Panama Red please read! Kingston and M7NCD Biostar

[Khalil]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=156794

In that thread you brought up Kingston PC3200 Value Ram.

I had a similar problem with my Biostar M7NCD using 2 1 Gig Sticks of Kingston PC3200 Value Ram.
In middle of gaming the machine would reboot, I am currently playing BF2 and EQ2. I use this computer at work during my down time.
Biostar claim the board can handle 400/200 FSB however the problem continued till I lowered the FSB to 333/166, when I did that, Windows is now reading in the system screen my AMD Athlon 3200 as a 2500, for 15 days the system been very stable without a single crash. In my mind I blamed the Biostar board, lets face it, its no Asus.
Is this an issue with the Kingston sticks?
Thanks in advance.

[Dustmann]

Originally Posted by Khalil In my mind I blamed the Biostar board, lets face it, its no Asus.

Looks like you found your own problem. At least you don't have a VIA chipset, I had an old via biostar board and it was a nightmare!

But to answer your question, did you look at the temperatures to make sure the board isnt overheating? I would first take a look at the bios and be sure that you have the latest bios version. Head over to the biostar website www.biostar.com.tw

Oh yeah sorry, I'm not panama red, but I try to help out.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by Dustmann Looks like you found your own problem. At least you don't have a VIA chipset, I had an old via biostar board and it was a nightmare! But to answer your question, did you look at the temperatures to make sure the board isnt overheating? I would first take a look at the bios and be sure that you have the latest bios version. Head over to the biostar website www.biostar.com.tw Oh yeah sorry, I'm not panama red, but I try to help out.

And your help is most appreciated kind Sir, the temps on both the board and the pcrocessor are under 40C.
I did update to the latest drivers, on the Biostar-USA website they are 2 years old but thats the drivers I got.
I can't see a difference in performance in 166 compared to 200, maybe its not noticeable. I had a stick PNY 1 gig PC2700 in that machine before I replaced them for the 2x 1 gig PC3200 Kingston sticks.
I still would like for the motherboard to run at 400 FSB though.

[Dustmann]

Well it may be your ram then if that's the case. Can you adjust timings on your ram from the bios? Try running the fsb at 200, and the ram at 166 and see what happens. Maybe the timings are too tight for that valueram to keep up at 200. If everything works fine at pc2700, you have found your problem, and play with raising the timings to say 3-5-5-10 or something ridiciulously high like that, and gradually bring them back down.

[Panama Red]

The issue I discovered that was confirmed by phone with Kingston was an incompatibility using a 1Gb kit (2 x 512) of Kingston VR in an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe with a 400fsb 3000+ cpu. Kingston said it would not work with a 400fsb processor on that board. Not sure if it's the same chipset (nForce2) as your board but a call or email to Kingston may be the best option for you.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by Panama Red The issue I discovered that was confirmed by phone with Kingston was an incompatibility using a 1Gb kit (2 x 512) of Kingston VR in an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe with a 400fsb 3000+ cpu. Kingston said it would not work with a 400fsb processor on that board. Not sure if it's the same chipset (nForce2) as your board but a call or email to Kingston may be the best option for you.

Thanks Panama for the great advice.
I called Kingston, they said my motherboard was never designed to go 400 FSB.
I called Biostar and they said my Motherboard is very old now and I should consider replacing it for a newer Socket A to get the best results. The dude's english was terrible and I never got an answer to my original question.

I have always liked this board because it never gave me any problems and I have owned it since mid 2002.
I am not going to bother replacing it for now because as I stated earlier I am not seeing any difference in performance at 333 FSB and it seems to be very stable, from now on though it will be Asus 100% for me.