System *sometimes* reboots right after loading Windows?

I'm relatively new to overclocking, so I was wondering if this would be considered normal behavior for a system that might need a little more CPU core voltage. By default, my XP 2100+ TBred runs at 133 MHz clock (266 FSB) with a multiplier of 13 (1733 MHz). However, since I have been learning about overclocking, I realized that I wasted money on my Crucial PC2700 unless I raised the FSB to at least 333 MHz. So, I did exactly that--I raised CPU clock to 166 MHz and lowered the multiplier to 10.5 for a total of 1743 MHz. I even pushed the mutiplier higher--up to 11.5 for a total of 1909 MHz, and the system ran fine on the default CPU voltage for several days. I could run Prime95 torture test for several hours with no errors; however, I didn't do an overnight test or anything.

Just when everything seemed fine, I turned on my PC one morning and it automatically rebooted right after Windows XP loaded. I believe the OS was totally loaded and the utility programs (Asus PC Probe, Anti-Virus, etc.) were in the process of loading. Sometimes, on the second boot it would make it into Windows just fine and exhibited no stability problems. Other times, it was a continuous cycle of rebooting. In these cases, I had to lower the multiplier or FSB to get into Windows without a reboot.

Now you might be asking, "why don't you raise the voltage and see for yourself whether it helps?". The reason is that I have the stock AMD cooling, and as it is now I sometimes reach 64 C under load with no overclocking. I am very wary of raising the core voltage without better cooling. The good news is that my Zalman 7000B-Cu heatsink/fan should arrive on Friday. However, in the mean time I'd like to know if this sounds like normal behavior. I've heard of BSOD failures, no POST screen failures, system hang failures, but I have yet to hear about spontaneous reboots. Is this normal? Thanks!

Yes. Spontaneous reboots are normal when OCing. Once you get that Zalman Cooler, you should be able to take your system to 2.2GHz w/o a problem. I have a 2100+ TBredB, and although all CPUs are different, I had no problems going to 2.2GHz(with a bit of added VCore) with my SLK-800 on there. However, it's hard for me to get to 2.3GHz w/o running my VCore past 1.8V.

SAOverclocker said:

Yes. Spontaneous reboots are normal when OCing. Once you get that Zalman Cooler, you should be able to take your system to 2.2GHz w/o a problem. I have a 2100+ TBredB, and although all CPUs are different, I had no problems going to 2.2GHz(with a bit of added VCore) with my SLK-800 on there. However, it's hard for me to get to 2.3GHz w/o running my VCore past 1.8V.

Click to expand...

Okay thanks! That makes me feel better. I can't wait to get the Zalman and start playing around!