Raising FSB & lowering multiplier

ShakyJake · Sep 24, 2003

I don't understand why this isn't working. Okay, I have both an ASUS A7N8X and the A7N8X-X I've been playing with. I have PC3200 memory and I wanted to make the FSB match the memory speed. My processor is the 2700+. I set the FSB to 200 and lowered the multiplier to 10, so the processor is running at 2.1Ghz.

The system posts, but it's totally unstable and I don't understand why. Neither the memory nor the processor are running beyond their specifications. Can anyone explain why this doesn't work? Any suggestions on getting this to?

I.M.O.G. · Sep 24, 2003

The specification for the CPU is specific to that FSB and multiplier, and doesn't apply to different combinations of FSB/MULTI.

You need to back off the settings so you can do some stress testing to see what components are limiting you.

What brand ram do you have?

ShakyJake · Sep 24, 2003

It's Kingston Value RAM, CL3. Yes I know, nothing great. But like I said, I'm not trying to push the RAM past what it's already spec'd for.

The only component that could be crapping out is the processor, since ALL other components are kept at the correct speed. I had just thought that keeping it at/around the same MHz it was rated at would be good enough. So, if I understand you correctly, the processor's specification is also tied to the FSB. Even keeping the procecessor at spec'd MHz still doesn't necessarily keep it stable...?

I.M.O.G. · Sep 24, 2003

Correct.

hangten · Sep 25, 2003

Have you tried to increase your vcore ?

-Incantation- · Sep 25, 2003

I'm running 11X200 on my 2700+
totally stable on stock vcore.

Molester · Sep 25, 2003

read my sig, it's my daily use settings, prime stable 2700+, 11x218=2400 w/ 1.850vcore

i'm betting on the value ram, also, what revision is your asus a7n8x, i'm guessing it's not a deluxe, but still, do you have latest drivers, what bios are you running, what power supply do you have? etc... list all your specs in your signature(top of screen, user cp, edit profile)

I.M.O.G. · Sep 25, 2003

If he's running the ram at spec then it isn't the problem.

Hawker-rider · Sep 25, 2003

you can download the program Memtest, do a search of the memory forums, it's a dos boot program, and you'll see if it is your ram or not. Follow the directions and you'll see. I had a stick of Buffalo RAM with the winbond chips and I couldn't pass Prime95 for some reason, even with underclocked memory. After running Memtest I found it being one of the sticks of RAM that kept getting mistakes. after taking that out I got a bunch ore stability.

It might be your processor, try a few more MHz's FSB like 208 iso 200, some of the boards have a little hard spot right aroud 200.

ShakyJake · Sep 25, 2003

This is the equipment:

ASUS A7N8X rev 1.04 w/BIOS 1006 (non-deluxe)
300Watt StarTech power supply
Kingston Value RAM PC3200

I've tried increasing the voltage, but it makes no difference. I can get the FSB up to 180 with no stability problems. But oddly, it's still benching slower than 166FSB with PC2700 RAM (the 2700 ram I can set memory timings to 6,2,2,2 - with 3200 just can lower the latency to 2.5).

When I set the FSB to 200 and multiplier to 10.5, the system will boot into Windows, however if I run 3D Mark2001 the screen will start flashing almost as if I'm overclocking the video card past stability. Very weird.

I'll try bumping it past 200 like Hawker suggested.

Molester · Sep 25, 2003

300w psu?, umm, i think i have this one figured, need more power

ShakyJake · Sep 25, 2003

I can try a bigger P/S, but I doubt that's the problem. The only thing I have in my system is a video card, hard drive and DVD-ROM. That's it. There's no way the system will need more power than 300watts. I could be wrong, of course, and I'll give it a try.

Molester · Sep 25, 2003

won't need more if running stock, maybe, but when overclocking????

i had a 350w in mine, at stock w/ vid card, dvd rom, cd/rw it was having trouble, then it died when i barely overclocked

i'd suggest antec or thermaltake, and at least 430w, in my honest opinion

dalilman52 · Sep 26, 2003

hmmm a suggestion would be to...change the fsb/memory frequency ratio to 1:1 and nothing else to keep the ram the same as the fsb, anything else would make it too high or too low, maybe a7n8x's dont have that setting, im just saying this from my exp with my a7v333
________
house wives Webcam

hangten · Sep 26, 2003

Could be VDD. ver1.04 were never made to run at 400fsb. Thats why the ultra rev2.0 was made. Bs on the bios revision that supports it at 200 on the multi is full of it sense its the hardware that physicaly different. It was luck of the draw on the rev1.04 if you could get even close to 200 on the multi.

ShakyJake · Sep 27, 2003

I tried a A7N8X-X board (which uses the Ultra 400 chipset, but sans dual channel, right?). Same deal, I can get up to 180FSB but after that the comp is unstable.

I haven't had the chance to try another power supply. Interestingly enough, my friend brought in a 2500 that he had overclocked to a 200FSB and it was exibiting the same instability as my 2700. Seems like it's a problem with the motherboard's ability to do a 200FSB. Although not sure why the -X version had a problem too.

Mustanley · Sep 29, 2003

Another vote for running memtest. Plenty of people have gotten faulty memory. You might also try switching the ram to another slot.

userA · Sep 29, 2003

dalilman52 said:
hmmm a suggestion would be to...change the fsb/memory frequency ratio to 1:1

Ditto. A7N8X does not like running memory out of sync of FSB. Like others suggested, run Memtest also.

Molester · Sep 29, 2003

i've run into some weird memory issues of my own, all in the timings

what are your memory timings?

in my case, for 200fsb, it defaulted to 8-3-3-2.5t, but ran alot better at 6-2-2-2.5t

for anything above 200fsb, again it defaulted to 8-3-3-2.5t, but wouldn't post, so i had to relax the timings to 11-3-3-2.5t

and i still say u need a better power supply

Smirabi · Sep 29, 2003

hey, i'm here because it looked ike this guy has problems most similar to mine... i've got a7n8x-dx rev104 and i just put in a new 2500Barton (333fsb) BUT in bios i cant create a resulting freq of higher than 200 without it stoppin during the post to declare that system failed due to CPU overclocking. i read all about people simply bumping up the fsb to 200 and setting the multiplier to 11 to get totally sweet performacne out of this chip, but i cant get it to OC at all. i'm fairly new to OCing but i know more than the typical noob.

in conclusion, the best i can get my system to do is run a fsb of 166 multiplier of 9 to result in a 200Mhz fsb (according to bios) and any attempt to increase the resulting fsb leads to failure to boot... what to do?

Raising FSB & lowering multiplier

Member

Glorious Leader

Member

Glorious Leader

Member

Member

Member

Glorious Leader

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Registered

Member

Member

Similar threads