I NEED THE HELP OF AN EXPERT

[MisterMark]

system specs:

pIII 700/256/100/1.65v OEM - cb0 sl3xx maylasia
cooled with alpha pep66 with artic thermal greas as well as 'back door' cooling on
back of the abit slocket (done with a thermal pad and a generic pIII hsf)
abit be6ii / 300w power supply
256megs of 'generic' pc133 ram
voodoo5 agp
20 maxtor hd ultra dma66
8.5 sansung hd ultra dma66
2 generic 52x cdrom drives
generic 3.5 floppy
soundblaster pci512
realtek ethernet card


the problem: i am trying to o/c to 933 (7x133 - agp 2/3 - pci 1/4). i have tried various vcore and i/o voltages. anything from the
default(vcore 1.65 - i/o 3.5) to the outrageous (vcore 2.0 - i/o 3.8). i always get the machine to post, but windows usually hangs during logo
screen on initial boot up. i have to do a reset and i usually have success after that. although i haven't done a burn in or any serious stress on the system, everything seems to be fine if the comp boots. for the life of me, i can't seem to figure out why windows will boot
sometimes and not boot other times. i must note that it seems that the system boots more frequently if the vcore and i/o are set higher.
but like i said, i have gone to what i would consider the extremes on those parameters, and i still don't get 100% successful boot ups. if
this chip requires higher voltages, that would put me over the 2.0 range and i don't see many people having to do that.

currently, with my alpha pep66 and artic thermal grease, my system run at 30 C idle with vcore set to 1.85 and i/0 set to 3.7.

any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

thank you,

mark

[Tim-]

Looks like you are doing everything right. The V I/O can be a problem if it's too high so I am presuming you have tried higher Vcore WITHOUT increasing the V I/O- right?

The thing that grabs me is your 30c at idle with a PEP66. I have several on OC'd machines, and they idle at ambient- around 21c. I would suspect the hsf isn't seated well, or you have too much thermal compound.

My machines only reach about 36c when running Seti and other torture programs with PEP66/Delta 38 hsf's. With the Sunons they reached about 41c but still idled at ambient. I have a lot of case cooling though.

[MisterMark]

tim,

abient temp is usually about 25-27C. i just find it strange that windows won't fully load on a cold boot, but after i reset, i almost always boot. i thought i heard someone say it could be a lack of initalization of my high-point ultra dma controllers on cold boot. i just find it hard to believe that its really temp related. yes, 30C might be high, but that's with a warm room. in the morning when the room is more like 20C, i still have the same boot problems, and cpu temps might only get to 26-28C idle. i really don't know what to do. did i just get a bad chip? it can't be all that bad if if windows boots sometimes.

tim, i think i may have e-mailed you with this problem before. if so, you will remeber that i did have a golden orb (lapped), and you recommended the alpha. so i got that alpha now as you can see. i'm at a total loss of what to do. help.

mark

[Tim-]

I still have to believe it is thermally related. The only time I have seen this type of behaviour (except on Asus "double boot" boards) it has been temp related. The cpu runs in the bios mode at high duty cycles and no imbedded "wait states" so it runs much hotter than once it gets to windows. When it posts and boots it gets hot, and then during the reboot cycle you are giving it, it has a chance to cool slightly. The warm boot is much less demanding since it doesn't have to run the "POST" again so the heat hasn't built up as much and it will run. Normally a good cooler like the Alpha will prevent this from happening, so I'm surprised it still happens. If there isn't a poor connection at the core/heatsink interface or excessive thermal compound changing the thermal coefficient, I'm at a loss for it.

[GauntMan]

Another angle:

I see that your AGP is set to 2/3. That will mean that your AGP is running close 89Mhz. Not many AGP-cards can do this. Is there any way to set it to 1/2 or maybe you can try 124Mhz. My card (Creative GeForce DDR) made it to 85Mhz and then locked up at random locations. (often at Windows load) It may be something with this. I´ve got a friend that has a similar problem with the Abit Be6ii. He is not overclocking his p3 at all but the first time he boots he will get a BIOS checksum error and after a warm reset it will load.

My suggetion is to try an reduce speed a little bit at a time. I may only require a few MHz. If the CPU works at the same Voltage but with lower MHz it´s probably not heat, more likely the AGP-speed.

/GM

[MisterMark]

well i heard that the voodoo5 could handle a high bus speed like 88. i don't think my bois has a 1/2 divider for agp (otherwise i probably would have set it to that). well if i set fsb to 120-126, won't that 'underclock' my pci bus speed and cause problems there?
after all, i have one of those maxtor hard drives. and furthermore, won't i take a performace hit with a slower pci bus speed?

i really want to have 933 to have everything in spec (execpt the agp of course). by the way, i flashed my bios a last year. any chance that abit has a new bios with more paramters to set agp and pci slot?

thank you,

mark

[DaveB]

Your mobo is a BX and 2/3 is the best AGP divider you can get. There will never be any BIOS upgrade for that since it's done within the chipset and there's no way to change it.

