Hi. I am pretty new to this site and was hoping somebody might be able to give me some tips on this pigging mobo!

I am running:
GA-7VAXP
Athlon 2000+ (1700mhz)
1.5GB PC2100 DDR Ram (3x512mb chipsets)
Creative Geforce4 Ti 4800SE
120Gb Seagate Baracuda (7200rpm)

Backround - can skip this bit
Oddly I haven't had many of the problems that others seem to have had (sorry all). But I just installed the new hard-disk. Problems? You betchya! To cut a long story short I had to take the old drive right out in the end and simply install the new one as if it was a new system build (Putting on windows..etc..etc..yawn etc) So I get to setting the bios and get all confused - it was late I was tired - and thought the pass word option was the windows one...duh. Thats easy enough I will remove the Mobo battery to reset the thing. Both the RAM and harddisk are new. I bought 2100 cause I can't affort to upgrade the processor at the moment.

Crux
What can I do to my system to make it quicker that doesn't have me buying any new hardware? I am new-ish to all this overclocking stuff. So simple baby terms please.

My thanks to anybody who reads this.

D

this is to the original poster of this topic, it would be easier to specify the problem on the topic instead of asking that, because then people can get u the help practically right after they read ur topic.

Dear Don

This won't help you right now, you need to understand this concept, for OC'in.

You dont buy ram to match your fsb, you buy ram to run as fast as the fsb you would like to OC your cpu too. For instance, Instead of buying 3 sticks of 2100, you could have bought 2 sticks of 2700, and clocked your cpu up toward 166 fsb without worring about the ram being your bottleneck. Then you could get your third stick whenever.

Peace

hi...

I just read all these horrible board in here now...

I manage to get the board to work, HOWEVER the
cpu speed is running @ wrong speed and i was wandering if you know
how to fix the problem.

My SYSTEM
GA-7VAX
XP 2600 Barton 512/333
80 GIg HD
512mb Elixir PC3200 DDR400
FX5200 128 Video Card

My problem is that when i start up the system, its running @ XP1600
On the Board There are these switch.. And when i put the switch on Defult, it loads up XP1600.
I was wandering if anyone know how to change the switch to XP2600? Or is there any other thing i can do??? PLZ HELP

Make sure its running at 166MHz FSB.
On SW1, the first Dipswitch should be off and the second should be on.

will that make the CPU also run @ 333???

Yes, the FSB, like DDR RAM, transfers data twice per clock cycle. So it is effectively running at 333MHz or (2X166MHz)
The Multiplier is likely locked and running at 133MHz(or 266MHz.) Multiplier for Barton 2600+333 should be 11.5. 133X11.5=~1529.5MHz. When it is set to 166MHz FSB(333MHz) then 166X11.5=1909MHz which is the correct speed for the Barton 2600+ 333.

HI
I looked online to see what is the true speed for xp2600
which is
2.13GHz, 256KB, 333MHz, Socket A

**********************************************************************************

Right now I am using XP2600 on GA-7VAX
and the speed that i see right now its 1.9x GHZ
is there any way i can run to 2.13GHz?

Also MY Xp 2600 is a Barton so its 512kb, 333MHz.

The Thoroughbred chip has only 256KB of L2 Cache and runs slightly faster.
The Barton 2600+ 333 should be around 1909MHz and has 512KB of L2 cache
When the Barton first came out, they only had the 2500+, 2800+ and 3000+
the 2600+ came out a little later

I know I said 1909 and it says 1917 the difference is 166MHz vs ~166.7MHz FSB...

Athlon XP 2600+: Thoroughbred, 256KB L2, 2133MHz, 266MHz FSB. 16X Multiplier
Athlon XP 2600+: Thoroughbred/Thorton, 256KB L2, 2083MHz, 333MHz FSB. 12.5X Multiplier
Athlon XP 2600+: Barton, 512KB L2, 1917MHz, 333MHz FSB. 11.5X Multiplier

Here is another forum link on the Barton 2500+ vs. Barton 2600+
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/14887/

Tom has a nice review of the Barton core.
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030210/

Anand has one here:
http://anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1783

Neoseeker has one that explains the clock difference:
http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=65836

This one was very informative:
http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?name=News&file=artic...mp;sid=682

Now after reading this post it should be as clear is mud!

after reading those article, i feel like to overclocking the my CPU o.o

What kind of device i would need to overclock the my CPU xp2600+, also can
GA-7VAX overclock to xp 3000+ from XP 2600+?

