Please help-CPU identified at lower frequency

E

emanresu

Geek Trainee
Hello,

I have a e2160 CPU and a MSI 945GM3 motherboard. After an incident, the BIOS keeps identifying the CPU's frequency as 1.20GHz instead of the intended 1.80GHz.

I tried to set different things in the BIOS but all to no avail. I even tried resetting the CMOS, but made no difference. How does BIOS detect CPU frequency? What could be defective when it doesn't sense the CPU frequency correctly?

To add to the mystery, occasionally, after a reboot, it would get the correct frequency... but it won't last long.

The incident was that by a stupid mistake, I bumped the CPU FSB frequency all the way up to 266 (should be 200 instead) and then the computer failed to boot initially (no POST, just a blank screen with an error code 0033 at the bottom), but afterwards, it won't even power on. I only managed to solve that problem by resetting the CMOS. But since then, my CPU was being misidentified at a lower frequency... so I am wondering if that stupid incident screwed something up.


During POST, one line says

E2160 @ 1.80GHz, Speed: 133 x 9 = 532MHz

In the BIOS, I have the following settings:
Adjust CPU FSB frequency: 200

confgure DRAM timing by SPD: enabled
DRAM frequency AUTO (the top one is 667, which i also tried, but made no difference)
adjust ddr voltage 1.80v
adjust PCI express frequency 1000 (I tried 133, which is at max. one time it bumped the CPU frequency to 1.8G, but that was only because the BIOS detected it as 1.80GHz. but now it makes no difference)
Adjust PCI frequency 33.3
auto disable pci clock enabled
spread spectrum enabled

I am really at a loss. would appreciate any help. Thanks.
 
My first thought would be to make sure the BIOS is up-to-date and supports the Allendale core which the Pentium E's are based on. Following that, you may need to go in and manually set the CPU multiplier to 9.
 
thanks BigB for responding. The BIOS has a bunch of read-only fields, and it does correctly show that the multiplier is 9. But for some reason, the frequency is identified as 1.20GHz most of the time, and every once in a while, it magically identifies as 1.80GHz.

Do you think by accidentally bumped up the FSB frequency, I fried some parts of the processor?
 
No. Bumping up the FSB shouldn't have an detrimental effect. It sounds more like a BIOS issue with microcode not properly ID'ing the CPU's frequency.

From what your new info is telling me, it looks like there's some BIOS settings that act much like Speedstep, but for the desktop.

EIST and C1E are the two settings you want to look for. EIST will downclock a CPU's speed when it's full power isn't demanded. C1E turns off clock cycles when not in use to conserve power. EIST is what you want to make sure is disabled.
 
Very informative. It just happens so I cannot even power on the box anymore, so there was definitely a problem with either the motherboard or the PSU, or both. New items have been ordered.

I don't recall seeing any EIST settings in the BIOS of the current mobo, and it was definitely identifying the processor at 1.80Ghz before the incident. Now come and think of it, this is the 2nd mobo kicking the bucket. I also had a lot of problems with HDDs, so it could all along be a problem with the PSU. Just hope it didn't screw up the processor.

But I will for sure look for the EIST setting when the new mobo arrives.

Some luck with my first self-assembled box (hell, I didnt even put the core units together - got a barebone from some vendor online, so it could be the PSU was bad to begin with), and I certainly don't feel like doing another one any time soon. :(

But really appreciate all the information, Big B. It is useful if I decide to make another box in the future.
 
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