AW9D-MAX stuck at 400fsb?

Hello all,

First, I know that 400fsb is a decent overclock for this motherboard, but alas, I am not satisfied. I have read many guides on overclocking this exact motherboard, but I just can't get the same speeds at lower volts. My rig is in my signature.

Anyway, I can't run the board at anything over 400 without it locking in Windows. So it will boot at 425, it just locks in Windows when I start using anything that uses the RAM...which is why I'm confused. I even have it at a 1:1 divider. I can run it at it's rated speed with a higher memory divider while running a lower fsb. There is one thing that really concerns me about the board, to get it to run 400fsb, I have to have the MCH 1.5v @ 2.0v!! I see people pulling the sames speeds at 1.75-1.85. The northbridge is under water, so cooling is not an issue. Any Ideas?

Edit: 13 bios
Edit2: I noticed that in CPUz, it reports my memory as having a TRC timing of 9. I think this is really low because when I run it at 1000mhz, it is at 20!
Edit3: If I drop my cpu multiplier, it does the same thing.
Edit4: If I raise volts on anything, still no go
Edit5: I'm going to see how many edits I can put in...





My goal for this build was to hit atleast 3.6ghz.

Thanks,
Thideras

First off nice rig.
As long as your sure its not the chip thats holding you back, then I'd start with this.
1: Up date your bios to 13A11 (a must for high fsb)
2: Ram to 5-5-5-15 (dont think thats needed, but best to be sure)
3: Refresh Cycle Time to 40
4: Lower your mch to 1.85 - 1.95 ( some have found to much doesnt help)

I know your ram is 1000mhz, But I havent seen anyone get this board to run ram at that speed even if the ram is up to it.

All so what volts are you using on your cpy (more for my info than anything else)

Any how I hope thats of some help

Deanzo said:

First off nice rig.
As long as your sure its not the chip thats holding you back, then I'd start with this.
1: Up date your bios to 13A11 (a must for high fsb)
2: Ram to 5-5-5-15 (dont think thats needed, but best to be sure)
3: Refresh Cycle Time to 40
4: Lower your mch to 1.85 - 1.95 ( some have found to much doesnt help)

I know your rams is 1000mhz, But I havent seen anyone to get this board to run ram at that speed even if the ram is up to it.

All so what volts are you using on your cpy (more for my info than anything else)

Any how I hope thats of some help

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm sure the chip isn't because I've had it to 3.4 stable...don't know why I can't anymore...

1: Do you have a link while I google it? Lol
2: It is 4-4-4-5 timing RAM, so backing it down that far cause the system to not even boot...lol
3: Doesn't do anything
4: Will try after I get the new BIOS

Only way to run it 1000 is to up the divider...lol

1.4v on the proc

EDIT: I think the BIOS may help, cause I'm running a pre-13 bios...so its beta...
EDIT2: Does the BIOS you suggested have the 1333 strap? Cause when I got my new BIOS chips for my motherboard, they were flashed with 13, but it didn't have the 1333 strap...

I do, just give me a sec
And I see, thats some nice rame you have there.

Deanzo said:

I do, just give me a sec
And I see, thats some nice rame you have there.

Click to expand...

G.Skill FTW! I don't understand why they can run so low latency on the 4th number. I've yet to see another brand that does...hmmm

EDIT: waiting...waiting...waiting...come on its been like 5 minutes!!! Lol, just kidding, it has been 6...but seriously, can you tell I'm impatient/ADHD? <--- that is a bad combination...

BIOS 13 added a new RAM timing option called "Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC)", try increasing that a little. Mine defaulted at 28, but I needed to raise it to 36. I've heard others needed to increase it to 40 to run high FSB. Try 4-4-4-10-36, that's what my RAM will run.

Here is a link for BIOS 13.A11, but the page is down right now.
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=117944

batboy said:

BIOS 13 added a new RAM timing option called "Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC)", try increasing that a little. Mine defaulted at 28, but I needed to raise it to 36. I've heard others needed to increase it to 40 to run high FSB. Try 4-4-4-10-36, that's what my RAM will run.

Here is a link for BIOS 13.A11, but the page is down right now.
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=117944

Click to expand...

I have that as an option, but raising it doesn't seem to do anything, I'll try again while I wait for the site to be operational again...

PM me your email address if you want me to send you that BIOS file.

Thanks batboy,
Im at work and the internet keeps going down here today and I wasnt sure if it was me or there site, why I couldnt log on.

Deanzo said:

Thanks batboy,
Im at work and the internet keeps going down here today and I wasnt sure if it was me or there site, why I couldnt log on.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm running at 400fsb with the 1333 strap. I couldn't boot with that no matter what, but now I'm booted into Windows and have Orthos in the background right now, good so far...lol. What is even better is it is doing it at 1.8v! Much better! I have headroom!

But something else is weird, now my proc full loads at 44c when it used to run 39c full out...getting coretemp...it got removed from my comp

EDIT: Nvm, the motherboard is just reporting it higher...but coretemp is exactly where it was before...and I just realized that with the top on my proc, they are pulling 45c each! Weird...

Well, since I got bored again, time to restart, hopefully you'll hear back from me...lol

"Resident's computer bursts into flames and burns down school, overclocking to blame?"

Ok, now I'm at 3.4 (425fsb). I have a question, I'm running a RAID0, would that be severely hurting my overclock? I'm thinking yes...and I have to reinstall soon anyway

RAID shouldn't affect the O/C much. That's a pretty decent O/C, run it for a while at that speed and see if it's stable.

batboy said:

RAID shouldn't affect the O/C much. That's a pretty decent O/C, run it for a while at that speed and see if it's stable.

Click to expand...

Only problem is when I do Orthos blend, it just locks 2 seconds in...I don't understand what is going on...everything else runs fine (regarding windows), haven't tried gaming, but if it locks in Orthos, not going to try...lol

My understanding is that the northbridge controls the RAID. I'm just trying to eliminate all the possibilities...

Ok, I have a question for you, what is the molex connector on the bottom left hand side of the board for? Do I need it, cause I don't have it plugged in...

Orthos is about the worse case. Games might play ok, although if it locks up that quick, I don't know.

The molex connector on the lower part of the mobo is mainly to provide extra voltage when you are running two vid cards on the PCI-E bus (i.e. Crossfire). I don't have it connected.

batboy said:

Orthos is about the worse case. Games might play ok, although if it locks up that quick, I don't know.

The molex connector on the lower part of the mobo is mainly to provide extra voltage when you are running two vid cards on the PCI-E bus (i.e. Crossfire). I don't have it connected.

Click to expand...

...hmmm, then I don't understand what I have setup wrong...is there anyway you could post what you have the important settings at?

You mean like I did in this thread?

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=500342

batboy said:

You mean like I did in this thread?

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=500342

Click to expand...

...yep!

A little OT but Telstra have replaced the faulty fibre transceiver and Im back.

Back OT: Are you still at 1.4volts, if so you could up that, as you would know being on water you should be all good to 1.55+ just in case part of it is the chip.

Deanzo said:

A little OT but Telstra have replaced the faulty fibre transceiver and Im back.

Back OT: Are you still at 1.4volts, if so you could up that, as you would know being on water you should be all good to 1.55+ just in case part of it is the chip.

Click to expand...

I can stress the CPU all I want, and it will keep running solid. Only when memory is a factor will it lock.

Thats my 24/7 rig atm. I tried to find a good overclock
without increasing much of voltage.
Specs and the rest just in the pic.
I am very satisfied with this board....4ever Abit



..or if the pic doesnt work, here the direct link:...klick!