bad overclocker....

[potentevil]

hey guys, im just getting into overclocking and im having some problems. ill give you my system specs then tells you whats going wrong...some help would be greatly appreciated!

Athlon XP 2400 266fsb 2Ghz
Soyo KT400 dragon ultra platinum
512MB Corsair PC2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
80GB WD
350W PSU

ok...so i started overclocking last night...i set my DRAM clock to 166Mhz to take advantage of my PC2700 (333Mhz) RAM. I disabled ECC checking because i heard it slows you down. I enabled video ram cachable(i think thats what it was, i was following a guide...http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=376) I was playing aroudn with my fsb and got it up to around 180 before i started crashing...so i dropped it, and started playing with the multiplyer and voltage...everything went fine and i was benchmarking at 2.4-2.5ghz, but it wasnt very stable so i brought it down. anyway, from there on, i kept having to lower it and lower it to get it stable. now i cant even boot if its over 2.1ghz. o, and another thing...somwhere along the line i started getting this wierd delay when i boot windows...i cant run any system checking utilities (sandra, wcpuid, control panel --> system, hardware monitor) until about 2 minuets after i log into windows at which point the HDD shows activity, the floppy drive shows activity, and the LAN icon appears on the task bar. after that, i can run any system utilities and any ones i had tried to open before open at that point. this happened rarely...then randomly...now it happens everytime i boot, even after the bios has been cleared and the settings are at default. urggg, im so frusterated...if someone could PLEASE help it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

.:: 3 C |-| 0 ::.

 

[scottchen]

What's ur cooling, and what's your vcore at?

I hate Computers! I could only overclock my Barton 2500+ to 2645mhz. My Radeon 9700pro core/mem speed won't go above 410/720. I really hate computers!

 

[potentevil]

booyah to that statement my friend, computers suck the big one. my vcore right now is at default, not sure what that is...xp 2400...hmmm. i had it as high as 1.85v, didnt seem necessary though so i set it back to default to extend my processor life. Either way, i think ive tried every possible overclocking combo i know, and it still craps our around 2.1ghz, even with increased voltage. also, for some reason, my video card is running hotter now than it ever was before, yet the bus speed is still 66mhz. think that could be an effect of the faster processor speed or ram speed? for cooling i have an slk-800 with a 3000 rpm fan on it. it didnt seem to work to well though, i think i have to apply more thermal paste or somthing. i dont think its temp related however...right now, my "soyo hardware monitor" is reading its temp at 39 degrees celcius...thats pretty good. strangly enough though, when i boot, the temperature is somtimes read as high as 50 degrees in the boot info! i have a lcd tmep montior in my case too....thats reading 36.6 right now, and thats usually a few degrees low because i can place the thermometer right on the die. ahhh, what to do, what to do. maybe ill buy a large amount of skeptically legal explosives and give this thing what its got coming...PLEASE HELP!!!

.:: 3 C |-| 0 ::.

 

[Jason555]

I don't know if this applies because I don't have much expiearence with athlon systems but did you lock you agp and pci fsb's. it is best to leave those fixed at whatever the default is for them. then change the fron side bus and voltage to cpu. you are also going to have to increase the voltage to your memory and somtimes there are memory to cpu ratios that you adjust. it is a matter of getting all that stuff in harmony. especially for the athlon stuff you have to get a real nice heat sink the stock ones just will not cut it if you want to overclock and be stable. after you OC and let it run for a while go back into bios and check on your CPU temp. make sure is is a good amount below the warning level.

 

[svol]

What do you got for case cooling?

Anyway I think those 50 C readings are off... but if you reinstall the HSF use a very thin layer of thermal paste (preferably Arctic Silver 3). I'm thinking your problem might be your CPU... check if the voltages are stable and not to far from spec (so not more then 5%).

I love my Delta 60HP 7000 RPM fan that puts out more dB then CFM

 

[potentevil]

My entire case is air cooled...2 3000rpm intakes at front, 2 3000rpm intakes on side, slk-800 copper heatsink with 3000rpm fan, 60mm exhaust fan on back of case. I hope i didnt put too much thermal paste on, or is that not an issue? what do you mean by reinstall my HSF? I honestly dont think the issue is heat...ive got 2 temp monitors that are telling me the temp is below 40 or slgihtly abouve and even when i boot, the temp reads around 50, which im sure is wrong...but either way, thats not a death sentence if it was. im wondering more if the problem has to do with my RAM...im running it at 166mhz, and sense its DDR, its effectively running at 333mhz, which should be ok because its PC2700 RAM, and the last time i checked, that was 333Mhz compatible. I think what might of happened was when I raised the ram voltage a few tenths of a volt, i might have fried something...because it seems like maybe its the RAM thats causeing that windows error when i boot and possibly the crashing as well. what do you think about setting the RAM speed to 133mhz and trying to O/C like that? or is just keeping it the way it is, and using my ram at 166mhz a better deal? also, just recently, after these problems had occured, i dropped the CS latency on my RAM to 2 (from 2.5), it still seems to run fine so i dont know...i really dont understand this. help!+

.:: 3 C |-| 0 ::.

 

[svol]

Well it is actually the best thing to keep the memory in sync with the FSB... so yes put it back on 133 Mhz and see if that helps. But if you want to find out if the memory is friend put the CPU at stock speed and the RAM at 166MHz and then run Memtest86... if it shows errors then your RAM is most likely fried. I dunno how high you'd go with the Vdimm, but it is best to not go above 2.8V especially not when the RAM feels hot to the touch below that voltage.

It ofcourse can also be caused by to strong memory timings which your memory can't handle... trying it a CAS 2.5 like you did can solve that.

I love my Delta 60HP 7000 RPM fan that puts out more dB then CFM

 

[potentevil]

yah, i tried knocking down the fsb and the ram speed yesterday, both to 133mhz...and i put the multiplyer to 16 (default is 15)...the result is like 2128Mhz or sumthing like that. anyway, it couldnt handle it and wouldnt boot. I checked the temp in the bios earlier, when my fsb and ram speed were 166mhz and i was running at about 2.1Ghz, the temp on the die was only 49 degrees, which isnt too bad, i dont think anyway...external temp was like 37 or sumthing like that. this is so messed up! what do you guys think the problem is?


.:: 3 C |-| 0 ::.

 

[svol]

If it is 49 C just at boot-up inside the BIOS it is kinda high... it will go way up into the 60 C when you run it at full load for some time.

I love my Delta 60HP 7000 RPM fan that puts out more dB then CFM

 

[potentevil]

hmm, well i cranked all the settings back down to stock now, i dont know what to do. no one else seems to know either. o well.

.:: 3 C |-| 0 ::.

 

[svol]

And what are your current temp readings?

With all those strange temp it still might by overheating... although you should have more then enough cooling.

I love my Delta 60HP 7000 RPM fan that puts out more dB then CFM