Please help me diagnose this overclocking error.

[Ferris]

My specs:
PIII 700@900
256 PC133
Abit BE6 2
Creative GeForce II GTS (3.4volts)
Diamond S100 Sound Card (soon to be replaced)
15 gig Western Digital 7200 ATA/66
Some 10/100 NIC
8X burn HP 9100 series
56X Cd-Rom

I have had this machine running rock stable for over 5 months now at 900 mhz. The bios settings that I have are as follows.

CAS 2,2,2
CPU 1.85V (have tried 1.9, even found a prog to get my voltage higher, although I didn't go over 1.95)
Precharge enabled
AGP 128,256


Pretty much every option in the bios I have tried the opposite with no luck on a 133 bus. At 933 windows just hangs, although last night it started to load and I got an error.

NT Kern missing.

Once I set everything back to 900 I was able to get into windows fine.

What do you think that NT Kern error is about?


Not that I would go any higher, but could it be that the CPU needs more voltage?

Could it be my Highpoint ATA/66, should I go back to standard DMA on the normal 40 pin cable?


Or has my CPU hit it's max?


The CPU is a PIII 700 CBO


Thanks for any help.

If I have left anything out please let me know.

(my CPU temps usually hover around 25-35 before and after gaming. I have alot of cooling, a dual overkill heatsink from 3dcool and silver grease as a bond)

[Allan Nielsen]

Set your RAM to CAS 3-3-3, and disable your Highpoint ATA66 controller, and use the good old UDMA33... that ought to do the job for you! :)

Oh yeah, lower the volts to 1.75 or 1.80, and set the I/O to 3.3v or 3.4v.

[Ferris]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Unfortunatley for me I am off to work, but I will try that as soon as I get home from an 8 hour day of brainstorming my overclock.

:)


Alot of thinking time on my job.

Take care.

[Tim-]

Seems to me that to reduce memory bandwidth and HDD DMA bandwidth just to gain a few MHz would be a tragic mistake. I would be more interested in making it play properly and curing the disease rather than throwing a band-aid on the symptoms.

1.85v is not uncommon for the PIII-700 to run happily, nor is 3.4v I/O.

What are your specifics in the bios- what AGP divider and PCI divider are indicated? Whose ram are you using? Can it support 2,2,2 ?

I'll refresh my memory on my BF6 tonight, and let's try to figure this out.

[Ferris]

Excellent.

I was posting this before I went into work so I didn't have much time to get into specifics.

When I get home I will give you the skinny on every setting I have currently and those I have tried.


I'm willing to except that my CPU has hit a wall and will not go higher, but I like to be sure of that. And like you say, I'd rather not loose performance to gain mhz.

Thanks again

[Allan Nielsen]

Tim- (Jan 03, 2001 08:05 a.m.):
Seems to me that to reduce memory bandwidth and HDD DMA bandwidth just to gain a few MHz would be a tragic mistake. I would be more interested in making it play properly and curing the disease rather than throwing a band-aid on the symptoms.


Well, I think it's clear for most people that the Highpoint HPT366 UDMA66 controller on the BE6-2 isn't happy about overclocking at all, and thats why I would disable it. I had similar problems with Win2K, and when I disabled the HPT366, they disappered.... So disabling it wasn't such a "tragic mistake" in my case. I would rather have 945MHz and UDMA33, than 700MHz and UDMA66. -

But hey, maybe thats just me being silly? Tim? :)

If you truly want more than UDMA33, look for a Promise card instead.

[Ferris]

Here are my current settings:


CPU FSB- 128

CPU Multiplier- 130

SEL 100/66# Signal- Default

PCI- 1/4

AGP- 1/2

CPU- 1.85v(anything lower hangs during Win98 screen, rock solid at this voltage)

I/O- 3.4V

In order queue depth- 8

Level 2 Cache latency- Default

Spread Spectrum modulated- Default

Ras to Cas- 2

Cas Latency- 2

RAS Precharge- 2

Precharge- Enabled

Nothing cacheable in the bios is enabled, ie video bios, system bios..etc.

8bit I/O recovery- NA

16bit I/O recovery- NA

AGP- 128



Now I should add that this is my 2nd PIII 700E, my first was only stable at 800. However it was one of the first released chips, I can't remember the stepping, but I was told it was a terrible overclocker. Using the same settings that got my last 700 to 800 I can now run this 700 at 900, but on a 133 bus I start getting the problems.


Higher voltages got me to 900 so far on this chip, so couldn't it be that I have hit the max?

Or is there something I can do to get this puppy higher?


My cooling consists of this:

http://www.geocities.com/ferris2396/Vp3.JPG


http://www.geocities.com/ferris2396/Vp1.JPG

(home made ;) )


My temps right now as I post is 25c, usually is around 33-35c after extended gaming.


I'll give up if need be, what do you all think?



The only thing that leads me to believe it is the CPU is the fact that I had a 700E before this that was stubborn as all hell and could only ride a 118 bus, now with this chip I am stable on a 128-130 bus.

[Ferris]

Sorry, just had to change my under pants.


After tooling with that prog that allows higher voltages I changed my ATA 66 to UDMA 33 cable, I was able to overclock IN windows using CPU Boost to 933. Windows ran decent, with some errors downloading corrupt files.

However when I tried to run 3dmark I got an instant blue screen. Then, when I restarted my whole desktop was HUGE!

I had to boot in safe mode, re install my video drivers, then go clean the mess I made in my pants.

I have NEVER seen anything like that.

Unless there are some bios settings I can mess with I think I will leave good enough alone.


:o

[Allan Nielsen]

I have to admit that it doesn't sound good for you!

Have you tries removing all the PCI-cards, such as NIC, Sound Card etc.? If not, try doing this, it might be one of these cards that are holding you back, even though it doesn't sound that likely. If it works, install them one by one, until you find the problem...

How about a clean Windows Install, have you tried that? And did you set the RAM to CAS3?

Are you sure that there is perfect contact between CPU and heatsink, with just a thin layer of grease?

[Ferris]

I have tried a clean install.


I have tried CAS 3.


I have tried only installing video, cpu, ram.


Now, I will give up.


Granted 200mhz isn't THAT bad, but I have never had much luck picking a RADICAL overclocker.

Oh well, guess I'll live with 900 until the next go around.


Thanks again for the help, if you all think of anything let me know.


Is 2.0V too high for a PIII 700E?

[Ferris]

About the CPU and heatsink, I first used thermal compound, then switched to Silver compound grease.

Both times I made sure that I applied an thin, even layer.


So close, yet SO far from the 1ghz barrier.

:(

[Allan Nielsen]

I certainly would say that 2.0v for your CPU is high, and I wouldn't go there myself, unless I had better cooling.

Talking about cooling, ever thought of getting an Alpha or GlobalWin cooler? Or maybe even adding a peltier?

Have you tried changing all the IDE cables? Sometimes a bad cable can mess things up.

You wrote that "CPU Multiplier- 130", set this multiplier to 7x, even though it won't make any difference. :)

Too bad that you have to live with the 900Mhz so far, we'll get back to you, if we think of something more.

[Allan Nielsen]

Btw - go buy yourself a new pair of pants! :)