Socket 478 Mobo - Setting FSB to get CPU at full speed.

eatingrich · Jun 25, 2008, 05:17 PM

Hey all,

I bought a P4 3ghz CPU with Hyper Threading,

When I installed it the system recognises it as a P4 3ghz @ 2ghz. Belarc advisor also sees it as 2ghz.

I don't quite understand why. I checked out the FSB and saw as this was 800mhz for this CPU, then all my ram should be PC2700 and above, so I went through and realised I had some PC2100, and took that out. But its made no difference.

In my BIOS, HT is definitely enabled. But I'm not sure how to sort out the rest of it.

When I boot, it lists the CPU twice, eg:

Intel P4 2000mhz CPU
Intel P4 2000mhz CPU

but obviously with the proper system info or whatever.

In the BIOS, the CPU speed is set to auto, but I can manually set it to 3ghz. When I did that, it just hung the system and to get it to work properly I had to take it out, put the old CPU back in and put the new one back in again to reset it.

The multiplier is around 15x, and the clock speed is something like 200/33. So that seems to make sense, that 15 times 200 is 3000, but why is the system recognising it as 2000mhz??

I've looked through the BIOS and can't see anything about the FSB, Belarc Advisor says the mobo bus clock is 133mhz...does that mean the FSB?

I'm at a bit of a loss, I hope some of you are familiar with this sort of thing and I've given enough information!

Thanks in advance!

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jul 7, 2008, 12:59 AM

Looks like the motherboard just doesn't want to run it at a 200FSB. It looks to be running at a 133FSB. Are there any options for the memory dividers in the BIOS at all?

eatingrich · Jul 14, 2008, 03:28 PM

Thanks for the reply, I sorted it!

Turned out it was the RAM. My manual said it would say PC2700 and above but I found a forum saying Pentium 4 doesn't work with anything less than PC3200.

So ironically I've had to lose some RAM to make it work.

Bizarrely my problem now is sometimes when I boot up the screen stays black, and I have to turn it off and on again until it boots up and takes me directly to BIOS. It says I have some settings that are wrong to do with frequency, CPU, RAM speed etc, and I need to edit it to make it work.

Thing is, I can log out of BIOS, save it or discard changes, and it boots up fine. But then if I turn the PC off and back on again, I have to go through the same process.

I think one of my RAM sticks might be not liking the set up, but I can't afford to replace it until next month...

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jul 27, 2008, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatingrich

Thanks for the reply, I sorted it!

Turned out it was the RAM. My manual said it would say PC2700 and above but I found a forum saying Pentium 4 doesn't work with anything less than PC3200.

So ironically I've had to lose some RAM to make it work.

Bizarrely my problem now is sometimes when I boot up the screen stays black, and I have to turn it off and on again until it boots up and takes me directly to BIOS. It says I have some settings that are wrong to do with frequency, CPU, RAM speed etc, and I need to edit it to make it work.

Thing is, I can log out of BIOS, save it or discard changes, and it boots up fine. But then if I turn the PC off and back on again, I have to go through the same process.

I think one of my RAM sticks might be not liking the set up, but I can't afford to replace it until next month...

Definately odd. What PSU are you running out of curiosity?

eatingrich · Jul 28, 2008, 05:41 PM

Intel P4 3ghz...from Belarc Advisor:

3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Any more info needed? Dunno what else to give...!

CDsDontBurn · Jul 30, 2008, 11:58 AM

what motherboard are you using? doesit have a pheonix BIOS or an AWARD BIOS?

eatingrich · Jul 31, 2008, 04:33 PM

God, I can't believe I got through this whole thread mentioning the mobo. Many apologies. It's a P4S800.

From Belarc:

ASUSTeK Computer INC. P4S800 REV 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS P4S800 ACPI BIOS Revision 1009 06/08/2004

CDsDontBurn · Jul 31, 2008, 04:57 PM

get a program called CPU-Z to check everything you need to check.

open it up three times (it will open up as many times as you need), and have one window on the "CPU" tab, then again on the "memory" and "SPD" tabs

take a screenshot, and post that screenshot. that will be very informative.

eatingrich · Jul 31, 2008, 06:09 PM

Argh, couldn't get it to upload but I posted it onto a website I run.

www.dave-cherry.com/cpuz.jpg

Try that. Slot 1 for memory had no other information on it other than whats shown.

Thanks for your help so far.

CDsDontBurn · Jul 31, 2008, 06:12 PM

according to your image, your CPU is indeed running at 3Ghz, not 2Ghz. everything else looks good too.

eatingrich · Aug 2, 2008, 03:15 PM

Yeah I got the CPU running full speed, the issue now is when I turn on the PC the screen stays black and it doesn't boot. So I have to turn it off, then back on again and it takes me into the BIOS. It tells me there is an issue with the settings for the memory frequency and asks me to correct it.

No matter what settings I put it to, I save it and reboot and it loads up fine (including if I keep them just the same) and the PC works fine, it'll even reboot fine. However, once I turn it off fully, and come back later, I need to go through the whole process again.

I'm wondering if one of my sticks of RAM isn't working properly all of a sudden (though why would they work before I got the CPU?) or if similarly the battery of the mobo has stopped working properly and that needs replacing, in which case I need to figure out what battery I need to buy to replace it.

cozumel · Aug 2, 2008, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatingrich

I'm wondering if one of my sticks of RAM isn't working properly all of a sudden (though why would they work before I got the CPU?) or if similarly the battery of the mobo has stopped working properly and that needs replacing, in which case I need to figure out what battery I need to buy to replace it.

The battery is almost free to check if that is what is causing you problems. According to the P4S800 Manual (Page 18) your battery is a CR2032 3V Lithium. If your eyes are like mine you'll need to zoom in to about 200% to be able to see it.

It is available at www.battery-house.co.uk for £1.85 including delivery.

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eatingrich · Aug 3, 2008, 03:33 AM

Blimey, that'll be why I couldn't see what sort of battery it was when I looked through the manual pdf then!

Do you think it would be the battery or the RAM?

Thanks for the link.

cozumel · Aug 3, 2008, 05:35 AM

You're welcome for the link.

The battery was my first thought when I read this thread. At under £2 to check this out I reckon it's worth replacing and seeing if it helps. It can't hurt.

eatingrich · Aug 15, 2008, 02:39 PM

Well I got the battery but I've just tried it now and it did the same thing. however the other day I took out the 512MB stick and it ran first time. Put the stick back in, this time in the slot the 256MB stick was in and moved that to another slot, and it went back to not working properly.

So I'm thinking its the 512MB stick though I have no idea why suddenly its stopped working. I'll try it on its own as it may just be a compatibility issue. Either way I was planning on getting more RAM at some point so I'll do it now.

Recommend anywhere for good cheap RAM? I'm looking through ebay but I hate buying off sellers based in Asia as I had some bad experiences!

cozumel · Aug 15, 2008, 02:52 PM

If you think that memory could be at fault then check each stick with memtest86+ when booting and also check each slot on the mobo. Ensure there is no dust in any of the slots too. Also maybe run a multimeter test on your psu if you can borrow one off a friend. Just think you could check these things out first. You don't want to be buying RAM if that was not the cause. Always best to check and correctly diagnose wherever possible?

Also I'm really confused what RAM you have. Please could you confirm. You have some of different sizes & manufacturers yes?

Edit: I'm just putting up a little link for some parts (including nice PC3200 kits of RAM) that I've advertised and should be compatable with your rig. But run all the checks on your current stuff first. Try not to buy anything from a store or anywhere without a correct diagnosis. It could end up being something simple that does not require any purchases.

Tyrsonswood · Aug 15, 2008, 07:50 PM

Shouldn't ram match if HT is enabled on a 478 MOBO?

eatingrich · Aug 16, 2008, 01:21 PM

Ah, that might be it then. That said if I have just the 512MB in on its own the same thing happens (I'll have to double check...).

