Newb with A7V8X needs help

Hey all.. First post, so be gentle

I have my system listed below.. I just assembled it last week. The first one I've put together from scratch.. I've had the techie bug lately and decided to tinker with overclocking.. So I've spent the last few days pouring over forums and guides to get ready to start playing..

My problem is, if I change anything past the 12.5 CPU mult, or the 133 FSB.. when I save and exit the comp just goes blank... I have to reset or clear the CMOS.. then it boots up fine and dandy..

I believe one of my attempts was with a mult of 9 and an FSB of 145, which after reading some guides was said to be a safe initial setting.. Am I missing something else?

Thanks,
Benolan

welcome to the forums......what vcore voltage are you using. Usually to to bump up the overclock your going to need to step up the voltage. See below signature....please list what vcore voltage, memory voltage, and your cpu temps. Those are the important ones to monitor for overclocking. I think dont remember but think my default voltage was set way to low on the Vcore to do anything. You got just about the best board the one im using and if your temps allow you too you have the option of even overvolting the vcore to 2.0v which will only be a matter of a battle with the heat. Might also add also if you havent already been familiar with it....there are lots of bios revisions out for the board now.....start reading on how to flash the bios as my stability has increased as they have released the newer verisons. This board rocks.

The vCore is 1.750.. I have the vDimm and vAGP set to auto.. I'm not sure what I need to check and see what auto sets it to.. I did set the jumper for overvolt already...

I got an Alpha PAL 8045 heatsink with a 5500 rpm fan on it.. with the 5 case fans going the cpu temp tends to be around 41C...

I had forgotten about flashing the bios.. I just have to get a floppy for it now.

Benolan

ok and if you overvolted the the chip and are running at 1.75 your running over 1.9 volts correct? Whats the temps, Loaded or Idle as getting above 40 I get instability....45 forget it, as now im starting to wonder about them. As far as the auto for the vdimm bring it up from the second from the lowest forgot will have to reboot again to take alook at it. I would suggest rt now you put the overvolt jumper back to default and slowly bring the vcore up....dont jump it as any more than nec. for stability only increases heat and brings instability. Same goes with the Vdimm. Im running from second from the highest will all three slots full of samsung 333ddr. If I choose the lowest Vdimm voltage or the auto I cant clock worth diddly. Establish a baseline first from default. Leave your multipler alone and slowly bring up the fsb one at a time. after each succesful windows load I reboot bringing it back up until I have a no go. Than I bring the voltage up to see if can get a suc. desktop and driver load. Once I accomplish that I start to work backwards with benchmarking. Just remember slowwwwww as your also burning in your chip rt now.....as time goes on youll be able to push it faster. Man there are alot of things to put in here for someone new......but ya start with the defaults and just remember one change at a time and slow.

ya your running the same voltage as I am actually rt now at 1.972.

just curious hee hee going to use you as a test bed lmao.......use the 100 fsb setting and choose a 8 multiplier I would like to see if this board does full unlock without bridge modifications on non T-Bred 2200 chips.

You're right on the volage.. it hovers between 1.98 and 2 in the Asus Probe (BAD name for an Asus product) I seem to be ok with a cpu temp of 45... It was around that before I bought the 2 case fans for the front.. I took it to a lan party and never had an issue..

I'll make those changes and get it to give it a shot. Thankfully my wife has a laptop I can use to post whether the comp is up or not

Thanks,
Benolan

ok just so its clear with it not overvolted......if you can run 1.8 volts and start overclocking your going to notice a temp drop and that is going to bring you more stability...... with your voltage rt now I was hitting 1.960 with my XP1900 but had to have under 38c to do it. When the threshold happens than bring up the voltage one tick to gain it back at a time. from the stock voltages and clock speed ya start with ...Good luck...

I undid the overvolt and set the vdimm to 333 automatically, which all worked.. If I set the fsb to 100 and the mult to 8 I get a failure due to overclocking error.. that's with a vCore of 1.750 and 1.8

Benolan

looks like the mulitplier is still locked on non tbred chips....you have to modify the bridge for it to unlock the lower multipliers.

