fsb problem with dual xeon board

[ocarinaboy]

so i'm trying to build a pc out of old parts for my gf and get this server board i used to use. it's an Iwill DH800. i put in two 3.4 ghz xeon nonaca (or however you spell it). the thing boots but the bios is reading the cpu at 1.7 ghz and only 400 fsb. the board is only supposed to support 533/800 fsb and both xeons are 800 fsb. in addition, the ram has been downclocked from ddr400 to ddr 266 (or now that i'm writing this it might've even said 233, can't recall)... again, this board is only supposed to support ddr at 333/400

i asked my programmer buddy who is slightly more computer savvy than i and he has never heard of a board doing anything like this. normally, since the chip is rated for 3.4 ghz, i'd just overclock it to the correct speed (that's what i had to do with my quad core 2.4 when it would only run 2.2 in the board i had), but if the fsb is really limiting itself to 400, than overclocking that much could cause some serious heat issues.

has anyone heard of a problem like this or have any suggestions? the board (to my knowledge) is physically fine and has never been exposed to any abnormal static. at one point, about a year ago, this board was running both these xeons at the correct bus and freq. i don't know what happened

[AW_3_3]

Hello ocarina, im terribly sorry for the delay for an answer. Try going into the BIOS, and manually setting the FSB to 800Mhz (it may also be 200Mhz, depending on your BIOS design) and find the memory setting and set the divider to 2/1 (FSB/Memory) or 1/1, depending once again on your BIOS design. If the processor is a 3.4Ghz part, running it as such speed will not hurt it.

[ocarinaboy]

ok, i've done more research and played with more settings and figured out a little more...

the bios lets me set the external fsb which is currently at 100, hence the cpu fsb running at 400 and freq at 1.7, and the ram is at 266

i try locking the agp/pci at 66/33 and have even set the voltage for the ram and cpu and the timing for the ram to the factory defaults (of what intel says about my xeon and what rosewill says for the ram)... with this done, i can clock the external speed somewhere between 130 and 149 before i get a black screen on reboot... once i get the black screen, i have to reset the bios and start again....

i say the fsb is between 130 and 149 because depending on how slow i overclock it, it gives me a black screen at different times.... for example, if i have just reset the bios and set the fsb from 100 to 130, i'm fine. if i jump it from 130 to 140, it goes black on reboot..... now if go from 130 to 133, to 136, t 140, to 143, to 146, to 149, it stays fine until i push it up one more to 150

so now my issue is this black screen... i don't think it's even booting because normally i get a beep on post and when the black screen occurs, there is no beep.....

as i said before, this board/cpu/ram/gpu/etc were all working at there designed levels several months back, so i don't understand the issue

oh and there is not setting to manually set the ram clock, the ram clock is either set to auto or fixed 266, but regardless of which setting i set it, the ram clock increases in proportion to the fsb

thanks for the help, any more insights would be useful

[ocarinaboy]

a list of all the cpu setttings available for ram and cpu in the overclock section of my bios (about 15-20 of them)

*ratio cmos setting (set between 14 and 17, currently set to 17 to put freq at 1.7 (14 puts at 1.4))
*max cpuid value limite (disable/enable) currently disabled
*execute disable bit (disable/enabled) currently enabled
*c1e support (execute disable bit) selected only option
*hardware prefetcher (enable/disable) currently enabled
*adjacent cache line prefetch (enable/disable) currently enabled

*cpu frequency (set number) currently at 100
*dram frequence (auto/266) currently at auto
*configure dram timing by spd (enabled/disable) currently enabled but when disabled gives:
**dram cas# latency set at 3
**dram ras# precharge set at 4 clocks
**dram ras# to cas# delay set to 4 clocks
**dram precharge delay set at 8 clocks
**dram burst length set at 4
*dram integrety mode (disable/ecc) currently disabled
*fix agp/pci/src freq set at 66/33/100 (also has 72/36/100 and 80/40/100 or disable)
*cpu voltage currently set at 3.55
*ddr voltage currently set at 2.7
*spread spectrum (disable/ -0.4% / -0.5% / -0.6% / -1.0%)

hopes that helps too

[AW_3_3]

O-K.

Set the CPU Multiplier to 17

Set the CPU Frequency to 200

DRAM Frequency to AUTO,

The Configure DRAM Timing off, and set the following to-- 2.5, 3, 3, 6, 4,

DRAM Inegrity- Disable

Fix at 66/33/100

CPU Voltage (holy crud thats high) uhh.. set it to AUTO if available, otherwise try setting to 1.3v

Set DDR Voltage to AUTO, if avaialbe, otherwise try 2.5, or 2.6

Spread Spectrum- Disable

[ocarinaboy]

ok, tried it with those settings and still get no post and a no beep on reboot....

by the way, the voltage for the cpu was a typo on my part, sorry... normally i set it at 1.355, since that's the recommended according to intel

[AW_3_3]

Thats very interesting. Run it on settings that work, and try to flash the BIOS to the latest version.

[ocarinaboy]

yeah, that was my next plan once i get the time, but it just seems like i shouldn't need to considering this version of bios is the one that worked before... i think that's why i'm so irritated at this thing, there's no reason it should've randomly stopped working.... well other than the robot rebellion

[AW_3_3]

It could be its just a bad board.. but i recommend flashing it anyway

[ocarinaboy]

flashed bios to latest and ti still doesnt' work....

i even tried a lower bus speed, like 133, and it would boot to windows but would random restart the computer... the only setting it runs stable on is 100

[AW_3_3]

Sorry for the delay, i have been moving and have not/will not be on very much till the move is over. It sounds like a motherboard issue if it wont boot any higher than 100. how fast is your memory rated and how high is it running?

[ocarinaboy]

memory is ddr400 running at 266