As for my RAM makes, the jpg on the 1st page shows what CPU-Z could tell...I don't have a scooby. I'll check and note it down.

eatingrich · Aug 30, 2008, 01:08 PM

Well I ran memtest on the sticks and it found no error at all. When I run the 256MB stick on its own the PC will always start straight away, if I run both together or just the 512MB stick I have to turn it off and on a few times before it kicks in.

I ran memtest specifically on the 512mb stick and it found no errors.

I've ordered a 1GB stick of RAM and we'll see if that does anything.

Thanks for the link of your stuff, its really well priced too but I wanted a single stick of 1gb.

It's odd though, Crucial Memory Scanner says I can have 3 1GB sticks in my PC, but my manual seems to suggest that if I have a 1GB stick I can only use one slot. It's weird. Anyway, I'll try the 1GB stick and hopefully that'll sort it out.

Thanks for all the links, advice and help!

eatingrich · Sep 5, 2008, 06:46 AM

*BUMP*

Right, I put in the 1GB stick on its own and had the same problem with having to turn the PC off and on again a few times before being taken into BIOS and told theres an error, although the PC then boots up fine.

So that means I have three sticks, all the same specs as far as I can make out - PC3200, 400mhz, non buffered etc, the 512 and the 1Gb stick don't work in the PC properly, but the 256 stick does.

In the BIOS, the error message is on the memory frequency speed, where I can choose from 200/33 right up to 266/xx (can't remember the latter bit). So I'm guessing that the 200/33 is what I need as that is the multiple of 400mhz for the ram and 800mhz bus speed for the CPU.

If I come out of BIOS, leaving the settings as they are, the PC will boot up fine and nothing will be wrong with it. I'm totally confused as to what to do now...

A friend suggested it might be the motherboard itself and I'm leaning towards that now, but I don't want to have to buy a new motherboard and I've no idea why it would run into problems just because of the P4 CPU and RAM, when according to the manual I have it all set up to be correct and compatible.

Any ideas...?

cozumel · Sep 5, 2008, 07:34 AM

Yep. Just looked at your manual and there are real limitations with configuration of memory on that board. That's just a problem you are stuck with until the mobo is upgraded.

But I'm really confused about your questions as it goes.

Can you confirm what sticks of DDR (size and DDR speed) you own please. My suggestion would be, if you want 1GB total, then 2x512MB PC3200 sticks would offer the best chance of board compatability.

Also have tried different reflashing the BIOS? It could be the BIOS is bad. Also you could try flashing down to 1006 and then 1004 if that doesn't work. Both the 1003 & 1006 will support your socket 478 P4 3.0GHz cpu. You could also try the latest beta 1011.001

CDsDontBurn · Sep 5, 2008, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cozumel

But I'm really confused about your questions as it goes.

Can you confirm what sticks of DDR (size and DDR speed) you own please. My suggestion would be, if you want 1GB total, then 2x512MB PC3200 sticks would offer the best chance of board compatability.

Also have tried different reflashing the BIOS? It could be the BIOS is bad. Also you could try flashing down to 1006 and then 1004 if that doesn't work. Both the 1003 & 1006 will support your socket 478 P4 3.0GHz cpu. You could also try the latest beta 1011.001

he has 3 sticks of memory. all are DDR400 unbufferred memory. 1x1GB, 1x512MB, and 1x256MB. Out of all three sticks, only the 256MB stick does not give him any problems. he said that in his last post cozumel

Quote:

So that means I have three sticks, all the same specs as far as I can make out - PC3200, 400mhz, non buffered etc, the 512 and the 1Gb stick don't work in the PC properly, but the 256 stick does.

anyways, i woujld go with the idea of reflashing the SAME BIOS over again like cozumel said, or reflashing to a slightly older BIOS version and see what happens with that.

cozumel · Sep 5, 2008, 10:24 AM

I think I must have some form of attention deficit disorder (or whatever it's called). How the hell did I miss that?