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Botched overclocking :'(

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Exillis

Registered
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
So my friend says that I should just overclock my CPU (AMD Athlon XP2400) instead of purchasing a new one. He gives me vague instructions on how to do it... So I get home and go into the BIOS and change the bus speed from 133Mhz to 166Mhz suddenly my computer lets out some lengthy beeps and my screen goes into standby and I panic a bit and turn it off. When I start it again, my graphics card (Nvidia 6600GT AGP) doesn't seem to register and the screen won't come out of standby so I cannot get back into the BIOS. I try plugging in my old graphics card (GeForce fx5200) but still nothing.
Looks like I might be going for that upgrade....

I feel like crying. :bang head

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated
 
First thing to try doing is starting up the computer and just keep hitting the insert button if it doesn't start up like normally (except it will be at a lower speed) then you will have to reset the bios via a jumper on the board (which you can find in your MB manual or their site.
 
Exillis said:
So my friend says that I should just overclock my CPU (AMD Athlon XP2400) instead of purchasing a new one. He gives me vague instructions on how to do it... So I get home and go into the BIOS and change the bus speed from 133Mhz to 166Mhz suddenly my computer lets out some lengthy beeps and my screen goes into standby and I panic a bit and turn it off. When I start it again, my graphics card (Nvidia 6600GT AGP) doesn't seem to register and the screen won't come out of standby so I cannot get back into the BIOS. I try plugging in my old graphics card (GeForce fx5200) but still nothing.
Looks like I might be going for that upgrade....

I feel like crying. :bang head

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated
Reset the CMOS.

Pull the power and the battery, switch the jumpe (see the manual) and leave it there for a min. switch back the jumper, put the battery back, plug the power back in.
 
lol relax, you just need to clear the cmos and everything should be back running again.

to clear the cmos - first unplug your powersupply then remove the battery for a few minutes.

the cause of your problem btw is you tried to overclock to much .. 133 to 166 is too big a jump for your cpu and ram to handle..
 
stui_nz said:
lol relax, you just need to clear the cmos and everything should be back running again.

to clear the cmos - first unplug your powersupply then remove the battery for a few minutes.

the cause of your problem btw is you tried to overclock to much .. 133 to 166 is too big a jump for your cpu and ram to handle..

Yeah, I agreed that! However what is the spec. of your current PC trying to OC? It is important that your RAMs would be speedy enough to take that as well as your CPU. To increase your FSB to, say, 166MHz your RAMs should be rated PC2700 or even PC3200 IF you intend to stick to 1:1 RAM divider. You should decrease your CPU's multiplier, provided it is not hard-locked, so that your totoal CPU speed (i.e. FSB x multiplier) is not increased DRASTICALLY!
Provided your PC could stand that,at least you have increased your FSB bandwidth, then you can PROGRESSIVELY increasing your FSB further while adjusting your CPU multiplier accordingly. Good luck :)
 
run for your lives!! its gunna blow!!! :D

I love seeing panic stories of newbies trying to overclock and ALWAYS stuffing it up on their first go :)

so thats why when i teach my friends to overclock, i dont tell them, i show them. I show them my PC, and then i go to their house and show them first hand with theirs :D
 
pshhh i didn't explode on my first overclock . . .. quite smoothly actually . . . . then again i surfed here for a 2 or more years before i did . . .
 
Exillis said:
So my friend says that I should just overclock my CPU (AMD Athlon XP2400) instead of purchasing a new one. He gives me vague instructions on how to do it... So I get home and go into the BIOS and change the bus speed from 133Mhz to 166Mhz suddenly my computer lets out some lengthy beeps and my screen goes into standby and I panic a bit and turn it off. When I start it again, my graphics card (Nvidia 6600GT AGP) doesn't seem to register and the screen won't come out of standby so I cannot get back into the BIOS. I try plugging in my old graphics card (GeForce fx5200) but still nothing.
Looks like I might be going for that upgrade....

I feel like crying. :bang head

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated

If you still want to overclock then reading the relevent stickys at the top of the AMD section would be a good idea before you start anything :).

Scott.
 
It was posted only a few hours ago...

Ya just flip the jumper to clear the CMOS. This resets the bios to default settings. After that theres a few things to look at besides just putting the FSB up to 166Mhz.

