AMD Thoroughbred on A7M266

[bicky]

i found some past threads related to this but i haven't read anything recent, so below is my story.
it is not clear to me what is going on but maybe someone sees the same or maybe has found a solution for it

i got model 8 working on my A7M266 but not properly,
i replaced my tbird 1,2 by a tbred 2200+ (AXDA2200DUV3C) and booted with BIOS 1007, no problem but the BIOS mentioned multiplier 11,5 and FSB 100MHz but strangely 1400MHz as current speed. windows was started normally afterwards.
when i set FSB to 133MHz and rebooted, nothing happened, no beep, nothing.
i left it for 2 hours as it didn't want to reboot, after this time it booted again but again with 100MHz FSB.
so i decided to flash my BIOS to 1008a (beta),
this worked fine and windows ran without problem but now the BIOS mentioned 1800MHz as current speed while multiplier was still 11,5 and FSB 100MHz and during boot the screen showed AMD athlon 0 XP.
switching to 133MHz FSB resulted again in refusal to boot.

so i left it over night and the next morning all worked again albeit on 100Mhz FSB. i ran some software to check and that gave conflicting results:
CPU-W mentioned an Athlon XP 681 running at 1900MHz with 166FSB and 11,5 multiplier

CBID mentioned an Athlon XP 681 running at 1900MHz with 2400 PR rating and with 100FSB and 19 as multiplier

Asus probe mentioned an Athlon XP 681 at 1800MHz and 100FSB

Aida mentioned and Athlon XP 681 at 1900MHz with 333FSB and 5.75 as multiplier

Sisoftware Sandra says i have an Athlon XP 681 with 2400 as model number running at 1.92MHz, 100FSB and 2783 as estimated PR rating!

i also ran some benchmarks to see how performance evolved:
Sisoftware Sandra CPU benchmark shows 4% better performance than an XP 2200+
the same 4% higher perfomance was obtained with the Sisoftware Sandra multimedia CPU benchmark
the memory bandwith benchmark however shows 20% less bandwith than PC2100 on an AMD760.

all this seems to suggest that in fact my Athlon XP 2200+ is overclocked running at 1,9GHz but my FSB is running only at 100MHz instead of 133MHz.
i haven't tried using the jumper settings for determining multiplier and FSB yet, i only used the (limited) BIOS settings but i ll try that soon if i can find a multiplier table for the jumpers.

so my system has become faster but of course i would like to crank up my FSB so if any of you has found a solution or can see what is going on, please let us know!

thanks & greetz,
bicky

[SParnicky]

I take it that you are using the jumpers to set the FSB. I also have a 2200 XP. I was using the jumperless settings, flashed my BIOS to 1008, and changed my FSB to 166 instead to 133 by mistake. After that no POST. Nothing what so ever, no beeps etc. Luckily I RMA'ed it. When I get it back should I flash the BIOS to 1008? Should I use the jumperless or jumpered mode? And should I set the FSB to 100 or 133? I hope that you can help. Thanks in advance.

[vesther]

You should wait until AsusTek officially releases Revision 1008 of the A7M266 BIOS (this might probably be the final release of the rather obsolete Motherboard's BIOS).

Also, I called Asus and they told me that a Thoroughbred is not supported on the A7M266 at this point. You might need to call both Asus and Award Software for the details. Question everything. Trust no one.

[bicky]

i am using jumperless mode, not jumpermode.
the BIOS automatically chooses 100MHz. when i set it to 133MHz, it didn't boot anymore. so i left it on 100MHz.
i haven't tried yet to increase this per MHz.

i am surprised that you could set your FSB to 166MHz, i thought this was simply not supported by the AMD760 chipset.

BIOS1008a is not really finished or stable, e.g when i put back an Athlon Tbird 1,2GHz he identified it as an "AMD Athlon XP 0"...
i don't know whether Asus will ever make 1008 official, it has been in beta stage for ages now.

