Athlon 1.2 200fsb on Asus A7v133a ... any suggestions

[thadinator]

First of all heya all this is my first post :)

I am having a bit of trouble overclocking my athlon 1200 :(

the spex:

Athlon 1.2Ghz (12x100)
Asus A7v133a( bios 1007)
256mb pc133 (micron)
ATI Radeon 64mb DDR ViVo @ (195/195)
40GB WD Caviar 7200rmp/ata100
Windows XP Home ver 2002
Onboard Sound ( SB Live oem died recently)
3case fans(1 blowin on the radeon),2cpu fans,1hd fan
load temp is about 50c and idle at around 46-47c

I cant seem to get my fsb up over 120 without getting froze up and having to power down to reset. I was aiming low I thought with a 10x133 setting but it wouldnt get past the post. Also my bios will only allow me to set the vcore to 1.85v is this enough to do the higher end overclocking? If not is there another way to increase vcore? Also my bios lists a (12.5x/13.0x) setting for a multiplier when I use this setting it automatically chooses the 13.0 multiplier giveing me a 13x100 setup that seems pretty stable but performance increase is minimal. I was also thinking it could be a PS problem Its got a standard 300w PS but all my voltages seem ok .. 5v is a bit low maybe registers as 4.83? heck I dunno I'm a newb at this but it seems like everyone is getting a helluva lot more performance out of their athlon than I am atm. Thanks in advance for any kind of help on this stuff. Also any posts of (fsb/multiplier/vcore) settings on similar setups would be greatly appreciated. I dont wanna fry this thing !!!

[jbslow]

Welcome to the forums!

Have you increased the memory voltage? I had the same problem with a 13mhz fsb overclock but a memory voltage increase made the sysyem stable and I was able go even higher.

Good Luck

[thadinator]

memory voltage hmmm ... not sure exactly where that setting is. Is that the SDRAM setting in the bios cause its linked to my fsb sort of. When I adjust the FSB is will give me two choices in SDRAM setting like at 12x100 it allows a 100 or a 133 setting and as I increase FSB it also goes up ie.. 12x101 = 101/134 choise for setting.

[jbslow]

Originally posted by thadinator
memory voltage hmmm ... not sure exactly where that setting is. Is that the SDRAM setting in the bios cause its linked to my fsb sort of. When I adjust the FSB is will give me two choices in SDRAM setting like at 12x100 it allows a 100 or a 133 setting and as I increase FSB it also goes up ie.. 12x101 = 101/134 choise for setting.

No thats not it , thats for setting up the true default for a 200 and 266 chips.

Check your mobo manual on my 8k7a I can adjust the memory voltage with jumpers.

[thadinator]

I have (I/O) VIO voltage setting 3.3v /3.45v/test mode available with jumpers is that it?

[jbslow]

Originally posted by thadinator
I have (I/O) VIO voltage setting 3.3v /3.45v/test mode available with jumpers is that it?

That sounds right since PC133 SDRam runs at default 3.3v I would check your manual to make sure though.

[thadinator]

manual says...
this setting will adjust the voltage to the DRAM,Chipset,AGP,PCI and CPU's I/O buffer.

[thadinator]

is there anything else that would help besides this memoory voltage?? it only seems to have 3 settings 3.3,3.45, and test. And I have it on the 3.45 setting theres no telling what the test setting will do ?? anyone know? I wanted to say thanks again for the help getting me started in the right direction for overclocking my AMD .. ty ty ty

[pqt]

I have the same mobo and cpu as you do. I think I've set that jumper on *test*. Anyway, if your +5v rail is giving less than 4.9, I think it's a bit low. What's the make of your PS?
On my system, I'm able to push it to 1.4 Ghz, altho I keep getting crashes from time to time, especially in summer. I think I push my cheapo RAM too far (cas2 intead of cas3)
You will have to play around with different settings until you find a compromise between multipliers, FSB and CAS,etc...
Good luck;)

[thadinator]

its a Deer DR-A300ATX it says +5VSB: 2A on the side too.. good or bad?

[FRANK]

First of all, Welcome to the forums.

That taken care of, I have this same board, and I must admit that the VIO options are limited. You will not have to increase this to run a 266FSB. An increase of your VIO wouldn't be necessary until you get into a pretty healthy overclock.

As far as your boot problem, there is an often overlooked "issue" when using a B (200MHz) CPU at 266MHz along with the KT133A chipset. In a nutshell, when initiating the boot process, the system looks to the CPU for the default multiplier for an instant until the BIOS can take over. Therefore when trying to boot a 200MHz CPU at 266MHz FSB, your system is trying to boot at 1596MHz (the default multiplier is 12X with the FSB set by jumper at 133), this is a bit beyond the range of a 1.2 CPU.

One work-around is to set your system up with the jumpers rather than using the soft BIOS, the A7V133 was one of the few motherboards that allowed this option. This method bypasses the default multiplier and will boot to whatever the jumpers are set at.

Another method to remedy this situation is to modify your L6 bridges to show a different "default" multiplier, something lower than the default 12X that the 1.2 uses, 9X would be the default multiplier for a "C" (266) 1.2g T-BIRD.

Bumping the Vcore up a bit doesn't hurt either, just make sure that you have adequate cooling. Keep in mind that the ASUS Probe is known to report the temperatures as much as 10C higher than actual. In my experience as long as you keep the temperatures "as reported" by the ASUS Probe under 60C you should be alright.

You can read about this "issue" in much greater detail here (it's rather legnthy but worth the time invested);

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1440&p=1

I hope this helps.

Good Luck!

[thadinator]

THX FOR THE WARM WELCOM ALL

im gonna try to use jumper mode on my MB instead of the jumper free mode see if that helps it get through the first few cycles before it hits the bios for setup. that link was very informative learned alot from it.

[FRANK]

I'm glad you followed the link and read the article. Let us know how you're doing as you go along.

Good Luck!

[thadinator]

G G G Great !!! I'm currently running at 1333mhz (10x133) boot up fine.. stability? we'll see . Any suggestions on a good program to check stability etc.? Anyway thanks for all the help so far!! I'm learning tons about it and this is fun too. one more question the manual for my mobo only lists about five setting for fsb can someone tell me where to get a more detailed list of setting so I can try to push the fsb a lil more? or have I pushed my athlon B far enough already at 133?

[jszent]

Fist of all update your bios to 1008.Drope your mulit to say 9 or so up your fbs to say between 145-148. Set your core at 1.80v first if it doesn't boot up it to 1.85, the highset setting on that mobo.I just retired the same setup as you have I ran it for a year.Up graded to a 1.4 brid @1.6 just on air.Make sure you have good case cooling and a good heatsink I ran a volcano6 with this rig.Ran perfect until retirement.Good Luck let us know how you make out.:burn: