winxp freezes @ account selection screen after OC?

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

hey all,

I'm very happy w/ my new 225 x 11 (2480) @ 1.8vcore overclock w/ my barton M 2500+, BUT every now and then winxp freezes right after loading @ the screen where i choose an account. What can be causing it? I'm suspecting the extreme fsb overclock (atleast w/ nf7-s) as that has a tendency to make programs act funny? any ideas?

I passed 22 hr and 22min of prime95 with NO errors @ that overclock, and 15 hrs @ a 227 fsb w/ memtest3.1, so how can it not be stable?!

Settings are same as sig except above overclock.

Also, i can't enter my bios consistently every time i restart, i have to restart twice before being able to enter it (i.e. the first time i restart, hitting the del key does'nt enter the bios, i have to restart again before it works). That occured only after installing my Barton M and overclocking it. What does that mean?

Any insight would be appreciated and thnx in advance.

-pooh

I.M.O.G. · Mar 15, 2004

Run P95 at priority ten and run the test again. It sounds like you aren't stable, despite a good p95 run.

redface · Mar 15, 2004

up the vcore?

redface · Mar 15, 2004

Definitely looks like you need more vcore.

prime95 for a week will tell.
and/or 3dmark2003 for a week.
and/or memtest for a week.

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

yea i might hafta up the vcore but i's already @ 49 under load @ 1.8. :-/

***noob question alert****

IMOG, how do u set the priority of prime95 to 10? i've searched through the options albeit i don't see a specific setting implying priority level?(is'nt it @ highest priority lvl by defualt?) is it displayed w/ a different name?

THunDA · Mar 15, 2004

Well have you tried running things stock to see if it still does it.. ?

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

yup, i had my previous overclock in my sig for almost a year before installing the barton M.

Any ideas about why I can't enter the bios straight away without restarting?

I.M.O.G. · Mar 15, 2004

Nah, dunno on bios entry... Sometimes your keyboard and whether it is USB or not makes a difference on when it gets initialized and can transmit key strokes.

Run prime 95. Click on the advanced menu, and click on password. Enter "9876" and press enter. The priority setting will no longer be grayed out along with various other settings. The other settings don't need to be played with, just change priority. The help file explains what all the settings do. The priority setting is in the advanced menu.

pershoot · Mar 15, 2004

hmm.. clear CMOS (take out the battery too). then, completely reflash the bios (use DOS: Awdflash.exe NF7D_XX.BIN /py /sn /cd /cp /cc /LD /R , do not use flashmenu). then retest your OC. there is no reason why you should be freezing and not being able to go in to bios, if you have primed it. i myself have had to reflash twice (the 1st time it didnt take well).

bump your tRAS to 11. this will add to stability and a slight performance increase for you. your tRAS of 4 is definitely not as optimal as say an 11 or even a 7. 11 def. adds stability though, as I have noticed and observed.

a dvdrom on your IDE chain may cause hangups as well (especially with a soundblaster card). it happens on win2k3 (there is an ata bug), and i have heard it happening on xp as well, here and there.

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

thnx for feedback pershoot. The 2-2-3-4 timings were pretty well known and established w/ the 3500el as they were purported to be the most stable by ocz techs, but i just tried the tRAS 11 and it loaded fine, will run memtest to ensure ram is stable @ that setting but i imagine it should be. Thnx for the headsup, apps actually seem to be opening snappier now, or maybe its just me?

I upped vcore to 8.25 and have'nt noticed the prob recur fro winxp freezing, yet. I'll give a few days. :-/

I'll clear the cmos and update the nf7-s bios to 2.1 (using 2.0) to see if that resolves the bios issue, still testing for higher overclock w/ this chip so it'll hafta wait. (so far got it up to 2530 20 x 11.5 @ 8.25v)

pershoot · Mar 15, 2004

forget about memtest. it is not reliable, in my opinion. prime95 should be more then sufficient for you to test any OC mark.

good luck

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

even for memory testing? I'll be testing the timings of 2-2-3-11 to ensure they're stable, P95 tests for that too?

redface · Mar 15, 2004

yeah, you need a week of memtest to actually find those hidden errors....

anyway, maybe it's time for wc?

ogboot · Mar 15, 2004

i use memtest sometimes to determine if my ram is holding me back.

pershoot · Mar 15, 2004

p95 is sufficient for memory testing too, yup. i dont think i have ever failed memtest, when i know for certain i wasnt stable at all. this is why i dont rely on it and have discontinued its use when stability testing.

but you can still run it for quick passes. you can also run prime95 from a linux distro running off floppy, if ya dont wanna boot in to windows all the time to test OC stability.

http://floppix.ccai.com/

ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/sprime235.tar.gz

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

redface said:
anyway, maybe it's time for wc?

what's wc redface?

thnx again for all the input.

pershoot · Mar 15, 2004

wc = watercooled/watercooling/watercool

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

i c... nah wc is'nt gonna happen anytime soon, i'm pretty confident i can stabilize my chip @ 225 x 11.5 (2575) on air and that's enough for now.

I'll hafta use a vcore of 1.925+ though so not sure how safe that'll be for long term use (mind u, 1.925 v is actually ~1.87-1.89v on the nf7s, it undervolts).

pershoot · Mar 15, 2004

hmm.. might try out bios 20 since you are able to get a bit higher fsb with it. are you using stock abit?

Edit: i see your in SC.. thought you were in DC. thats def holdin me back (DC)...

poohbear · Mar 15, 2004

actually i'm using bios 21 now and the fsb ocing is the same. I reseted the cmos but it did'nt solve my bios issue... i still can't get into my bios sometimes after hitting del, i hafta restart and then get into bios (basicly, every other restart i can enter the bios). I'm hoping my bios is'nt on its way to becoming corrupt?

and arrrghhh, i'm still getting the occasional winxp freeze after the load screen even after upping vcore a bit (to 1.825 fom 1.80). However, this time it was @ the more modest 220fsb... so it's not due to pushing the fsb near its limit to 225 (i was stable @ 220 fsb for months w/ my dlt3c 1700+).

Will continue to test and up vcore once more to see if it occurs again.

winxp freezes @ account selection screen after OC?

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