TrueVegas wrote:

Maybe your english is too difficult for me and I do not understant the sentece but whe you said

Modern PSUs (ATX 2.0+ standard) have focus on +12v power rail, with +5v rail being of less importance. But CPU on that motherboard is powered from +5v rail, which was common practice before Pentium 4 was released. So if PSU can't feed stable current (high ripple, etc), it might cause issues with stability.

melbar wrote on 2022-09-29, 19:10:

Here the different Athlon XP`s : […]
Show full quote

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-09-29, 18:45:

I have to say that I'm not really sure to have a 400 FSB Athlon XP. Maybe I have to remove the CPu and read the serial...

Here the different Athlon XP`s :

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ - AXDA3200DKV4E
Bus speed 400 MHz (FSB200)
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon% … A3200DKV4E.html

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ - AXDA3200DKV4D
Bus speed 333 MHz (FSB166.6)
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon% … A3200DKV4D.html

AMD Athlon XP 3000+ - AXDA3000DKV4D
Bus speed 333 MHz (FSB166.6)
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon% … A3000DKV4D.html

Very interesting is that the first and the second are indentical in codes...
But I saw from the BIOS that default clock multiplier value is 11 so maybe mine is a real FBS 400

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-10-01, 03:20:

TrueVegas wrote:

Maybe your english is too difficult for me and I do not understant the sentece but whe you said

Modern PSUs (ATX 2.0+ standard) have focus on +12v power rail, with +5v rail being of less importance. But CPU on that motherboard is powered from +5v rail, which was common practice before Pentium 4 was released. So if PSU can't feed stable current (high ripple, etc), it might cause issues with stability.

Ah ok! Thank you for the explanation!

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-09-30, 19:32:

3) The system shut down immediately... so I thought to the C.O.P (CPU Overheating protection) feature: i cleaned the old thermal paste but I did't replace with a newer simply because I thought that was no mandatory for the stability... I feel really stupid if this can be the problem....

For cpu's like athlon (thunderbird) and athlon XP's (palomino, thoroughbred and barton),
it is mandatory to put thermal paste between the cpu die and heatsink !

Just a few thoughts regarding the issues in this thread:

1. If you want to run FSB200 or above, make sure to buy a v2.0 board or an -E Deluxe. The old A7N8X v1.x only got the old NF2 (non-Ultra 400) chipset. Asus released some bios versions which should allow for 200Mhz for the old boards though.
2. If you use a cpu with low default fsb (100, 133, 166), make sure to use a modbios with soft L12 mod or place a wire in the socket for a L12 hard mod. Else the board will load the (tight) low fsb straps and you won't be able to reach higher fsb regions, regardless of the multi applied.
3. A7N8X feeds the cpu off the 5V rail, so make sure to have at least 20amps on 5V as bare minimum. 25A or more is recommended.
4. OPs cpu is the 200Mhz variant. XP 3200+ got 2200Mhz default clock and you can see the multi 11 (200 x 11 = 2200) in his screenshots.
5. you can actually set the full multi range from 5 to 24, but it may require a wire in the socket to unlock >12.5x.
6. A7N8X (and any other NF2 board) got AGP and PCI lock, so don't worry about high pci clocks when raising the fsb.
7. keep the FSB jumper at the recommended setting (not 100!), it doesn't do anything anyways.
8. always keep the FSB in sync to the ram on NF2. Even if that means that you have to lower the FSB or ram clocks. NF2 is way faster when in sync.
9. Depending on the production week of the cpu, it may or may not be superlocked. This applied to most cpus which are (roughly) made in week 35 2003 or newer, except mobile cpus. Superlock means that you can't change the multi and if you try it, the system won't boot with any multi except the default one.

If you need a fast modbios for the A7N8X Deluxe v2.0, then i'd recommend one made by digitalbath. It has new options built in, the above mentioned L12 mod and is crazy fast. I'd go with either the 619XT or the EBED one. Links:
https://biosbude.de/%21%20BIOS%20VAULT/Asus/A … .0/digitalbath/

Also, if you need a memory tweaker for the NF2, use this one made by irusanov. Works great to unlock additional performance:
https://github.com/irusanov/nForce2-xtreme-tw … er-vcl/releases

My Thoroughbred 1700+ was capable of 2400Mhz, a 1Ghz overclock. It was quite common for 1700+. My Epox 8K5A2+ board with KT333 chipset was capable of about 210Mhz FSB when new. Right now only 133Mhz FSB is stable, most likely due to bad caps. If you can't reach 200Mhz FSB, replace caps.

