Overclocking issues with ASUS M2A-VM (690G)

Forum Overclocking : Motherboards Overclocking issues with ASUS M2A-VM (690G)

I'm trying to reach a decent overclock with my ASUS M2A-VM motherboard and an X2 3600+. Currently, I have 2x512MB DDR2-533 memory installed, but I plan to replace this with 2x1GB DDR2-800 when funds become available. The RAM is installed in the two slots furthest from the CPU, as the HSF (CNPS8000) blocks the first DIMM slot.

My problem with overclocking has been... complicated. Firstly, if I have a PCI card installed, I cannot overclock at all. The PCI cards I've tried using are a Wireless network and an Audigy. I've taken these cars out of the system, at least for now.

Secondly, the highest overclock I can get to is a base speed of 230, which puts my CPU at 2185 MHz. If I push the speed any higher than 230, the computer fails to POST (or at least fails to display POST - it stays running, not automatically rebooting, but I don't hear HDD activity).

My temperatures are very reasonable with the slight overclock I've managed: running full load I read 42C with lm-sensors (oh yeah, I'm using Ubuntu).

Reading online, I've seen reviews that state good overclocking with this board, ie frequencies to at least 260 MHz.

Quote :

The 5000+ CPU that we use for motherboard testing is rather limited overclocking wise, as the clock speed is 2.6 GHz, the fastest available CPU until the release of the 6000+ (3GHz) early this month. Nonetheless I was able to overclock the ASUS M2A-VM board to an even 3 GHz using straight overclocking and was able to reach a FSB of 260MHz with lowering the multiplier.

The BIOS has very limited overclocking options (covered in the revews). My thoughts are that the PCI bus - if I can call it that, I'm not so familiar with AMD systems - is being overclocked when I push the motherboard. I can see that screwing things up whenever I have a card installed. Is it also possible that the IGP is being overclocked in the same manner, so that it's limiting me? If that's the case, I would expect that the online reviews would have talked about these issues.

For clarity, my overclocking settings have been very simple so far. I've manually set the base frequency to 230, and manually selected DDR2-533 memory. Memory timings cannot be set in the BIOS, nor can the actual memory speed. I imagine the mobo uses the 533 number as a maximum and uses a divider to reach the highest speed at or below this setting. I don't know of a program that I can use in Linux to see what my RAM speed or timings are actually set to, but that would be useful information.

I would appreciate any help with this project. I want to unlock some more potential in my system.

Reply to HotFoot

Acctually you can set the ram timings manually it's under the chipset menu, inroder to get it above 230mhz i also recomend that you go into the chipset menu and change the option liisted as LDT down to 800mhz, so that you're HTT doesn't get over 1ghz. i have the same board as you as a note and am running at 245mhz@13x, but i'm also running an AMD 64 Orleans 4000+ stock of 2.6ghz to 3.2 atm. tested stable. the trick is to set your ram and LDT lower so that once the cpu frequency changes (and oonce you turn it up from 230 it will increase the ram and LDT) they won't go over their max values. while overclocking the ram may sound sweet, it's not, it's a pure ticket to trouble in most cases.

Use this calc to check the numbers you'll be putting in and what you'll be getting out, and i'm sorry i don't remember iof the board will let you set your ram lower than 533, i have ddr2 400 set to 667. i'll be keeping an eye on this thread incase you need any more help.

Message edited by Kietriss on 05-17-2009 at 09:19:51 AM

Reply to Kietriss

i have that motherboard. my cpu amd x2 4400, vid hd4850, 3 gigs cheap ddr2. the highest stable fsb which i been using for a few months now no problems is 290 MHz with multi of 10x. the highest i gotten it to boot in to xp was 300 MHz fsb. i guess its not that bad with passive cooling on north bridge

Reply to vabeachboy0

the issue with your fsb vs mine is even though my fsb is lower my resulting clock is higher...(13x 240 = 3.18~ 10x 290 = 2.9~) what is your resulting ram speed (while running of course) i made a couple of mistakes in my previous post due to typing it too fast and not paying enough attention so i'll just drop a cpuz link here if it'll let me if not it'll appear in plan text i guess... XD http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=560527 that's my current timings and setup. i stepped it down to 240 just to be safe, but i'm still pulling 3.1 with my ram running just under it's right speed and my htt running a little slow too, but not enough to be a hindrance. of course i've always got something to learn so if you'd like to share a bit more details on how (and why) you decided to settle for 2.9 i'm very willing to listen, i'm not even sure how different oc'ing dual cores is than singles tbh, never played with them.

