Frequent Lock ups with FSB set to 133MHz (IWILL KK266-R w/ Athlon XP 1700+)

[psxjunky]

I recently replaced the Duron 800 (running @ 1007) on my IWILL KK266-R with an Athlon XP 1700+. As part of this upgrade I had to change the FSB setting on the KK266-R to 133MHz from the previous setting of 100MHz. However, with this setting my PC is locking up everytime within a few minutes of logging into Win2k (or Win98SE).

Any solutions to this, or any idea as to why this might be happening ?

More details below ...

Here is a short spec of my PC --

- IWILL KK266-R with October 22, 2001 BIOS update
- Athlon XP 1700+ Retail boxed version with sufficient cooling
- 3 x 256MB PC133 SDRAM (SimpleTech)
- VisionTek XTASY 6564 Ti200 (GeForce3) w/ 64MB DDR
- Adaptec USB 2.0 Card
- No other cards in other expansion slots
- 2 7200RPM HDDs on normal IDE (NOT RAID)
- DVD/CD-RW/Floppy etc.

I was using a Duron 800 @ 1007 till now and everything was rock stable (well, more or less). I have both Win2K and Win98SE, installed on two different drives, and I used both from time to time without any problem. Since my Duron had a 100MHz FSB, I had set the 100/133 FSB jumper on my IWILL KK266-R to the 100MHz side.

Today I replaced the Duron 800 with an Athlon XP 1700+, and initially forgot to put the FSB jumper on the 133MHz side. So on bootup the BIOS detected my CPU to be an Athlon XP 1331+ and upon logging into Win2K the system reported the processor speed to be only 1100MHz. I immediately realized that I need to switch the FSB jumper on the MB, and hence shutdown the system, put the jumper to the 133MHz side and rebooted the system. This time the BIOS correctly detected the processor as an Athlon XP 1700+ and Win2K booted up just fine. However, within a few minutes after I logged in, the PC locked up. I had to hard boot it and again Win2K started up fine ... but locked up within a few minutes after I logged in. This kept on happening for a number of times ..

At this point I thought may be something is wrong with my Win2K installation ... so I booted the Win98SE drive instead. This time also the system booted up just fine and kept running fine for a while even after logging in ... so I thought "okay at least the hardware is fine ... may be I'll have to reinstall Win2k". However, within 10 minutes or so the system again locked up

I have no clue as to what might be wrong ! The SDRAM is PC133, so it shouldn't have any problem running @ 133MHz ... the video card and USB cards are both fairly new, so I wouldn't expect any problem from them either.

ANY IDEA WHAT MIGHT BE WRONG HERE ? Am I missing some important step here ? Do I have to change anything else in the BIOS ?

After MANY attempts I finally gave up for the time being and set the FSB jumper on the 100MHz side and increased the CPU clock from 100 to 128. This is probably keeping the FSB speed to 100MHz, but the BIOS is detecting the CPU as XP 1640+ ... which is good for me for now.

So after a lot of trial and error, the system is running more or less stable now with 100MHz FSB speed, 128MHz CPU clock and showing the CPU speed at 1411 MHz. It is okay for now ... but surely I would like to get better results.

I am still puzzled though why my system is locking up @ 133MHz FSB ... so if ANY of you have any suggestions, I am all ears !!

BTW, I have increased the I/O voltage by 10% as well and that hasn't improved the situation.

Please, someone tell me that I am missing something

 

[Trashman]

I don't have that setup, but 2 things that you didn't mention in your post could be reason, and worth checking.
When you have your FSB to 133MHz the PCI clock would have to be changed as well from 1/3 to 1/4, this will put your PCI back to a normal 33MHz, by leaving it at the 1/3 divider your PCI devices are overclocked and runnin at 44MHz, which maybe reason for lock-ups.
And your AGP clock should be set to 2/3 divider, at 2/3 the AGP bus would be at 66MHz.

 

[RustyNale]

Have you tried resetting the bios via the mobo jumpers? Then set the fsb jumper to 133. Your problem also sounds like a heat issue, make sure that your hsf is correctly installed. No plastic on the hs thermal pad, or there's an incorrect amount of paste, or the hs is not make correct contact with the cpu. Another thought would be concerning your psu. The XP cpu's take a higher quality psu than the Durons. Here's the link to Amd's site for psu's.

 

[nairi]

How do you modify the AG and PCI divider on the KK266s? I went into the bios and couldn't find anything that even came close to doing so.

 

[psxjunky]

Thanks very much for the replies guys ! Here are the answers to your questions and some more info.

Trashman: Your reply about lowering the PCI and AGP bus speeds makes perfect sense. But I am not aware of any jumpers on the KK266-R or any setting in the BIOS to change this. So I would think KK266-R automatically does this when you switch the jumper from 100MHz FSB to 133MHz FSB. If any KK266-R owners out there know any other way to set the PCI and AGP dividers, please let us know.

RustyNale: Yes, I have tried resetting the BIOS via the CMOS reset jumper and then set the FSB jumper to 133, and that showed the same result ... i.e. the system still locked up. Also, I don't think heat is an issue here. I have made sure the HSF is correctly installed and I am using just a little amount of arctic silver paste smeared on the core only. I also looked horizontally after the HSF was installed and made sure that the heatsink was touching the core correctly. I am also using MBM5 to monitor the temperatures and here are the average temperatures that I am seeing - CPU 38°C, System 26°C and Case 22°C. I am using a Volcano II with the original fan on the top blowing down. I also have added two other 60mm fans to the sides of the heat sink ... one blowing in from one side and the other blowing out from the other side. I have a total of 6 other case fans in the system. 2 90 mm fans, 1 80mm fan and three cyclone blower expansion slot fans.

