Tis true about newbies and amd !! But This board is problematic if you put it under stress , BIG TIME , but on the other hand if you play spades and surf the net it might be ok . You also better be ready to put Patches on top of patches with most of the amd compatible motherboards i have 3 friends which one is certi in everything but cisco . They all agree that amd runs faster But not Near as stable . All your big companies including the one i work for run Intel Motherboards on there servers that run 24/7 Because of there stability that is a well known fact . But hey some people like to tinker with amd products and that is fine to , Personally i like stability , And cool temps , but evrybody is differnt .

my system:
Gigabyte GA-7VAXP rev 1.0
AMD athlon XP 2200+
corsair pc3200 512 MB memory
ATI radeon 9700 pro

I too had some stability problems with my system, when I first bought it. It also started to reboot in the middle of a game. The solution for my system was one of the Bios settings. Go to your bios, then frequency/voltage control and set the "spread spectrum modulated" feature to enabled. If it's allready enabled try the disabled setting. After I had done so everything worked fine, even under top stress. My system now runs perfectly stable, scoring 12400 points in 3DMARK2001!!!
BTW. This forum isn't here to nag about newbies buying AMD machines and having some trouble with it, it's here to SOLVE those problems. AMD machines aren't that difficult to manage if you read up about it.Think it's kinda cheap to put it like that just because you exidently know something about computers. If you know so much then give those guys, having problems, solutions instead of your smart remarks.

-=WOTZ=-

Ok Mr. "AMD Expert"...LOL. I know good and well what I am doing with computers and yes, while AMD is flakey under certain circumstances...this board is just plain flakey. I've read on more than a few webboards and have spoken with other techs about it and everyone agrees that this board just randomly reboots itself at will. Since posting this I have ditched the Gigabyte board in favor of the ASUS board.... Much more stable...no more random reboots. So...to those of you who want the advantage and speed of AMD without the headaches... do yourself a favor and boot the Gigabyte board out the door....buy something more proven and stable.

BTW Mr. Expert; I have Intel and AMD systems....am no newbie to this. As someone else has mentioned...yes, My servers are Intel Xeon based but my gaming boxes are all AMD.

WOTZ: Glad to see you got it to work.... I tried everything. Thanks for your post. I agree; this board is here to help all people...experts and newbies alike. Hell...even us folks with alot of experience run across a stumper every now and then. No better way to solve problems than through information sharing.

Salute..

Ry an: The first computer I worked on was a 486 33mhz Beast. Doom II ran flawlessly. I am far from new to this, I've dealth with both AMD and Intel machines and I know what I'm doing. I know, for a fact that the temperature was fine. The absolute ONLY difference between the two systems was the board. (Rev 1.0 vs Rev 1.1) I had My CPU, My heatsink, my ram, my vid card and my friends hard-drives. If the CPU ran just fine in my machine and then I stuck it in my buddies to see if it worked in his, with the board being the only difference, then the board is the problem. Secondly, it fried right at boot. The idiot behind the computer wasn't doing a thing and hadn't done anything other than turn it on. Advanced users and experts have problems too. Everyone who is experiencing problems is not automatically a newbie.

This is what ExtremeTech.com says about the Gigabyte board:

"The real issue with the GA-7VAXP is stability. During our benchmarking, the board spontaneously rebooted during 3DMark 2001SE and several games. This only occurred with intensive, real-time 3D applications. Our SPEC APC 3D Studio Max test, for example, ran without a hitch. We swapped out CPUs and memory, and even scaled the memory clock back to 167MHz, CAS2.5, CMD2T, but the reboots would still occur. Note that this wasn't a regular occurrence, but happened relatively infrequently, and at random. On top of that we witnessed graphics corruption on at least one game (Neverwinter Nights) that occurred with no other motherboard. "

Just wish I had read that one before I bought the board!!

Regards,
Lindle

Me too =| I just saw a number for Gigabyte in the new issue of PC Gamer, I may call it tomorrow and if I find anything out I'll post it here.

I've got an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ and DDR333 PC2700 Ram. Why can't I set the system bus to 166 mhz?

The 2000 doesn't have a 166 mhz fsb (effectively 333mhz), use 133 (effectively 266mhz) =) So far the 2700 and 2800 are the only ones confirmed with 333mhz fsb and they won't be available in retail stores for a while. Eventually they'll work there way back and offer 333mhz variants of earlier chips (at least to the 2400) but for now it's only the 2700 and 2800 that have that fsb speed. A note about the call I was going to make, they're closed on weekends and I forgot all about it today.

I'v got Gigabyte GA-7VAX (rev. 1.1) -btw is there a GA-7VAX rev.2.0 out there ?

