Overclock issues

[Gobble45]

hello people at TH forums.
To begin with my specs are:
CPU - AMD Phenom II x4 955 - stock = 3.2ghz - attempted overclock = 3.4ghz
MOBO - ASRock 880G Extreme3 Motherboard (latest BIOS)
HSF - Coolermaster 212+ (with 2 120mm fans)
well i assume they are all the details you need.

so what happened was, i used AMD OverDrive to overclock my CPU to 3.8GHz
this went splendid, i run some stress tests(amd overdrive, prime95) and it didnt crash or anything, it was great
but my friend told me its better to overclock in the BIOS instead of a program that boots when you log into windows.

so clocked my cpu back down to its stock settings, and again everything was fine.

1 week later...

i went into my BIOS, and had a look at the overclocking.
basically i just changed the multiplier from x16 to x17 just for testing purposes (which would give me a clock of 3.4ghz)
i saved the settings, and rebooted my pc. when the computer was starting it said:
"AMD Phenom II x4 955 3.4ghz"
so i assumed that my overclock worked
yay for me...
but once i logged into windows, and read my coretemp clock speed, it read 3200Mhz not 3400mhz
i was confused, so check CPU-Z. again 3.2ghz
i check AMD overdrive again 3.2
ASROCK OC TUNER again 3.2

MY OVERCLOCK DIDNT WORK?
can somebody please help me understand what is going on?
have i overclocked wrong? or is there an issue?

 

[lowjack989]

First of get rid of AMD overdrive and lose the ASROCK software program as well. Second, Set your multi in BIOS to x17 again --->press F10--->press ENTER......Viola, 3.4 GHz

What are your rigs Spec. i.e. RAM specs, PSU, and GPU

BTW...That set-up you have has really good OC potiential...I would say to could easily get 3.9 GHz - 4 GHz NP

 

[Gobble45]

I have Corsair 8gb (4x2gb) DDR3 1333mhz (https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=13237 2 lots of this)
my power supply is XFX Core edition Pro 750W
GPU = XFX 5870 1gb
NZXT Whisper Case

First of get rid of AMD overdrive and lose the ASROCK software program as well. Second, Set your multi in BIOS to x17 again --->press F10--->press ENTER......Viola, 3.4 GHz

i did this, but it doesnt work.. hence why i came to these forums for support?

 

[lowjack989]

reset the CMOS...Try again