Reply to Kietriss

here's my cpuz link http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=568585 Well my processor is kinda unstable above 2.9. ive had it to 3.1 but isnt stable. But a higher fsb gives me better overall performance. btw my cpu highest multi is 11.5. im still trying to get it at least to 3.0. but i still learning. been overclocking since the amd K5. i know this board gotta have a little more umph in it. open to any ideas

Reply to vabeachboy0

this is my highest ive been able to reach http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=420109

Reply to vabeachboy0

hmm i'd be careful with the that htt number on your stable pc, not sure how it's doing cause mine can't go over 1000, if i do it goes nuts and tries to kill me (symbolicly by trying to blow up and attack my wallet of course.)

but if i were you i'd step down the ldt (that controls the htt on these boards and mine is set to 800mhz to give me room to work with) and to get your ram as close to pc 800 as possibly just turn your multi to 11 and your fsp could stay at 290, that would give you an average cpu speed of 3.19 and a ram speed of about 390(very close to the 400 it would normally be if your ram is really pc800 ram.) that should greatly improve overall performance and if the settings don't seem stable make sure your htt is lower than 1000 and that your ram speed in cpuz doesn't break 400mhz. then if you've got a bit of guts turn the volts up in bios but be very slow about it, go one step above your current volts (can be checked in cpuz) mine is a 60+Watt single core so i didn't need to touch voltage (as it's already a bit high on auto on my chip XD) and make sure to save your current profile to the bios in the oc profiles for faster restoring in case something goes wrong.

Reply to Kietriss

lol that htt speed ive had it that way since i pretty much got the board almost 2 years ago . the ram i have is ddr2-667 but i did through research on the chips thats on my ram stick and found out that they are capable of going to almost 500 mhz if u supply enough voltage. i always look at white papers for cpu ram chips etc. to find there min and max tolerances voltage and temp wise. have had my ram up to ddr2-850 (425 mhz) stable for the longest, but my system seemed like it had a bottleneck so i upped the fsb. which made a very noticable improvement. my htt in the bios is actually set at 800 but i guess with a high fsb still got it above 1000. ive tried to change multi on cpu to 11 it wont post for some weird reason but i guess duals and single are a diffrent ball game all together. my temps are not that bad at full load it gets to 54C (131F) at idle 34C (93F). i use a modified XIGMATEK AIO-S80DP the self contained liquid cooling. so it keeps temps down fairly well considering it isnt that loud

Reply to vabeachboy0

awesome, i'm actually getting ready to hit a quad core on an am2+ board, good to know that my knowledge won't apply there XD time to start doing more research XD well i think that's the end of the help i can give you? well message me on icq through the im like or hit this username on yahoo or aim, and we can continue to trade infor, but i think we've threadjacked this old thread for long enough eh? XD

Reply to Kietriss

I know this post is old, but maybe I can revive it a little.

I am totally new to overclocking, and this is my first overclock.

I am running:
Antec 300 ( top front fan bay 120 over HDD / 140 out top )
M2A-VM
X2 5400+ at 2.8 GHz ( Brisbane 65nm )
Asus Silent Knite CPU cooler ( loud but effective )
2 x 1GB OCZ REAPER DDR2-800 5.5.5.15 Heat piped ram ( enhanced performance performs at 4.4.4)

Currently, I am as follows

2799.9 MHz
Core Voltage 1.36 - 1.376
HTT Clock 200 MHz
HTT Speed 1000MHz
Memory Clock 400MHz ( 800 MHz overall )

So here we go, any suggestions before I begin?

Message edited by tylerdemerchant on 02-12-2010 at 10:37:31 AM

Reply to tylerdemerchant

hi everyone i also know the tread is old but if anyone is still reading this my problem with the M2A-VM HDMI is that when i set my ldt to 800 my board wont post, i have disabled spread spectrum lowered my ram to 667 disabled cool n quiet but i cant lower the LDT, so im stuck at 235 fsb,ht is at 1175 and my ram is at 705mhz (pc2 6400) would love to go higher as my temps are still low and i havent increased the vcore at all yet im running an amd athlon 64x2 4000+ its currently at 2.45(stock is 2.1ghz), if anyone has any suggestions that would be great. i cant think of anything else to try i know my cpu can go a lot higher but my pc becomes unstable if i go any higher becuase of my high HT, someone please help me as im tearing my hair out trying to figure this out thanks

Reply to robgigs