HELP!! KT3 Ultra ARU, 1800+ Overclocking issues

Specs:

MSI KT3 Ultra ARU -- BIOS 5.7
XP 1800+
512 MB TwinMOS PC 3200
256 MB Corsair PC 2700


Issues:

I can overclock the FSB to 151, but when I play some games, I get some crashing issues.

I realized if I push the FSB past 151 then the 1/5 divider kicks in, so I thought I would give that a shot.

Nothing, not even at the magic 166 (so the agp/pci bus are happy)

I set the ram timings as conservative as possible and to HCLK (not HCLK+33) as well.

Heat is not an issue as I have the rig in a nice water-cooled setup, generally keeping the CPU at 32C.

Any know why I can't make this thing overclock?
thanks :/

You didn't specify whether your processor was

A) Unlocked, either a modded palomino, or a tbred-x

or

B) locked at the default 1800 multi. (What is that, 11.5?)

If it's a locked 1800 palomino, asking it to do 11.5 x 166 is actually asking a lot.

You also didn't mention voltages, and whether or not you tried increasing vcore and vdimm - did you?

Anyway, your ram should have no problem at 166mhz at stock vdimm, but upping it a tenth or two is VERY likely to not hurt it at all.

As a test to see if it possibly IS some ram-related problem limiting you, try your OC with one stick at a time and see what happens.

Regardless, tell us voltages, and what exact processor you have - palomino locked/unlocked, tbred a or tbred b.

Locked palimino and I did try upping the vcore and the vdimm.

Although, I didnt play with the vdimm too much because I didn't think the ram would have any issues.

However, the Vcore only let me go to 1.8 with isn't (or maybe it is) that much higher then the stock 1.75.

11.5 x 166 = 1909 mhz roughly, which is a lot to ask from a palomino.

You really need to unlock your processor to lower the multiplier. Getting 166 x some multiplier should be pretty easy after that - I would expect 10 is entirely possible.

Unlocking isn't difficult, it's just time consuming if you invest the care and attention to detail that it requires.

Anyway, my official position is that you are pushing your processor too high - the palominos aren't known for stellar overclocks.

I figured 166 was too high, but why not even 150? or 152 for the 1/5 divider?

would that make the busses too slow for the agp/pci guys to be stable?

I will try the copper wire in the sockets trick to unlock the multiplier, but I'm not convinced that is entirely the problem here.....

yeah - the wire trick in the socket didn't do a darn thing for me.


I did notice one thing odd... when I moved the FSB to 166, my ram would only run at HCLK+66 - with no other options.

At 165, I could run it at SPD, HLCK, HCLK+33, and HCLK+66

kinda wierd....

I guess I'll try to unlock the actual CPU.

The wire trick only works on TBreds, when you need to access multipliers 12.5 and below.

To unlock your palomino, you'll actually have to paint bridges. There are a lot of guides on the net, search for a few to get an idea of what you need to do. Like I said, it takes time to do it right (budget a few hours if you've never done it before. It won't take that long, most likely, but it could theoretically).

Also, the ram thing you noticed is a bug in the KT3 Ultra-X bioses. To get around this, you need to set your ram to HCLK without changing any other settings, save and exit, then re-enter bios after the boot and change the other settings.

If you botch the unlocking job or otherwise disable the 'it works' feature of your processor, consider buying a TBred-B 1700. Just about any TBred-B 1700 will easily overclock to 2ghz or higher, and they're unlocked.

Wire trick only on TBreds - good to know
KT3 BIOS issue - also good to know


I'll be apply some epoxy/conductive paint hopefully this weekend to unlock this CPU - hopefully retaining the "it works" feature


Thanks for the info.

Good luck with the unlocking. I did it to my palomino, and the best method i found that worked was using scotch tape to make 'gates' if you follow me.

Mask off the tiny gold contacts of the L1 bridges with scotch tape, leaving the 'pits' exposed. Fill those with the epoxy. Let it dry for only a minute or two and then pull the tape.

Then let the glue dry for a good 30 minutes or an hour. Or two. This is important, go mow the lawn, watch a movie, ride your bike, beat up your brother, anything.

Then come back and mask off each bridge individually, I.E., mask off everything except the individual bridge you'll be painting, one at a time. Paint the unmasked channel between the tape, let the paint dry for about 1 or 2 minutes, then pull the tape. Then let the paint dry a few more minutes.

Repeat.

CAREFULLY inspect everything when you're done, with a magnifying glass if necessary. Use a sharp sharp knife, razor, or needle to scratch corrections into the conductive paint if any two channels are touching.

With what has to be the worlds quickest and crappiest bridge job ever.... I am now unlocked.

wh00t.

JB Weld works great for pit filling, and dries VERY quickly.... just an fyi.

Let's see what I can do now.