Dang.. and I was so hoping not to have to... Something about adding things like wood filler... crayon.. superglue.. to a cpu just seems wrong...

at what level do they start to be thoroughbreds? I ask because I have to build a comp for my father, and I could give him this one and get myself a t-bred that I won't have to void my warranty on

i dind't read anyones else posts so maybe someone has already said this but....

you cant change your multiplyer unless you unlock the chip which requires a proffesional.... for now play with ur fsb and up ur vcore when it becomes unstable/unbootable find your limit and be happy... when your ready to unlock tomshardware has a nice video guide... good luck and welcome to the boards

unless you have a xp2200 which is the T-bred you have to unlock the 5th bridge T-Breds on the chip. On your chip you have to connect all the L1s see the amd cpu forum for details on that. So basically you can do a bridge modification by connecting all the L1s on the xp 2000 or get a XP 2200 and above ....to have a complete processor unlocked with the board you have. He is correct though if you never have done one you want to read and read and look at every picture you can before attempting the surgery. I have never had one go bad with my 3 XP1900s one XP2100 and I only have to unlock this chip to run on a MSI board.....but the asus board unlocks the bridges by way of the socket goooooooooooooooooo asus

Welp, here's where I am at... I have the FSB at 145 and the vcore at 1.75 still and it seems to run solid... That runs at 1.81ghz, cpu 41c idle and 45c on load... Ran benchmarks and played UT2003 fine..

I took it to 149 and it won't even load windows.. and with the vcore at 1.8 it's still unstable.. I may get some play below 149 with a vcore of 1.8 still..

I've looked at many pics of unlocking amds.. I'm sure I could do it, but getting a t-bred and handing off the palamino to my dad is looking better and better >

Thank you very much for the help.. Time to catch some sleep.

Benolan

I've been tinkering more today without much luck... I've tried to take the FSB higher than 145 by increasing the vcore to 1.80 and vdimm to 2.75 but it's never stable..

I took it to 150 seeing that the mhx mult goes back to 30, wondering if 37 was too high for the PCI, etc.. that didn't work either.

One thing I noticed is once I take it to 150 the mhz mult drops to 30 and my memory mhz hits 300... The bios gives me a warning that the memory has to be at least 333 mhz.. so I tried to take it to 166 to see what would happen and it won't even try at that point. The screen goes blank at that point...

At this point I'm seriously considering getting the 2200+ so I don't have to play with the cpu.. then I'll be able to try some more things.

Benolan

ok so your rated clock is at what speed....and what temp cause if your set at the stock multiplier with 145......than Id say ive seen worse in an overclock especialy for the stock multiplier settings your using. Temps Temps Temps lower them and youll gain stability. You had mentioned that with the overvolt jumper now at default your still above 40-45 temps.......I can imagine as with the overvolt setting you had before you must of went past 50c where I have never ran stable myself other than the stock speed. When I was new to overclocking I couldnt imagine a few degrees lower temp would mean that much of a difference. Its all the difference up to the threshold of the core your using. Remember the speed your running at if your able to achieve 1800 stable is what the default speed of a XP2200 is at. Slow and as that chip burns in your going to get more stable. For you to get the 166 your going to have to unlock that chip and bring the multi down. At defaul with 166 youd be 2.075 gigahertz! Than Id be jealous too. lol

Well, it runs at 1.81 Ghz and I never had to up any voltages... it loads at 45c still.. I sort of expected to get to a point where I would up voltages to keep it stable but I never got to that point... Then I realized I still dunno what I'm doing.

Time to go get that floor fan and aim it into an open side and see how I can lower those temps.

Benolan

Benolan: I am kind of confused here is your sig right are you using an xp2200+ and what is this talk about buying an xp2200+ to get an unlocked. I have read about unlocked 2200+'s on the a7v8x but I would not belive that untill I talked to someone that has one. Go 4 unlocking the 5th bridge.

i got kinda same problem just got this board and athlon xp 2000 but when i boot in post it shows that i have 1.2ghz cpu. i tryed to change every setting and it shows the same thing or it wont boot at all at which point i clear cmos. do i have to do anything to physical cpu to actualy achive its suppose speed?