Gigabyte GA-K8NS & Athlon64 2800+ problem

[Ostsol]

Recently got the two on sale from a local store. Everything's hooked up alright and the thing POSTs. The computer identifies the CPU correctly, but reports the CPU frequency as 200 MHz. We've got a single-sided 256 MB stick of 400 MHz DDR-RAM in there, so it's not as if we're throttling the bus. Any similar experiences with this motherboard? Any help/thoughts?

 

[MasterBaiter]

Obvious question here... have you updated the bios yet?

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-K8NS.htm

 

[Ostsol]

Yep, BIOS is updated.

 

[MasterBaiter]

Suckage.

I don't what else to try other than rummaging around in bios and seeing if something isn't ticked properly or something. :? You may also want to try and verify that bus speed with a program like CPU-Z.

-edit- Out of curiosity wouldn't the cpu show a memory bus speed of 200 Mhz while the memory itself would run @ 400 hence the ddr terminology (runs @ twice the bus speed)? I"m probably confusing myself here....

 

[Ostsol]

Yeah, I was looking through that and everything seemed okay. In Windows it's reported at the proper speed and certainly behaves much faster than 200 MHz. However, that's only when it manages to get into Windows. More often than not it'll halt on the initial splash screen, flash a blue screen with some text (far too fast to read) and automatically restart. I wonder if the motherboard is faulty. . .

EDIT: Oh, and if often takes about five minutes for Windows to shutdown. This is a clean install of WinXP, too.

 

[MasterBaiter]

Hmm.. It sucks, but I'd try a windows re-install first before condeming the mobo (and a HD/memtest).

 

[Ostsol]

Erg. . . The RAM is new, bought with the motherboard. The hard-drive is an old 20 gig (only a year old, actually; it's a replacement from Maxtor) and the video card is an older TNT2 Ultra.

-edit- Out of curiosity wouldn't the cpu show a memory bus speed of 200 Mhz while the memory itself would run @ 400 hence the ddr terminology (runs @ twice the bus speed)?

*shrugs*

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

What PSU do you have on it?

 

[Ostsol]

500 watts.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

Try setting the memory inthe bios to T2 or command 2. The A64 mem controler is picky and some memory is not stable at T1 and if that wont work then set the memory to 166(333) and try that.