The power supply may be an issue, since I am using an Antec 303X 300W power supply that came with my Antec KS282+303X case. However, if the PSU is the problem will the system boot up at all ?

Any other ideas ?

 

[JustStarting]

Bump up the I/O voltage- your RAM needs a little help. My KR7A was having a similiar problem till I tweaked the RAM settings. Try disabling 4 way and aggressive RAM timings at first, then up timings one at a time to eliminate the problem.

Good Luck.

 

[RustyNale]

The psu may be your problem, Amd's website only recommends the Antec 400W psu. At lower bus speeds, the power requirements aren't as great as at higher bus speeds, thus it works and then doesn't....Here's the link to their site.

 

[psxjunky]

Thanks JustStarting and RustyNale !

JustStarting: I have already upped the I/O voltage by 10% ... that is the maximum the KK266-R allows ! Also, I have set the RAM parameters to 6-3-3 with 3 cycles ... again the moddest setting the BIOS supports.

RustyNale: Looks like I do have to get a new power supply ... but the Antec 400W PSU is $73 + shipping @ NewEgg ... OUCH I just spent $131 on this new CPU ... and now if I have to shell out another 80 bucks that is pretty sad for me !

I saw 400W PSUs on pricewatch for as low as $13 ... as those any good ? What is the cheapest PSU that works fine with the Athlon XP 1700+ ?

 

[RustyNale]

The Enlight 340W that I'm running is available here for $40 plus shipping...and that's just one of many that would work for you. Just checkout the link for Amd's site and go to pricewatch.com to find the one that will suit you for the price that's right for you dude.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

psxjunky hold up on buying anything...default your jumper back to 100 bus and try booting and running at that FSB...if you are able to run at that lower setting it probably is not your PSU..there might be a trend here..goto amdmb forums look at the iwill thread

 

[jsmckenna45431]

I had one of these boards and never had a problem, but there are quite a few peeps over at amdmb.com that are reporting the same problem you are having. It appears that your mobo isn't properly setting the PCI/AGP divider when you change the jumper from 100 to 133. It is pretty much OCing your entire system and causing things to puke. You should check out the Iwill mobo forum over there.


Jeff

 

[psxjunky]

Thanks very much ScrapSilicon and jsmckenna45431 !

I am running fine with the FSB set to 100 and the CPU clock set to 128 in the BIOS ... so I am hoping it is the problem of the board correctly setting the PCI/AGP dividers as pointed out by jsmckenna45431. Knowing IWILL's friendly CS people, I am hoping they'll come up with a solution pretty quick if this is a real design or BIOS related issue

I am heading to amdmb right now ...

 

[beekman]

bump

I got the SAME probelm, psxjunky

iwill kk266-R
boxed 1700 + , with the boxed fan it comes with
enermax 450 PSU
Raid 0 two 40 gigs IBM drives
enabled sound onboard
oct.22 bios
D-link lan card

and

LD generic looking ram pc-133 (i think this is the problem)

I am upgrading to better ram, crucial most likely.

So, how do I tone down this system, so the 133 doesn't overclock the whole damn system. PCI/Ram is puking?

 

[psxjunky]

beekman: I have posted this issue here too and I have been reading thru a couple of posts related to the same problem.

Looks like there is one thing that may work ... lower the CPU core voltage to about 1.625v or so. I am at work so can't try this right now ... but I'll try this as soon as I get back home this evening.

Here is where I got the idea.

 

[psxjunky]

Good news guys ! After reading some posts at Amdmb.com, changing the CPU core voltage does seem to make this a *LOT* more stable !

I haven't found the perfect voltage yet ... but it seems to be getting closer. After playing around with a couple different settings last night, finally setting the FSB to 133 and CPU core voltage to 1.650v gave me the best result (so far). With this setting it seemed to be perfectly normal and didn't lock up at all during my normal usage for about 4 hours (earlier it was locking up within few minutes). However, even this setting is not absolutely perfect because the machine did finally lock up when I ran 3Dmark2001SE for all night along with a couple other stress testers.

So I got a little more experimenting to do ... but this is finally giving me some hope !

P.S. If anyone has found the "sweet spot" in terms of the core voltage for an Athlon XP 1700 with KK266-R, please let me know.

 

[beekman]

psx

I am going to try this as well, I will let you know my results.

by the way, is the simpletech ram you are using reccomended?

from faq they give some suggestions

I think the ram is quite important for some reason

 

[psxjunky]

beekman: I am sure Simpletech does not make the best RAM in the world, but they have worked fine for me so far. These are CAS3 RAM though, so I am using the modest possible setting (6-3-3 with 3 cycles for refresh) in the BIOS. With my overclocked Duron (800 @ 1007) and 100MHz FSB, I was able to use the fastest setting without any problem, but now with 133 FSB I'll be happy if they work at 6-3-3.

If you are buying new RAM, I definitely wouldn't suggest Simpletech ... stick to the name brand (Crucial, Corssair, KingSton) and you'll be happy

For the CPU core voltage, start with 1.625v or so and gradually increase, trying to find the lowest voltage that makes the system stable. Run some CPU stress testers to make sure the system is REALLY stable. As mentioned above, my system seemed to be perfectly stable during the normal usage, but it locked up when I ran 3Dmark2001SE overnight.

Good luck and please post your results here !

 

[beekman]

what does lowering the voltage actually do? will it be less performance?