I had GA-7VAXP rev1.0 had overheating problems, returned for for rev2.0 where they added a resistor to fix board over heat issues. Then it fried my Gainward GF4 Ti 4600, I thought it was a problem with the vid card returned it and it fried the new card. WITHOUT OVER CLOCKING VID CARD. So I returned the mobo for a refund and got a Soyo SY-KT400 DRAGON ULTRA. No more probles with Gainward RAM over heat on vid card.

If it was me I'd return it and get, one of the new Asus boards for KT400 of wait till end of June. The KT600 is coming out.

i dont know that much about motherboards

but i would like to know

What is better - VIA KT 400 chipset or the nForce 2 chipset?

Ive been told the nForce is better but i want to know how much better is it

Not very happy, when i ordered board the pictures showed two dipswitchs
at sw1 so you could change fsb. But on my crap box there is only 1 switch,So i cant i run a 166 fsb with 133 fsb chip, Which is currently running at 170 fsb because of easytune 4.Sadly though there would appear to be a feature missing (A-SYNC) which means even though this
board supports a fsb of 250 you cant use the dividers with a 133 fsb chip

ga-7vaxp rev 1.2
athlon xp2100+@xp2600 165* 13=2145mhz
256mb pc333
gf 4 mx 440

if anyone knows away around this please help

unhappy overclocker

Just now i'm running an XP2200+FSB166MhzCPUMUL11x=1826mhz
GA-7VAXP ver1.2

The matter are the mobo versions
I have seen on the web 3 kind of mobo: Ver 1.0 Ver 1.1 and Ver 1.2

I dont remember if it was 1.0 or 1.1 but there is a version where the SW1 dip switch is doubled and can force the mobo FSB to 100 133 or 166 as you wish.
On version 1.2 there is a single dip switch that can be set to 100 mhz or to AUTO(tha is the automate selection by CPU type to use 133 or 166 mhz and the matter is YOU CANT select the FSB)
If you can notice at left side of the dip switch there are other 4 solded hole for dip switch but there isn't dip switch on 'em...to solve the matter you need to put SW1 single switch in off position(AUTO) and to solder the two holes right next to the SW1 switch
SW1
° ° °|
|
° ° °|
/|\ SW1
|
Solder this two together

ehm sorry but the TXT drawing wasnt so fine....
now i put a link to an image i made to explain better

digilander.iol.it\StarcraftNewarriors\SW1.bmp


be careful of capital letters or it wont work

Hi all.....
I have a huge problem.....I have the GA-7VAXP Ultra with the latest BIOS version, XP SP1, AMD XP 2000+ and since today a TwinMos Winbond PC3200 512MB which is supposed to be good RAM but my scores are extremely similar to the ones I got with my Kingston ValueRAM pc2100 512MB......
I've heard a lot of stories about different settings in BIOS....I've used Ctrl-F1 and viewed the extra menu but I'm uncertain about altering the values there.....so I would be extremely happy if someone could recommend the best setting I could use in BIOS to get the performance I deserve to get with my equipment.....bye for now guys!!!

Nerdy nerd this a reply TO u. the NForce 2 chipset performs better. But I dont think its a HUGE difference or at least for now.

hello there, i need a reasonable way to enable 166 FSB on my 7vaxp ver 1.2 because it doesnt have 2 dips for the FSB like the 1.1 does. So i need a good way besides soldering it. any ideas??? please help!!!

^^^Solder it....theres no way...it's the same as putting a dip switch to the ON position(the unexisting dip switch)

OK guys....please help me on this one....what kind of settings in BIOS do I have to alter to get a PC3200 512MB run with 400MHz on my GA 7VAXP Ultra and bringing good results?
I take of course for granted that I have to alter the RAM clk to DDR400 but the rest of the settings? What do I have to do?

OK guys....please help me on this one....what kind of settings in BIOS do I have to alter to get a PC3200 512MB run with 400MHz on my GA 7VAXP Ultra and bringing good results?
I take of course for granted that I have to alter the RAM clk to DDR400 but the rest of the settings? What do I have to do?
My CPU is a XP2000+

mmmmm ok...i must add that the better solution is soldering but if you dont want to solder on the mobo just put some kind of metal piece pressed over the two holes and glue it on the side of the SW1 switch(that was my first try to force FSB).I used a 6 or 7 mm piece of a clip a little bit curved.

i enabled 333 bus on my 1.2 by makin a piece of wire ( 6mm) sticking it to some tape, and putting cement glue on the tape (Making sure the bends of the wire still came out). I then taped it to the SW1 then lined the contacts up.

I made a very nice picture of what i did, please email me at aeroTheGod@hotmail.com">XaeroTheGod@hotmail.com for results on my 2200+ 133FSB to 166FSB mod.

