GA7N400L motherboard wil not boot up after fitting new ram

[aandyr]

Hi all, Iv'e just got this motherboard recently, Now things have settled down , Im trying to upgrade it. I got two 1 GB sticks of ram ddr 333 pc 2700 non ecc as advised by a website, only to find it wont boot up. Iv'e tryed first  putting in ddr 1 and ddr 3 no good. only one stick in ddr 1 [tryed both sticks] my origional memory is 2x512 mb ' 166 mhz which when put back in work ok. on start up it shows AMD Athlon XP 1800 +. Going into bios on advanced chip features FSB is set to 100 mhz but will only go to 300 mhz and memory freq  to 200 mhz. I thought this board would support to 400 mhz. Sorry im a newbie with limited knowledge so i wont alter any settings without help. One other thing it also said k 7 triton on the box if this helps. I downloaded a mobo manual but there are slight differences to it. the nearest one is GA7n400 L1 Many thanks AANDYR

[Vezina]

You are not telling us what is the CPU name so we know what FSB you may need to apply.
Frequency of the RAM could be shown as  200 Mhz instead of the 400Mhz ,,DDR being 2 times the real frequency (2X200 Mhz in your case).
If it s a a Barton under < 3000+ nomenclature the FSB should be 166 X 2 ,if it is and Athlon Throubread it s 133 X 2.
Depending on the type of the modules (dual channel or not) , the RAM speed may drop automatically one notch.
It is recommended to run memory speed identical to the FSB for smooth experience.

[aandyr]

Hi Vesina,Thanks for getting back to me.I have decided to get another cpu.I have seen one on ebay, It's   AMD Athlon XP 3200+ - 2.2 GHz Single-Core (AXDA3200DKV4E) Processor. Is this a good one to go for as i have no knowledge as to what is good or bad.If i install it [ obviously ] with new thermal grease, is there anything else to set up or is it just like installing anything else, just let it do it's thing. I also noticed on the motherboard that there is a number of click switches above the processor, i cant remember how many i think 6. without looking.Im hoping that then i will be able to install the ram that i purchased =2x pc2700 ddr333x 1gb.Many thanks for your help. aandyr.

[Vezina]

The board supports the CPU and it should set it automatically .
If it doesn t you will need to go into BIOS and set 400Mhz FSB.

But now you would better get DDR 400 to get the maximum out of the configuration
It will run Windows 7 just fine with 4 Gigs of RAM ,if yo have a  DX 9 AGP video card with a good amount of VRAM.
Careful when installing the CPU to not damage the exposed chip ,check it visually before installing as well.

The switches should be documented in the manual.


LE: I have also took a look in the manual.The jumpers need to be set prior to starting the system.Page 14 describes this little jumpers

For AUTO detection of the multiplier of the CPU you need to set them all to Off.This are the ones on the to pof the board.
Detection should  be made automatically nevertheless as not many CPU-s are unlocked.Some are some are  not.

For the CLK_SW ,that controls FSB it seems that for Auto(266/333/400 FSB) you need to set it to ON.In Off position you set the FSB to 100Mhz.Most probable it was intended for Durons.

[aandyr]

Hi Vezina,Thanks again for your help.There is one thing more . I didnt have a manual with the board, and the ones i downloaded are slightly different to mine, They dont show the click switches.Also there are only 2 eide sockets not 4.weather this helps anymore to identify my board correctly.It only says GA7N400 on the board,it also has no sata sockets[  which is ok as my hd's are the old type ]. many thanks aandyr.

[Vezina]

So does the board have the switches or not ?!

I have had the L version of this and mine did not had switches in the upper side as well.

The tiny switches have on them written the on/off.If you only have the FSB one play with it until you get the right FSB.
The CPU multi are useless in most cases.

[aandyr]

Hi Vezina,This is the nearest picture i can find to my motherboard. You can see the click switches above the processor x6 .Also one between the AGP and nvidea chip ??

[Vezina]

Like i said the ones in the upper side are useless as most later AMD CPU-s from Barton where locked thus multiplier was the factory one.
The other one near the northbridge can be very well flipped back and forth , if you see the FSB stuck at 100Mhz ,even if there is no marking or manual advice related to it.
 

[aandyr]

Hi Vezina, back again,I fitted another cpu = AMD Athlon XP 3200+ - 2.2 GHz Single-Core (AXDA3200DKV4E) Processor yesterday and all seemed well to start with. After 1/2 hour i checked the the cpu temp with pc wizard ( cant get cpu id to work ) and it was showing over 90 c I repositioned the case fan so that it was on the back pulling air out rather than pushing in from the front ,ai'e just checked it out as i write and it's 81  c .I was carefull to install the cpu correctly IE cleaning the cpu and heatsink thoughly and putting the paste on evenly. Back to my origional problem the pc works ok with 2x 512 mb pc2700 ddr333 single sided ram, But if i put in the ram i bought= 2x 1gb pc2700 ddr333 high density non ecc ram it wont boot up no matter how i try.The info on the mobo says it will support up to ddr 400.I cant see anywhere on the bios about ram settings only cpu, which i said before onll goes yo 333mhz,so if this cpu is 400 mhz why can i only get 300 .Thanks for your time and help .andy r.

[Vezina]

To lower the temperature you need to use a Copper Socket A cooler of around ~ 500 Grams .more may brake the socket.Try and apply a small amount of thermal grease ,non conductive, like Arctic Ceramique.

Check the voltage of the CPU .If you can ,try lower it step by step until instability arrives.The normal voltage is around 1,65V if i remember correctly.

To see the system specs use Aida 32 or older Everest versions ,a software that was used a lot at the time of the Socket A CPU-s.Search Softpedia for them.

[aandyr]

Hi vezina, now have the correct ram in, I had hi density instead of low density,Also i got a cooler with copper insert in so the cpu temp is now around 60 c.My bios is F6, Should i update it ,I have seen version F12. Would you recomend that i use this version.Many thanks for your help. AANDYR

[Vezina]

If the system works with the BIOS installed  let it be.Why kill it

BIOS-es are not drivers.If everything gets detected why bother with possible BIOS failure.
If i am not mistaking there is only one BIOS chip on the L version ,so no recovery in case of wrong flash (wrong BIOS file or corrupted file).

To be fair when i had it  i didn t even bother with the BIOS.

The weak spot on the board is the sound card though ,get a decent sound card ,a cheap sound blaster will be just fine.

Enjoy the oldie !

[aandyr]

Hi vezina, Ill give the bios update a miss then, too many risks. I have 2 soundcards onboard, a creative ct4760 soundblaster, and a yamaha sw1000xg which  plays xg files as im into midi music. Thanks again .AAndyr