A7M266 with 1.33GHz Athlon???

This is a reference to THIS POST. I have not gotten any replies to that post for a while, so I felt it would be ok to start this thread. I am pretty sure I have determined for sure that the processor is at fault. When I set the BIOS to 900 MHz default speed, 100 Mhz bus speed, normal mode, the system seems to work flawlessly. I was online for about 5 hours yesterday with no system freak outs, illegal op, or fatal exception BSD's at the default speed. I briefly ran the system at normal 1200 MHz speed today. Firefox closed w/ illegal op error within 5 minutes. I restarted, reset BIOS back to 900 MHz default settings, rebooted. This was over an hour ago--again flawless operation at that speed. So, the problem has to be the processor is not executing certain instructions correctly at the faster speed, causing a divide by zero or other error. Currently the MoBo is of course set to jumperless mode and I have had it set on jumper mode in the past. All that mumbo jumbo brings me to my question: Though the MoBo officially only supports up to 1.2 GHz, it seems to me that I could set the system up for jumper mode with a 133MHz bus speed and 10x multiplier, allowing me to run a 1.33GHZ CPU. The reason I thought about this is that I can't find a merchant I feel comfortable with who has a 1.2GHz chip, but my favorite merchant has the 1.33GHz/266FSB chip in stock for $43. The only listings I could find for the 1.2 GHz CPU, and I looked everywhere, were 2 who both had a lot of bad reviews on resellerratings.com. I found it on ebay, but I basically felt that the sellers were trying to unload their junk. I don't want to have to change good memory, motherboard, and probably video card also in order to replace a flaky CPU if I can avoid it. Can I use the 1.33 GHz chip? If so, what are the potential problems? If I can use this chip, I probably need to get it ASAP, before it sells out. Motherboard documentation is linked from the ASUS website.

The original Asus A7M-266 boards only saw 1.2 gig htz processors.

Flashing the bios added XP Processor capabilities!

Try Flashing the bios! Read the instructions carefully on asus's website!

Go here, select to Query by Motherboard, the plug in your motherboard model, it will tell you exactly what cpus are supported and with what bios revision. From the looks of it a 1.33 is supported by all bioses.

I flashed with the latest BIOS version, version 1.007, sometime ago. I did find a v. 1.008 beta release BIOS, but I am not comfortable with trying to use a beta BIOS version, and risk adding to the problem I already have. I had not found the CPU/MB support page. So, I could use the XP+ series CPU but I would not get maximum performance because I would still be using the PC2100 memory that I have. It is very nice to find out though that I will be able to use this motherboard, even if not at maximum performance potential, as long as it remains functional and the XP 2100+ CPU remains available. I like the A7M266 even if it is not the latest and greatest. That motherboard is very good and very stable, also kind of rare because of the AMD chipset. That 1.33GHz CPU will be ordered shortly. Thanks guys for the input.

Athlon XP 1500+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007
Athlon XP 1600+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007
Athlon XP 1700+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007
Athlon XP 1800+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007
Athlon XP 1900+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007
Athlon XP 2000+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007
Athlon XP 2100+(Model 6)(Palomino) BIOS 1007


That is a copy paste and I see you have the right bios [1007] for the cpu.

A new 1.33GHz CPU has been ordered HERE. They are da bomb, the creme de la creme, the cadillac of online merchants. This is my 3rd order from them and I can't say enough good things about them. My hat's off to everybody in the forum who provided input and suggestions. I was really concerned about having to spend several hundred dollars to upgrade perfectly good hardware in order to replace a flaky CPU. I am relieved that I have found the problem and am on the way to resolution. I will post back when I have the new CPU installed.

Just a couple notes...

In case you didn't realize it, the Athlon (thunderbird) 1.33ghz you ordered does not have its multiplier locked (so you have overclocking flexibility if you so desire).

As for the using one of the XP processors on your board... The ones that are specifically stated as supported are the Palomino variety (core). These are getting tough to come by. By default supporting the Palomino XPs does not mean your board can support the other and more available variety (core) of the XPs, the Thoroughbred cores. Among other things they use different voltages (vcore). So, the possibility of going to one of the XPs may not really be an option later.

