A7N8X deluxe - HELP!

[ersatzjim]

Just joined the forum and just in time! I love this forum - been glancing at it for some time. You even have a spell checker!

I recently installed my new board and have had OC stability problems since the beginning. Here's what's up - and thanks in advance(!):
components that ran smooth as silk together in my old Soyo Dragon+ Ultra Plat don't seem to like their new home. Where I FSB OCed them to 147 (1898) for almost a year I now get lockups at anything over 135 FSB (sig is wrong now). Components are: 2100+ Palamino, 2x 256 Crucial PC2100, GeF2Ti 64 Mb, WD Caviar 40 gig ATA100, Cooler Master HHC-001 heatpipe cooler, plenty of fans in a cool room.

Here are my troubleshooting attempts, invariably with just one change at a time:
- swapped the Crucial sticks around to different slots and ended up installing my XMS3200 CAS2, both with various voltages. Ran them both synch, asynch and at various percentages of CPU clock, as allowed in the BIOS
- locked the AGP to 66MHz from the start but later tried letting it run synch with the divider the BIOS assigned. Now it's back at synch.
- noticed an odd 4 degree C core temp jump between 135 and 136 FSB (I know I can't trust BIOS or Asus Probe readings but MBM's not ready for NForce yet as you know) so I regreased and mounted my cooler (just once as a fix by itself. Also later when I swapped CPUs). Currently, core temps seem to hover around 32C idle and 48C at load w/ SETI. That's on par with what I'd seen previously.
- Swapped graphics cards (see the sig)
- turned off all ports, SATA, modem, swapped between 3COM and NForce NIC in BIOS; both on, both off, etc.
- triple checked that jumpers are properly set
- dinked with numerous combos of BIOS settings for aggressive, stable and user defined settings concerning northbridge behavior and mem timings.
- swapped one part at a time into my stable rig without changing its OC settings in an attempt to isolate a problem component
- Of course, all the latest drivers and BIOS (AW1001G) - none are beta

I'm totally out of ideas and felling very disapointed and frustrated - I was so excited about my new board. You folks know what I mean, I'm sure. Can anyone suggest something?
I'll destroy the board and buy a new one before I go through any BS RA hassles like I have in the past and I'm coming close to feeling stabby and smashy.

Again, thanks in advance. I surrender myself to thee.

[mookydooky]

Welcome to the forums ersatzjim! I think Niksub has your board. I'm sure that as soon as he sees this post, he'll reply back. Anyway, have you tried changing the RAM timings with your XMS? Try manually inputting 2.0-3-3-6. As for your Crucial not liking higher speeds, I noticed something similar with my EPoX nForce2 board. I think the nForce2 runs memory much tighter than any of the Via chipsets, and if your memory can't take it, it craps out. Anyway, try the RAM timing thing to see if you can get anything out of it. The reason I suggest the manual thing is that Corsair misprogrammed the SPD on their XMS modules and you have to manually input the settings.

[ersatzjim]

Thanks mookydooky. I've tried a variety of timings including spd and synch. Right now the Corsair is set to just what you suggested and has been for most of the day. Still no soap. I appreciate your input though.

Glad to be part of the group and I look forward to contributing where I can.