AMD motherboard/memory problem
 

I really didn't know how pare down the problem to a bite sized title.

Thanks for sticking it out :)

A friend of mine bought a ASRock k7vt4a+ w/ an AMD 2700+ and a stick of 512MB of RAM.

He can set the FSB to 266mhz and it runs fine. Nice and stable and no problems other than his 2700+ is recognized as a 2100+ by XP. When he changes the FSB to 333mhz to take full advantage of his 2700+, it wigs out. He gets an assortment of error messages:

1- an error message telling him to disable his anti-virus software.
2- an error message telling him that "IRQ is less or not equal" (whatever that means. I asked him if that was right, he said that's what he wrote down....)
3- no error message at all. BSOD with all the tripe, but no specific error to record.

He can set the FSB back to 266mhz and it runs just fine.

It's a 2700+ processor. I took off the heatsink and fan and checked it myself. The BIOS recognizes it as a 2700+ when the FSB is 333mhz, but windows xp won't load at all.

Any ideas? At first he thought it was a memory problem, so he RMA'd it back and received new memory, but the problems persist.

Hmm, I looked up the MB, its one of the older ones. It may just not support something as fast as a 2700+. I think 2400+ may be it's maximum, even though the FSB is supported.

Is the ram ECC? or non-ECC. That could be a problem as well. And if you exchanged the ram, then it probably isnt the ram. I would suggest a new MB.

The ASUS "A7V880" VIA KT880 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL is only $69.00 at newegg.

Says the AMD 2700+ with a thoroughbred-b core w/333mhz FSB is supported right here...

So if it supports it, then it's just a setting I'm missing then, right? I mean, if the hardware is okay with it then it must be a setting either on the board itself or in the BIOS that isn't meshing, right?

I've set the jumpers on the board according to the pretty picture the manual supplies. So, maybe it's a BIOS setting that I'm not changing or haven't found?

ARGHHH!! so irritating!

Hmm, if all else checks out, it may be mislabelled. I heard about a large batch of AMD processors going out labelled wrong. If it's a 2100+, labelled as a 2700+ say, then at 333 fsb, the comp would think its a 2700+ and label it so, but it would basically be overclocking. Only reason I bring this up is I had a friend who ordered a 2500+ barton, but it was really a 2100+ and he had some of the same problems you are having. He sent it back, and got a new one, and it worked fine.

That's all I can think of, don't know what else to tell you. ASUS+AMD are my favorite MB+CPU combo, though, they work extremely well together.