Core volts & boot up stability

[xx]

T'Bird 1Ghz (200FSB) on Asus A7V133, currently running at x8.0@133fsb = 1064Mhz, core volts set to 1.7.
I've noticed on occasion that when switching on the hard disks, fans etc power on, but the system won't post. After a couple of attempts this problem seems to go away.
I know this CPU is good for 1250Mhz as it's stable at x12.5@100fsb.
Can abnormal boot up be caused by setting the core voltage too low? (I'm trying to keep it low to reduce heat) Or maybe because it's running the 133 fsb, also I have just flashed to 1004 bios, could that have something to do with it? Maybe someone has had similar experiences with the A7V133?

Any ideas?

[Murphy]

xx (Mar 16, 2001 08:33 a.m.):
T'Bird 1Ghz (200FSB) on Asus A7V133, currently running at x8.0@133fsb = 1064Mhz, core volts set to 1.7.
I've noticed on occasion that when switching on the hard disks, fans etc power on, but the system won't post. After a couple of attempts this problem seems to go away.
I know this CPU is good for 1250Mhz as it's stable at x12.5@100fsb.
Can abnormal boot up be caused by setting the core voltage too low? (I'm trying to keep it low to reduce heat) Or maybe because it's running the 133 fsb, also I have just flashed to 1004 bios, could that have something to do with it? Maybe someone has had similar experiences with the A7V133?

Any ideas?

Bad posting/booting and hangups are simply caused by stability problems, you can do two things: increase voltage which works always good, and lower your temps (i.e. buy a better heatsink). You try to keep down your temps by keeping voltage low. What cooler do you use? And do you measure temps, if so how and what are they? As long as their ok, you can increase voltage. No, this kind of thing doesn't have to be related to the new bios, only makes things better (in most of the cases). Running higher voltage doesn't matter that much if the new temps are still below 50°C, below 45 would be really nice! 133 only stresses your mobo, RAM and CPU, not the rest because PCI etc. are set to lower bus multiplyer and stay at the standard speed. But I don't think it's the bios. Try increasing the voltage while minding your temps, things should be well. Succes!

[BigAir]

What kind of power supply do you have? That may be the problem.

[diehrd]

The first responses may be helpfull if not a high fsb can cause boot problems.

Try this get it up and running and do some stability tests.usually 3dmark 2000 will not complete if you are unstable.

[xx]

PSU = 250w
Heatsink is Elan Vital (cooper) reviewed on tomshardware
Last I had reset the FSB back to 100 and this is posted no problem, so I went straight back into bios and set it to 133. Then it wouldn't post again, after about 20mins of trying power off and reset button. I gave it another go and it posted fine, didn't change anything or try anything different?
The system is rock solid with a 133 fsb.
I can't see how it can be the psu as power requirements don't increase just by increasing the fsb if overall Mhz are the same, e.g. 7.5 x 133 would use the same power as 10 x 100, right?
I may still by a new psu to rule this out and also do a permanent unlock on the cpu with conductive paint.
It's wierd though, once it's posted ok I can use any combination of multiplier and fsb up to about 1.3 Ghz without any problems?

[xx]

Problem solved.....
Yesterday I decided to eliminate any possible causes and one of thoose was the L1 bridges. So I bought some conductive paint, cleaned off the old pencil and applied it with a fine artist brush. Now the system is booting perfectly!

I guess you just can't trust the pencil trick for a permanent solution.

[Gunjaa]

sounds plausible, the li bridges are only 'read' at beginning of post.
hmmmmmm might try this one meself...... cheers

[FRANK]

That artists brush still had to look like a "mop" under the magniying glass!

[AZZKICKER]

u need more power

t birds over 900 need more than 300 watt power supplys

i been down the long ass road of things crashing and sparatic rebooting and everything

when i got over 300 watts with power all my problems were solved

ui would upgrade you power supply if i was you so more problems dont ocurr

hope this helps you

[proze]

a bigger psu would definitely not hurt.. 250w really seems too low for such a high-end proc. try adding a drive or two and you're going to hit problems.

[xx]

It was definitely those L1 bridges causing me grief. First time I used the pencil trick I only got half the multipliers on the second attempt with a softer lead everything was fine, for about 2-3months. Then I started getting problems on booting, fans, HD’s etc power up but no post. Now after using the conductive paint everything has been rock solid. It makes sense really, if the unlock job with pencil is only marginal (or becomes marginal over time) then the current flow across those bridges could become marginal and unreliable and start causing problems if your running with different multipliers than default. Also I think lead pencil is a relatively poor conductive, I’m sure there must be some guys out there that could give us the stats?
I know my PSU is probably under spec but I don’t have many other peripherals at the moment, only 1 cd-rom, sound card and PCI graphics card (yeah I know only PCI it’s the major bottleneck in my system, just waiting for those Geforce Ultra prices to seriously drop) and x2 hard disks, my modem is external. I think when I upgrade to a high spec AGP card I’ll probably upgrade the psu to probably a 350w Enermax.

[xx]

It was definitely those L1 bridges causing me grief. First time I used the pencil trick I only got half the multipliers on the second attempt with a softer lead everything was fine, for about 2-3months. Then I started getting problems on booting, fans, HD’s etc power up but no post. Now after using the conductive paint everything has been rock solid. It makes sense really, if the unlock job with pencil is only marginal (or becomes marginal over time) then the current flow across those bridges could become marginal and unreliable and start causing problems if your running with different multipliers than default. Also I think lead pencil is a relatively poor conductive, I’m sure there must be some guys out there that could give us the stats?
I know my PSU is probably under spec but I don’t have many other peripherals at the moment, only 1 cd-rom, sound card and PCI graphics card (yeah I know only PCI it’s the major bottleneck in my system, just waiting for those Geforce Ultra prices to seriously drop) and x2 hard disks, my modem is external. I think when I upgrade to a high spec AGP card I’ll probably upgrade the psu to probably a 350w Enermax.

[BigAir]

Regardless, you can still use more power.