Problems in Windoze with O/C'd CII 600

[Ashyukun]

I finally got my new motherboard in, and after much ado (MS obviously didn't intend for you to move from Win2K to Win98..... @_@ ) got Win98 set up on it alright, but I'm running into problems with Windoze occasionally, and I'm wondering if it is a symptom of the CPU not liking the speed it's running at. I've been running the CII cC0 600 at between 900 and 945, and even at 900 @ 1.85V I get some problems on occasion- I just couldn't install UT with it overclocked, I kept getting errors from the install program, but when I dropped it back down to stock speed, it worked just fine. Also, some of the downloads I did while overclocked came out corrupted. 3DMark2000 also locks up quite nicely, and UT will freeze on occasion as well, which is what is making me think that problem is that the CPU doesn't like the speed. Or could it be that my memory doesn't like running at 133Mhz (I've got it set to host+33Mhz)? I know that it -shouldn't- have any problem with it, it's at least supposed to be PC133 CAS2, but... *sigh* Too many variables. Has anyone else had problems like these, and have any suggestions? Here's the full description of the setup:

EPoX 6VBA2 MoBo (Apollo Pro 133A chipset, onboard sound)
Celeron II cC0 600 on a MSI-6905 slocket
FOP32 HSF w/80mm fan hack & ArcticSilver II
256MB PC133 CAS2 (supposedly) SDRAM
Western Digital Caviar 20GB 7200RPM ATA/66 (on my mobo, at least... ) HD
10/100 PCI NIC
32MB TNT2 M64 AGP (running at 4X w/128MB aperture)
6x DVD-ROM Drive
8x4x32x CD-RW drive (both IDE)
Win98 SE

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

it sounds like 900 is the top end of your overclock...sorry to say, even with cCO's some just won't overclock well, maybe somebody sneezed on the substrate durring manufacture...who knows? but when you get data corruption, it's advisable to reduce your cpu speed, as it sounds like some serious electromigration going on.You could try all the tricks that have been posted here and there, but in the long run, I think you got a dud.

[Ashyukun]

DocClock aka MadClocker (Apr 11, 2001 11:36 a.m.):
it sounds like 900 is the top end of your overclock...sorry to say, even with cCO's some just won't overclock well, maybe somebody sneezed on the substrate durring manufacture...who knows? but when you get data corruption, it's advisable to reduce your cpu speed, as it sounds like some serious electromigration going on.You could try all the tricks that have been posted here and there, but in the long run, I think you got a dud.

Hmmm. I was halfway afraid that might be the answer. I do know that it -can- be overclocked stably to an extent- I played UT for a few hours on it last night running it up at 750 without any problems at all (including having the TNT2 clocked up to 145/170), though I was running it at a higher voltage than default (I just didn't lower it from when trying to get it running at 900+, I figure that maybe with a bit of burn-in it will behave...). I'd like to try for higher, but I don't want to push the PCI and IDE too far out of spec, I really don't want to frag the Caviar drive.

But, I can't say that I'm -too- concerned if I can't get much more than 750 out of it- I've still got a retail cC0 600 that is still sealed in its box and waiting to be tested out. ;D The current chip was the first that the shipping gods dropped off for me, and was an OEM system pull. After I take care of my video-card shootout (If I decide that the Voodoo3 2K is better than the TNT2 M64, I only have until Sunday to return the TNT2) tonight I'll probably lap the retail chip and get it set up and burning in and see how high it will go. And even if it doesn't do any better, a 750Mhz Celeron is a world faster than my dual PPro box (though, surprisingly, with the Voodoo in it the PPro does fairly well at UT. I should put Linux on it and install the Linux build of UT so it can actually use both CPUs when doing so... ;D)