As the good Doctor say's and if you'd like to have a look at the specs from the 'horses mouth' :
http://139.95.253.213/SRVS/CGI-BIN/W...TART,DTree=OBJ(2132)

rednek tek
Are you sure you have the FSB set correctly? The 1200 had 2 models, 1@200mhz FSB and the other @266 FSB. Are you sure its not overheating? You should check the temps in the BIOS and not Asus Probe. If your processor overheats the BIOS will reset your computer to a lower speed to prevent overheating. Is the processor fan operating at full speed? Does your processor have thermal paste or thermal grease? If paste, remove the paste and apply thermal grease. I was having overheating problems with my AMD 2600+ Asus a7n8x deluxe, the processor had melted through the paste causing it to overheat. Asus Probe stated OK @ 40, BIOS readings 70+. Check the simple things before replacing.
My last system was a AMD 1400 on an Asus a7m266. My son has it now and still running great! My other son has a 1200 with the same board, runs great also.

Anyway don't give up on the processor!

Just a note here relative to the question/issue bugspop1's raised about the version of the Athlon 1.2ghz (correct, there were 2) here and the fsb... Both varieties (100 and 133fsb) of the 1.2 Thunderbird had their multipliers locked. The 1.2 using a 100mhz fsb used a multiplier of 12, and the 1.2 using a 133mhz fsb used a multiplier of 9. Based on the fact that in rednek's test slowing his fsb to 100mhz the processor ran at 900mhz it shows that the processor here is the 1.2 variety using the 133mhz fsb and a multiplier of 9.

DrMDJ, That is why I felt most comfortable with ordering an Athlon w/ the T'bird core, to minimize the possibility of unforseen problems. The 1.3 Athlon would probably have worked, but unless overclocked it's speed would have been limited to around 1 GHz due to 100 MHZ FSB, 10x multiplier, as would compatible XP+ CPU's--I don't know if the bios would allow more than the motherboards maximum 10x multiplier based on cpuid info or not. I am guessing that I will probably have to change from jumperless settings and manuallly set the bus speed to 133 MHz and the multiplier to 10x. I have a good idea that my next system will be based around a 64 bit and/or dual core chip, and hopefully the chip I just ordered will last for the life of the motherboard or gets so slow relative to what's available that I can't take it anymore, so that availibility of a compatible CPU will be a non-isue. As for overclocking, I haven't yet been brave enough to try it. As Ridgerunr pointed out, if in doubt, one should always go to the manufacturer's website to get ?'s answered. Bugspop1, yeah I have had it set up for jumperless config and it would indicate 266MHz FSB during POST, although now I have the system throttled back to the defaults of 100MHZ FSB/ 9x multiplier so that I can use it w/o aggravation until I get the new CPU installed. I just used the phase change tape strip supplied w/ the AMD retail pack which includes an AMD approved fan and heatsink. ASUS probe is not currently installed, but it was installed up until recently, during the time I was having this problem until last format, and it never once indicated overheating. I hadn't checked the BIOS, I guess I should have. Mine is the 266FSB. When running the defaults, FSB speed is 100, 9x is multiplier. I tried changing the FSB speed manually to 133MHz at 900MHZ default speed to rule out memory issues. It wouldn't save the changes. The CPU has to be at fault--memory is new Kingston memory. I know I will feel like getting out the hammer, if the new CPU doesn't solve the problem. On the bright side, if the processor is not at fault, at least I will have a spare.

Overheating isn't the problem. I just checked BIOS hardware monitor, CPU temp at 900 MHz was 46 degrees Celsius. Set speed back to 1200MHZ, restarted. Ran 3 firefox windows with about 10 tabs each until Firefox closed with illegal op error, less than 5 minutes. Shut down, checked temps--motherboard was 18 degrees Celsius, CPU was 50 degrees celsius, well within acceptable parameters. Reset to 900 MHz default speed. No illegal op or other errors. It has to be CPU latency causing a divide by zero error or an instruction execution error at the higher speed causing the problem. If it were a memory problem, it seems to me the system would crash regardless of speed. If it were a motherboard problem, it seems I would be getting driver and device errors during boot. Is my troubleshooting logic flawed in this regard?

I'm confused. I thought you already ordered the Athlon 1.33 from newegg (which uses a 133fsb)?

By the way, I know you say you have new memory. But if you haven't done it (and I don't remember if you said you did), I would certainly get something like DocMemory and/or Memtest86 and run them to test/exercise you memory just for the heck of it. And while your at it, why not run some program like this (the dos based version) to exercise your current cpu (at normal settings) outside of windows (with all the other variables that introduces)?

Yes , I would be interested in the outcome of a set of test with those.

DrMDJ, yeah I have. I was just clarifying a bit of the logic behind my troubleshooting. All DocMemory tests passed. All of the other diagnostic programs indicated no memory problems. I couldn't get the Lucifer program to unzip and run.

