Help with AMD Athlon 1800....

[Slapstick]

A couple of questions

Do you know which version you have, 1.0 or 1.1? I?ve read a review awhile back , (been looking for it and if I find it I?ll post the link) that mentioned they had problems with the version 1.0 board and had to send it back before they could review it. It could be you just got a bad board.

Which Bios are you using? If your not using the latest F6 BIOS I would flash to the F6, it improves on stability and performance.

Link for F6 BIOS

 

[salz]

I'll try that new BIOS link you sent now. I received the Gigabyte motherboard about a week and a half ago, so I don't know if it's the F6 BIOS or not, and I don't know if it's the 1.1 motherboard or the 1.0, but I'll see if I can find out. I took out the sound card and it still locked up without the sound card. The system was only running with motherboard, hard drive, video card and DVD. Besides that, nothing (I don't have a modem and I took out the sound card) else was installed.

 

[salz]

I tried running the .exe file for the F6 BIOS and a screen would pop up with multiple windows and a message in the middle saying my chip is not supported for it. I would have to hit control, alt, delete to get out of it and end the program. So I guess that isn't going to work. On to find out whether I have version 1.0 or 1.1.

 

[xynder]

look on the motherboard itself for 1.0 or 1.1 text.

 

[bunker]

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I have the same exact setup w/ no problems.

Rev. 1.1 board (revision is stamped on the board in between the ram and cpu)
512mb PC2700 samsung (1 stick, Cas set to 2)
xp1800
using the onboard sound and NIC
VisionTek Geforce3 ti200

Did you install all of the drivers included w/ the motherboard? There's a whole bunch of them on that CD that comes with it.

 

[RamzaBeoulve]

salz is having the exact same problem I'm having, and I can't figure out what's wrong! It locks up every once in a while for no reason and he's experiencing the same symptoms as I am...

Every time I play CS after about one map the thing freezes and I have to reboot...

System specs are...
Athlon XP 1900+ (1.6 gHz)
MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU
256 MB DDR333
Allied 300w PSU
MSI GeForce3 Ti200 ViVo 128 MB DDR
WD 40 GB 5400 RPM HDD
4 80 mm fans
1 60 mm fan
SB Audigy Sound Card

Our system specs are similar... what's going on?

 

[salz]

Ok, now I'm just lost. The motherboard is version 1.1 and I even tried switching slot the RAM was in because I thought I had read someone doing that and it fixed their problem. The only question I have now is whether or not I truly have a faulty motherboard. The ONLY time things go wrong is when I flip the FSB switch so that my Athlon is running at 1.53 Ghz. I can choose optimized settings, fail-safe settings, whatever, it doesn't matter what I choose, as long as my FSB switch is set to run my Athlon at 1.12 Ghz. If it's running at 1.12 Ghz, it works. Could there be something wrong with the switch? I would hate to get this far and then have to take it all apart again and try to get the motherboard fixed.

 

[Adul]

Have you tried what I suggested yet?

run the system without any other cards except video, memory, cpu hd and CD-ROm.

see if it locks up or not. If it does not lock up at full speed, then place each one of your pci cards into your syste, and test it. make sure it doesnt lock up.

 

[salz]

Yeah, I already tried that. I had nothing but my CPU, video card, DVD and hard drive connected. It still locked up. I still have another hard drive that I haven't set up yet and nothing is on it. What if I disconnected the first hard drive and boot up on the other hard drive? I'll then do a clean install of windows and install all of the drivers on the second hard drive. Although this time I'll make sure the switch will already be set so that my CPU is running at 1.53 GHz. Maybe my computer is getting upset because I had installed everything first, realized that my CPU wasn't running correctly, and then flipped the switch.

 

[Slapstick]

Heres the link from gigabyte giving detailed instructions on Bios flashing Gigibyte Bios Flashing Procedure. Since you have the ver 1.1 board and you've only had it a week then it most likely has the F4 BIOS which is pretty stable.

The other thing to try is disabling most of the onboard periphearals, i.e on board sound, USB2. Promise controller, smart card interface, memory stick interface and anything else you don't need to get the board up and see if it's stable. If it is then start to turn them back on one at a time. One other thing TURN OFF FAST WRITES in the BIOS, it defualts to on and causes more problems than it's worth depending on your video card.

Also check Device manager and see if any devices are complaining, (not installed properly).

I have this board and the only time I ever got a lockup was when I pushed my memory timings a little too far but I was wondering if you might have a bad stick of ram than can't handle the higher FSB. You might try going into "Chipset Features Setup" disabling the "Top Performance" option and setting Fast Command to normal, Disable the SET SDRAM by SPD, SDRAM Frequency to 266, SDRAM CAS Latency to 2.5 and SDRAM Commant Rate to 2T. That's about the most consevative setting you can get with this board and see if it helps.

And don't forget DISABLE FAST WRITES, (actually you made go over enable them on my board to see if I can get it to lock up with it on).

EDIT: FWTW I set 3dmark 2001 run a looping benchmark, (I don't have any games installed on that PC). I'm using a Radeon 8500 LE and with Fastwrites enable it crashes fairly quickly with Fastwrites disabled it's been running 3dmark for over an hour and a half without any problems.

 

[salz]

Slapstick, I did everything you said. The first time I thought I finally had it. Windows loaded, and I was opening different programs without a hitch. But I know by this point that just because it seems to be working the first time, doesn't mean it's going to work the second and third time. So I restarted the computer and managed open up 3dMark. But, after starting the benchmark it locked up and when I restarted the computer again it locked up before I could try to open anything. I disabled all onboard peripherals, turned off fast-write, set RAM CAS to 2.5, top performance was disabled, Fast Command was normal and Command Rate was 2T. I actually tried what you said twice, but it still locked up.

 

[Slapstick]

Sorry but I?m just about out of ideas. You?ve done everything that everyone suggested and nothing seems to work. Too bad you don?t have another stick of ram to see if it?s the problem. Check the BIOS again to make sure the board didn?t reset to defaults at boot, (it?ll do that if it detects a checksum error with the BIOS). Other than that is sounds like your mother board, ram or vid card is flakey. Are all the fans spinning? Vid card, Power supply, CPU? Maybe somethings overheating at the higher FSB. ( told ya I?m grasping at straws). Good luck and I'll post if I think of anything else to try that hasn't already been suggested.

 

[salz]

Thanks Slapstick. Maybe my friend will let me borrow on of his sticks of RAM and I'll try it out. I don't know either, I think I'll try setting things up on my other hard drive as well, just to see what happens (I guess it can't hurt at this point, although it is a pain in the ass).

 

[Adul]

i wonder if your NB chipset is over heating? might be time to rma that mb.

look at it this way. you just gained a ton of trouble shooting kowledge