Originally posted by: crapito
good news and bad news...
good news: my hardware (BG7 + 1.6a + Samsung 256mb pc2700) can run @ 160 5:4 DDR400 all day long w/o any problems, stability-wise. that is a good thing. very good...
bad news: I still have a BG7/Geforce3/overclocking problem. I've isolated the issue down to a specific combination: Intel INF drivers with basically any nVidia drivers while overclocking.
when I have the Intel INF drivers installed, either 4.00.1009 or
4.00.1013, along with any nVidia drivers, 27.50 or 28.32 or 28.90 or 29.42 or 29.60, I can run my setup perfectly @ 133 5:4 DDR333, ie (semi)official default speeds, but cannot load WinXP Pro when overclocking, ie 160 5:4 DDR400. I know it's a BG7/Geforce3/overclocking problem, because I can run any combo of 2 successfully, ie Intel INF and nVidia drivers or Intel INF and overclocking or nVidia drivers and overclocking, but
cannot run all 3 together, ie Intel INF and nVidia drivers
and overclocking. so basically, this sucks... yeah, I suppose having this driver/software problem is better than a hardware problem, ie my 1.6a and/or RAM can't overclock, but still... I didn't buy this overclocking friendly hardware to run @ 133 5:4 DDR333. I would have bought a cheaper SiS board and generic pc2700 RAM if that's all I wanted. damn. I am considering RMA'ing the BG7, but what else is better? I've read a lot about the
Epox 4G4A and
Gigabyte GA-8IEXP, and both of these boards seem to also have problems running over 133 5:4 DDR333, though not always like my setup.
my question: should I keep my BG7 and hope for a fix, like a BIOS or driver update? or, RMA it and get another motherboard that will hit 160 5:4 DDR400 without issue? any input is appreciated. btw: my BG7 does have some other, more minor issues, like turning itself off after ~5 seconds the first time powering on after a cold boot. this leads me to believe that my above problem may at least be partially hardware related, which is leaning me to RMA the board. I like it's features though, and have trouble believing that Abit would put out a non-overclocking friendly motherboard, even if Intel and the 845G chipset are to blame over Abit specifically.