[SParnicky]

Originally posted by bicky
i am using jumperless mode, not jumpermode.
the BIOS automatically chooses 100MHz. when i set it to 133MHz, it didn't boot anymore. so i left it on 100MHz.
i haven't tried yet to increase this per MHz.

i am surprised that you could set your FSB to 166MHz, i thought this was simply not supported by the AMD760 chipset.

BIOS1008a is not really finished or stable, e.g when i put back an Athlon Tbird 1,2GHz he identified it as an "AMD Athlon XP 0"...
i don't know whether Asus will ever make 1008 official, it has been in beta stage for ages now.

I used jumperless as well. At first it was set to 100 FSB, but in the BIOS you can set it up to what ever you want. I was just unlucky to have a stupid IT Tech as a friend, first he told me to clock it to 166, after that no boot... So he told me to put the CPU in without locking the CPU lever down, shorting out my CPU and board for that matter. My friend does have a 2200 XP Palamino, and was eager to switch CPU's as Thoroughbreds can overclock easier, due to that it doesnt heat up as much. For this motherboard, after I get it back from RMA, should I switch with him? I do plan on getting a NForce 2 next month, so should I just run the A7M266 with an underclocked CPU? I rather choose to keep my current CPU, got it returned for a new one by the way. What would you guys do in my situation?

[SParnicky]

Originally posted by bicky
i am using jumperless mode, not jumpermode.
the BIOS automatically chooses 100MHz. when i set it to 133MHz, it didn't boot anymore. so i left it on 100MHz.
i haven't tried yet to increase this per MHz.

i am surprised that you could set your FSB to 166MHz, i thought this was simply not supported by the AMD760 chipset.

BIOS1008a is not really finished or stable, e.g when i put back an Athlon Tbird 1,2GHz he identified it as an "AMD Athlon XP 0"...
i don't know whether Asus will ever make 1008 official, it has been in beta stage for ages now.

Also if you were using jumperless, and it didnt boot, how did you switch it back to 100 FSB. Did you need to use your old 1.2 GHz Tbird?

[bicky]

i just had to leave the pc switched off for a couple of hours,
after that it booted again but the BIOS set the FSB back to 100 due to "problems during the previous boot-up".
i didn't need my 1,2 tbird

i think that the mulitplier is 19, when the FSB is then set to 133, the CPU gets overclocked too much and the thermal protection in the CPU gets activated.

if i were you, i would keep the tbred and run it underclocked until you have your nforce2 mobo.

[bicky]

i just had to leave the pc switched off for a couple of hours,
after that it booted again but the BIOS set the FSB back to 100 due to "problems during the previous boot-up".
i didn't need my 1,2 tbird

i think that the mulitplier is 19, when the FSB is then set to 133, the CPU gets overclocked too much and the thermal protection in the CPU gets activated.

if i were you, i would keep the tbred and run it underclocked until you have your nforce2 mobo.

[Pat.mh]

Hi I am new to this so bear with me.
Think I am having the same problem, I am running the board with a duron 900 but want to upgrade it to a xp1800+, I have flashed the board with latest bios 007, but I am getting nothing whatsoever..no beeps no nothing.
The cpu is Palomino and works fine as i use it in another machine.
There is 1 thing my friend said to clear the cmos but havent a clue how to do that, I have read to do this u need to take the battery out
Please help otherwise it will be going in bin

[bicky]

strange, Palomino should be completely supported by bios 1007,
maybe you can try this betaBIOS 1008a?
i don't think clearing the CMOS will help.
it could also be the graphics card.
check whether your graphics card is inserted well.
i also had recent experience that when the CMOS is cleared (eg when you removed the battery), sometimes the AGP 4x is disabled and some graphics cards cannot go to AGP 1x so your mobo cannot find a graphics card.
i solved it by putting a AGP 1x card, then it booted, enabled AGP 4x in the BIOS, put in the newer graphics card, booted and all worked.
greetz,
bicky