Contrary to popular belief it is possible to operate even Barton 2500+ for a few minutes without thermal paste. I have a few Athlon CPUs and I tested all of them without thermal paste by entering BIOS setup and playing around with it for a few minutes. Same with Athlon 64 and Pentium III.

It is mostly irrelevant if you buy Barton 2500+ or Barton 3200+. You will simply overclock 2500+ to 3200+ speed. Same with Thoroughbreds.

If the caps are bad, then the board won't become stable. If you try to overclock the fsb without L12 mod, it won't be stable. And (speciality of the A7N8X) if the system was unstable, sometimes even a reboot won't fix it. The system may even hang at underclocked fsb speeds... Easy solution is to remove ram (or otherwise make the boot fail), let it boot without ram, power down, reinsert and then power up again so the board boots in "fail-safe" mode at 100x6. Set all settings in bios and the board is magically stable again at higher fsb. I've had this happen on multiple boards and i'm not alone with this...

I've got about 50 Athon XP laying in the drawer. The best one is a 2600+ mobile which hits 2.7ghz on watercooling and my trusty, heavily modded A7N8X which reaches 294Mhz FSB for valids and 270MHz 60mins Prime95 stable. Also 260Mhz all tight with Winbond BH-6 at 3.65V.

I was having a similar problem to this where it would crash my video card each time I tried to run at 3200+ but it wouldn't when I dropped the multiplier. I'm guessing caps too, but I hadn't had a chance to replace them all yet.

If you intend to replace the caps on A7N8X, you can go for either Kemet A750 4V 2200uF or Nichicon PLG 4V 2700uF right next to the cpu socket (5 caps), these are exposed to vcore (<2V). The three caps next to the AGP socket can be replaced with either Panasonic FR 6.3V 3300uF (10x25mm) or Kemet A750 2200uF 16V. As the cpu is fed off 5V either will work.

Tzk wrote on 2022-10-01, 20:39:

Just a few thoughts regarding the issues in this thread:

1. If you want to run FSB200 or above, make sure to buy a v2.0 board or an -E Deluxe. The old A7N8X v1.x only got the old NF2 (non-Ultra 400) chipset. Asus released some bios versions which should allow for 200Mhz for the old boards though.

I cannot' find a bios rev v2.0 for the A7N8X-E Deluxe. On their website there are no bios with rev. indication
I bought a A7N8X-E Deluxe and it is rev. 1.01, the only one that exists I think or?
And it has NF2 Ultra

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-10-06, 19:36:

I cannot' find a bios rev v2.0 for the A7N8X-E Deluxe. On their website there are no bios with rev. indication I bought a A7N8X- […]
Show full quote

Tzk wrote on 2022-10-01, 20:39:

Just a few thoughts regarding the issues in this thread:

1. If you want to run FSB200 or above, make sure to buy a v2.0 board or an -E Deluxe. The old A7N8X v1.x only got the old NF2 (non-Ultra 400) chipset. Asus released some bios versions which should allow for 200Mhz for the old boards though.

I cannot' find a bios rev v2.0 for the A7N8X-E Deluxe. On their website there are no bios with rev. indication
I bought a A7N8X-E Deluxe and it is rev. 1.01, the only one that exists I think or?
And it has NF2 Ultra

The -E only has a v1 Rev. Without the -E has a rev. 2.

Here is a link to the Uber BIOS mods, should you have interest. I used the 1013 SATA enhanced BIOS in a recent Quake3 contest. Being able to disable ACPI and IDE controllers was a nice plus, among other things.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060503013810/ht … michael.mcclay/

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-10-06, 19:36:

I cannot' find a bios rev v2.0 for the A7N8X-E Deluxe. On their website there are no bios with rev. indication
I bought a A7N8X-E Deluxe and it is rev. 1.01, the only one that exists I think or?

You're looking for these boards: A7N8X Deluxe v2.x and A7N8X-E Deluxe v1.x. There's no -E Deluxe v2.x.

