPUID, and verify the clock
information.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz

That tool should also report whether the model is a
T-Bred or not. Post back what you find.

There are other tools that give info about a board, like
Everest from lavalys and Sandra from sisoftware. But CPUZ
should be short and to the point.

Paul

 

Ignore that previous post.
I realize now that the CPU is indeed a Thoroughbred 266 and not
Barton. I hadn't looked far enough down on the OPN. I had looked for
this page, http://www.amdboard.com/amdid.html, but for whatever reason
couldn't locate it.
Anyway, I've given up on the 2600+. I put a Palomino 2000+ in the
Asus motherboard and it works, so I'm moving on. Hopefully I can get
the 2600+ to work in another system. If not, I guess I'll have to
return it. Glad I got that extended warranty on it.
Anyway, thanks all for your help.
--Mike