• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Overclock Please Help

J

john6305

n00b
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
17
Hi. I'm new to OCing but I have read a few post about it and am beginning to learn.

Here is my setup:

AMD 64 3200+
MSI NEO4
40GB ATA HD 2MB Cache
200GB ATA HD 8MB Cache
MSI 6600GT 128MB
420Watt Truepower Thermaltake 20pin
Windows XP Professional
Zalman 7000 HT all copper

Here is my problem:

I can overclock via ClockGen or the overclocking tool that comes with MSIs bundle. I can overclock (using that software) to 2.2Ghz no problem. However, if I try to overclock in the bios by raising my FBS to 220 and leaving my multiplier at 10, my operating system becomes corrupt and I cannot get back in to windows. I have to reinstall.

Get back in to windows, overclock to 2.2 again. No problem. It runs stable. CPU temp is 27C (its 40C where I live right now). Raise it to 2.2 and the temp goes up 2 degrees to 29C.

Try to overclock in bios, and it cannot load in to windows. Again. Have to reinstall windows.

Ok. So I use Clockgen to OC to 2.4Ghz. At first everything is fine, then the system begins to slow down and finally stops. The hard drive led stays on - showing that the HD is trying to read but the system just hangs. Restart computer and it says Disk Boot Failure. Restart again, and it only shows my backup 200GB hard drive and wants to reinstall Windows. Says I don't have an OS.

Turn off computer, unplug 40GB HD, plug it back in, restart computer, and it loads in to Windows just fine but says my profile is corrupted and then goes back to normal. Everything is as it should be.

So whats the deal? Why can I only go to 2.2? Am I doing something wrong? And why is it that my OS dies on me when I overclock? I thought that if you OC and have unstable results, that you can just revert back and everything is OK as long as you didn't do any permanent damage to your components from too much heat...

Please help.
 
sounds like your ram timings cant handle the overclock, loosen the timings and you should be golden
 
Wow. Would that really screw up my OS? I mean, would it make Windows unbootable? Also, if I were aiming for 2.4-2.6Ghz, what steps would you recommend to a noob to overclock from a 3200+? What would I need to change, and in what order, to keep from having to reinstall Windows everytime I screw up? =P
 
I haven't used ClockGen, and well...don't have an AMD 64. But from reading I have gathered some information.

Just a guess but does ClockGen overclock by just changing the multiplyer of the cpu? If that is the case the problem might occur in your bios if you are upping the FSB(or HTT if you wanna call it that) and not changing the HTT multiplyer. Someone may need to help me out on this but I don't think the HTT can go over 1000 mhz at all. So, if you have 200 mhz FSB and 5x multiplyer = 1000 mhz HTT. Potentionally try to drop your HTT multiplyer to 4x if you go to 250 mhz fsb or below or even 3x if you get over 250 mhz.

Does that sound about right to others?
 
im not too firmiliar with the whole a64 thing myself, but your situation sounds exactly like what happened with my a-xp, and looser mem timings solved everything
 
First off, invest in a decent system image/backup program so you don't need to do so many re-installs of the OS. I use an external USB 2.0 HDD with Norton Ghost 9.0 but internal works just as well, backing up around 10GB takes like 15 min. with medium compression (45%) and restoring it doesn't take much longer...

Plus it can be automated so it's easier than sitting by the computer, pressing F6, loading drivers, selecting options, not to mention re-installing all your apps later and setting up the system how you like it. Really well worth it. You can use Ghost with your second ATA drive for instance.

Second, is it really 40C (108F-ish??) where you live? I seriously doubt your processor is running at 27C in that case unless you have AC in your house (and if so, why mention it's 40C). Your board may be mis-reporting temps, did you update the BIOS? Third, what did you run to determine that it was stable in Windows? Games, Prime, CPU Burn-In?

Fourth, I'm not familiar with the Neo4... But are you sure the AGP/PCI (and thus IDE) locks are set in the BIOS? From the way you described what's happening it sounds like the OS corruption is happening gradually due to this not being set properly and the IDE controller being run outta spec... Although from normal OC'ing with the controller running in spec an OS install can be corrupted as well.