One thing is, how is the tempature of the CPU? If its running hot (50C+ when using to full capacity) it might not be wise to overclock the system til you get better cooling. Next is how fast is the ram, ram plays a big part in overclocking, if it can't handle the desired speed which you are trying to get to, it will become unstable, and or lock up your PC. Also the voltage of the ram, and voltage of the cpu comes into play now too, where you might need to add more voltage to the CPU to get a better OC out of the system, along with more voltage to the ram to make it clock past it specifications.

That was just a quick overview, but theres stickies that can help a lot more, along also with reading others posts with similar systems. Good luck to you.
 
Ooooooook, So I last night I went to the MSI website trying to hunt down the instructions for my motherboard, now, I have no idea what my motherboard is apart from it being MSI, I bought it a few years ago, and don't remember what I did with instrustions (I know, stupid). So after my failed search for these instructions, I chose to just go with the old take out the CMOS battery and power cables etc, which I did, and left it out overnight. So I put it back in this morning and try it, but it's still not working!

Anyone wanna tell me what these jumpers looks like? I've read how to reset the CMOS with them, just have no idea what they look like o_O

Thanks again for helping this helpless n3wb3h
 
You don't have to reset the jumpers. You can just take out the mobo batter and plug it back in after a bit. When someone tells you to do both, it's the same thing as cleaning out a dirty glass twice when it was already clean the first time.
Of course you want to do all this when the power cord is unplugged. Also for future reference, most motherboards have their model on one of the IO socket thing-a-ma-jigs.
 
Herr Rogers said:
You don't have to reset the jumpers. You can just take out the mobo batter and plug it back in after a bit.


Hmmm yeah, I've tried this... Is it common for the screen to not start up after a failed overclocking?
 
Exillis said:
Hmmm yeah, I've tried this... Is it common for the screen to not start up after a failed overclocking?

Yes. Even when it did POST, you're not out of the woods yet. Because then you can get crashes instead.
Time to get Prime95 after you solve this problem. If it emitted drawling bleeps, then it's also likely that the motherboard don't even have a /5 divider!! Can't get 166 mhz FSB if you don't have at least /5 for the divider. If the motherboard supports 166 mhz for the FSB, then the RAM likely is the cause. If you have only PC2100 DDR SDRAM, that's probably the cause. Because you're lucky to even get 150 mhz with PC2100. Even when 166 mhz is supported and able to post with the FSB at 166 mhz, like above, still not out of the woods, because even if Windows completes a boot, it can crash anytime!!
 
I think this mightt of been casue also by the fact That I never saw him say he locked PIC/AGP Bus freq.
 
That board should have the model printed on it somewhere. It is typically underneath an agp or pci slot or next to the cpu itself. If you find that then you can find instructions on where the jumper is located and clear CMOS that way. One thing I will tell you though, is don't get discouraged. If I had a dollar for evertime I had to clear CMOS I'd have a nice x2 and x1800...
 
Ok, so I found the jumper, unplugged everything, changed the jumper from 1 & 2 to 2 & 3, left it for 20 seconds maybe, returned the jumper to 1 & 2, and plugged the comp back in.... but still nothing :( no "beep" so the screen won't start up :S time for a new CPU maybe?
 
hummmm if you're not getting a post after you cleared the bios then something is definatly wrong. The first thing I would do is reseat all of your components (ram, cpu...) and see if that fixes anything. If that doesn't do anything then try removing un-needed parts such as sound cards and what not. If you have 2 sticks of ram try removing one, or try different slots...
Stupid question, but everything is spinning up when you press the power button correct? It could be a totally freak incident, but maybe your powersupply bugged out at the same time?
 
custom90gt said:
hummmm if you're not getting a post after you cleared the bios then something is definatly wrong. The first thing I would do is reseat all of your components (ram, cpu...) and see if that fixes anything. If that doesn't do anything then try removing un-needed parts such as sound cards and what not. If you have 2 sticks of ram try removing one, or try different slots...
Stupid question, but everything is spinning up when you press the power button correct? It could be a totally freak incident, but maybe your powersupply bugged out at the same time?


All the fans etc. seem to be working fine, tried switching RAM around but still nothing :(

Well, this is what I've tried:
Resetting the CMOS by taking the battery out for a few hours
Changing the jumper over to reset CMOS
(both while power cables disconnected etc.)
Dismantled the computer to reset the CPU (Read somewhere that you have to take it out in order to reset it)

but still no change. What do people think is at fault here? The motherboard, CPU or something else?
 
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