[KennyQ3A]

Hi guys,

Well I tried OCing my CPU and RAM for the first time after reading through all the articles, and I am left with a few questions.

I am running a Socket A AMD Athlon XP 2800+ with 512 PC2700DDR. Is there a manufacturer limit to the max GHz a processor can run? I had this question because the stock speed is at 2075MHz, and after I brought it up to 2337.5MHz, the computer would POST BIOS, but would not boot Windows and kept restarting.

The Athlon runs 166 FSB x 12.5 Multiplier and this started happening to me at 187FSB x 12.5 with either 2.6, 2.7 or 2.8 DDR Voltage. It seemed pretty stable at 186FSB x 12.5 w/ 2.7V.

After I raised it to 187 FSB, and the Windows kept rebooting, it would under CHDISK (sp?) and it would have many corruptions and it wouldn't complete it with an error output. I reloaded stock speeds for the CPU and DDR and CHDISK went through and deleted all the corruptions, did mirrors, etc.
Now, when I boot windows with stock settings, it has to recover old registry settings (an error pops up I dont know what it says word for word).

SO basically my question is if anyone has had this problem before and if there is a limit to my athlon 2800+ OC, and if the results I am getting with 186FSB x 12.5 stable is good?

Thanks alot.

[rseven]

to the Forum!
There is no manufaturer set limit, but every chip does have different overclocking limits. It sounds like you may have corrupted your windows installation. This is one of the dangers of overclocking. Set your system back to stock, reboot and hit F8 after the first beep.(that's when your system posts) You will come to a screen where you can choose how to boot your system. Select "Last known working configuration" by using your arrow keys and hit enter. If it boots and runs without the error message consider yourself lucky. If not you made need to reformat your disk and reinstall windows.
You are not just overclocking your CPU you are overclocking your ram, since it's pc2700 it's stock speed is 166MHz. At some point it can't go any higher and it starts to generate errors. Download a copy of memtest86.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownloa...oad-10259.html
Follow the instructions to make a boot disk and boot to that and test your settings before booting to windows. If you get any errors you need to back down on the OC. Also, heat is a big issue with your cpu. You need to see what kinds of temps you are getting to be sure you are not doing any damage to it. You can get Motherboard Monitor, SpeedFan or whatever application that came with your mobo to monitor your temps. Your cpu will go higher with more voltage, but do not do that unless you have adequate cooling. Good luck.

[KennyQ3A]

Thanks for the fast reply.

I am in windows now with last good configuration (luckily)
I have been using memtest86+ and there have been no errors, that is why i found it weird that it would screw up windows like that.
I have a mobo and cpu temp monitor, cpu idle with OC is ast 42*C with a Thermaltake SilentBoost fan and arctic cool compound, and Mobo temp at 30*C.

I am going to try the raise the vcore and see what happens.

Ill be back, hopefully...

[rseven]

I'm happy to hear that worked. I am sorry if I went on about stuff you already knew about, I had know way of knowing you were further along in OC'ing. Sometimes no errors in Memtest does not mean it will work in windows. I run test5 in a loop for about 30 minutes to give it a little extra stress. I also use Mem Test Deluxe for Windows, which is a $12 program I bought, which I feel is a better tester than memtest86. I still think your ram will give out before your CPU. Good luck.

[KennyQ3A]

Well unfortunately, with all the errors ive been getting, CHDISK went through and supposedly 'fixed' everything but i cannot boot windows. Luckily I am running linux on my second partition now.

So basically if my computer starts giving me chdisk and registry errors, ive reached my ram oc limit?

[rseven]

Well, at that point you've exceeded that limit, but only for those settings. If you loosen your ram timings or add some voltage you may be able to make it stable.

[KennyQ3A]

by loosening the ram timings, do u mean make the cas latency and all that higher or lower, or do i just play around with it?

[rseven]

Making them higher is loosening, lower is tightening.

[RJARRRPCGP]

If the Vcore is way too low, Windows may refuse to complete the boot process and display the error message saying that a file is missing or corrupted, even when Windows isn't corrupted! Increasing the Vcore often solves the problem. Sometimes, Windows just says that. It just means that it's insanely unstable!