Really poor overclocking performance (1900+ XP)...

[Guest]

Alright, these are my current system specs (at least, what's relevant):

ASUS A7N266 Motherboard
Athlon 1900+ XP
256mb Crucical DDR PC2100 RAM

I've also got a large swiftech Heat sink and a delta fan on the cpu. I've also got two case fans and generally keep the top off. According to asus probe, the cpu temperature is around 38C at idle and around 42-43C after an hour or so of intense use. This is overclocked to 136FSB.

Here's my problem: the system becomes completely unstable when I raise the FSB beyond 136mhz! At 138mhz I'm dealing with lock-ups or the BSOD after an hour or so. I can't even boot above 138mhz. And yet, even when doing something intensive (gaming, 3dmark2001 benchmarks, sisoft sandra's burn-in wizard) the temperature doesn't rise much over 43-44C. This is still about 8 degrees lower than my idle temps using the stock HSF combo.

Any advice? I'm thinking that my problem is the ram, which was bought from best buy because I needed memory fast. If most of you agree with me, I guess I'll put out for more memory. But I'm not interested in buying more/better memory unless it's pretty sure that that's where my problem is coming from.

(as a quick note: I'm using the onboard audio from the motherboard, but I don't think that should effect anything?)

 

[Matisaro]

The problem is the ram, deffinatly.


Go into your bios and up the ddr voltage to 2.75 volts(or thereabouts) if that does not make it stable, get new ram.

THe chip being the limiting factor is HIGHLY UNLIKELY, I would go as far as to say its near impossible thats the factor.


Same for pci and agp cards, 1 more mhz on the bus is unlikely to cause any crashing, deffinatly the ram.

The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark

 

[Guest]

I'll have to see if I can alter the voltage through BIOS (I didn't notice the option in there last time I looked). I didn't think it could be the chip, considering that I've gone way farther with other XP's before (not my own, but on friend's computers). If not... well.. I guess this is as good a time as ever to just get a 512mb stick (samsung or corsair, probably).

Thanks for the advice!

 

[GearJammer2513]

If you are not able to adjust the memory voltage in the BIOS, then look on the board itself. Check the manual for a jumper block for adjusting memory voltage. My Asus A7V266-E has this and I was lucky enough to have the jumper already set to the highest voltage setting. And if you cannot find your manual, you can go to the Asus website and download the Adobe Acrobat .pdf file and find it there. Hope you can raise the voltage since it is never a pleasant thing to feel your wallet get lighter due to a lack of green-backs.

GearJammer

qlm tera'ngan!
(Translated from Klingon: Attention Earther!)

 

[labdog]

the cpu temperature is around 38C at idle and around 42-43C after an hour or so of intense use. This is overclocked to 136FSB.

those temps are weird.
you have an air cooling system & you have a idle 38°C cpu temp. i expected rather a 42-45°C at the minus.
same comment with the 42-43°C fulpower temp. i expected rather something like a minus 50°C temp.
maybe your ambient air is a lower one, round 18-20°C.

Here's my problem: the system becomes completely unstable when I raise the FSB beyond 136mhz! At 138mhz I'm dealing with lock-ups or the BSOD after an hour or so. I can't even boot above 138mhz. And yet, even when doing something intensive (gaming, 3dmark2001 benchmarks, sisoft sandra's burn-in wizard) the temperature doesn't rise much over 43-44C. This is still about 8 degrees lower than my idle temps using the stock HSF combo.

Any advice? I'm thinking that my problem is the ram, which was bought from best buy because I needed memory fast. If most of you agree with me, I guess I'll put out for more memory.

you think you memory is the cause of? but why?
memory works or dont works & that's all.
if you are able to boot up & to run your OS, it is not the cause.
bad memory issues are POST issues or system crashes.
you have ran your OS & you have tested it with some benchmarks.

but well, i dont see it before, you have some BSOD.
ok for the BSOD, it could be because of the lower quality of your memory.
but whatsoever this could be also due to that some of your pci cards dont support this FSB increase.

moreover this doesnt explain your lower temps still.


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know</font color=white>, the way could be more easy ...