PROBLEM: System won't boot (blank screen - no video). At boot I hear 1 long beep: Initially I had 1 Apacer PC3200 CL3 256MB DIMM installed and the system booted fine until I changed to "Top Performance in BIOS configuration menu and saved the changes. The motherboard does not have Bios RESET jumpers !?! and I can't restore the bios 2 pre Top Performance settings ... Now how do I restore factory defaults in bios setup when I'm not able to enter bios setup with "DEL" key ?? I know CPU can be re-detected by holding down "Y" key @ boot up. What is the solution to my problem ?

ps. I try'ed PC2100 cl2,5 memory and MB still gives 1 long beep error. There is no word in manual about audible bios error codes in manual neither is there bios reset/restore nor cpu redetect infos ...

help!?

Do yourself a favor. Dump the Gigabyte board...I had the same problem with one Gigabyte GA-7VAXP so I exchanged it for another one and the new one had issues with constant but intermittant rebooting. Ever since I picked up the Asus board it has been smooth sailing....none of the issues I was having with the gigabyte board.

Regards,
Lindle

So I needed 2 reset my mb bios with screwdriver .. why !?

As far as I know there's no rev. 2.0 of the GA-7vaXp, People keep confusing it with the GA-7vRxp wich has a rev 2.0.

The one long beep is likely due to the fact the you set the BIOS for DDR400, even though most DDR400 won't POST on this board (whether due to the board, or the DIMM, I don't know. Wish I did know what those half-dozen DDR settings available in the cntl-F1 advanced BIOS are all about. The manual doesn't cover any of the cntl-F1 settings).

You can clear the CMOS, but Gigabyte was too cheesy to install the jumper. Look by the dual BIOS chip, between the case-open jumper and the bus-frequency dipswitch, and you'll see 3 solder contacts in a line, that are larger than the rest. Take something sharp (to scratch through any protective rosin coating) and short both end-pairs of those contacts together (pc unplugged, of course). Worked fine for me and my Samsung TCC4 "DDR400" runs fine at 333mhz.

Paul, the ctrl - F1 setting control the advanced timing options of the memory, how long it takes before executing commands, how long it waits between commands things like that. Basically, the lower the number, the faster the ram ( i say faster but it only equates to about 5% performance ) but the less likely it will post unless you have good ram

Quote: "The 2000 doesn't have a 166 mhz fsb" - Corey Tobin

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Athlon XP2000+ needs a 166 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) in order to be detected by the BIOS at boot-up as 1,667GHz. I have exactly the same specs as Kelly West and my Athlon XP2000+ with DDR333 runs perfectly nicely on 166MHz FSB setting.

Kelly, I just set the SW1 DIP switch on the motherboard to run at 166MHz(both switches in the OFF position) and the clock multiplier to AUTO (by default it is like this). I don't use the BIOS to set the FSB.

To all the rest of you - I never proclaimed to be an "expert" or anything like that, but having worked as a PC technician for a while and knowing from experience how people like to just nag and blame everything besides themselves for their PC problems, I said what I did. No wonder you guys are having problems with the board (LOL).

just replaced my ECS K7VAT3 v 3.1 with a GA-7VAXP.. what can I say... the ECS was a BIG Piece of SHEEEEEEE@@@@@.... so unstable at 133... now with the GA-7VAXP... no issues whatsoever... the only thing I can complian about is running 3d, but I'm going to get either the gigabyte radeon 9700 Pro or the Ti 4600 anyways. I love the board... so many extras put into it, and been stable from day 1. I know u can run the 2000XP at 166 bus, but is that advisable....

I am running my XP1800 with 175Mhz FSB and 9,5x = 1662,5Mhz
And it is stable as a rock, can force it up to 179Mhz but then it hangs up while starting Windows........

Quote: I know u can run the 2000XP at 166 bus, but is that advisable....

Actually it is not really advisable - I just rechecked my board and it seems that I did confuse 133 with 166. Apologies everyone. Kelly the speed is 133MHz for System Bus Frequency and not 166MHz (both switches in the OFF position)

.If you look at the GA-7VAXP board's manual, turn to page 9. There you will find sketches demonstrating how to set up the CPU speed. Now first of, the Athlon XP2000+ runs at a clock speed of 1,667MHz, therefor with the CK_RATIO switch set in the default AUTO position, you only need to set the System Bus Frequency with SW1.
In order to know what positions to switch the DIP switches for SW1, you need to work out the corresponding system bus frequency from the sketch / table of CK_RATIO. To do this for the XP2000+, you multiply 12.5(CK_RATIO) by 133(SW1). That should give you the speed correctly, but leave the CK_RATIO as AUTO.

I need to reset the CMOS as i changed a setting and the system won't boot, but i am worried about resetting without any jumpers. What do you short the solder points with? Do you just put a screwdriver on it? And how long do you hold it on for ? . Could I damage anything by doing this?. If anyone has actually done this could they please tell me what materials they used and what they did? Any help on this topic would be much appreciated .