Very bizzare problem with old machine

[pavel-]

Hello,
I have an older machine that I use to play around with overclocking on, as well as playing cs1.6, it looks like this:

CPU: amd athlon xp-m 2500+ (for ocing)
Mobo: asus a7n8x-x (1010mod2 bios)
RAM kit 1: corsair value select 2x512mb ddr400-pc3200
RAM kit 2 (old): no name 2x512mb ddr333-pc2700 (kits are used separately)
GFX: bfg 6800gt oc
HDA: wd 80gb ide
HDB: wd 200gb
PSU: thermaltake 430w

I just recently put the mobile athlon xp in it, purchased the corsair ddr400 ram to replace the older kit as well as a new heatsink (GH-PCU22-VG, url here). Ever since I have been trying different overclocks on this rig with the modded bios (currently using the cpc on bios from here). After about 3 days of different (conservative) settings and stability tests using Prime95 I have not had any luck having the system stable for more than 1-2 hours. And finally, several hours ago, while loading cs1.6 my system just rebooted and I have not been able to boot successfully into windows (WinXP SP2) since. The most success I have had is booting into windows and then having the system go completely unresponsive 20-30 seconds after windows has loaded.

Here's what I have tried:
■ I have tried going down to factory default settings on both the CPU (166x11=1826mhz) and the RAM (200mhz @ 2.5-3-3-8).
■ I have tried using the old RAM kit
■ I have tried using only 1 stick of the new kit
■ I have tried using only 1 stick of the old kit

The result is the same, I cannot boot into any Safe Mode or normal mode.

I am currently running memtest86 v1.65 off my Ubuntu 7.03 CD on 1 of the new kit sticks to see if there is a problem with the RAM, I will test all the sticks in this manner over the next few hours/days.

The only other thought is the CPC ON bios, as some have reported instability with CPC ON, if all my sticks check out with memtest86 I will try the CPC OFF bios.

However, if you have any thoughts, opinions or helpful insight, it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[o1die]

Set your memory to 166 and your cpu fsb to 250. Bump up your cpu voltage by .1 volts. Disable "spread spectrum". If your system still won't post, I would run it at the default settings, and forget about overclocking. For overclocking to work, your power supply, cpu cooling, memory and board have to all work well together. Some cpus won't overclock by much, if any, due to any number of issues.

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

It does sound like something went south. I would say that you overworked one or more of the components.

 

[pavel-]

I only bothered to test 1 of the corsair sticks yesterday evening, memtest86 froze 3 times in the same spot (5:24 into the test, somewhere on test 6 i think). So I will be flashing my bios, first back to CPC OFF modded, then if that doesnt work back to asus 1010.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can get a bootdisk image that will not automatically try to write itself to a floppy? Because my floppy drive seems dead (or all my disks are dead), so I flash my bios from my usb stick.

Finally if all else fails, I will attempt to put my old CPU (amd athlon-xp 2800+) in with the old RAM, as that setup ran for a good 2 years on about 15% overclock.

Thanks for replies.

 

[pavel-]

Well, looks like I'm going to have to dig up a floppy after all, as I got a BIOS ROM Checksum Error and my machine doesnt POST anymore.

This is certainly a fun learning experience. No more USB Stick BIOS flashing.