Dual Celeron 366 overclock lockups

[Pinky]

I'm going to try and keep this short, I will answer any specific questions you may have, just post them here...

See my configuration below. It runs great! EXCEPT for Unreal Tournament, after playing online for 5-50 minutes, it eventually locks. I've tried lowering voltages, adding case fan(s), lowering the FSB, changing the AGP multiplier, and leaving the case open. Tried different UT servers, etc etc etc

Here's my current temps at 550/100fsb
cpus 35-37C idle, 47-52C under load. I have noticed that windows locks always when temps are up, but sometimes even when on the lower end... I'm beginning to think it might be the onboard chip for the bus, may be getting too hot.

Here' sthe real problem, I think -- the case under a full cpu load can get as hot as 54C, which obviously provides little/no cooling for the hsf, which are impressive no names that are definitely capable of dissipating the heat. I added an exhaust fan, relapped the cpus twice with Radio shack thermal compound, etc etc etc.

Anyone heard of any UT issues with windows 2000? This happens sometimes at lower speeds, though I think that's a result of an overclocked PCI bus...

Currently stable at 400/78fsb with agp at 1/1 (2/3 is too slow!!), doesn't get past 45C under load, but it still runs too hot...

HELP!!

[outhouse]

HEY PINKY

i think youve answered your own post :)
you really need to get those temps down i believe thats whats causing your lockups. if you can get a fan blowing cool air in as well as the one you have blowing hot air out this will help to keep case temps down but your CPU's is what you really need to work with. you said you have lapped the CPU's have you lapped the HSF's ? even so this will only drop temps down a little, i know you dont want to spend allot of money for new HSF's but it will really help if you want to stay overclocked.

just thought of this take your case cover off and get a large fan and have it blowing straight into your PC and check your temps make sure they are lower and see if you still have the lockups this will help to eliminate cooling as a probable cause.

goodluck

[Placid]

It could be alot of things.
Unreal itself.
http://www.ina-support.com/faq/utgoty_pc.asp#lockups
Have you tried playing quake 3 or another similar online game and have no problems?
Have you tried not overclocking you video card?
Have you tweaked your os by messing with the virtual memory settings?
What are you connecting to the internet with modem/dsl/cable?
Goodluck.

[Pinky]

Placid (Jun 14, 2001 09:18 p.m.):
It could be alot of things.
Unreal itself.
http://www.ina-support.com/faq/utgoty_pc.asp#lockups
Have you tried playing quake 3 or another similar online game and have no problems?
Have you tried not overclocking you video card?
Have you tweaked your os by messing with the virtual memory settings?
What are you connecting to the internet with modem/dsl/cable?
Goodluck.

I'll check the link next... Quake 3 and Elite force play fine... Yes, the first thing I did was run the vid card at defaults... haven't tried the virtual memory, and as a mtter of fact I may need to since I was messing around with it recently... and cable modem.

Right now I have set the fsb to 92, which gives me 500mhz, kept the core voltage at 2.00 and it's running, but only if I keep the agp at 1/1 (92 mhz bus).. doesn't like 2/3 for some reason -- nominal artifacting, I can live if she doesn't crash -- 45 minutes in UT, no jitter or lockups... I will post if problem is resolved, of course, and the solution.

Oh yeah, I have an intake fan in the lower front of the case and an exhaust under the power supply in top/back. Still high temps, about 51C...

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into them...

[Placid]

As other games do not cause this problem its most likley with ut.
As ut supports smp and not many people have smp finding a fix might be hard if the problem only happens with smp systems.

[ken257]

If your case temp will get up to 54C odds are that is your problem. It could be that UT is working the system and or vid card in a different way then other games resulring in a higher temp and lockups. Try running with your case covers off and see if that helps. If it does you need better case cooling.

I have 2 BP6's and one of them has dual 366's running at 572 and I have no problem at all with heat. I am running 2 globalwin HSF's. Did you add extra cooling to the chipset? My greene was far from flat and had no grease. I lapperd it put some grease and a 486 cpu fan on it and this helped out a lot because the 440bx chipset gets rather toasty with dual cpu's. Also if you have fans that are more powerfull then stock don't plug them into the mobo get an adapter to a 4 pin molex. The fan headers don't like many of the higher powered fans and this will cause lockups and can even burn out the fan headers.

[Pinky]

The friend who sold me the cpus and board said that the chipset may be causing this too, would explain a lot... I'm waiting on a jimmy rig he has for this...

Still running smoothly at 500mhz! Can't overlcock the vid card though, locks 3dmark.

removing the case doesn't solve the lockups, and only improves temps about 2C...

[Pinky]

Well, runs a bit hot, but RUNS at 500mhz (92 fsb with the AGP at 1/1, meaning it's running at 92mhz bus!!).

