1st timer overclocking dissaster. help!

Just as a little info, my processor is an AMD XP 2600+ thoroughbred and i use the iceberg watercooling kit. This is my 1st overclocked system and 1st system that uses water.
I ran into some problems.

1.) When i turn my system on it says that my processor is unknown and 1666mhz

2.) I let my comp stay on for about 10min and the cpu temp was 102° F. My 1600+ runs at 107° F with a fan. Something isnt right.

3.) When i changed the cpu speed from 133 to 233, my comp wont turn on and the voice genie says something that sounds like "there is something wrong with your floppy"

Help and what should i do?

Oh yea, here are the instructions for overclocking o got with my mother board:

wow, went from 133 to 233, no b.s. acceptance from you huh, well, i'd tone it down a bit, first of all, your ram will only handle 133(pc2100 ddr266), so you'll need better ram, if you want to get to 233 you might wanna get some pc3500 ddr434, even then good luck getting to 233, anyway, start small, try setting fsb to 166 w/ 10 multiplier, keep upping the fsb till you find your limit, then start upping the multiplier(up the vcore when needed for stability)

also, to get it started, you'll prolly need to clear your bios if you haven't gotten it started already, best way for me is unplug the system, then pull out the cmos battery on the mobo, wait a min or two, put it back in, everything should be reset

thanks ill try that. i only made it 233 cuz step 3 said set 133 to 233. i thought it ment change 133 into 233 not inbetween.

before i hookup the computer again, do i have to change the cpu core voltage thingy?

also by default the multiplier is on 12.5 and wont go higher.

when you pull the battery, the bios will reset everything to "safe settings", so fsb will be at 100mhz, vcore w/ prolly be at 1.65(or whatever lowest is for you processor/mobo.

to get multi's over 12.5 you'll have to mod the chip itself, or do a pin mod(do a search for either), but you don't need to worry about that, if you can get 200fsb w/ 12.5x multi, that's 2500, or 2.5GHz, if you can get that

EDIT: but you'll need at least pc3200 ddr400 to get 200fsb

i did the do i have to worry about it not being able to read my processor properly? it says unknown processor 1666mhz

that sounds like a mobo issue, don't know what to tell ya there, never heard of albatross(spell?), might want to go under the motherboard threads

albatron

ok, im back with some results. at 185 i got 2.34 ghz but the screen kept freezing so ill put it back down to 180.

what about the cpu temp? it seems high and what should it be around?

and when u said i need better ram, im guessing when u over clock, the ram and cpu are together, they cant be done separate.

185 is about the maximum that your motherboard will be able to handle in regards to a front side bus. What ratio do you have set for your fsb/memory?

the book says something about 266mhz front side bus frequency.

i didnt change the ratio

You seem to have lots of elite hardware in your sig, so I assume you are no noob when it comes to hardware. You do however have a lot to learn about watercooling and overclocking methinks

The manual for your motherboard is currently downloading verrrryyyy sloooowwwwlly on my computer, so for now I am a bit of an ignoramus. I can tell you that your motherboard uses the Via KT400 chipset which only supports DRR SDRAM speeds of 200MHz and not CPU speeds of 200Mhz. I can tell you now that in no way will you get it to 233Mhz unless you dunk it in liquid nitrogen.

Unknown processor type is a common error and is not harmful to your machine. The motherboard just didn't read the hardwired bytes properly.

I don't know what 107F is in english but what heatsink did you run on your old machine? Some watercooling kits are no better than a good heatsink and fan. Check the airflow in the radiator, and if you have the fan running off the motherboard header put it on a Molex auxillary power connector - big fans can run slowly on motherboard headers because of the current they draw.

To describe how overclock properly without breaking stuff, I will cut&paste something I made earlier (Blue Peter style )

Beware another mammoth post!

Ok you have some more questions, and I'll be happy to answer them. I now have the manual and am doing my homework.

Overclocking is more optimising several variables than pushing the PC to the max, as mem timings and FSB/Multiplier settings all impact performance.

(This is quoted from another thread but most of it is still relevant)
So, this is what we have so far

1) Find the limits of your FSB
Your motherboard should get a fairly high FSB, probably 166 or above. Start as Gautam said by reducing the multiplier (CPU clock ratio) to 5.0x to eliminate the CPU internal speed from the overclock. Also set your memort timings to the highest possible too eliminate the memory from the equation. Set memory speed to 100%. This will run the memory synchronously with the CPU bus, and gives much better latency and performance. Start out at 166, and bump it uo 5Mhz at a time. See if it posts and goes into Windows, then reboot and bump it up again. For the first steps you may want to go in 10Mhz jumps, but beware that you will miss the optimum much more easily. If the computer fails to go into windows back off the 5Mhz and go up in 1 Mhz increments testing each time with long bouts ofPrime95 torture test - if it generates errors in about 10 minutes, back off some more. A stable overclocked system should be able to run Prime95 for more than 12 hours without errors.

2) Optimise memory timings
As your memory can run at 5 - 2 - 2 - 2.0, it may be able to do so at higher frequencies. At the maximum FSB, try individually tweaking the timings by lowering each one and testing with Memtest86. It will start automatically when you put the disk in the drive on bootup. Test for about 20 minutes or one complete cycle after tightening, and if it generates errors then reset the one you just did and try another. Near the limit errors will appear infrequently, but test for about 1 hour to ensure stability. If you have some airflow near your RAM, try bumping up the voltage to 2.6V or 2.7V if you start to get errors.

3) Optimise the CPU speed
To do this, set the voltage to default and CPU interface to normal. Start by raising the multiplier to default, then up it in 0.5x steps. At 333FSB this will bump the speed up in 83Mhz jumps, which is a bit crude but will find the limit quickly. See if it POSTs, then go into the BIOS hardware monitor and look at the CPU temperature. If it is below 40C then all is well, the upper limit for overclocked CPUs is about 50C. Boot into windows and run Prime95 torture test for about 5 minutes. If there are no errors bump it up again, and continue until you get errors. If you get errors then increase the Vcore by one step, and Prime95 for longer or until you get errors. Increase the Vcore again if this happens, but at this stage monitor temperatures closely in the BIOS and use Motherboard Monitor 5 to monitor in Windows. Try to keep below 50C. If it goes above or Vcore doesn't allow much more Mhz then you have reached the limit of your CPU, which should be around 2.2-2.3Ghz.

107f is equivalant to about 42c

The limit of your FSB is about 192 or so since the KT400 doesn't have a PCI bus lock, and as such the FSB can't go too high without corrupting the hard drive. So try not to set the FSB above 192 (or better yet, stick to something reasonable like 185-189) unless you're ecstatic about reinstalling everything. (yes, this is from experience... I once set my FSB to 200 thinking I had a 1/6 divider)

Remember that small changes in the FSB usually make more of an impact than small changes in the multiplier.

The CPU temp looks OK. Low-end watercooling isn't necessarily much better than a good heatsink and fan.

DarkDraco said:

the book says something about 266mhz front side bus frequency.

i didnt change the ratio

Click to expand...

It appears then, that your memory is managing to run at 180+ mhz. Run Memtest86 to tell for sure. If this is the case, then I wouldn't bother getting better memory. Also bear in mind that PC3200 would pretty much rendered useless on a board that maxes out at 190mhz or so. Your temps seem correct for your setup. They aren't worth regarding at all.

the mobo supports only 2100/2400/2700