CONSTANT REBOOTING!!
Man, I can't believe the problems everyone is having with these MoBo's. I too have a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Rev.1.2.
Here's what I'm working with:

OS=WinXP Home
512 MB DDR PC2700 AZENRAM(Cheap..I guess)
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
TTGI 350W Power Swap
MSI Ti4200 8xAGP 128MB
NEC 52XCD-Rom
West.Dig 80GB HD 7200 w/8 MB Buffer
Bios version F9

This is my first time building my own PC. I tell you, this is the best way to learn fast!! I guess I picked a winner of a motherboard.
Anyways, I'm having problems with constant reboots while playing games or using anything graphics oriented.
Windows was easy to install. No problems there.

Being new to the overclocking world, I havent moved my FSB past 133, nor have I messed around with the voltage. It's listing 133FSB @2.04GHZ(2400+)during start-up.
As far as I know, I have all the latest drivers.My system is running between 45-50 degrees Celsius.

ANY suggestions on how to get my system more stable?

I don't think I want to start soldering just yet.
What's this I hear about the spread spectrum and Top Performance?
Some say enabled some people say disabled.

I thought I bought a great system, but I'm having my doubts with this motherboard.

If you have any suggestions HELP ME OUT!! PLEASE!!

The spread spectrum setting creates a varience in the clock frequecies to reduce electrical interference. eg 133 might run 132.5 to 133.5 preventing resonance. It's not supposed to cause instability but I turn it off anyhow.

Top performance makes for a slight overclock and custom memory settings. It can be touch with some ram so stick with optimised defaults until you are sure that you system is stable.

The only issue I've had was with my Inno3d Ti4200 64MB. Basically games used to crash or stutter. I improved the cooling by mounting a 80mm fan in tha case blowing straight at it and all was well. I've since found that an extra +0.1v to the AGP also resolve the issue but I prefer the cooling option.

I've have 2 GA-7VAXP's, one vanilla, one ultra. Both run great though I keep my VIA and Nvida drivers up to date and install all the XP service packs and patches. There were a few XP patches for crashing during games.

I posted previously that may GA-7VAXP was running great with PNY 256 DDR 333 and Top perfomance enabled. I bought another stick of Corsair 256 MB DDR 333 CL2 which won't run at top performance and PC 2700 memory settings. As other have suggested it does run and get the best 3DMark2001 score (even better than the PNY by itself with PC 2700 setting and Top performance) when set at PC 2100 and Top performance enabled.

Thanks to those that suggested that combination!

Now if I can just lick the Win XP svchost.exe task taking up alot of my cpu ( up to 40%) after letting the PC run idle for a while.

Think reboot problem occour on unstable system.Even my old pc during games or even office used to reboot....i think it's a matter of luck....sometimes the problem solve by formatting and reinstalling everything using newer drivers (and even firmware).in my old pc it worked by updating videocard firmware and bios.


About memory setting i have a 256Mb bank Twinmos M.tec CL2.5@2
with sysoft sanda using CPU FSB 133 and Memory FSB 166 results 1800MB/sec
Using Sync FSB CPU 166*11(equal to 13.5*133 XP2200+) and Ram FSB166 (and also Fast command and smaller timing (CL2) and other memory settings 'till the system doesnt crash) result went to 2500Mb/sec

Does anyone know how to skip the harddrive detection when the PC is looking for RAID arrays? I know that if I put two HD on IDE3 and a 3rd HD on IDE 4 it will find them imediately and continue booting? Is there any way to speed up/ eliminate the search when you only have 2 drives hooked up? I have tried one drive each in IDE 3 and 4, it doesn't help .. Thanks!

This is for CHAPPY!

I had the same problem during start-up too. The manual explains everything on page35(Onboard H/W/ATA/RAID).
If you don't set any device in IDE3 or ODE4 but enable the function, the normal message "MBUltra BIOS is not installed beacuse there are no drives attached' will appear". It will then say "Detecting /"
To get rid of this message and speed up your start up is to go into the BIOS and DISABLE the Onboard H/W/ATA/RAID option.
It's all in the manual!!
Oh by the way.....Thanks to Ant Decto for the info on setting my BIOS to optimized defaults!! I had posted before about constant rebooting, but since I changed the Bios to Optimized defaults it hasn't crashed or rebooted since. All my games work brilliantly as well.
I loaded the optimized defaults. From there I went in and disabled the Onboard RAID/ATA function as well as cganged my boot up sequence to CD-ROM/HDD-0/Floppy.
My system is running at 2.01 GHZ(133FSB) without even adjusting the Clock.
I guess you just have to have patience with this MOBO as it reacts differently to all kinds of RAM.
Good Luck!