Meatball wrote on 2022-10-06, 20:09:

Here is a link to the Uber BIOS mods, should you have interest. I used the 1013 SATA enhanced BIOS in a recent Quake3 contest. Being able to disable ACPI and IDE controllers was a nice plus, among other things.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060503013810/ht … michael.mcclay/

I'd rather not use the Uber versions. It basically just includes a bit newer SATA rom and has some options unhidden. That's it. No other romsips, no tweaks, no new options. If you want a really fast bios, you have to use the ones made recently by digitalbath. They got all options unhidden, newest SATA rom, new romsips and even new options in bios like Dram drive strength, alpha timings and such.

If you use his 619XT or ED55 versions, those are the ones which will have really good bandwidth and (with hardmods and a bit of silicon luck) will allow for 260MHz FSB+.
Link: https://biosbude.de/%21%20BIOS%20VAULT/Asus/A … xe/digitalbath/

We reverse engineered chipset registers, added these options and did tons of more work on the bios to get that far. We started this project in 2019 and aren't finished yet. There's simply no better bios than his right now.

Interesting, any list of changes for ABIT AN7?

Without the -E has a rev. 2.

Apparently, some rev. 2 boards still used older Nforce 2 SPP, which is not certified for 200 Mhz.

Asus made some of their boards 200-MHz capable by slowing them down (ROMSIPS).
Every Bios that is clocking very high is basically a mod of the Sips Oskar Wu (DFI, LanParty-Boards) found out on the nForce2 (LP B, Infinity).

example Changelog of an AN7

Based on official bios 19 for Abit AN7.
Modded by digitalbath on hardwareluxx.de forums in Apr.2022
Huge thanks to Tzk, Antinomy and Infrared on HWBot

!!! THIS BIOS IS UNTESTED, PRECEED WITH CAUTION !!!
!!! I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE THIS BIOS CAUSES !!!
!!! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!

changes made:
* NVDAMC 3.19
* tweaked romsips for PI / based on Merlins ED and Infrareds sips
* Soft L12 Mod
* AMD Athlon XP-M name
* added advanced DRAM timings
* moved DRAM settings to a single menu
* added a alpha timing preset "Winbond"

!! the romsips for Interface enable were optimized for high !!
!! FSB frequencies. System may freeze for <=200MHz FSB. !!
!! just boot at FSB >220MHz !!
!! Interface disable should work at all frequencies. !!

And that is what digitalbath achieved with an AN7
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads … 3/post-29169392

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-10-10, 02:38:

Apparently, some rev. 2 boards still used older Nforce 2 SPP, which is not certified for 200 Mhz.

I've yet to see any A7N8X v2 with the old NF2 SPP. You can easily tell the "new" A1 and "old" A2 revisions apart, because the old NF2 had round metal plate on the chip while the new one is fully plastic. There were some early NF2 U400 chips without the "ultra 400" print on them, but those still got the full plastic package and are revision A1. IIRC the oldest nf2 u400 chips were made in week 7 2003 and nvidia added the "Ultra 400" print between weeks 12 and 16.

Here's a post on german hardwareluxx forums with such a A1 ("ultra 400") chip made in week 7 2003, but without the ultra 400 print.
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads … 8#post-27627222

And a post with a 16 2003 NF2 400 chip with the new print:
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads … 9#post-27434785

And, if you're curios, this is the biggest listing of NF2 chipsets with photos and production weeks i personally know, almost 300 boards:
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads … 9#post-27073135

Hi to all

after a little period I tried again to boot this system. I changed the MB so now I have a A7N8X-E Deluxe with AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 400 FSB.
The system starts but when i save the BIOS changes it does not reboot and hangs...
Note that "changes" are only go to save and exit. Because I'm tring to boos with default value
I have always to clear the CMOS and again same sequence.
Really new to this problem that actually I cannot understand.

Above the harware:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400 FSB)
MB: A7N8X-E Deluxe, BIOS ver. 1013
RAM: Corsair XMS Platinum Twinx CMX512-3200C2PT CL2

Does anyone had this problem once in life?

