Help with XP-M and NF7-S

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aigon
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:37 am

Help with XP-M and NF7-S

Post by aigon » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:49 am

Hi,

I've been lurking here for a while getting ideas for a PC based PVR. These forums have been invaluable!

I decided on the Athlon XP-Mobile 2500+ with the ABit NF7-S (2.0) motherboard however I'm having problems installing XP. I get this error: "File setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 4." From looking at microsoft's support site this suggests a memory/hardware problem (rather than scratched CD).

I'm using one DIMM of DDR memory (Corsair Value Select 512MB 400MHz C3).

In the BIOS I have the following settings:
External Clock: 133MHz
Multiplier Factor: x14.0 (giving 1866MHz CPU)
AGP Freq: 66 MHz
CPU FSB/DRAM ratio: By SPD (results in 400MHz to DRAM)
CPU Interface: Disabled
CPU Core Voltage: 1.575v
DDR SDRAM Voltage: 2.7v
Chipset Voltage: 1.6v
AGP Voltage: 1.5v

The memory timings I'm using are:
Row-active delay: 8
RAS-to-CAS delay: 3
Row-precharge delay: 3
CAS Latency Time: 3.0

The temps in the BIOS are:
CPU: 31C
System: 15C
(Modified Zalman 7000Cu)

Do I have something misconfigured or could I have a bad DIMM? Unfortunately I don't have a 2nd DIMM I can try, or a 2nd DDR motherboard to try this one in.

Any help much appreciated.

flyingsherpa
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 475
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2003 6:28 pm
Location: CT, USA

Post by flyingsherpa » Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:15 am

if you want to rule out memory, the standard test is to run memtest86. google it, you'll find it. most people run tests 5 and 6 through several cycles... see if you get any errors.

it also might not hurt to reset all the defaults in the BIOS... i've had memory issues resolved by doing that. just be sure you go back in and change the FSB and mult so your cpu is running at a decent speed. but don't touch memory timings or anything yet. best to install XP on basic settings and then you can start tweaking after that as you'll have software tools to help you determine stability (prime95 etc.).

aigon
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:37 am

Post by aigon » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:51 am

Thanks for the suggestion.

I ran memtest and got a huge numbers of errors on all the tests apart from 0 which passed (and 9 which I didn't wait to complete).

I then loaded the fail-safe defaults in the BIOS, set the FSB to 133 and the multiplier to 14, leaving everything else alone and got the same result with memtest.

Have I got a bad DIMM or could something else be causing this?

Thanks!

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