E4300 overclock, looking for some tips (maybe?)

Hey guys, I'm overclocking my Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 and so far have gotten it to 3.1Ghz stably. I was just wondering if anyone here has ever used the P5B-Deluxe or the 965 chipset and has any advice for me on how to go about it. Right now the setup is as follows:

FSB: 345mhz
Mult: 9x
RAM: 690mhz
Vcore: 1.45V
VDimm: 2.00V
Timings are set to SPD which I believe are 5-5-5-12 or something similar.

Idle temps are around 38C
Load temps are around 55-58C

I have tried increasing the voltage and I can get it stable up to 373mhz and at 374 it will not boot. I tried jumping to 400mhz reading about the FSB hole on the 965 chipsets and setting the Mult. to 7x so it would be well within the clocking range that I have tested and it didn't boot. I'm not sure where to go with this really. The load temps are perfectly in check, it has run stably with temps approaching 70C while I was running it earlier this year so I know it can handle the temps it's getting too.

What could I do to make this thing keep going it seems like I just hit a wall and it won't go any further. I'm really convinced it's the motherboard, and if that's the case I may get a new one since it's kind of old. However, one thing I probably should mention is that this board was previously owned and has a Vdroop mod on it. The previous owner said that it could hit a 570mhz FSB without a problem so why is it that at 400mhz and a multiplier that puts it within stable range, does it not boot?

Suggestions?

::EDIT::

also forgot to mention, I tried putting the FSB voltage up to 1.55volts and that didn't help anything, just thought I would throw that in.

You might have reached the limit for your chip. They tend to hit a wall at 380 ish normally. You can get 3.5ghz though if you are lucky. 3.4 should be fine, though I haven't tried yet.

That doesn't make any sense though, I lowered the multiplier so that a 400mhz FSB would only put the chip at 2.8Ghz because the multiplier was set to 7x...why won't it boot at that? That's my real question because all logic says that it should.

most likely because the default clock is 200MHz on those chips and you can't double the FSB because the chip can't handle it.

I see your point, but I have seen these chips go MUCH further then 400mhz at the FSB and the FSB (I thought) was more or less dependant on the motherboard and not the processor, the processor's default FSB is 200mhz, yes, however, that just means where they set it too to match up with the multiplier they used...I didn't think it could hold the chip back...

Well this is deja vu for me. Because this is pretty much how my E4300 behaved. I think I was able to do 3.15GHz. I drove myself nuts just trying to get it to 3.2GHz and never could.

And yeah, I experienced those similar FSB issues. I dropped my multiplier and raised my FSB and seemed to get stuck around 380 if I remember right. Nothing would boot between 380 to 400. I think somewhere slightly over 400 I was able to get it to boot, but I could never attain any stability.

My overclocking seemed to get worse with lower multipliers and higher FSBs. It would have been real nice to do 8x400, but months of fiddling never accomplished that.

I had a Gigabyte P965 DS3. I didn't think it was the motherboard, because I was certain it wouldn't be hanging up on such a low FSB settings. The E4300 with a 200MHz default FSB seemed to be the culprit. Though it took me a while to realize that. I didn't think the FSB of the CPU would really matter much. I figured it would work as well as an E6300.

I later upgraded to an E6750 on the same motherboard which was then able to take the FSB up to 460MHz easily. Again, with this new CPU the FSB seems to be limited, because lowering the multiplier doesn't help me get past 460MHz. I even got a new P35 board (not really because of the FSB issue, just wanted it) and my E6750 still has the 460MHz FSB limit.

So that pretty much convinced me that CPUs can have their own FSB limits in addition to clock limits that are separate from the FSB limits on motherboards.

Thanks for the reply, I am going to try some suggestions I got from a friend of mine and see if I can't get it stable at something above 400mhz. I apparently mis-read the article about the FSB hole and it includes 400mhz as well as around 375-380mhz so I am going to try 401mhz or something or maybe a little higher to see because if it's just a matter of more voltage, I have plenty of cooling to spare and I can afford to up that a little if need be.

got the same with my 4300. I can run it stable with 9x370 and 1,48V but that´s it. With 7x400 it doesn´t boot. I will try it again but i need a better cooling therefore. At the moment i have the silent setup...

does your bios support cpu and northbridge gtl functions? if it does, try taking both to the first notch above auto.

It was a while ago, but I had very similar problems with my E4300 and the P5B Deluxe. I can't remember the specifics now, but I also hit a FSB wall (lower than yours) that I just couldn't get past (and I tried jumping the FSB hole as well - as I recall now the problem really manifested itself when I tried to adjust the multiplier). I ended up dumping the board for a Bad Axe 2 and was able to get my current overclock with no issues at all.

Edit: Thinking about it more, and I'm pretty sure I was never able to get it to boot when I adjusted the multiplier downward.

Can anyone confirm that even though the BIOS supports a change in multiplier that the chip does as well?

I'm updating my bios (just making sure it's the newest) and then I'm going to try jumping again to see if I can't get a successful boot at something above my current wall.