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.

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.

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

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

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.

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