CPU speed troubles

[el Chi]

OK this might sound a bit long-winded and a couple of questions might sound a bit stupid but please be gentle as I'm scared.

I have a Soltek barebones system EQ3702A and a 3GHz Athlon. For some reason, the Athlon's playing silly buggers and has refused to run at proper speed. Ages ago, I asked tech support and they suggested setting the FSB (in the "Advanced Chip Settings" of the BIOS) to 166, which I did - it then ran at 3GHz but the poor dear crashed when I tried to run a program like a game. So I set it to a lower setting (140-150?) and it ran at 2GHz or there abouts with no problems.

However, I paid for 3GHz and so I'd really like it to work at that. I got in touch with tech support again and they suggested I"...set jumper JCLK2 to [166MHz] as the attachment and then enter "BIOS Setup" --> "Advanced Chipset Features" to adjust "FSB Frequency" to [200MHz] and save the change to see if the CPU runs with the correct speed" They provided the attachment on this post, by the way.
The jumper was fine and so I set it to 200 but I got a message saying that, although it had started at 3GHz, it had overheated or something.
So I set it to 166 and it booted up windows to my wallpaper but didn't start up anything like my desktop icons/start menu/nothing. I changed the FSB to 133 but got the same result, then to 100 (the lowest value, at which the CPU runs at 1.3). This even happened when I tried to start it in Safe Mode. So I'm scared.

I've e-mailed their tech support but I'd really appreciate a second opinion.

I have three possible theories on how to remedy the problem:
1. Piss myself.
2. Change the JCLK2 jumper to the "Default 100/133 MHz" see if it runs normally and then once it feels more stable, change the jumper back to 166 and maybe up the FSB a bit, but not too much to push my luck, until a better solution comes along.
3. It looks to me that the JCLK1 jumper (see attachment) is set with only pin 3 closed. I'm guessing that it might help matters if I changed it to pins 1-2 closed ("For 133/166/200 MHz CPU with STR support"), however I have no idea what STR means, and it was working okayish before...

I'm not a complete technophobe - far from it - but I really want to err on the side of caution for this one.
Please please please any help or advice would be fantastic.

 

[GPRT]

AMD don't make a 3ghz chip...
Unless you mean a 3000+ running at the 2 ghz AMd clock it to.
If you try and clock your 2ghz to 3ghz you will run into troubles.

 

[el Chi]

AMD don't make a 3ghz chip...
Unless you mean a 3000+ running at the 2 ghz AMd clock it to.
If you try and clock your 2ghz to 3ghz you will run into troubles.

Yeah that's what I meant. Basically, I'm trying to get it to run at its proper speed. When I set the FSB to 166, it does that. Sorry if that was unclear.

 

[GPRT]

Hmmm, has it always been like this? You might as well try it at the slower FSB and take it from there. Is it warrentied etc?

 

[el Chi]

Hmmm, has it always been like this? You might as well try it at the slower FSB and take it from there. Is it warrentied etc?

Whaddyou mean has it always been like this? You mean have I had to run it at a slower FSB since I bought it? Yes, but I've had another problem too (I had to replace the PSU because I broke the original one - long story) which sort of took the forefront.

This is so depressing.

 

[Gunsnroses]

You dont understand, AMD doesnt make a 3ghz chip.
3000+ is not gighz, its about 2gighz depending on chip.

Its as fast as an equiv pentium 3gighz cpu though.

But has a much slower clock speed.

It runs at 2gighz, with no problems because thats what its meant to run at.

 

[AzzMan]

you could try lowering the fsb and increasing the multiplier. That's what I had to do with my 3000+, it's the 400mhz fsb version, but I have pc2700 ram.

 

[Rhalle]

You haven't said anything about the memory you are using.

What speed/brand/size is it?

And, um, the 3000 is just a way to compare it, performance-wise, to an intel. It runs at less in terms of 'numbers' in the name of the processor (not neccessarily slower), as others have said.

Its like trying to overclock a 2g to a 3g processor if you are looking for an actual 3.0g readout. (Or, make a 4000 out of a 3000)

 

[el Chi]

You dont understand, AMD doesnt make a 3ghz chip.
3000+ is not gighz, its about 2gighz depending on chip.
Its as fast as an equiv pentium 3gighz cpu though.
But has a much slower clock speed.
It runs at 2gighz, with no problems because thats what its meant to run at.

I do understand - sorry I didn't make that clearer at the beginning. However, when the computer starts up, at the very beginning it displays what your CPU is, correct? Well, when the FSB is set to 166, this says AMD Athlon 3000+, not 3GHz - I don't expect it to. Seeing as the CPU is and AMD Athlon 3000+, this sort of makes sense to me...

Azzman - what do you mean "increasing the multiplier"? My Athlon is, I think, 333FSB but my DDR RAM is 400 - could this be a problem?

What does STR stand for, by the way?
And cheers for all the help so far.

 

[blahblahblah]

This is whats up.

