Errors when overclocking to 900mhz with FC-PGA 600 celeron

[WWAZman]

Hello
I have a ABIT VH6 nmotherboard (version 1) with 192 megs of pc100 ram,
and a 600 mhz Celeron FC-PGA with a Coppermine cooling fan on it.

It's been working fine, at normal clocked speed. I tried overclocking it a while back, and for desktop applications it ran fine at 800+ and 900 mhz (the processor has a 66 mhz bus base) but when I went into any graphics intensive programs, such as Star Trek Elite Force, which uses the higher graphics of my Voodoo 3 AGP card, the game froze...I think the comptuer did too, I would have to re-do it to find out.

I was told to change the settings on my ram, but I'm not sure WHAT to put it on. I had looked on some other sites, and the settings were different.

Is anyone familiar with the boards/chips I am talkign about that can help me?
You can email me directly at wwazman@hotmail.com

[Phil]

that sounds like one of 2 things to me, either the chip isn't getting enough voltage, which is worsened when the video card starts doing 3d stuff and drawing much voltage, in which case you should increase the voltage slightly, just don't go over 1.9v, especially with the default intel cooler, the other thing that occurs to me is that the agp divider is staying at 1/1 when you changed the fsb to 100mhz, the agp bus runs at 66mhz and gets it's clock speed from the fsb, at 66mhz it just runs at the same speed but at 100mhz the agp but needs to run at 2/3rds the speed, look for the agp divider option and make sure it is set to 2/3.
If it isn't one of them then the only other problem I can think of is that the cpu is overheating, in which case you need a better heatsink and fan for the cpu, the Global Win FOP 32-1 is more than good enough to cope with 900mhz and is a lot quieter than coolers that use the delta fan but it seems more like either a voltage or agp divider problem to me

[WWAZman]

actually, I JUST checked, and my board's voltage does not go over 1.7 volts

[WWAZman]

Phil (May 01, 2001 03:55 p.m.):
that sounds like one of 2 things to me, either the chip isn't getting enough voltage,...}

(my board can go to 1.7 volts)

...{ which is worsened when the video card starts doing 3d stuff and drawing much voltage, in which case you should increase the voltage slightly, just don't go over 1.9v, especially with the default intel cooler,}

{ the other thing that occurs to me is that the agp divider is staying at 1/1 when you changed the fsb to 100mhz, the agp bus runs at 66mhz and gets it's clock speed from the fsb, at 66mhz it just runs at the same speed but at 100mhz the agp but needs to run at 2/3rds the speed, look for the agp divider option and make sure it is set to 2/3.}

Where do I find the FSB? Hate to sound stupid, but I'm not too famliar with these terms, a newbie if you will.)

{If it isn't one of them then the only other problem I can think of is that the cpu is overheating, in which case you need a better heatsink and fan for the cpu, the Global Win FOP 32-1 is more than good enough to cope with 900mhz and is a lot quieter than coolers that use the delta fan but it seems more like either a voltage or agp divider problem to me

I have a good heatsink and fan combo already, the biggest that will fit in my case, plus the side is open in case I need extra cooling..

[Phil]

you should find the fsb and agp divider settings under softmenu in the bios, 1.7v may not be enough, sounds like you have a cBO chip with a default of 1.5v, my cCO needed 1.75v when I first got it (only needs 1.65v now)

the fsb is the bus that the cpu runs on, it is 66mhz when you run the chip at 600mhz and 100mhz when running the chip at 900mhz, you must have already played with it a bit whilst overclocking, but it sounds like the agp divider may have stayed at 1/1, make sure it is 2/3

[WWAZman]

I checked, there seems to be NO AGP divider to change. I just tried updating the bios, but let me make double sure again.

[Phil]

I'll download the manual to see what settings are available

Update: I just checked on abits site and te manual is 10mb which would take a while to download over my dial-up, I'll have to get back to you tomorrow on this one

[WWAZman]

let me save you some time...
I just copied down the basic settings I have for changing my cpu:

CPU (speed) goes from 300 to 1000 (at 133mhz)

MHZ goes from 66 (1/2) to 150 (1/4)

Multipliers go from 3 - 12

Speed error hold Disable or Enable

Voltage from 1.30 to 1.70

DRAM clock - Host, HCLK+PCICLK, or HCLK-PCICLK

Spread Spectrum - Disable or Enable

Cpu Hardwired IOQ (IOQ not IRQ, I typed it right =) ) : 4 level (default), or 1 level

that's all for the cpu screen.
I also have options to turn the ram up or down, but I haven;t messed with it yet. The settings available are Turbo, Normal, 8ns and 10ns. (Currently on TURBO)
Currently I'm now running at 747 but have not played any 3dfx games, assuming they'll crash the system


Any thoughts?
--Eric

[Slake]

WWAZman and Phil. I hope this helps you.
I got this info from a review of the VH6 at theTechzone.com website.
http://www.thetechzone.com/reviews/motherboards/abit/vh6/page2.shtml

Check out the Vcore submenu in the bios and set it at 1.8v which is the max for the VH6 according to the below review.

Below is a quote from the reviewer which bemoans the limted Vcore selection. Looks like 1.8V is the max.

