Help with Vcore settings!!

[Seuss]

First of all I'd just like to say that I've never really overclocked a CPU and don't have a hell of a lot of experience with things such as Vcore settings etc. so no flaming if I sound like a complete ****** to some of you :) I do need some help though, I just recently bought a new Asus A7A266 board and a T-bird 1.33ghz with 256megs of DDR I set the core voltage settings to 1.75 or the basic default setting but when I check in either the bios power management feature or the Asus PC Probe analyzer the core speed is up around 1.84-1.856.... I found this a little odd and decided to test it by setting the Vcore setting to 1.85, checked again and both analyzers said the voltage was running around 1.96 so I figured the jump of .1 was somewhat normal. Unfortunately I'm having some really bad stability problems with my computer, can't run 5 or more programs at once with out the thing freezing after about 15 mins. So my question is, is this core voltage thing normal or am I experiencing some kind of weird bios bug?? I'd really like to stick with this CPU because I'm incredibly impressed by the speed and performance of the thing but if I'm constantly worrying about the thing crashing it kind of takes away from the whole experience :) Any help would greatly be appreciated, thanks...
Oh ya I'm running bios ver.1004

[ken257]

Most boards do show a higher voltage then what they are set to, this is very common and is not a problem.

What brand and size power supply are you running? These high end AMD's really soak up some juice and a PSU that is not up to the task will cause instability.

I have no experiance with the A7A so maybe someone else can help you if there are any problems specific to that mobo.

[Kryten]

Ok firstly welcome to the forum..the friendliest forum in town.
now down to business, what you are experiencing with your vcore is not unusual a few people have mentioned it before. the voltage you set it to is theoretical not actual as as we all know know theory and reality are seldom the same.
As for the other problem if you aren't getting lockups with one prog open I would suspect windows is your culprit.

[Seuss]

Hey guys, thanks for the help at least now I know that the Vcore thing is not the problem. Unfortunately I wish the problem had something to do with Windows but I've now done a clean install of Win2K twice now and still come up with the freezing problem. I'm not running any beta drivers or anything like that either so I doubt that drivers would be the issue here as well. I have noticed that if I run the CPU at 1.85volts that the system does stay relatively more stable than if I run it at 1.75volts. I'm just wondering, my case doesn't have any efficient cooling at all, just the one main power supply fan but I do have a Volcano 2 heat sink/fan combo on the chip.... if I run this thing consistently at 1.85volts over a long period of time, what are the chances that I could wreck the chip without sufficient cooling?? Again any help would be greatly appreciated, I don't want to have to return this baby :)

[Kryten]

Chances of wrecking any chip without proper cooling is good if the temps go high enough.
What sort of temps are you getting at idle and load?

[DjPhilip]

hello,
I had the same problem 1 week ago when I gought an asus a7a266 mb & athlon1.2ghzFsb266. After 5-15 min of flask divxing, the system freezed , no matter I used w98se or w2k. I tested everything: fron fan to coolers to motherboard to ram...the problem was the cpu:It was defective.!!..The shop gave me an other athlon and now it works fine...

[Seuss]

Well I've tried to isolate my problem with this stupid thing but can't figure out what the problem is. This was my first AMD CPU ever and I must say I'm not too impressed with what I purchased, I used to be able to throw anything at my P3 733 and not have any problems whatsoever. Anyways I'm returning the thing and purchasing a new P4 1.5Ghz, I know their not performing as well as the AMDs but I think the purchase will pay off in the future when more programs start implementing SSE2 and more Risc based code. Either way I'm going back to the tried tested and true Intel processor, too bad it's gonna cost me an extra $400. I've wasted a good week and half trying to get this thing to run properly and even if it is a faulty CPU I'm sick of having to mess with it so it's back to Intel. Can anyone give me some advice on some P4 MBs, I know this is the AMD section but if anyone has any advice I could really use it :) I'm thinking of going with the Asus P4T but not too sure yet.

[castle lager fan]

I hope you haven't returned your AMD. Chances are you might get similar probs with the P4 in your setup.

First what PSU do you have?
Second what temps did you get with the T-Bird?
DId you overclock it at all?

I recommend that you get an ENermax PSU probaly 450W or so. It's never a bad investment. Secondly I recommend you get the Millenium Glaciator or Swiftech 462 HSF with Artic SIlverII.

These investment you would be able to use with both the AMD or P4 if you choose. I suspect your PSU cant deliver the goods when you streass the system causing voltage dips or spikes, which will make any system misbehave. Also if the CPU get hot it will start to misbehave. The P4 is not exactly a lightweight on PSU or HSF either. SO it's your choice. Try it and keep us in the loop. Good luck with either the T-Bird or P4. We would prefer the T-Bird though;-)

[Seuss]

Ok I think I'm going to cry......

I should have done this first thing after everybody has asked what kind of power supply the damn thing is running, anyways I finally checked and it's a damn 250 watt Aopen power supply!!! The guy at the store I bought it from ensured me it had a 300 watt supply so I just believed him....

You see the problem I have now is that I had to beg the guy at the comp shop to let me return it since I had already had it for awhile, about a week and a half. Normally I wouldn't be able to return it but he made an exception for me so now I'm stuck with this problem of whether or not it is the actual power supply or whether it's some other problem.... So please tell me a 1.33ghz chip can run stable on a 250 watt power supply without overclocking... if not I think I'm going to jump off a bridge or something.....

[Seuss]

If anyone could just give me a quick reply to the above post I'd be indepted to you forever :) I really need an answer as I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my PC tommorow.

[castle lager fan]

I noticed that most people running with 1.33 T-Birds or P4's get at least an 350 W supply. They normally are not too expensive. If you can try to get an 450W or better. I have not seen a T-Bird at 1G+ or P4 run with a 250W supply. If the guy sold you a 1.33 AXIA with a 250W he should scale you up to a 350W or something at least.

No need to get too drastic about things. Good luck.

[Kryten]

If the guy at the store told you it was 300 watt take it back and tell him that it is only 250 and get him to exchange either the whole case or the power supply, the good thing about it is that aopen usually have good power supplies so it would be a generous 250w

[!-=sky=-!]

get a enermax 350 walt
i used 4 of these already

and if u have lots of things in your system they suck up the power from your power supply too so i don't think it's the cpu's problem

[Seuss]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the help I really appreciated, unfortunately I bought a 450 watt power supply threw it in my machine and still had it freeze up randomly.... Anyways I returned the board, CPU and RAM today so it's all gone bye bye. The computer store I bought the parts from won't give me direct cash for the parts, only store credit so now I'm trying to figure out what to buy when the paper work goes through.

I wish I had enough cash for a new P4, and I'm not cutting down you AMD users or AMD chips it's just that that chip was my first AMD chip ever as I said before and I really didn't walk away too impressed by it with all the problems I've had with it. Unfortunately I'm a little more strapped for cash then I had first thought and now it looks like I'll have to buy AMD again. Anyways the store is a big Asus retailer so I'm kinda stuck with an Asus board... any suggestions on what I should buy would help me out a lot :) I'm not really looking to overclock I just want a board that will perform well and is extremely stable running under normal conditions :)

Anyways thanks again.

[!-=sky=-!]

maybe the a7v133?