Athlon 64 Stability - Help =(

[Teger]

Hello - New to the forums here... I'm actually building a computer for a friend - set everything up last night - but I cannot get it stable for the life of me. I could reset the CMOS jumper in my sleep at this point.

Specs...

Moblie Athlon 64 3000
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
A gig of Corsair Value Select 3200 (512x2)
That and a 9800 pro, CD drive etc etc - on a Fortron 530w.


I must admit - I've never really done any OC'ing before. - I'm not even trying to OC at this point though -_-; My personal PC is a AXP2000 with an Asus motherboard that has everything locked =) So I can't say I've ever done much tweaking period. I can assemble it but I'm still learning everything regarding timings - which is why I'm asking for help =)

The 3000s have a maxed 9x multiplier - no? Every time I load it up on 9 x 200 - no boot. I've tried bumping the voltage up in the 1.7s with still no luck...

Again - I'm not trying to toss the burden on you guys - I just built the PC for the girlfriend's brother and I'm trying to get it stable - granted a small OC would be nice... (SLK948U w/ 92mm Tornado Rheo'd - it can handle it... I'm actually surprised at how cool this thing was running 2x 120s on the antec plus the tornado - CPU was at 32 idle with fairly low RPMs on the Tornado.)

If you guys could give me a hand - I'd very honestly appreciate it... Getting this thing to run at the stock 1.8 ghz would even be a step up. I've got a lot to learn - no doubt about that. I'm only going to be here for another day though and I'd at least like to get the thing running for the kid.

Thanks in advance for all of the assistance.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

When it doesn't boot, what do the LEDs on the D-bracket (the bracket with the 2 USB ports and 4 LEDs on the side) look like? Oh yeah, you don't have to hook it up to the actual usb ports, just hook up the LED part so you can read the LED combination.

 

[Teger]

Never hooked it up =0 Wasn't sure those LEDs were for much... Was just trying to get this done actually - I'll go toss it in really quick.

And on another note - I can get it running... It's below stock speeds though.. 1.6ghz - needed a little voltage bump as well. Odd =/

When I boot up - in the bios it registers under the multiplier "Startup." Any reason for it starting so low?

Thanks again for you reply.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

When the multiplier says "Startup" thats just the MB's term for "default". You haven't changed anything else in the BIOS have you? Like the HTT multiplier or memory settings? Here's a list of what the LED combinations mean:


4-Red = system hang, processor damaged or not installed properly

1-Green (top left) all others Red = Early Chipset Initialization

1-Green (top right) all others Red = Memory module damaged or not compatible

2-Green at top/2-red at bottom = BIOS image to RAM for quick boot

1-Green lower left = Initializing Keyboard Controller

2-Green left side = Testing VGA BIOS

Red upper left and lower right = CPU Initialization

1-Red lower right = Testing Real Time Clock

1-Green lower right = Initializing Video Interface

Green upper left and lower right = BIOS Sign-On

2-Red left side 2-Green right side = Testing Base and Extended Memory

1-Red lower left = Resource Assignment

2-Red top 2-Green bottom = Initializing Hard Drive Controller

1-Red upper right = Initializing Floppy Drive Controller

1-Red upper left = Boot Attempt

and all GREEN = Operating System Booting

 

[Teger]

Actually on that PC now - have the LEDs hooked up.

I asked the question about the startup - I saw a review on "startup" and it was at around 2000 ghz - a higher multiplier and a FSB of 200 or so.. Was curious if mine was defaulting to lower for a reason.

Have not changed anything else in the bios yet.

All green at the moment - but still underclocked... Ram settings are something horrid like, 2,3,3,8.

Still underclocked though at 1600... =(

How much should I have to bump the voltages up on everything? If at all..

It seems like if I touch the FSB more than 5 or so - no post.

 

[Teger]

On reboots I'm getting lockups @ Initializing Hard Drive Controller...


When I up the multiplier, I end up with a blinking cursor top left and the error is one red lower left - Resource Assignment.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

Hmm, try a flash to beta bios 1.25. I just realized you have a mobile chip and not a desktop chip. BRB I will go get the download link for the 1.25 bios. I'm not sure if it will fix your problem or not but it's worth a try.

EDIT: Here's the bios, http://www.denisbesic.dk/Bios125.zip
And here's a link to winflash (easier than making a boot disk and flashing from DOS) ftp://ftp.ecs.com.tw/bios/flash/winflash151.exe

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

What kind of hard drives and cd-roms are you using and what channels are they on? Supposebly some people have had better results with SATA drives on connectors 3 and 4 vs 1 and 2.

 

[Aphex_Tom_9]

id try RMAing the chip or the motherboard. it runs underclocked with higher voltage, that cant be right

 

[Teger]

Well - Bios was reporting a higher voltage - I pulled out motherboard monitor as well as ClockGen - and they both reported right around only 1 volts! Not sure what is up with the sensors... Going to reboot and see what it posts as now.



EDIT - Confirmed. Voltage was hanging around 1 volt - Motherboard is misreporting it. Upped it with clockgen. Is there any way to externally change the FSB while I'm at it? Seems that if I go into the Bios - it'll save back to the old settings...

 

[Bar81]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1321894

 

[Busty St. Clair]

um the default speed for a 3000+ mobile is 1.8ghz