Gigabyte 7VAXP - upgraded cpu & ram - now pc hard reboots when trying to load windows

I have a gigabyte 7vaxp motherboard. I have been running an athlon
xp2200+ with pc2100 kingston ram (2 x 256mb)without a problem for a
couple of years now.

I have just upgraded to an athlon xp barton 2800+ (DDR333) and 1 x
512mb of 2700+ ram (kingston). I changed the m/b fsb switch settings
to ddr333 and left cpu clk on auto settings.

The motherboard counts the ram ok and correctly detects the cpu.
However, as soon as windows xp attempts to load, it flashes a blue
screen (not even long enough to read) and immediatly hard-reboots.

The cpu temp (according to the bios) is running at roughly 35 - 39
degrees C.

Any ideas, anyone??

"DAN" wrote in message
om...
I have a gigabyte 7vaxp motherboard. I have been running an athlon
xp2200+ with pc2100 kingston ram (2 x 256mb)without a problem for a
couple of years now.

I have just upgraded to an athlon xp barton 2800+ (DDR333) and 1 x
512mb of 2700+ ram (kingston). I changed the m/b fsb switch settings
to ddr333 and left cpu clk on auto settings.

The motherboard counts the ram ok and correctly detects the cpu.
However, as soon as windows xp attempts to load, it flashes a blue
screen (not even long enough to read) and immediatly hard-reboots.

The cpu temp (according to the bios) is running at roughly 35 - 39
degrees C.

Any ideas, anyone??

Since your are pushing the high end of this board, consider setting the
mutiplier switches to 12 X.
Check the BIOS speed settings.
JPS

"DAN" wrote in message
om...
I have a gigabyte 7vaxp motherboard. I have been running an athlon
xp2200+ with pc2100 kingston ram (2 x 256mb)without a problem for a
couple of years now.

I have just upgraded to an athlon xp barton 2800+ (DDR333) and 1 x
512mb of 2700+ ram (kingston). I changed the m/b fsb switch settings
to ddr333 and left cpu clk on auto settings.

The motherboard counts the ram ok and correctly detects the cpu.
However, as soon as windows xp attempts to load, it flashes a blue
screen (not even long enough to read) and immediatly hard-reboots.

The cpu temp (according to the bios) is running at roughly 35 - 39
degrees C.

Any ideas, anyone??

My 7VAXP never worked right with the multiplier on auto, I always had to set
it by manual jumper. Let us know how you get on!

Thanks for all your suggestions - I have made some progress!

After more experimenting, I noticed sometimes it hard-rebooted ( as I
described originally) and sometimes it now gives the blue screen of
death "machine_check_exception (refering to a hardware issue I
understand?)

I thought I would investigate the psu first of all. My PSU is 350 watts
and has an aux output feeding my monitor. I pulled that out and have
supplied my monitor with a separate lead of its own from the mains
socket, to ease the load on the psu.

Hey presto! My pc now starts windows successfully every time at 333fsb
with new processor, memory etc. However, when I give it some work to do
(i.e. call of duty game) it crashes out to the same blue screen of
death again...

Although I would have thought 350watts would be sufficient for this
setup, am I right in thinking its time for a meatier psu?

jpsja and ian, I will try your suggestions on setting the multiplyer to
manual before getting another psu. I think the default for the 2800+ is
x13.5 am I right? and setting it to x12 will slow it down a notch?

jpsja and ian, I will try your suggestions on setting the multiplyer to
manual before getting another psu. I think the default for the 2800+ is
x13.5 am I right? and setting it to x12 will slow it down a notch?


I think you will find that the 12 multiplier is actually for 12 or greater.
So that's not totally manual either!

UPDATE

got a new 500w PSU - has made no difference, still the same problem
(either hard reboots when windows tries to load or
machine_check_exception blue screen of death).

So I booted from the windows XP cd and used the REPAIR facility. it
reported a broken windows instalation or something like that, so i did
a repair installation. All seemed ok again as I was re-installing
drivers for grfx card, mobo chipset etc. I then finally re-installed
SERVICE PACK ONE, rebooted and I was BACK TO SQUARE ONE AGAIN.

9 times out of 10, the pc hard reboots or shows BSOD. sometimes windows
actually appears, loads a couple of things in the task bar and then
stops loading anything else and seems VERY slow. No mouse pointer,
sound or anything, so i have to use the keyboard to select windows
shutdown, or press the reset button.

COULD THIS BE SERVICE PACK ONE CAUSING THE PROBLEMS? WHY WOULD IT
THOUGH??

I would try to uninstall it if i could get into windows, but i can't
even start windows in safe mode!

HELP : - 0

P.S. I also tried setting clock ratio to manual, its only goes up to
x12.5. i tried x12 and x12.5. each setting effectively disabled the
mobo. the fans move, but no display or response. just the odd beep.

On 17 Mar 2005 07:59:24 -0800, wrote:

It could be that your CPU is frazzled.

UPDATE 2

So... i have run win xp 'repair' installation, and un-installed
Service pack one.

I no longer get the machine_check_exception blue screens, windows seems
to start (all-be-it SOMETIMES without the sound icon in the desktray),
but i now have other problems.

Nero returns data error messages, other applications read files/cd-roms
intermittantly returning 'file not found' messages on different files
every time i try to re-install. When i try to re-install applications i
get one of the following errors:

the pc HARD-REBOOTS occasionally at random times, or gives a blue
screen [KERNAL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR stop 0x0000007A] or an unnamed
blue screen [stop 0x00000024]

I am almost at the point of giving up

I thought that may be the case. But the guy I bought it from insists
the cpu was working perfectly when he took his system apart for his
64bit upgrade.

So I thought I would try one last thing...

I re-seated my cpu and invested in some formula5 thermal compund that I
have not tried before.
SUCCESS everything ran ok! Running 3dmark and some games
confirmed it stability.

So I thought I may as well re-install SP1... BAD IDEA. I can no longer
start windows (not even in safe mode) - i get the same blue screens and
hard-reboots as I started with at the top of this thread.

I can't even do a repair installation - it keeps reporting that files
cannot not be found/copied and either hard-reboots half way through or
just doesn't complete the repair properly.

BACK TO SQUARE ONE - help! :-/

I have now given up and restored my system to its original athlon
xp2200+ and works fine both with the 2100 and 2700 ram (not at same
time obviously).

One thing i noticed during all the problems with the athlon 2800+ is
that windows xp had the cpu listed as 2.2gig - i thought it was
supposed to run at 2.08gig? could this be a clue to the problem?

wrote:
I have now given up and restored my system to its original athlon
xp2200+ and works fine both with the 2100 and 2700 ram (not at same
time obviously).

One thing i noticed during all the problems with the athlon 2800+ is
that windows xp had the cpu listed as 2.2gig - i thought it was
supposed to run at 2.08gig? could this be a clue to the problem?

I missed your original post. I can remember that with my 7VAXP (now in the
great motherboard resting home in the sky!), the AUTO setting for multiplier
never worked for me, I had to set the switches manually. Sorry if that's
already been said!