I am pleased with this, for now, and could always lower it when the weather cools down in a few months.

Thanks for all the help, so far no good explanation other than excessive heat.

[Phil]

There is no explanation other than excessive heat as I would say that is what it is. Maybe you are putting too much thermal compund on them. Also have you cooled the northbridge heatsink? You should put some heat transfer compound on there and a fan on the heatsink.

[Pinky]

Phil (Jun 15, 2001 05:39 p.m.):
There is no explanation other than excessive heat as I would say that is what it is. Maybe you are putting too much thermal compund on them. Also have you cooled the northbridge heatsink? You should put some heat transfer compound on there and a fan on the heatsink.

OK, here's what's happened.

I noticed the new exhaust fan was not blowing much air from the case vent/hole. Being the gutsy modifier I am, I bought (hell, I needed them anyway) a pair of steel cutters and needlenose pliers. I cut the vent out, so there was nothing obstructing the flow from the exhaust fan... tied all the ide/floppy cables and tucked them out of the intake fan's path... and VOILA!! That fan pulls some serious air, and I have not had a crash since, even at 550 (but have other problems that high so I dropped her back). Also got the video card to OC again, very well I might add (with the intake fan blowing nearly directly on the video card).

My new specs are below and here's my 3dmark:

[img="http://www.geocities.com/speshal_k/baseballcards/3dmarkOCdet1200.jpg"]

Thanks for the help. Chalk up another one to OCers.com

[ken257]

What are the other problems running at 550 if you wern't crashing? At a 100mhz bus you shouldn't be running anything out of spec. The PCI divider will be at 1/2 and check the AGP make sure it is at 2/3 and your video should be fine. The only other problem I could see you having is with memory. Do you have PC66 or a lame stick of PC100 that doen't quite cut it?

[Pinky]

ken257 (Jun 16, 2001 05:36 a.m.):
What are the other problems running at 550 if you wern't crashing? At a 100mhz bus you shouldn't be running anything out of spec. The PCI divider will be at 1/2 and check the AGP make sure it is at 2/3 and your video should be fine. The only other problem I could see you having is with memory. Do you have PC66 or a lame stick of PC100 that doen't quite cut it?

PCI 1/3, or 33mhz (that's spec), and my RAM (as stated in my specs) are (2) 128 MB 133 SDRAM, generic (but that shouldn't matter running below specs).

I started having problems again, I'm beginning to believe it's one of two things since heat is no longer the issue:

1--UT sucks, and is causing the lockups...
2--the onboard (northbridge I've heard it referred to) CPU is overheating (I can solve that next week).

either way, they're beyond my control.

[ken257]

I guess I made a typo I said PCI would be 1/2, had 66mhz bus of the Celerons on my mind should have typed 1/3.

I thought of a couple of other things. You are overclocking the Leadtek Geforce 2 MX DH PRO 220/210 try it at stock speed. Also try Nvidia Detonator drivers instead of Leadtek's just incase some of the mods they made have trouble in a smp system. It could also be like you said just UT not liking smp I will have to try it on my BP6 and see if I have any problems. BTW I do play UT on my BP6 in Linux with no problem at all :) I dual boot it W2k/Linux so it will be to trouble to test it in W2K.

You said the problem went away for a while but then returned. Still sounds like it could be heat. Just curious what has your ambient temp been the last few days?

[Pinky]

ken257 (Jun 16, 2001 04:17 p.m.):
I guess I made a typo I said PCI would be 1/2, had 66mhz bus of the Celerons on my mind should have typed 1/3.

I thought of a couple of other things. You are overclocking the Leadtek Geforce 2 MX DH PRO 220/210 try it at stock speed. Also try Nvidia Detonator drivers instead of Leadtek's just incase some of the mods they made have trouble in a smp system. It could also be like you said just UT not liking smp I will have to try it on my BP6 and see if I have any problems. BTW I do play UT on my BP6 in Linux with no problem at all :) I dual boot it W2k/Linux so it will be to trouble to test it in W2K.

You said the problem went away for a while but then returned. Still sounds like it could be heat. Just curious what has your ambient temp been the last few days?

I do use the detonator 12.00 w2k drivers, and they seem to be working fine... tried not overclocking, doesn't affect the lockups... the temps are a bit high since it's still rather warm here; I think I'm going to end up having this problem no matter what... whether it's heat related will only be determined when the weather cools down and I let the cold air in... cpu temps are right now at 40C under a constant, but not full, load at 550/100 2.20V -- case temps are running 44C-50C depending on the cpu usage (beginning to wonder if the temp sensor is calibrated/correct).

I will be trying to cool the motherboard's processor Monday/Tuesday and see if that improves things...