1.33 GHz Athlon doesn't work at 1.33 GHz

[schmoe]

OK here's the situation.

Last week my power supply died. Found this out by the computer not turning on at all. It is an Antec 400 W PS that is certified to 1.33GHz.

Now I've replaced that PS and the Asus A7M266 with the same brand/model of components (wasn't sure if it was the PS... that's why I replaced both of them).

Should work right? Not exactly. I boot up the computer and while Win2k is loading up it freezes. So I'm thinking it's the PS or the motherboard again.

But then I think... maybe it's the CPU. So I underclock it to 10x100 MHz FSB and it boots up fine.

How should that be? I have a nice heatsink/fan combo and the CPU worked fine before the motherboard and PS were replaced.

Would taking the heatsink and fan off the cpu and reinstalling them make that much of a difference? Reapply the artic silver compound?

I noticed the HW monitor was giving me a reading of 50 C in the bios. Now it's cracking keys so it's gotta be pretty friggin hot at 1 GHz.

Hopefully I don't have to replace the CPU...

 

[LeoE]

Sounds like my problems when switching to Asus A7V133. Random freezes, registry corruption, unless I underclocked severely. The problem was inadequate contact between CPU & heatsink. Check if a dust particle prevents contact, or if insufficient thermal compound is present. Very likely to fix the problem

 

[schmoe]

Yeah my thoughts were that it could be the motherboard and the whole PC2100 thing.

I'll have to experiment on Saturday. I got finals to worry about.

Hopefully I can get the RMA'd stuff sent back before they charge me for the new one. If the resetting of the CPU doesn't fix it, I'm going to try using the old motherboard.

They both are the same revision and bios, but I don't think all motherboards are created equally.

It freezes exactly at the same point when win2k loads up. The old one never did that. However the PS died unexpectedly. If this keeps up I'll have to reevaluate my dealings with AMD.