DFI FSB Difficulties

Hey all! This is my first post here at OCF! Glad to join the community here.
I am quite a noob with overclocking, but have some good experience with computer hardware.

Sorry if there are threads covering this topic or if I have overlooked some obvious info.
Ok to my problem,

I have been trying to overclock my E4300 on my DFI Dark, but am having problems approaching 300Mhz FSB. It seems most 4300's can do over 300fsb with little to no vcore increase.

With my ram underclocked I can reach ~270Mhz with no vcore bump, but anywere after 270, the motherboard refuses to load windows without a bump to the vcore, and by the time i get around 300mhz, the cpu is at ~1.5 volts and is around 65 degrees.

I tried to lower the multiplier, but it seems to have no effect at all, refusing to load windows or crashing as soon as windows loads. With my ram underclocked, I am assuming they are not to blame.

I am still tweeking and trying different things but any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

thanks
nickolai

to the forums!

first thing is to make certain the problem is your motherboard rather than a weak processor. the best way to do that would be to try the processor in another motherboard or, alternatively, try another processor with your motherboard.
some processors just hit a wall at a certain fsb and there's nothing you can do to hurdle it.

Hey kovboi, thanks for the welcome!

I was wondering if my 4300 has a low wall, unfortunately I do not have another cpu or motherboard to test on as of yet. nor do i have any free money, i'm saving up for water cooling and a new case.

I'll see if i can find a friend with a compatible setup to try the ol' switcha-roo
thanks for the reply
nickolai

Hi Nickolai,

Have you tried increasing the NB voltage?

Greetings el maxi!

I was thinking about that, but am skeptical as my NB is hovering around 48-52 degrees at stock. I'll find a couple fans laying around and see if i can drop those temps long enough to give it a try. I am working towards a cpu/nb water loop, so hopefully i can get it soon.

thanks ill post back later tonite on the NBvoltage.
nickolai

Well I have managed to get to 300fsb with only a little bit of voltage bumping.
vcore at 3.44v
vtt at 1.28v
NB at 1.31v
SB at 1.6

I stopped at 300x9 because I have run into a cold boot issue. First boot, from either light reset from bios or PSU off, results in a hang at post or black-screen just before the xp logo. If I reset after, it boots fine, and has been OCCT and Orthos stable (only tested 30 mins each). My ram is still underclocked running at 799hmz. I upped the voltages each one step more but no change.
Could my motherboard be bad? This problem doesn't seem acceptable.
I have a watercooling setup on the way, and hopefully can get this solved before it arrives, so I can push this board even further.
I plan on installing some recent 3D games to test real world application and stability.
Could it possibly be my PSU?
thanks and looking for any comments or suggestions.

nickolai

Hi nickolai,

I'd set at least 1.4-1.5 on the NB (what voltage does it give on Auto?) and see where you can go FSB wise. Your PSU is fine for this system & overclocking. Also if you can post a cpu-z screen shot.

I will post back with the NB auto setting, I read somewhere (?) that these dfi baords had problems with silverstone zeus psus.
My watercooling just arrived so, i want to get it all up and running and then i'll noost the NB voltage.
Here is a screenshot, sorry about the quality, i only have paint right now.

http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocym7.gif
http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocym7.gif

EDIT
I reset my bios to optimized defaults and my NB reads at 1.26v at auto

I have my watercooling all setup and have hit much lower temps, this makes me happy.
But i am still troubled by this cold boot problem. I raised to NB voltage, but windows refuses to boot if it is 1.45 or more. 1.4 is the highest, and at this voltage i get the cold boot problems. Do you think this could be a motherboard problem? I have been quite pleased with DFI until this board, my lanparty ultra-d was great, think it may be time to switch?

I'm also using the DFI Dark infinity. I have no problems setting the FSB to 400mhz Don't even need to increase VTT and NB voltage Only for the CPU.
E6600 - 400x8 for 3.2ghz. 1.36v for CPU, NB 1.25v, SB 1.5v, vtt 1.21v

Try updating the BIOS. And don't try to update the BIOS using winflash it will kill your BIOS. Happened to me twice with this mobo. USe The DOS based flash.

http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocym7.gif
http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocym7.gif

Hey brown_dog,
I have my BIOS flashed with the current one - 2007/09/04

I have noticed that occt is giving me some wierd voltages
+12v @ 5.95v
3.3V @ 1.2v
While the bios is giving me normal values.

Also sometimes when I start up from a reset, the motherboard makes a bunch of beeps all together about 1/2 a second long instead of the normal one beep.
I can't find any information on this. Any idea's on this? I might buy a digital multimeter and check the rails myself....
I just want to track down what my problem is here.
I have gotten to 2.7ghz (300x9) and ddr2-1000, with my NB at 1.5, but i cant get any higher then this, my computer hangs at post.....
but a reset will get me into xp, and everything seems to check out:
occt 1hr stable
orthos small fft, blend and gromac stable
memtest (7 passes all test, 50 passes test 5)
Now finals are stressing me out even more....
Any ideas?