I have replaced the processor, did a low level format with maxblast twice, reloaded windows and I am still having the same problems. I have ran simmtester--no problems found. I have ran the microsoft memtester 44 loops in the basic test, 9 times with extended testing, no problems found. BurnIn Test has found no problems. No problems found anywhere with any of the diagnostic software I have ran as detailed previously. What gives, I am at my wit's end with this problem, and am running out of ideas.

Here is a partial log of the errors I have gotten.

01/05, 1:05am. running IE, firefox: an exception OE has ocured at 0028:C1BEF294 in VxD HCFV42. This is called from 0028:C1AB6CB0 in VxD HCFKMOS [which is a modem driver] 1:31am, 01/05, running 3 firefox windows: RNAAPP has performed an illegal operation. 1:32am, when closing error dialog, Explorer has performed an illegal operation. 1:34am, reestablishing connection: firefox has performed an illegal operation, unable to re-establish connection w/o rebooting, system had shut down immediately w/ no errors or hangs. during reboot, does not detect primary master, which has been happening frequently. [all jumper and drive settings are correct.] reset. primary master detected. 2:17am. firefox illegal op error, 3 windows open.

01/07, 1:08am. an exception OE has occured at 0028:EF059125 in VxD ---. This was called from 0028:C1B01EDO in VxD ---. 1:09am. A fatal exception error has occured at 0177:BFF72830, the current application will be terminated. hang on shutdown during restart. reset, then shutdown. no problems found by scandisk. 1:16am. system crash. [ctrl alt delete] scandisk finds no problems. 7:35pm. reflashed BIOS w/ ver 1.007, thinking maybe BIOS is corrupted. successful, verified correct settings. used paint, wordpad, firefox, no errors as of 8:44pm.

01/09, 3:52pm. loaded system down, fatal exception OE has occured at 0177:BFF850C6. resources--system 19%, user 19%, gdi 26%. closed all running apps. resources--system--57%, user 57%, gdi 68% [should be more free resources w/ no running apps and 512MB RAM. 4:57pm an exception OE has occured at 0028:C1AE93EF in VxD HCFKMOS. this was called from 0028:C1AE9D70 in VxD HCFKMOS. This Program is not responding dialog, w/ no program specified. end task. rnaapp has performed an illegal operation.

01/11, 1:58am. Firefos caused an invalid page fault in module JS3250.dll at 0177:6007E508 2:16am. an exception OE has occured at 0028:7A7A8F60 in VxD---. this was called from 0028:C1AFEA00 in VxD HCFKMOS.

Wow, what a crazy ride it has been, not to mention frustrating. Got new motherboard, installed it. DOA. RMA'ed it, got replacement cross shipped, almost 2 weeks downtime. Installed it, installed Windows and some software, running in VGA mode. No problems, life is peachy. Installed video card drivers and software for an Asus V9400-X/TD 8x AGP with 128 MB DDR and is based on an Nvidia GeGorce MX4000 GPU. Suddenly life is not so good. Very difficult to boot, strange behavior. Could not uninstall drivers and revert to VGA mode, uninstall routine indicates software is not installed. OK, fine, buggy install CD. Go to Nvidia website, download and install version 66.94 drivers, so that I at least have a way to uninstall without hacking the registry and system files. Same problem. Difficult to boot, though it passes POST, and as before, if it boots at all, monitor just turns off, though system does not shut down. Reboot in safe mode, uninstall drivers, reboot, system works fine again in VGA mode, albeit in 16 color mode 640 x 480 resolution, not gona get it. Then I find this "arcane" but useful info buried in the readme file: 1. ASUS display cards consume more electrical power so that your motherboard must be able to provide enough electrical current in 3.3V power to maintain its normal operation.
2. ASUS display cards are recommended to use with Intel 440BX chipset for best compatibility. Now there's useful info, and nary an indication of this on the Nvidia or Asus website that I've been able to find, imagine that. So much for the logic of getting an Asus video card because I'm getting an Asus motherboard, to ensure compatibility. So, to avoid another week of downtime, I go to CompUSA and spend $80+ for a PNY card based on an Nvidia FX 5200 GPU that I could have got for probably half that online. So the question becomes what was Asus thinking by putting a graphics processing unit designed for 3.3 volt operation on a card (AGP 8X) for which the voltage spec is 1.5 volts, since 3.3 volts is the spec for older 1x and 2x/4x AGP standards. Oh, wait, like they care, let the beta testers, uh sorry, customers figure it out. So a few motherboards will likely get fried, not our problem. Fortunately, mine didn't, though I did get quite a scare when one of the 3 listings in device manager for motherboard resources indicated a !, which was resolved by uninstalling, rebooting, and letting windows reinstall the driver. I still have a lot of software to reinstall, including Windows XP.