another noob overclocker... (Me!)

[BeeQuewl]

ok before i go into problems here's the specs:

a7v600 mobo
2800xp (barton?)
radeon 9600
generic ddr400 512mb (this ram IS stable at 333+ so this aint the problem, or it aint the speed, voltage maybe)
thermaltake Xaser2 case
and every fan known to God


so... here goes

anytime i set changes to the bios to overclock (upping FSB by small increments, multiplier "changes" in bios, but doesnt actually change once i reboot ("locked" i assume)), the only changes that will stick are unimportant changes (remove logo screen at boot to show POST, etc) or voltage changes. evrytime i change the fsb it will change, save changes and do 1 of 2 things :

1: it will POST at 2166 with all settings in BIOS for chipspeed locked out
or
2: it will post as a 2800xp at the speed i set it for but will flip back to 2166 at next reboot


no matter what i do the BIOS will flip the chip speed back to 2166 every other boot and then flip it back after i see its wrong and hit ctrl+alt+del to rebot (or if i wait til windows and reboot it does same thing)


what the hell am i doing wrong? (its got to be me, everything else always is...)

any help on settings, bios updates (although asus says i have the most recent bios (the one that was fixed to allow ddr400 to work correctly, 1006 i believe), whether or not to just fry the 2800 and then go buy a 3200, you know ... any suggestions? step-bystep for an idiot please


oh yeah and even getting it to post at unrteasonable speeds and voltages temps were never above 57C on chip (running prime 95 for 45 minutes) and 29C on board.... and after reading some posts around here that doesnt seem to extreme... unless im a moron... which i am


yet i digress... or is that regress?

[John Prophet]

digression...regression...it's all the same......

maybe it is the ram holding it back after all....have you tried to check the cas settings etc? maybe make sure the ram settings are at their most conservative settings.

what is the highest speed it will boot to and run at? or will it reset itself everytime u boot?

If u have it at 2166 that is an fsb of 173ish cuz the multiplier is 12.5....so if u have DDR400 you would think the ram would be ok...

so it will boot and run ok at, say...170 fsb?

JP

is it possible there is a jumper on the motherboard for 166fsb...and maybe you have it at 133 on the jumper and then you are overclocking it tremendously to get it to 173?? In other words if it is set at 133fsb and you are getting it to 173 then you are wayyyyy overclocking the pci bus etc....so make sure the default speed is set at 166fsb..not 133.

This is a really common issue because most boards have the 133/166-200 jumpers now.

[BeeQuewl]

hmm... i dont think it has a jumper but lemme rtfm real quick here...

also did i mention it always POSTS at 2166 the first time no matter what i set the BIOS settings to? this is causing serious brain-burn-out here....



<whacks head against case repeatedly>

[BeeQuewl]

this is like the jumperless mobo... no real settings to control via jumpers... god i hate this box

[bootoo]

If you set your memory to "expert" under advanced in the bios and loosen up the timings to 2.5-3-3-11 you might get some headroom. My ddr400 had too tight of timings under auto or spd to overclock much.

Another way to check if your memory is limiting you is to set it at a lower value (TEMPORARILY, asynch is bad for performance) to 80% and see if it's good at a new oclock. If it runs stable then, you need to look at how to solve your memory problem. Alas my solutions tend to run to credit card bills but you might be smarter