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-10-20, 17:10:

Hi to all […]
Show full quote

Hi to all

after a little period I tried again to boot this system. I changed the MB so now I have a A7N8X-E Deluxe with AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 400 FSB.
The system starts but when i save the BIOS changes it does not reboot and hangs...
Note that "changes" are only go to save and exit. Because I'm tring to boos with default value
I have always to clear the CMOS and again same sequence.
Really new to this problem that actually I cannot understand.

Above the harware:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400 FSB)
MB: A7N8X-E Deluxe, BIOS ver. 1013
RAM: Corsair XMS Platinum Twinx CMX512-3200C2PT CL2

Does anyone had this problem once in life?

If you don't have the option to "ONLY SAVE" without exiting (only 'save & exit'), update the BIOS to the latest version. It doesn't sound like you're running the latest BIOS. There were many fixes for RAM even up to the final revision, also.

https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/A7N8X-E%2 … /HelpDesk_BIOS/

Without going into hardcore tuning (and I'm not an expert), I have found this board becoming extremely picky with RAM when running FSB and memory above 200MHz (400 effective) and above 512MB with the XP 3200+. The NF7-S2 was the same way, so maybe an nForce2 implementation quirk. I tried other off vanilla/average Crucial RAM with 1GB modules and Kingston, but the Asus was not stable at all with any sort of performance tweaking above 512MB (unless the CPU was an earlier version like a Thunderbird or Palamino)

In the end, I settled on the Corsair TWINX 2x256MB in 200MHz Dual Channel and set 2-3-3-5 timings, which is just fine for retro gaming on early XP and Windows 9X. Stability is paramount compared to ultimate speed (which I can just move to a faster machine instead of torturing old hardware in this case - but in other cases it may be different 😀))))))

Meatball wrote on 2022-10-21, 14:44:

If you don't have the option to "ONLY SAVE" without exiting (only 'save & exit'), update the BIOS to the latest version. It doe […]
Show full quote

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-10-20, 17:10:

Hi to all […]
Show full quote

Hi to all

after a little period I tried again to boot this system. I changed the MB so now I have a A7N8X-E Deluxe with AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 400 FSB.
The system starts but when i save the BIOS changes it does not reboot and hangs...
Note that "changes" are only go to save and exit. Because I'm tring to boos with default value
I have always to clear the CMOS and again same sequence.
Really new to this problem that actually I cannot understand.

Above the harware:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400 FSB)
MB: A7N8X-E Deluxe, BIOS ver. 1013
RAM: Corsair XMS Platinum Twinx CMX512-3200C2PT CL2

Does anyone had this problem once in life?

If you don't have the option to "ONLY SAVE" without exiting (only 'save & exit'), update the BIOS to the latest version. It doesn't sound like you're running the latest BIOS. There were many fixes for RAM even up to the final revision, also.

https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/A7N8X-E%2 … /HelpDesk_BIOS/

Without going into hardcore tuning (and I'm not an expert), I have found this board becoming extremely picky with RAM when running FSB and memory above 200MHz (400 effective) and above 512MB with the XP 3200+. The NF7-S2 was the same way, so maybe an nForce2 implementation quirk. I tried other off vanilla/average Crucial RAM with 1GB modules and Kingston, but the Asus was not stable at all with any sort of performance tweaking above 512MB (unless the CPU was an earlier version like a Thunderbird or Palamino)

In the end, I settled on the Corsair TWINX 2x256MB in 200MHz Dual Channel and set 2-3-3-5 timings, which is just fine for retro gaming on early XP and Windows 9X. Stability is paramount compared to ultimate speed (which I can just move to a faster machine instead of torturing old hardware in this case - but in other cases it may be different 😀))))))

Thank you for support.
Well I have already the last BIOS version (1013) and I have the same issue with one memory stick too.
Now I see that I become a new message on boot too: CMOS checksum errore -Loading Defaults...
Could be the battery?
My last chance is to try with other ram or only with 512 mb again. Is there maybe a correct voltage to set for the ram?
I do'nt know if the MB set as default the correct voltage

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-10-21, 15:58:

Thank you for support. Well I have already the last BIOS version (1013) and I have the same issue with one memory stick too. Now […]
Show full quote

Meatball wrote on 2022-10-21, 14:44:

If you don't have the option to "ONLY SAVE" without exiting (only 'save & exit'), update the BIOS to the latest version. It doe […]
Show full quote

TrueVegas wrote on 2022-10-20, 17:10:

Hi to all […]
Show full quote

Hi to all

after a little period I tried again to boot this system. I changed the MB so now I have a A7N8X-E Deluxe with AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 400 FSB.
The system starts but when i save the BIOS changes it does not reboot and hangs...
Note that "changes" are only go to save and exit. Because I'm tring to boos with default value
I have always to clear the CMOS and again same sequence.
Really new to this problem that actually I cannot understand.

