trouble with athlon xp 3200+

Hi, I'm having trouble with my processor:

I just baught an Amd Athlon XP 3200+ processor to put in my Shuttle
AN35N Ultra motherboard. I'm upgrading from a 2500+. I installed the new
3200 cpu, but my computer is still reading it as a 2500. I can't seem to
find any driver for the 3200. Any ideas? THanks much,

Swiver

Swiver wrote:
> Hi, I'm having trouble with my processor:
>
> I just baught an Amd Athlon XP 3200+ processor to put in my Shuttle
> AN35N Ultra motherboard. I'm upgrading from a 2500+. I installed the new
> 3200 cpu, but my computer is still reading it as a 2500. I can't seem to
> find any driver for the 3200. Any ideas? THanks much,
>
> Swiver
>
>

XP Model 10 2200 (3200+) OPGA 200 512 11x 1.65V 85oC 60.4W
1833 (2500+) OPGA 166 512 11x 1.65V 85oC 53.7W

There is little difference between the 2500+ and the 3200+.
When plugging a 3200+, you set the CPU clock to 200MHz, which
makes the front side bus run at FSB400.

There is so little difference in fact, that people have been
known to "pass off" 2500+ processors as 3200+. All it takes
is a little "relabeling" operation, and changing the sticker.

In theory, the BSEL pins on the bottom of the processor, are
supposed to be encoded to select 200MHz automatically. There
are two pins, with four possible binary values. They should
correspond to 100, 133, 166, 200Mhz, for FSB200, FSB266, FSB333,
and FSB400. I've always been puzzled why so many 3200+ owners
have to set the clock manually, when the BSEL pins should
be doing the right things automatically. Maybe it is a BIOS
issue.

On the AthlonXP, the one characteristic that cannot be "fudged",
is the model number. The processor should report "model 10",
which maps to "Barton" when the right utility is used to convert
the model number and cache size, to the popular name. The
other characteristics are controlled by the bridges on the
top of the chip. Overclockers have been making various mods
to the bridges in past years, and there have been cases
of various kinds of frauds that involve bridges. One
clever method of modifying bridge settings, is to use conductive
paint, on the underside of the processor, to join two pins
together. Then, they paint over the conductive paint, with a
paint which matches the color of the processor base material.
That is a pretty convincing fake. Sometimes the label they
stick on the processor, uses a slightly different font, or
one letter looks different than a genuine label.

I'm not saying you've been duped, but buying a 3200+ is
dangerous, because the 2500+ bridge-wise, is so close
to being useful as a 3200+, right out of the box. All
they have to do, is apply another label. And hope that
the user is not surprised, by the need to set the
clock manually.

At one point in time, some major retailers were selling
relabelled processors, and we don't know whether they
knew they bought fakes or not.

So anyway, just set your clock to 200MHz and enjoy your
new processor. Since your motherboard uses Nforce2, you
should test memory integrity with memtest86+ (memtest.org).
That is because Nforce2 is picky about RAM, and sometimes,
when you move to FSB400, the RAM will have errors. A second
test you can run, is Prime95 (mersenne.org). That program
is free, you don't have to "join" when the program prompts
you, and you can test your processor and memory while in
Windows with that program. There are even versions for
other OSes. Prime95 is a sensitive test of processor and
memory integrity, and if there is something wrong with
your new setup, Prime95 torture test option will find it.
When my Nforce2 was new, I had problems with Prime95, and
I'd fail in seconds at first. I ended up buying better memory,
and now that machine can run Prime95 for hours with my 3200+
equivalent. (I used a AthlonXP-M Mobile 2600+ processor, to
avoid the 2500+/3200+ issue, and set it up for 3200+ operating
rate. Both the multiplier and the FSB can be programmed, with
a Mobile.)

Paul