Sorry this is a little long ...
Does anyone know the standard northbridge voltage for the VIA PT880 chipset? I just put together a new system and the motherboard allows adjustment of the northbridge voltage. When I first booted, I noticed that the northbridge voltage was set to 1.63v, which I found odd (min is 1.5v, max is 1.8v). I assumed the minimum value supplied was the default (by inspection of the other voltage ranges) and set it to 1.5v and then proceeded to install windows which BSOD'd every time.
I did not think of much of the northbridge voltage yet -- I figured it was the CPU since the temperatures were getting really high (45-50C idle!!), but after some searching I found that this was pretty standard for a prescott with a retail HSF. I fiddled with a bunch of other settings including increasing the vcore to no avail. Finally, i was about to give up -- I reset to default CMOS values (and the northbridge voltage to 1.63v) and magically windows installed fine.
After windows installed, i ran prime95 and it failed almost immediately. I isolated the problem down to what I thought was memory and was on verge of returning my new memory. At this point, I also flashed the BIOS to the newest version to see if that would make a difference. Mysteriously, the default northbridge voltage now defaults to 1.5v. I booted with it that way, and windows BSOD'ed while booting. A light bulb finally flashed in my head. I set the northbridge voltage to 1.68v and now prime95, memtest86 seem solid so far!
So finally -- my question is what is the standard northbridge voltage for the VIA PT880 northbridge? If it is what I think it is (1.5v), then I must have a somewhat defective chip if I need a 10%+ voltage increase just to run at stock speed! Any input/similar experiences appreciated.
Specs:
MSI PT880 Neo FSR
Prescott P4 3.2E
Everything runnining at default
Does anyone know the standard northbridge voltage for the VIA PT880 chipset? I just put together a new system and the motherboard allows adjustment of the northbridge voltage. When I first booted, I noticed that the northbridge voltage was set to 1.63v, which I found odd (min is 1.5v, max is 1.8v). I assumed the minimum value supplied was the default (by inspection of the other voltage ranges) and set it to 1.5v and then proceeded to install windows which BSOD'd every time.
I did not think of much of the northbridge voltage yet -- I figured it was the CPU since the temperatures were getting really high (45-50C idle!!), but after some searching I found that this was pretty standard for a prescott with a retail HSF. I fiddled with a bunch of other settings including increasing the vcore to no avail. Finally, i was about to give up -- I reset to default CMOS values (and the northbridge voltage to 1.63v) and magically windows installed fine.
After windows installed, i ran prime95 and it failed almost immediately. I isolated the problem down to what I thought was memory and was on verge of returning my new memory. At this point, I also flashed the BIOS to the newest version to see if that would make a difference. Mysteriously, the default northbridge voltage now defaults to 1.5v. I booted with it that way, and windows BSOD'ed while booting. A light bulb finally flashed in my head. I set the northbridge voltage to 1.68v and now prime95, memtest86 seem solid so far!
So finally -- my question is what is the standard northbridge voltage for the VIA PT880 northbridge? If it is what I think it is (1.5v), then I must have a somewhat defective chip if I need a 10%+ voltage increase just to run at stock speed! Any input/similar experiences appreciated.
Specs:
MSI PT880 Neo FSR
Prescott P4 3.2E
Everything runnining at default