Avoid using ClockGen or whatever honestly, it's easier to troubleshoot any of this doing straight OC'ing thru the BIOS... Just gotta research a lil' bit more so you know what to change, it's not just bumping the FSB and hoping for the best.

You'll want to lower (or loosen) memory timings and lower the HT multi to 4 initially. The A64's FSB is reffered to as HTT, the HT on the other hand is the link between the proc and the NorthBridge. You want that to run no faster than 1,000MHz so 4x220 keeps it in spec, being a couple hundred MHz under 1GHz doesn't affect performance. Look up some A64 OC'ing FAQs to find out more then ask regarding specifics.

Finally, the information sipher provided is incorrect. The A64's multis are locked upwards (can only be changed downwards) so ClockGen can't raise the core frequency in this way.
 
The Norton Ghost idea is a good one. I will do that. I just ordered a Raptor 74GB so I will need to reinstall everything soon anyways. Going to turn my 40 and 200GB in to storage drives.

Well, every temp monitor I have tried says 27-29C but you are probably right. I haven't updated the bios yet. This is a recently released board so I will have to check.

Ok so OS corruption CAN occur from OCing. How does this happen? What exactly is involved? As for PCI/AGP lock, I'm kind of ignorant. Seems I have a lot more to learn about OCing. I don't want to screw up my system so I think I may hold off til I learn more.

If anyone can give me any more advice or things to look out for, that would be great. The previous post have been very very helpful and informative. Maybe someone can suggest an article I need to read? I've read the one in Anandtech's forum about OCing. Anyone have anything specifically for the hardware I am dealing with?

What about voltages? What should I know about this? And anything else you think I won't know, I probably don't, so mention it please :) Its very much appreciated.
 
john6305 said:
Well, every temp monitor I have tried says 27-29C but you are probably right. I haven't updated the bios yet. This is a recently released board so I will have to check.
Click to expand...
All programs read the temps from the same BIOS sensor, usually if one's wrong they'll all be wrong too.

OS corruption can occur due to a number of factors, most of which aren't inherent to any permanent hardware damage... But RAM running at timings that are too aggresive can cause it, as well as HDDs running on controllers that are out of spec like I mentioned in the previous post; those are the two more common causes...

You probably don't want to raise your vcore higher than 1.6v with that Winchester chip. You probably want to raise your vdimm to 2.8v if your RAM is good (you never said what you're using as far as RAM). Gotta look at it's latencies (CAS, TRC, TRP, TRAS, usually represented as 2-2-2-5 or 2-3-2-10, etc.).

You can run the RAM on a divider so that it runs closer to it's stock speed while as well, being able to raise the FSB further without having to raise the RAM as high. It all depends on the quality of your stuff, usually when you're starting off you want the RAM on a divider either way (run as DDR333 for instance) so that you can rule it out while determining your processor's ceiling.

OC'ing A64s 101:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=306418

MSI board-specific boards:
http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46

A64 chipsets, motherboards, etc:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=295328

I post those links because ocoforums has a few more structured FAQs than [H]F typically does and they're good reading for a beginner. It's very possible there's a larger community of Neo4 users here so if you're asking regarding something board-specific head to the Mobo sub-forum here and ask (or search) away.
 
Ok. Its late so I will read those articles tomorrow. Thanks for your help though. It is appreciated. As for what RAM I am using, I am using Mushkin PC 3200 DDR400 RAM. 512MBx2.

I am going to wait for the Raptor drive to come in before I do anything else in regards to OCing. I'm not looking for much of an OC, really. Maybe 2.4 at the least - 2.6 at the most. Also, how hard is it (as well as how advised is it) to OC your graphics card? I am running a MSI 6600 GT. I've heard that people often get these cards OCed to near or at 6800 GT speeds.

Is this really worth it and how likely am I to screw something up?

Thanks again. You guys are one of the best sources of information on this subject that I have.
 
It's easier than OC'ing the processor usually, just two settings to play around with (core speed and mem speed). Simply a matter of enabling Coolbits or downloading RivaTuner and pushing them slowly (10-20MHz at a time) while testing with 3dmark or something similar and checking for visual artifacts, temps, and stability.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top