Problem: suddenly FSB dropped down by half

Discussion relating to Socket 7 hardware.
DonPedro
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Problem: suddenly FSB dropped down by half

Post by DonPedro »

hello,

in the last 6 months I got problems with 3 of my p5a-boards. ALL of them experienced a drop of their fsb-speed to half of what it should be: 50 mzh instead of 100mhz. some system-analysis tools still report 100/550, but others show fluctuation in the fsb-speed, others a constant 50mhz.

interesting that I can watch dvds without a problem (around 50% cpu load).

but games/benchmarks are really slow and some even complain about it (e.g. quake3 complains that it needs a 300mhz cpu, while reporting that I have a 275mhz cpu)

osmark shows weird results, opengl benches take forever, everest shows unrealistic mem-read and -write scores of 800 and 600 mb/s, latency at 420ns.

so in other words, I have a problem, and I guess that some specific component on the mainboard is at the end oy life-cycle. the boards are all from 1998 to 1999.

what part is it, can it be replaced?
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Post by Jim »

Peter I have no idea what part is on the fritz; but yes it can be fixed. I know one guy here in Toronto who does board repairs; and the capman also does them. (Not just cap replacement either). You will probably want to find someone local to look at them for you; but at a last resort you can try : capman@att.net Not cheap though.
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DonPedro
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Post by DonPedro »

thanks jim!
is kachiwachi still around? I got the impression in the past that he knows a lot about soldering, electrics parts and so ....
because who today really wants to mess with 10 years old hardware when you can get new one for almost nothing (comparatively) - I don't think that the people in the hardware-shops would be in the position to even identify the part(s) to be renewed and would have no knowledge how to do that without destroying the board. unfortunately sending my mobo around the globe will cost a fortune ... but if one could tell me what part is responsible for that strange behaviour I would try to accomplish it by myself
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Post by Jim »

Yeah, well KachiWachi is or was an aerospace electronics technician, so yes he does know his electronics. Whether or not he is still around, who knows, try sending him a PM why don't you. You also could just buy new boards on ebay, probably don't cost much these days. As for doing it yourself, that might not work. The capman uses a "Wave soldering station" to do repairs. keep in mind that mobos have multi layers of traces in them.
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Post by stevenaaus »

Some boards behave funny when on-board battery dies. Are you using the same PS/cpu/memory to test all boards ? Give some different components a go.

Sorry if it's the bleeding obvious.
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Post by KachiWachi »

Does this issue occur when a DOS test utility (such as CHKCPU) is used?



Thanks.
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Post by DonPedro »

hello kachi,
under plain dos the tool chkcpu reports 600mhz, which is just perfect.
under win98 I also get 600mhz (but I think I remember I had troubles there too).
under win2000 the tool reports 300mhz.

stevenaaus,
what parts could influence the fsb-speed?
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stevenaaus
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Post by stevenaaus »

> what parts could influence the fsb-speed?

Well.. nothing really. It's just I've seen boards drop their FSB speed when
they see faulty memory, or CPUs that aren't working properly, esp. cyrix. Imho it could be *possible* for a board to drop it's
FSB if the powersupply isn't providing good power to the cpu. It'd be quite unusual though.
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KachiWachi
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Post by KachiWachi »

Is the optional Hardware Monitor chip installed?

If so, is the CPU Slow Down feature being activated?



Thanks.


(Ref: ASUS P5A User's Manual, pages 9-12)
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DonPedro
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Post by DonPedro »

thanks for the hint, will have a look ...
DonPedro
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Post by DonPedro »

kachi,

hw-monitor chip is not installed.

meanwhile I installed a fresh copy of win-xp and of another win-2000. both new installations show the same problem fresh from the start (without any updates or other additional programs).

I also exchanged the psu to be sure ...

heat is also no problem, motherboard-monitor and siv-tool show 32 celsius at idle-desktop.

win98 still runs with no problems at 600mhz.
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Post by Jim »

Out of curiosity, have you tried it WITHOUT Moronpoop's latest "Security Updates" ? I am beginning to suspect that when they want to discontinue an OS they deliberately introduce screwups through their "Security Updates". --- BUY Vista!!
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Post by DonPedro »

jim,
plain installatioin from the cd, no updates.
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Post by Jim »

That too can cause problems. Some hardware requires newer files than those that come on the CD. But in this case I suspect it is a harware issue. You say you are getting this problem with 3 different boards. Is this three entirely different machines ? Or is it a case of, half speed with this board, so we'll try that one, (In the same machine). If it is the latter case, then maybe you should try swapping out the other components one at a time, to see if you can isolate the cause of it. Maybe try a different video card, see if that cures it, etc.
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K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
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2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
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SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
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DonPedro
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Post by DonPedro »

there is only one system left that I am messing around with.
this system (hardware) did not change over the last 2 or 3 years and worked flawlessly.

win98 still works without the drop in fsb-speed
win2k suddenly showed the drop in speed. depending on the tool it still shows 100mhz (although this certainly is not true, because you can literally see and feel the weak performance), 50mhz (stable) or fluctuations between just some mhz to 50mhz.

I additionally installed a copy of xp: same result as under w2000
I deleted the w2k system and reinstalled: same as before

very weird. why is everything working fine under win98, but after years of no problems under w2000 suddenly runs like mad?

but ok, I will give it a try and remove the soundcard, the lan-card and replace the geforce fx5900 with some other geforce card.

will be back in just some minutes ...
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