Asus P3B-F not living up to potential...Help!!

[dbennett02]

Hey,

I'm hoping you guys could help me These are my computer stats:
350 Watt Powersupply
Asus P3B-F Motherboard
P3 800mhz Processor
3x 256MB PC100 SDRAM
GeForce3 Ti200

Now for the problem.
I'm trying to get BIOS to realise I have the processor and ram...which it is capable of using...I've read other forums/sites that use the same parts as me.

Processor: When I bootup, it says I have a 400mhz ... I go into BIOS, set it from 400mhz to Manual and up the setting below from 1.00 to 1.20 (max)...that'll set the Processor to 720mhz next bootup, but also makes it run at 50 Celsius!! That's 5 degrees above when it downspeeded to 400.
My P4's don't run at 25c! Why should a P3 run double!

How can I make BIOS realise it has an 800mhz Processor?

RAM: On bootup, it says I have 384MB of RAM in there. There's 768MB tho.
I have tried booting with each RAM stick by itself, and it reports 128MB.
I have tried booting with one 128MB stick, and it reports 64MB!
What's going on there??

I'm at a loss myself =/ Is there some trick with JumperSettings or BIOSSettings? Please help! I can overclock P4's & AMD's, but this P3 makes me feel like a caveman, and I'm not O/C'ing it. I feel like an *****.

Thanks in advance!!
Dave

 

[Didou]

Well it seems your CPU uses a 133mhz FSB. If your board can't properly set that FSB (PCI/AGP frequencies too high) then you have your first problem there. A lot of old motherboards had problems with high density modules. 256mb modules used 8x 32mb chips & it seems your board can only use the first 4.

The heat problem would be due to a bad heatsink installation. P3s do not tend ot run very hot especially at that speed. Have you checked for a proper contact between the core of the CPU & the heatsink ?

 

[dbennett02]

Hey!

Thanks for the reply, the FSB comment got me thinking After a long, hard time I was able to manually flash the BIOS with a revision made in 2001...it really didn't want to do that, but now I can overclock to 900mhz!

2 more issues tho...the heatsink is impossible to remove, I looked up instructions on the net, and at the clips on the board. If I try to forcefully remove it, I stand a high chance of breaking it...

Do you think if I directed some powerful fans on it, it would lower temperature?
It steadily rises from 25c to 40-50c over 2 minutes.


I examined the RAM, and you may indeed be right, they have 8 chips per stick...is there any technical resource that could tell me how to configure ALL the chips to be used? My bios offers RAM tweaking...but all the terms just boggle the mind.

Thanks again
Dave

 

[dbennett02]

I was just looking up low density ram, and they too have 8 chips on one side...I'm confused...it doesn't look any different from high density ram.

 

[apollo]

half memory seen by ASUS P3B-F board

In the manual of the asus P3B-F board it reads:
single-sided DIMMs come in 16,32,64,128MB; double-sided come in 32,64,128,256MB

Found that new single sided 256MB memory was recognised as 128MB
So you should use doublesided SDRAM, PC133-compliant. :knock: