Did Multiwave-Direct screw me

[bomac]

I ordered a motherboard, CPU, and cooling fan. I paid a fee to have one of their technicians install the CPU and test the board. After I received and installed everything I noticed that the board only supported CPU’s up to 1400+, the one I purchased and had them install was an AMD XP 1700. The computer worked and so I let it go, not being smart enough to know any better. I have had what I thought was a lot so software problems with this computer, crashes and lockups. Recently I tried upgrading to Windows XP hoping that this more stable OS would solve my problems. After getting it installed the computer shut down and went into safe-mode telling me that the reason was because my CPU speed was incorrect, not an exact quote. It appears to me that all my software problems may have been caused by incorrect hardware. Dose anyone else think that the CPU motherboard combination is wrong.
The most obvious answer might be, no they didn’t screw you they gave you what you ordered. Well this was my first try at upgrading and a lot of the technical terms are over my head, I claim ignorance I don’t think that should be their claim.
I ran a program called Sandra, it say’s that my CPU is a 1700 running at 1460, the voltage is at 1.7, Sandra also says that I have host controller disabled. I have gone through the BIOS and I can’t find anything labeled host controller. Some of the crashes I get are called Windows protection and the computer just stops. I hope I posted this in the right area if not just let me know and I will move over to hardware.
Sandra also claims that my mother board is up gradable, to 1700+, that doesn’t make any sense to me, I guess I should mention it is a ASUS model A7A133/WOA-UAY, and I have been to their site. They tell me to go the reseller site and I have but so far no response.

[ktkendall]

It actually sounds like you have not installed the drivers that came with the Motherboard, or for whatever reason all the correct drivers are not installed. I think an amd-xp1700 runs at around 1.4Gig, and I don't think the cpu is the problem. What is your device manager showing, and how did you go about upgrading your system to utilize this new board?? (Clean install, or used previous intall of windows from old MOBO and let windows detect all the new hardware)

[Alfie]

The board you chose wasn't the wisest of choices,the 133 chipset does support a 133 fsb,but it was designed for the Tbirds @133 fsb.
Although XP's may run on it,you're pushing the limitations of the board.
Have you updated the bios on the board,this may help in solving some problems.
For XP cpus you're better off with the 266a chipset or the 333 chipset.
Mwave is pretty good,you may wan't to call them and tell them you made a mistake,or tell them the board isn't working properly and you want to exchange it for a board with the 266a,preferrably 333 chipset.

[bomac]

Since the motherboard was installed I have formated the drive twice and have had win 98, win ME, and XP Installed.

I have been afraid of trying to flash the bios because of all the horror stories that I have seen in the forums. But I will try that next

The device manager looks good.

I have contacted Multiwave through email but have not heard back yet.

[LawyerRon]

AMD's have an "advertised" speed (an Intel equivalent) but that's not the actual speed they run at.

[bomac]

UPDATE: First of all thanks to every one who has posted suggestions.
Multi-Wave’s support department returned my email, guess I was a little impatient, we have now exchanged several emails. They also suggested upgrading the BIOS and said that if it failed I could send the board back to them and they would make it right.
The flash went ok, so now as several of you have suggested I am testing the memory.
I down loaded a memory-checking program from http://www.memtest86.com and am running it as I speak. Not finished but I believe that slot 3 on the motherboard is bad, will let every one know the out come after I contact Multi-Wave.

[bomac]

I have kept a detailed log of how I tested but I will try and give you an abbreviated version. The results do not make any sense to me.
To start, I had 256 meg in slot one, 128 in slot two, and 128 in slot three. I ran the test and it showed errors.
I removed the memory from slots 2 and 3,ran the test, no errors
Removed the 256 and replaced it one of the 128's, no errors.
Removed the 128 and installed the other 128, no errors. Anyway after 7 test I figured I had it, slot 3 must be bad. Two more test blew that theroy. Nothing was making sense so I reinstalled all the memory, but this time I put 128 in the first slot and 128 in slot 2 and installed the 256 in slot 3. Tested no errors. If this makes sense to anyone I would like to hear from you.
My next move will do another clean install of the OS and see if the computer will respond in a positive way.

[glc]

Sounds like your 2 (or is it 3?) different types of memory are not playing together too well.