how to overclock am2 3800 x2 and not have my sound bad.

[watsonrw]

I am having the problem when i overclock my am2 3800 x2, the sound that comes out of my audigy x-fi platinums is higher pitched than normal. It sounds like the bands are inhaling helium. The more i raise the am2 3800 x2 from its stock 200 the more high pitched the sound gets. The pci bus still reads 33mhz so i dont get why my sound card is being effected. my ram is ocz ddrII 800 if that helps.

 

[Lord-Ilpolazzo]

does it work the other way? if u underclock does the sound get a bit more base-ey

 

[yakyb]

does it work the other way? if u underclock does the sound get a bit more base-ey

LoL ummmm i would simply
1.)remove and uninstall sound card
2.) apply overclock
3.) reinstall Sound
4.) recheck

doesnt really solve problem but should workaround it

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Hang on...is it an Audigy or an X-Fi? Both come in platinum editions, so which do you have?

 

[mitch074]

what are you using to play sound? It could be a software based on the CPU clock, and the actual PCI speed would be irrelevant; you may also check that the actual PCI bus speed matches what is written in BIOS... Use clockgen to do so.

 

[watsonrw]

its an x-fi platinum. The sound in general in everything is higher pitched than it should be. I updated to the newest bios last night as well trying to fix this and it did nothing. What do u guys do to keep the cpu clock from interfering with the sound and other things.

 

[mitch074]

I run a Linux kernel, with drivers that uses the system clock - and not the bus clock, like the Xfi proprietary drivers seem to do.

 

[Redline24]

You probably didn't lock the PCI bus to 33.3MHz and as a result your sound card/other PCI components are being stressed. Lock it, then overclock.

 

[watsonrw]

I am not very new to overclockign i have just never oc'd on this platform. I know about locking the pci bus and agp bus but i do not see in the bios where it gives the option to lock those. Do u know hwo to on this t-force board.

 

[Redline24]

There are many versions of the Biostar T-Force mobo. If you could grab me the exact model name, I could download the manual and help you more. In the meantime, if there's no option that says PCI Clock or something similiar, you're probably flat out of luck. :?

 

[watsonrw]

t-force 550

 

[Redline24]

I'm not seeing anything...

Try lowering the HyperTransport multiplier to 4x
Also try setting the RAM to DDR2-667 for awhile

I don't think there's much you can do if those don't work...

 

[watsonrw]

what does the hypertransport multi do?

 

[mitch074]

the HT link is sync'ed with the 'fsb' of the CPU - the CPU connects on a 200 MHz port, the HT specs go to 1 GHz - usually, this multiplier is locked on either 4x (more stable) or 5x (faster) - considering a CPU sends off 64-bit wide words and HT is at most 16-bit wide (meaning it requires 4 HT cycles to transfer a single CPU cycle), 4x is the minimum rate allowing full CPU <=> mobo communication, while 5x may allow faster communication in cases such as missed cycle. In effect, an efficient system should use a 5x transfert rate, exept if
- the mobo is unstable at 5x due to bad design or failure
- the system is being overclocked: a 250 MHz with a 5x multiplier would mean a 1.25 GHz HT bus, way over specs - 4x would mean in-specs function.

Theoretically, 5x is faster; but, considering DDR-400 uses 40% and DDR2-1000 is still experimental, a 4x multiplier is enough for 99% of AMD systems.

Note: in the case of dual channel, each RAM stick (or pair of sticks if you have 4) has its allocated HT link; so the above still applies.

 

[watsonrw]

i tried that and it didnt work either. I dont think a motherboard should tout overclocking features if it doesnt at least have a pci lock. Hopefully they will add one in the future.

 

[mitch074]

or maybe your mobo does lock the PCI bus, and the problem is unrelated. Have you tried Clockgen?

 

[ikjadoon]

I know this may sound really stupid, but have you checked the EAX settings?

I had an old Audigy Gamer card, and I was messing with the EAX panel to make funny sound effects. (Hey, I was young) Anyways, I started up some games, and instead of hearing the rumble of a race car, I heard the squeal of dying go-kart. I soon found out, I had changed the voice settings to Chimp-Munk. An easy change to "Normal" fixed it.

I'm not sure how the Driver Panel thing for the X-Fi's are, but look around for EAX settings. If you can't find it, uninstall the drivers; you should still get sound. Is it still high-pitched?

~Ibrahim~

 

[watsonrw]

it isnt eax settings cause whenever my processor is run at stock speeds 200 HTT everything is fine. I am about to use clock gen to verify if the pci bus is being locked. So far everything is leaning towards that.


Update: I verified with clockgen that the pci was being raised as the htt was being raised. Raising the htt by 10 yielded a 2mhz increase in pci bus speed to 35 mhz. So basically they have overclocking features on their board but u cant use them because they stress the hell out of the pci components in your system and not just cpu and ram

 

[Slowburn]

How long have you had the board? Can you return it?

 

[mitch074]

strange - I used to run PCI components at up to 41 MHz, without any trouble...

 

[ikjadoon]

Ah, all right...Have you tried updating the BIOS? It doesn't list PCI Lock as a listed change, but maybe. BIOS I don't think it matters, but what about changing the PCI slots?

Have you tried the Overclock utility that BioStar has? I don't think it would be much difference, but..Utility

~Ibrahim~

 

[watsonrw]

I have updated the bios to the latest bios, and have tried changing to other pci slots. The overclock utility that comes iwth the board is garbage and locks up the computer.
Mitch074- Some pci components are probably more sensitive than others at the speed you run them at.

 

[ikjadoon]

Ah. Yeah, most manufacturers GUI overclocking utilities are not that great. I'm looking for a software PCI-lock function, but don't be too hopeful. I think it has to be a motherboard feature to begin with, maybe not.

~Ibrahim~

 

[mitch074]

True - but still, it would seem funny that a POS like the Soundblaster 128 PCI would weathe r41 MHz PCI without more trouble than it does 33 MHz, and not a top-notch, more recent product from the same manufacturer.