I was making a comp for my friend and it's just not livng up to the speed it should be. It's a 3000+ (AXP) yet on POST it shows 2175MHz or something, which I assume is the normal clock rate for the 3000+. Though, in the BIOS, I couldn't find a way for it to show the rating, so at least they know that they payed for what they get (they probably don't know that 2175MHz or whatever is a 3000+).

His mobo is SOYO KT400 Dragon Lite, he's got 1GB DDR PC2700, GF4 ti4200, 80gb ata133 maxtor, 450W PSU (ISO), and proper cooling with thermal grease. The cooling is the Vantec AeroFlow. The power doesn't have the problem, I know that, but I listed it just in case.

I got it working and I remember when installing, Windows said something about messing up the installation twice (one the first install) and said it would abort, it continued. Windows booted up etc.

The performance is just not what it should be. It's a little hoppy here and there, the bootup and shutdown are incredibly long. He has a 1.8GHz comp thats loaded on the HD space and starts faster, it even uses PC2100 512 (on XP), so definately, he knows something is wrong)!

Is there anything I can do in the BIOS to solve an issue like this? Btw, what exactly is the correct multiplier for the 3000+ 333FSB? Any other suggestions for BIOS and performance? I'm not trusting auto here... also, the mobo book doesn't come with ANY BIOS instructions, except to flash it--thats it!


Thanks so much guys! All input greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

I'm leaning towards reformatting, it may have been windows. BTW, Windows XP OEM SP1, and yes, I've activated it.

There's nothing wrong with the clock speed of 2.167 GHz although the Athlon XP 2800+ runs at a clock speed of 2.25 GHz which is odd. There's no harm putting auto on, it does less harm than manually tweaking it. Have you tried to do a clean installation of the OS which includes a full format of the HDD?

I'm going to try that today. I decided that's what it probably needs because windows did mess up installation but worked afterwords. But before installing, I put quick partrition or whatever.

You guys have any BIOS suggestions?

When I first bought my Barton 2500+ (1.86ghz) I thought the same thing since my tbred 2100+ (1.73 ghz) was almost just as fast.... I still havent seen a reason behind underclocking the bartons yet, I'm still looking for clarification... I do know that they are just sick overclockers... I've seen posts that people have gotten the 2500+ up too 2.4ghz on just aircooling...wow...
I've personally gotten my 2500+ up to 2.00ghz (10x200) and under full load it doesnt break 35 degrees celcius...

look at me rant and rave....sorry guys....little off topic

I would try and see if soyo does have an updated bios.. just in case... also updated hyperon drivers can help... if you are working with serial ata (not sure) those drivers will also help.... Also what kind of bios are you working with Award or American Megatrends (AMI)....