Your Voodoo5 5500 is a mediocre overclocker but should do 89 MHz, but not much more. GeForce cards are the best choice for BX boards. I've have mine as high as 103 MHz (FSB @ 155 MHz).

Make sure your "generic" PC133 is set as CAS3 and maybe just try booting up with one stick. Otherwise, I'm with Tim. Maybe your Alpha isn't seated right or there's too much thermal goo.

[Newbie_Doo]

RE AGP issue, if you have a PCI vid card, you might try using that to isolate if the AGP bus speed is the problem. If the PCI card works, then you have found the problem. It appears that your PCI bus is in-spec based on what you wrote. Hope this helps.

[DonSandro]

I'm not to sure what might be the problem but maybe you should try and get a good piece of ram and try that, just borrow one and see if it works. Hope it helps.

The Don

[MisterMark]

well even though it's only generic ram, it is pc133. i'm not pushing it so i'm sure it cant be that. as far as the video goes, i don't have a pci video card to test. but chances are, it's not the voodoo5. i run my games just fine (when my system does boot). but what would happen if i overclocked the v5? would that make it more or less compatible with the high bus speed?

thank you,

mark

[Big Lar]

Try Lowering the I/O voltage to 3.5, and put a different PS connector,( 1 that isn't shared) to the vodoo, and also while your at it, drop your vcore to 1.8 or 1.85v, I had an abit be6-2 that would oc worse with anything over 1.85v. Also, you could try a bios upgrade, but if you have sufficient power to the vodoo with the connector from the PS, you shouldn't need all the voltage your shooting into the system, hence the High temps.....

[markedmundb]

Alpha Clips are notoriously easy to bend. My GlobalWin FKP32 beats my Alpha at cooling my Celly 566 to 850 (partly due to a bent clip - Both have been lapped, both have minimal Silver goop on them).

Also too much Silver goop can be a hindrance. I found this out the first time I used the Silver stuff. I plopped a bit too much on, thinking like the Silicon goop that came with my GlobalWin it would spread out the way. It didn't and my PC Wouldn't POST at 100FSB.

The best way to put Silver Goop for the uninitiated, *I* have found is to put what I thought would be a reasonable amount on the top of the CPU with a dead Credit/store bonus points card, place the Sink on top, clamp down, remove the Sink, wipe the goop off the sink, and re-clamp the Sink on top of the CPU It worked for me when initially it didn't work.

Take the Sink off, remove the cowl, take the Clip out and see if it sits straight on a table. The Cowl has a nasty habit of bending the clip, if the cowl is fitted before the sink is clamped down to the top of the CPU.

[MisterMark]

big lar,

you might have something there with the voodoo5. i have a 250watt ps from another box. could i use it to power the voodoo5 as well as all my fans? if i do that, will it be bad for the voodoo5 to get power before the main computer is powered up. and will it be bad if the main computer gets power before the voodoo5. the reason i ask, is because i can't guarantee that i can turn both power supplies on exactly at the same time.

mark black,

i'll check the clip on the alpha too.

tim, dave and the others - i just want to say thanks for giving my problem attention. hopefully i can get it worked out.

thank you,

mark

[Carmine_Paterno]

Back in the old days there was a cable where you can plug in your monitor to your computer so that the monitor would turn on the same time as the computer. If you have a surge protector, plug bothe powersupplies in and put your hard drives etc on 1 and your mainboard and the voodoo on another, that way they both startup together, and it should work perfect, if the power is the problem this should solve it, if not, try putting bigger heatsink/fans on the voodoo. Maybe bump up voltage to 1.9 or 1.95 and see if that is why, does your computer ever freeze when it actually boots into windows? Does it restart, if it restarts then it is voltage. HOPE I COULD HELP!!!

[sneakyfart]

you could use the extras ps to feed your fans but dont use it on the V-5! make sure the V-5 has its own power lead (not shared)

[omni99]

Hey..just curious..but do you by chance have a hard drive that has a few bad sectors in it? or an old isa card?...i had same problem(windows sometimes freezes but 8usually after a reset it would work)...well i know my hard drive has a few bad sectors that were fixed via scandisk(or marked)...that fixed the problem in one machine..the other was my old ISA modem(USR56k) the -5v in the isa(even though youi cant adjust it..i narrowed it down to that).....good luck!