Stuburn Athlon XP 2500+

I bought an Athlon XP 2500+ in hopes of overclocking it to 3200+. Whenever I try to set it as 3200+ in the BIOS, it dosn't work. It either freezes after the BIOS saves the settings, or it restarts but starts beeping and giving me an error saying somthing about drive A (I dont even have a floppy drive). I would like to oc, but I have tried many settings and they just dont seem to work. How can I resolve this?

My System:
Abit NF7-S Version 2 (Nforce)
Athlon XP 2500+
512 MB Corsair XMS PC3200(running in dual channel)
Western Digital 80 GB w/ 8MB cache
Windows 2000 Professional

Cooling:
Thermalright Heatsink w/ Smart Case Fan II mounted on it
Intake and exhaust fan

CPU runs 43 - 45 under load

What kind of Power S. do you have, and what size is it ? If you want to make it easyer list you System Spec's in your sig

welcome To The Forums

Also, we need to know the week in which your CPU was made as recent Athlons come multiplier locked - that could also explain why your 2500 is stuburn!

Looking at this photo, the steppings are the numbers/leters in the black label at the bottom of the chip:
http://www.directron.com/xp2700retail.html

I am running everything on a Antec 350 W power supply (the one that came with my Antec case). As for the CPU date, I dont know when I was manufactured. I bought it from Newegg about 3 weeks ago. I can set the multiplier from 5 all the way to 22 (it is set at 11 stock).

id set it to 11x166 then work up from there 1 point at a time. watching the temps and see how stable it runs. and see how far you can get it

Did you up the Vcore?
I have yet to see a 2500+ run stable 3200+ at 1.65V

My friend has the exact setup as me and he effortlessly overclocked his 2500+ to 3200+ by just selecting "3200+" in the BIOS.

How do I know if my CPU is "locked"?

We have come to the conclusion (though we are not sure)that I got a "locked" CPU .
Is there anything I can do as far as overclocking with my CPU?

I have read about people "unlocking" their CPUs...

if its locked there is no un loacking it all you can do is raise the FSB and see where you can get to Sorry

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

No Problem, If you got anymore ?'s feel free to ask. there's alot of great people here that will be glad to help. Take Care

this is dangerous, you should research it, but almost all of us do it. try increasing the vcore, very small increments. i repeat, research this before you try, i am not responsible for you frying your chip! my 2500+ requires 2v core to hit over 2.2g, but it has been running on 2v vcore for almost a year i think.

badge56 said:

Did you up the Vcore?
I have yet to see a 2500+ run stable 3200+ at 1.65V

Click to expand...

mine does at 1.6 ...

ogboot said:

this is dangerous, you should research it, but almost all of us do it. try increasing the vcore, very small increments. i repeat, research this before you try, i am not responsible for you frying your chip! my 2500+ requires 2v core to hit over 2.2g, but it has been running on 2v vcore for almost a year i think.

Click to expand...

eh... computers aren't ticking bombs y'know... (j/k)

My 2500 hits above 3200 at default voltage (1.58something)... I set it at 1.6 just to be safe under extremely high loads, but it doesn't need any more than that...

the newer ones may need that extra push, but my suggestion is to just start over with your defaults, leave the vcore alone at first, set the RAM voltage as desired (IMHO, feel free to go as high as 3 volts, but hold off if you have the option to go higher... those are murky waters sometimes), and simply bump up your FSB a little at at time...

To be concise, BTW, if you bought your Barton as recently as 3 weeks ago, from Newegg moreover (they sell a lot of CPUs, especially the popular Barton2500), the odds of your not getting a locked barton are slim at best... I'd assume it's locked and just tinker with the FSB at first, especially if you are new to overclocking...

I tell my OC-newbie friends to knock up the FSB from their RAM's rated speed 5MHz at a time, until they can't boot into windows, then to back off the FSB until they acheive their individually desired stabilities... if you can set the multiplier, set it low to begin with, see how fast (how high of an FSB) your RAM/mobo can take, then knock up the multiplier if possible... But from the sounds of it, i wonder do you have any control over the multiplier in your BIOS to begin with?


finding a balance between CPU speed and raw FSB is where you'd head from there....

erm, this is probably an overdone response eh? sorry

i thought you could unlock the new bartons?


can anyone tell me if mine is locked? got it yesterday numebrs on it are


AXDA2500dkv4d y909904l30016
pqzfa0351spmw


is mine from 2003 , 51st week?

Another cursed chip. The PQZFA are terrible. I had one sold it fast and bought the chip in my sig. A lot of ppl who have them report terrible overclocks on them. To anyone out there planning to buy a 2500 avoid this stepping like the plague. This stepping needs 2volts to get over 2.2 and runs hotter than any stepping I've seen.

Yes, its a week 51 2003
According to the last poster its a bad stepping and its locked for sure.

Too bad! The rest of his setup looks great, but the chip sucks!

Try setting the vcore to 1.75 and see if its enough to hit 2.2ghz...
I don't know if I can do 2.2ghz prime stable on 1.65 but I can do it on 1.675 for sure!