Northwood C Overclocking - problem (Scottchen's guide)

[Slava]

Hey Scottchen (and anyone who can help )

I have a problem: I followed your advice in the "Northwood C Overclocking Guide" exactly. But once I did what you suggest - the PC just would not boot. After a while I get the message that the CPU was changed or is unworkable, then the mobo resets the BIOS to defaults.

I have

P4 Northwood C, 3.0 GHz with HT
Gigabyte 3D Cooler-Ultra PCU31-VH heatsink/fan
ABIT IS7 motherboard
1 Gb of Hyundai Electronics PC3200 dual channel RAM (4x256Mb)

What I did:

1. Set AGP/PCI to Fixed at 66/33 MHz
2. Set DRAM ratio to 5:4
3. Set CPU voltage to 1.7
4. Set RAM voltage to 2.8
5. Ram timings by SPD
6. FSB at 215 (x15 multiplier) = New CPU speed of 3.225 GHz
7. I did not even get to tweaking memory timings or voltages.

My CPU fan is very good. I would like to get my CPU to 3.4 but I cannot even get it to 3.2 as the machine would not boot.

What is wrong? Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[1Tanker]

Hey Scottchen (and anyone who can help )

I have a problem: I followed your advice in the "Northwood C Overclocking Guide" exactly. But once I did what you suggest - the PC just would not boot. After a while I get the message that the CPU was changed or is unworkable, then the mobo resets the BIOS to defaults.

I have

P4 Northwood C, 3.0 GHz with HT
Gigabyte 3D Cooler-Ultra PCU31-VH heatsink/fan
ABIT IS7 motherboard
1 Gb of Hyundai Electronics PC3200 dual channel RAM (4x256Mb)

What I did:

1. Set AGP/PCI to Fixed at 66/33 MHz
2. Set DRAM ratio to 5:4
3. Set CPU voltage to 1.7
4. Set RAM voltage to 2.8
5. Ram timings by SPD
6. FSB at 215 (x15 multiplier) = New CPU speed of 3.225 GHz
7. I did not even get to tweaking memory timings or voltages.

My CPU fan is very good. I would like to get my CPU to 3.4 but I cannot even get it to 3.2 as the machine would not boot.

What is wrong? Thanks for your help in advance.

First of all, 1.70v is getting dangerous for Northwood P4's. My 3.0C died from 1.70v. Lets hope your CPU didn't die from Northwood Sudden Death Syndrome. Also, if you are using a 5:4 mem ratio @215 FSB, then your RAM is running @ 268-269MHz. I doubt that your RAM can run that high, especially with 4 sticks. Drop the RAM divider back to 1:1 and see if you can get her booted. GL

 

[Slava]

Thanks, man. I will try that. Strange though that Scottchen's sticky is in error and no one has corrected that error. Perhaps it would be a good idea if you sent him a PM. It would be sad if many people burned their CPUs setting them at 1.7 volts.

 

[1Tanker]

Thanks, man. I will try that. Strange though that Scottchen's sticky is in error and no one has corrected that error. Perhaps it would be a good idea if you sent him a PM. It would be sad if many people burned their CPUs setting them at 1.7 volts.

1.70v doesn't kill all Northwoods, but it's said that anything over that is dangerous, but i found out the hard way. So, i don't know if he should have mentioned 1.70v or not.

 

[1Tanker]

Another setting that can help with stabilizing a P4 overclock,is increasing the vAGP in the BIOS. This apparently increases voltage to the Northbridge(chipset). I have mine set to 1.70v. And just to clarify, are you using the memory divider labeled as 320Mhz, or 500Mhz? If it's the 500 setting, than your RAM is working at 25% faster than the FSB,if it's the 320 setting than it's at 80% of FSB, and your RAM isn't likely the problem..unless it needs a touch more voltage. GL

 

[Slava]

Another setting that can help with stabilizing a P4 overclock,is increasing the vAGP in the BIOS. This apparently increases voltage to the Northbridge(chipset). I have mine set to 1.70v. And just to clarify, are you using the memory divider labeled as 320Mhz, or 500Mhz? If it's the 500 setting, than your RAM is working at 25% faster than the FSB,if it's the 320 setting than it's at 80% of FSB, and your RAM isn't likely the problem..unless it needs a touch more voltage. GL

Mmmm... sorry, man. As far as OCing is concerned, I am a noob and your post got me kinda confused. Especially the part about "memory divider labeled xyz". Could you please explain everything again? I do not think I've ever seen "divider labeled as 320Mhz, or 500Mhz", not in my BIOS anyway.

Thanks.

 

[sadsephiroth]

He means did you mean cpu:ram or ram:cpu with 5:4. it probably is at 366 , which would take it to 406, prob limit of weird ram. Go with a lower divider of like 266 and then push up to 250.