Above the harware:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400 FSB)
MB: A7N8X-E Deluxe, BIOS ver. 1013
RAM: Corsair XMS Platinum Twinx CMX512-3200C2PT CL2

Does anyone had this problem once in life?

If you don't have the option to "ONLY SAVE" without exiting (only 'save & exit'), update the BIOS to the latest version. It doesn't sound like you're running the latest BIOS. There were many fixes for RAM even up to the final revision, also.

https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/A7N8X-E%2 … /HelpDesk_BIOS/

Without going into hardcore tuning (and I'm not an expert), I have found this board becoming extremely picky with RAM when running FSB and memory above 200MHz (400 effective) and above 512MB with the XP 3200+. The NF7-S2 was the same way, so maybe an nForce2 implementation quirk. I tried other off vanilla/average Crucial RAM with 1GB modules and Kingston, but the Asus was not stable at all with any sort of performance tweaking above 512MB (unless the CPU was an earlier version like a Thunderbird or Palamino)

In the end, I settled on the Corsair TWINX 2x256MB in 200MHz Dual Channel and set 2-3-3-5 timings, which is just fine for retro gaming on early XP and Windows 9X. Stability is paramount compared to ultimate speed (which I can just move to a faster machine instead of torturing old hardware in this case - but in other cases it may be different 😀))))))

Thank you for support.
Well I have already the last BIOS version (1013) and I have the same issue with one memory stick too.
Now I see that I become a new message on boot too: CMOS checksum errore -Loading Defaults...
Could be the battery?
My last chance is to try with other ram or only with 512 mb again. Is there maybe a correct voltage to set for the ram?
I do'nt know if the MB set as default the correct voltage

Don't install the RAM into the 1st slot closest to the CPU. Use the 2nd and 3rd slots furthest away. If you are using two sticks, you will see 'Dual Channel' enabled during POST with this setup.
If you're getting checksum errors, yes, change to a fresh battery.
RAM voltage is fine with default settings and only needs to be changed if raising speeds and timings to more extreme settings.
Trying other RAM is usually a good idea during POST problems, especially with this board.

I made some other tests:
I bought 2 new modules of ram: KVR400X64C25/256. Those are QVL certified as the MB documentation says
I changed the MB with a A7N8X Deluxe rev 2.0 with last bios version 1008
The first thing is that I get the same error on this MB on boot: "CMOS checksum error -Loading Defaults...", i press DEL to set 200 FSB and on rebbot the system hangs on black screen.
I have to clear the CMOS again and then same loop (even if I change anything and select "Save and Exit" or change somthing to Enable/Disable)
After the CMOS clear If I do not enter enter into the bios settings, the system says again "CMOS error..." I press F1 and then reboots with POST ok every time.
I get alway "CMOS error ..."only on the first time when I clear the CMOS.
I think I bring with me the "broken variable" during the tests. The only component that I never changed is the CPU.
Coul it be a ""broken"" CPU?
It is really hard to understand what is wrong and I don't think that I got 2 "broken" MB.
System recap:
-CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Barton 400 FSB
-MB: Asus A7N8X Deluxe (rev 2.0, bios 1008) or A7N8X-E Deluxe (rev. 1.01, bios 1013)
-HD: Toshiba 500 Gb S-ATA or Samsung 40 Gb ATA 133
-RAM: 2xCorsair XMS CMX512-3200C2PT or 2xKVR400X64C25/256
-PSU: Enermax Modu 82+ 450W
-VC: ATI Radeon 9700 PRO 128 Mb
I tried to install Windows ME or XP with FSB 100 (that seams to be stable) but when the install reboots the system sometimes reboots and sometimes not hanging on black screen.
If a guru can illuminate me or I think I have to leave this project -__-
Thank you guys for support