First device is a good heatsink/fan.
Then try increasing the clock speed a little bit at a time. If it starts to become unstable, then increase the voltage a bit. And try again.
I've heard of some cases where people just changed their FSB to 200MHz(effectively 400MHz) and their 2600+ Barton was suddenly running fine at 2.3GHz with no voltage increase.
You can download Easytune4 from Gigabyte. Its good for trying it out at first, especially since it also monitors your CPU and System Temp. Then you can just set your BIOS to what ever worked stably. Unfortunetly when you increase the FSB you also increase the PCI and AGP bus speeds, which might be the limiting factor when overclocking it.. Someone mentioned that the modified F13 bios from http://lumberjacker.kettenfett.com/ is worth getting. I believe it has more FSB/PCI/AGP ratios available so if you have PC3200 RAM you could run the FSB at or around 400MHz and still have normal PCI and AGP frequencies As long as your CPU could handle 200X11.5(~2300MHz)

Dang, I'm still using some old PC2100 RAM so my Barton 2600+ is underclocked(1.54GHz) until I can afford some New RAM, but I do plan on getting at least some PC3200 CAS 2 RAM(eventually.)

When I first purchased this CPU I was thinking that this board could run the RAM Asyncronously at 133MHz while the FSB ran at 166MHz.

If you do try overclocking it, Please post your results here. I would love to break the 3000+ barrier!

Also, does anyone know if the modified F13 bios from http://lumberjacker.kettenfett.com/ has a modified RAM 133MHz/FSB 166MHz ratio?

I guess I'll look into it.
It sure does suck being unemployed!

just a question

before i overclock anything, do i need to like do surgury to my cpu???
or do i just get a good fan and just start overclock????
BTW if I start over clock how on the GA-7vax what should i set the FSB to cause its set
to 166 now.... to get XP 3000+ do i change to 200???? ALso
about the memory will it fry my memory???

Anyone have a F13 BIO i can get from ? w/o going to the http://lumberjacker.kettenfett.com

my email
designxp@comcast.net

Get it from Giga-gyte.

I bought mine in Japan and on the board the 7VAXP looks like a sticker and says rev. 1.2 . I'm running the Barton 2500+, two 512 kingston hyper X series pc3200 ram, G-4 TI-4200 w/8x, Two 80g western digital drives ran in striped 0+ array , I've had absolutely no problems plus I am over clocked using the Multiplier at 11.5 and the bios external clock at 174 which gets me to 2001mzh. I'm happy with it and by the way I'm cooling it with the volcano 9+ cool mod with the TT ducting mod as well. I've tried out many things and changed just aboout everything here and there and never had a problem. Both my bios chips are on F11. I have ran the onboard audio but spent 35.00 for a SB Live card and it runs way better. I reccommend the raid on this board, and making sure you can cool it well since thats been my main concern. Idle from 39c-41c and when playing hard core games about 46c-52c. Go to plink-usa.net to look at some inexpensive cases. I got the one with the color changing front panel display of the time or the cpu temp. w/ the 400 wt power supply they offer as well and it's been very nice. It's not about the money you spend or the name but the time spent researching and shopping thouroughly to get a good machine with out blowing away too much dough. I've customized the case as well as all the round cables and looming the power wires, it's worth it.

Does anyone know if there is a hacked F6 BIOS for the 7VAXP Ultra?

Hi everyone,

First time here I have the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Ultra which I suppose is the same as the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP but with more features. But I have a problem though... For about a year the audio from the onboard sound card was working fine until i purchased a new case and move the motherbaord to it. Now the audio has stopped working. Could anyone help me out here? Could there be a loose connection on the motherboard that has prevented the audio to function? Any help will be appreciated.. Thanks

I have had this mobo since last april and it has always done me proud. However yesterday while writing an email the whole thing blinked out on me....video i mean. My monitor just sits there and flashes its on/off led with no picture at all. I removed my vid card (old gf2) and tried it in my bro's pc, it worked fine. I pluged his monitor into mine and no go. My guess is that my mobo is farked but i find that hard to believe, i mean there was no spark or flash or smell or scoring...its driving me nutso. When i turn it on the fans start up and the processing light goes to work but it neither my keyboard nor mouse light up....i may be on the wrong page here but this is the only forum ive found referring to my particular mobo...any ideas?

I had the same thing happen to me. It drove me crazy. Talked to Giga-gyte techs. Conclusion: Bad BIOS.

Giga-byte was extremely prompt in exchanging my board for another that is serving me fine.

Odd, w/ dual BIOS, one BIOS software can be corrupted and you can reflash it from the good one, but if one of the BIOS chips is "burnt", the comp won't run.

Peace

Chris Vance, what happens now when you turn on your pc?
It could be your power supply..(new Powersupply is a lot cheaper than a new Mobo) Also you can try resetting the BIOS by removing the battery for a few min. Does it beep at you when you turn it on? you can reseat your RAM and Heatsink.. (I had problems a while back when using thermal grease on a shim, rubbed it off of the shim and only put it on the cpu core, and it booted up fine. Also for testing purposes, unplug all hardware you can. HardDrives, CDROMs, Floppy Drives, any PCI cards, Mouse and Keyboard, Try to boot with just a video card, RAM and CPU. if it works plug in each device one at a time.
Also, it seems that a lot of folks have had their Northbridge fan stop working on this board, you might check to make sure it is spinning.