Screen Flicker Crash on Overclock

[Juice]

Hello,

Let me start off by saying thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give me and I hope I put this in the right place. I am what you would say a noob to overclocking this is the first PC I built and had it overclocked well until I got a new video card and well now I can't overclock it at all without it crashing to desktop when I play games. The screen starts to flicker and bam desktop. I have all my bios settings tweeked to the right settings and the games run fine until I overclock even one notch in my bios and then boom desktop.

Here are my system specs:

Asus P4SDX MB
Intel P4 2.66 Stock Fan and Heatsink
1 Gig PC2700 Ram
80 Gig HD
Sony CD-Rom
Sony CD-RW
500 Watt Digital Mutimedia Power Supply and Case
Asylum FX5900 128MB
NEC Multi-Sync LCD1760V refresh rate set at 75Hz
Windows XP Pro with all updates

I have updated all video drivers and bios drivers including the AGP mini drivers.

I got the new video card yesterday. Prior to that I had a ATI Radeon 9000 Pro.

I was able to overclock the CPU to 3.1 GHz and keep temps in the 50 degree C range after hours of game play. I also had the ATI overclocked to 290MHz in both categories using Powerstrip.

I have adjusted all the power connections around thinking that maybe the video card wasn't getting enough power. It now is the only thing on the link to the power supply.

I have tried a variety of different voltage settings while I was increasing and decreasing the CPU speed through the BIOS.

The games that I can't play are Medal of Honor: Spearhead and Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome.

Thanks again for any help,
Juice

[musk]

I would suspect that your AGP/PCI frequency is not locked so as you increase the FSB you are running your AGP out of spec.

I am not familiar with your motherboard but look in your bios to see if you can lock your PCI/AGP or at least run it at a ratio.

I hope this helps a bit.

musk

[Juice]

Well, I checked and I don't have those options in my bios. I talked to a ASUS tech (appears that he didn't know much) he had me reset my CMOS which I did and am still having the problem.

Anyone else please?

Thanks,
Juice

[Juice]

Well, I decided to do a complete format and reinstall of Windows hoping that maybe it was just a drivers issue that they weren't getting cleaned out properly with the uninstall and reg cleaner.

Well that didn't help and my 3DMark03 scores didn't go up much and I am still crashing to desktop on running a game or 3DMark03 if I overclock it even one notch.

Anyone have any ideas please, I really want to get this working.

Thanks,
Juice

[Zuzzz]

sounds to me like you have an AGP/PCI bus that doesnt like the overclock. Perhaps try another Moboard that will allow you to lock yer AGP/PCI bus.

[da-gokesta]

did the problem go away when you ran the chip at stock speeds? cuz if it does then as other have suggested the motherboard doesnt like to have the PCI/AGP overclocked.

[Juice]

Yes the computer runs fine when I am running the CPU at stock speeds. Why would overclocking be ok with my 9000 Pro and not with the FX5900?

Thanks,
Juice

[bulk88]

Change your divider in the bios to something higher.

[Juice]

Thanks for the help, but what exactly is the divider?

Thanks,
Juice

[Juice]

Hello All,

Thanks for the help. Being frustrated with this whole thing I started trial and error testing in my bios and finally found the setting that allows overclocking on my system without the AGP bus speed going up. Only took about 20 reboots :)

For anyone else having this problem it is the Chipset Clock Mode setting. It needs to be set to Asynchronous. The default option is Synchronous. It also won't work with the Performance option.

Time to see what I can score now that I have it clocked to 3.1 Still have to get some better cooling than the stock fan and heatsink but the AS3 worked well.

Juice

[Zuzzz]

Good work. . :D

[flixotide]

Originally posted by Juice
Hello All,

Thanks for the help. Being frustrated with this whole thing I started trial and error testing in my bios and finally found the setting that allows overclocking on my system without the AGP bus speed going up. Only took about 20 reboots :)

For anyone else having this problem it is the Chipset Clock Mode setting. It needs to be set to Asynchronous. The default option is Synchronous. It also won't work with the Performance option.

Time to see what I can score now that I have it clocked to 3.1 Still have to get some better cooling than the stock fan and heatsink but the AS3 worked well.

Juice

Glad to hear you solves your problem.... and BTW

Welcome to the forums

Cheers, Flix

[Juice]

Well I thought my problems were over but then of course I couldn't run any game more than 10 minutes without a CTD even at stock so back to the drawing board.

I talked to EA Tech support, BFG Tech support and ASUS tech support (the phone bill is gonna be high) and everyone was pointing the finger at each other and finally BFG caved and said it must be a defective board. So back it went to Best Buy and home came a ATI Radeon 9800.

I am now over clocked to 3.1 and my video card is over clocked to 350/315 all with stock cooling siting in a cabinet temps never get over 54C and baseline is 39C which is a little high.

I played Spearhead tonight for 6 hours without a crash or any graphic corruption. Now how much can I get out of it before my MB is overwhelmed is the million $$$ question, gonna upgrade to the 800FSB next month :)

The funniest thing about this whole deal, when I walked into Best Buy (I know I could get it cheaper but I just couldn't wait :) ) and explain what is going on the lady at the counter says do you want to get the same thing or something else? I say if you have one I'll just get the same thing. As I am walking away to grab one she says you may want to get the one in the black and red box, since they are never returned and we get these back all the time :) lol I just chuckled and grab the one in the black and red box :)

Juice