"Our P3-550E can do 825Mhz using a Slot Kit but can only do 770Mhz with VH6. This is because the highest voltage setting in the VH6 available for the P3 is 1.8V and our Flip Chip 550E needs 1.9V to be stable at 825Mhz. "

PhilWould the "Wire Trick" be applicable here?
Good luck! 8)

[WWAZman]

I wish I COULD set it to 1.8. The highest I can set it to is 1.7

[Slake]

WWAZman (May 02, 2001 02:08 p.m.):
I wish I COULD set it to 1.8. The highest I can set it to is 1.7

I feel your pain WWAZman. I suggest you read the article about how to do the wire trick below.
http://www.cotty.btinternet.co.uk/vidpinfrm.htm

It can give you higher voltages. Check with Phil or a Senior Member before performing the wire trick though! Mr B is an ACE on overclocking the Celeron 600. Might want to give him a shout. He'll probably post as soon as he sees this thread anyhow. But go ahead and read the article anyway. Knowledge never..well never mind; sometimes knoledge does hurt. LOL.

[Slake]

Oh! Do you have the latest BIOS for the board? That may be why yours only goes to 1.7V and the techzone reviewers went ti 1.8. Check Abit's web site or www.biosfiles.com (I think that's right).

[WWAZman]

yes,...btw, my icq # is 12529687

I got the bios update yesterday--no difference whatsoever in voltages.
Right now I have it running at 1.7 volts, 100 mhz bus, 900 speed, and hostclcok-pciclock.
I haven't DARED try anything with the voodoo3 agp card yet =P

[Slake]

Looks like our posts collided. LOL. I'm at work and don't have ICQ installed. Speaking of work, I guess I better do some. You'll get lots of help when the members get home from their REAL jobs. Meantime , read that wiretrick article. Also do a search of the CPU database from the Oc.com home page and search the forums for VH6 info.
************************************************** **************
OOOPS!! Here's where you can find an update for your VH6. http://www.abit.com.tw/english/download/bios update/
Sorry for the bad lead.

[WWAZman]

Filename: VH6XR.EXE
Date: 03/01/2001
ID: XR NOTE:

Supports Celeron 733,766(66)MHz,800(100)MHz CPU.
�@
this is the one I downloaded and did yesterday, was the latest and at the top of the list for my board, the VH6 version 1 (not 2) ...vh6 1.02 is what it says on the isa slot ...anyway, Phil suggested I put the DRAM clock on hostclock-pciclock, and I'm currently playing Star Trek Elite Force in teh background, at 900 mhz, 1.7 volts, and 9 multiplier,...seems to be working fine now. Thanks fo the help, I'll let you know if I still have problems.

--Eric

[Phil]

The voltage may be the problem, I remember when I first got my cel 600 and tryed 900mhz at 1.7v (default) it worked fine, even prime95, but the minute a game started and the graphics card kicked into action it would crash, probabally because the video card deprived the cpu of some current, upping to 1.75v fixed this problem (after burning in it runs on only 1.65v now) so the wire trick may be worth giving a shot, have a look here Wire Trick (http://www.hardocp.com/articles/intel_stuff/bumpvoltage.html)
This should be quite safe to perform as long as you do it exactly right and triple check you have wired the right pins, if it doesn't boot after trying then simply remove and test it still works, it is rare that you can kill a pc component without physically damaging it, they usually detect a problem when you try and boot and simply won't turn on, reversing what you have done should rectify this, you should try to make sure that you are on a 2/3 agp divider though, if you download sisoft sandra from ww.tweakfiles.com , I think it's under all in one, then in sisoft under mainboard information look at the agp section and be sure it is running at 66mhz

[WWAZman]

ok, so I'm halfway through a level in STEF when WHAMMO, it locks up, and all I hear is Chell saying "Over there, over there over there" infinetly....

What is it I am looking for for tweaks? I don't see it.

I'm not sure I'm comfortable doing any WIRING on my CPU...anyone in the Portland OR area that wants to do it for me? =)

[WWAZman]

ok, V3Tweaks reports the speed is 166

[Mr B]

After reading the above, it does indeed look like the way to go about this is the wire trick. At least on this board. Another alternative, is to get ahold of a BX based BE6, BE6 II, BF6, etc slot 1 motherboard, and get a good quality coppermine compatable slocket. This route would let you set the vcore to virtually anything you would want (more than high enough to blow the chip up, if you wanted) My Soltek SL02A++ slocket has jumper settings on it for 1.3 to 3.3v. (the highest you'd want to go is 2.0v or so).

I'm leery of Via chipsets myself, after using an A-Trend board for a while. The Apollo Pro 133 set is known for killing memory bandwidth, and I have first hand knowledge of this. It does. The 133A chipset is somewhat better, but still gets beat hands down by the ol' BX boards.

Native s370 boards are somewhat limiting in that you can ONLY run a s370 chip on it. If you ever came into a P/// slot 1 chip for short money (I got my P/// 600E for $75, honest injun), you wouldn't be able to use it.

Looks like the options here are wire the pins to raise the vcore, or start looking to possibly upgrade.

You pays your money, you makes your choice....That C600 sounds like it might have 927 to 945 @ 1.9v if you could run it that high, maybe more.

Mr B