ABIT KT7a [non-raid] problem...odd...anyone?

[Flecko]

This seems a bit odd to me. I have the aforementioned motherboard, and I had a duron 800 in it(running at 100mhz FSB) and now have just recently installed a tbird 1.1ghz. My problem is this, even though I've unlocked the multiplier, I get weird results when trying to change it. Like when I set it higher than 11, the CPU runs at 900mhz. Why would I set it to 11 you ask(11x100 = 1.1ghz)? Because when I set the FSB to 133mhz, I get no bootup. Won't even post. The board works fine otherwise, but it seems to be somewhat "b0rked" in the fact that it doesn't adjust multipliers.

I have the latest bios, and its stable otherwise. I have somewhat tweaked my FSB(running 103mhz) with good results.

http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectdetails&XLID=6292081&UID=10680870&projectType=6

Anyone help me?
-Flecko

[Nutty]

When you set 133 FSB are you doing that with the Mhz increments, or the correct option lower down, which also reduces the PCI AGP speeds accordingly?

I have my athlon thunderbird unlocked with the pencil trick. Occassionly my system used to boot up at the wrong speed or somat.. but its been fine for ages.

What core voltage are you using? I'm using 1.725.

[Flecko]

As part of my stupidity, I ordered a 200mhz FSB Thunderbird. Oh well...so now I know why it won't boot up at 133mhz.

I did a bit of tweaking on it(upped IO voltage, etc) and got it to boot stable at 105mhz FSB.

My updated 3dmark score can be found here: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6299888

I'm pretty happy with that I guess...its alot better than the old one at least. Next time, I'll get the right CPU...for now, I stick with crap board, cpu and ram.

-Flecko

[Nemesis]

I have one of the first T-Bird 1.2 (200 FSB) running at 1.33 (266FSB) on a very early KT7A-RAID, no problems at all. The CPU came unlocked from the factory, all I did was set it to 10 x 133 with the voltage upped to 1.85. All settings are set to as agressive as possible, it's been rock stable for over two years. I have had it running at 274MHz FSB, but didn't want to push the PCI bus.

I wonder if your pencil unlock is doing the job properly? And - is your RAM PC133? I can't quite remember if you have to run the FSB and RAM in sync, or if you can specify them separately. I have a feeling they have to be in sync. I ask this because your old Duron 800 was 200MHz FSB, and your RAM hasn't been pushed past 100MHz yet...

The KT7A's were good boards in their day, and held their own against early DDR chipsets. Mine has certainly held out well, and done all that was asked of it.

[Nutty]

Yep mines still going well.. Gonna upgrade to an nforce2 very soon tho.

[Flecko]

Nemesis, I really really appreciate that reply. Makes me wonder what exactly is going on then, because I have 3 sticks of PC133. None of them are particularaly nice, but at the minimum, should be able to run at 133mhz. I will do a bit more playing with it later tonight then I suppose.

Its very interesting as to why I haven't been able to get it to run at 133mhz. I'll be sure to reply again after further investigation. Perhaps upping my cpu volts will help a little...who knows.


Thanks again,
-Flecko

[Nemesis]

Originally posted by Flecko
Its very interesting as to why I haven't been able to get it to run at 133mhz. I'll be sure to reply again after further investigation. Perhaps upping my cpu volts will help a little...who knows.


Thanks again,
-Flecko

I remember now that if the processor is unlocked, you get a list of core / FSB frequencies to choose from. When I first realised my processor was unlocked, not wanting to push things I chose the one that equated to 1200MHz with a 266MHz FSB, which is 9 x 133 = 1197MHz. This just worked straight away, no voltage increases or anything. This was with regular CAS3 PC133 RAM, not the CAS2 PC150 I've been running for 18 months or so. I only went to 1333MHz later, which only required half a volt extra. If you have the list, go for the option that gives 1133MHz... 8.5 x 133.

Also, try backing everything off to less agressive settings, RAM to CAS3, timings to Normal, Fast-CPU-Whatever switched off, etc.

My BIOS is the latest one from Abit, can't remember the version.

Good luck!

[saturnotaku]

I loved my KT7A. Had my 1.2 GHz T-bird at 1.4 and my CPU was factory unlocked. With some CAS2 PC133 from Crucial and a GeForce3, you couldn't touch the price/performance of that machine. :)

[Flecko]

Thanks again for the informative reply Nemesis. In my list of speeds to choose from they are all listed as 900(100), 1000(100), 1100(100)....and so on until you get to 1400(133) which is the highest setting(apparently at 133mhz fsb). So only one of my choices runs at 133mhz FSB? I'm not real clear on this.

So apparently it only wants to run at 100mhz FSB? Is that what yours shows and you just kick the FSB setting up below? (FSB = RAM+PCICLK or whatever it says)

I guess I could just go through and test a bunch more settings. And I'll be sure to set my ram to the wussy settings.

Hopefully, somehow I'll get this working.

Thanks again everyone,
-Flecko