It sounds like your motherboard doesn't directly supported 400 FSB processors. That is what your Athlon XP 3000+ is. They also sell 333 FSB Athlon XP 3000+ processors as well.

Their solution requires you to overclock the motherboard (since it doesn't support 400 FSB). However, it is sounding like your motherboard doesn't like it to be overclocked that much.

The best option right now is to update your bios to the latest one and see if that helps. Another option is to see how high you can up the FSB before your motherboard starts to balk again.

[Edit]: In what sense do you mean "STR"?

 

[Subatomic]

Ages ago, I asked tech support and they suggested setting the FSB (in the "Advanced Chip Settings" of the BIOS) to 166, which I did - it then ran at 3GHz but the poor dear crashed when I tried to run a program like a game. So I set it to a lower setting (140-150?) and it ran at 2GHz or there abouts with no problems.

If it is running at 'only' 2Ghz, that is fine - the right speed! You definatly cannot run a 3000+ at 3Ghz... you are FINE.

 

[el Chi]

This is whats up.

It sounds like your motherboard doesn't directly supported 400 FSB processors. That is what your Athlon XP 3000+ is. They also sell 333 FSB Athlon XP 3000+ processors as well.

Their solution requires you to overclock the motherboard (since it doesn't support 400 FSB). However, it is sounding like your motherboard doesn't like it to be overclocked that much.

The best option right now is to update your bios to the latest one and see if that helps. Another option is to see how high you can up the FSB before your motherboard starts to balk again.

[Edit]: In what sense do you mean "STR"?

No, I made sure when I bought it that the CPU's FSB was 333 so 166 really ought to have been the right speed, not 200. That was a silly mistake.
Even so, what I need to do now is to get it to start normally, whatever the FSB.

If it is running at 'only' 2Ghz, that is fine - the right speed! You definatly cannot run a 3000+ at 3Ghz... you are FINE.

Wait wait wait. When the PC starts up one of the first things it displays in black and white, just before the memory check, is the CPU speed, correct? Now, when the FSB is at 166, my CPU is correctly identified as an Athlon 3000+ This isn't saying - you've tried to run it at 3GHz, it's stating what the CPU is. Do you see? Before it crashes, if I do DirectX Diag this also confirms it is an Athlon 3000+, not a processor running at 3GHz.

Once again, I can only apologise for not being clear enough. And cheers again for the help.

 

[blahblahblah]

No, I made sure when I bought it that the CPU's FSB was 333 so 166 really ought to have been the right speed, not 200. That was a silly mistake.
Even so, what I need to do now is to get it to start normally, whatever the FSB.

First thing I want you to do is clear your CMOS. Your motherboard manual should tell you how to reset the jumpers to clear your bios. That will allow you to boot up normally. Then load up windows.

Download and run 'AMD CPU Information Display Utility' (Second on list)

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_2364,00.html

And tells us what speed your processor is running at. I want to end all clarification problems.

If you have the 333 FSB model, the processor speed should be 2167 MHz according to this program.

 

[el Chi]

blahblahblah, thank you - I really appreciate your advice. I haven't tried it yet but I will in a bit.
When you say "reset the jumpers" do you meanthe physical ones on the board itself?

Also, does anyone know what I mean when I've said it displays the CPU at the beginning of booting up? If so, then should it say 2.2 or whatever or should it say Athlon XP 3000+ It's said the latter before when the FSB has been at 166. That doesn't sound as if it's saying it's overclocked to me.

 

[Asus]

In your picture, JBAT1 is Clear CMOS.
If you set it to 2-3 when the PC is off, then put it back to 1-2 and turn the PC on. That should have reset the Cmos/Bios settings.

Go into Bios set the FSB to 166 speed. Your JCLK2 Jumper (CPU Clock boot select) should be on 2-3 for 166MHz.

STR should be Suspend-To-Ram, don't worry about this setting.
Try setting the memory timings yourself. Increase the CAS Latency by .5 and the T(RCD) and T(RP) settings by 1. That should help memory stability.

Does your PC beep at all or does it just not turn on?

Just so you know the difference:
Athlon XP 3000+ 400FSB is 200MHz * 10.5 = 2100MHz or 2.1GHz
Athlon XP 3000+ 333FSB is 166MHz * 13 = 2167MHz or 2.17GHz

 

[el Chi]

Okay, sorry to restart this thread, but here goes.
I'd also asked advice from some people on the forums at hermitscave.org and one or two suggested that it was perhaps a problem with WindowsXP - possibly something becoming corrupted when the computer got clocked too far?
Soltek (the manafacturers) suggested that the motherboard might be f*cked but I'm too stubborn to trust them and their last piece of advice was something I suggested - it didn't give me too much insight...
Anyways, I tried to run explorer.exe through Task Manager but no dice. Makes sense, seeing as if it was working I probably wouldn't be in this situation. But I tried to run another program - in this case, Vice City - and it worked perfectly with no problems whatsoever. This would suggest to me that the hermits were right - would you agree?