Noob at overclocking. Any help would be much appreciated

[Chefsp0t]

Hi guys. I have been using the system in my sig for quite some time now but I have never tried OCing it until today. I have tried to familiarize myself with OC techniques and information but I am running into post issues (It won't post at all and I have to reset CMOS) when I try to even mildly OC my PC through BIOS.

I just want to squeeze more power from it. I'd like to get my 2.2ghz 4400+ running at 2.4 or 2.5ghz.

I tried using the BIOS settings at 3% OC without any luck and also tried manually changing the CPU frequency to 219mhz but the system still wouldn't post.

My RAM settings are 2-3-2-6 2T at 200mhz. I am not sure if they are causing the problem or not but this ram should be able to be OC'd.

Any help would be much appreciated. I am not sure if my mobo just sucks that bad at overclocking or if I am doing something wrong.

 

[5000+BEOC'er]

Hey,

I am pretty noob at overclocking myself, but I would think the DDR ram is gonna hold you back on overclocking my means of adjusting the fsb. Have you tried overclocking the fsb not so high? maybe halfway between stock and the 219 you said crashes it. Also, you might have to adjust the voltages of the ram, maybe look your ram up and see how high it will go and just set it there and retry the 219mhz.

What cpu cooler are you using btw?

 

[Chefsp0t]

Thanks for the reply. I stopped messing with it because I had to keep clearing the CMOS every time it wouldn't post. That got annoying quickly.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146425 <---My RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106068 <---My CPU cooler. Idle temps are in the 30's and peak temp is 60 or 61. I need to clean my case out.

The strange part is I can select an AI overclock feature in BIOS that should OC everything correctly and it still crashes as soon as windows boots or I get a corrupted boot file message that goes away when I restore factory settings again. 3 percent is a very mild overclock so it really shouldn't cause that many problems.

Edit: If I auto overclock by 3 percent through Bios I get this message. Missing or corrupt file windows\system\config\system

I can't change my ram settings to be anything higher than 200mhz in bios. That might be causing some problems. I guess this mobo is just not good for overclocking.

 

[QuietIce]

to OCF!


There are several questions begging answers.

Do you have the PCIe and PCI clock sync to CPU [Disabled]?

Have you set the vCore (CPU voltage) manually? (1.40v is usually a good place to start)

Have you set the RAM timings and voltage to it's rated values manually? For the time being you will also need to reduce the RAM speed setting to 166 MHz.

Have you set the HT Link speed to 4X?


When you increase the HTRef (clock speed, FSB) in addition to increasing your CPU speed you also increase your RAM and HT Link speeds, so the "multipliers" for those components must be reduced to avoid overclocking them (for now). You should be concentrating solely on your CPU speed at this point. When you get a stable OC for the CPU then you can go back and experiment with the RAM and HT Link ...

 

[Chefsp0t]

Most of that makes sense to me. Like I said, I am very new to this.

The clock sync is not disabled.

I have not set the vcore manually

I have the ram set manually but still set to 200mhz

What is the HT link speed? I don't think I have changed that.

Thanks for the help. I will give what you said a shot tonight after work.

 

[QuietIce]

Sorry - your board uses the "LDT" label instead of HT Link. It may also use 400, 600, 800, and 1000 as labels instead of a multiplier. These speeds come from the base 200 MHz clock where 3X=600, 4X=800, etc.


I think I've got the PCIe & PCI sync thing right. Some boards use what I think is a back-handed approach to that labeling. If I'm right, with those settings at [Enable] the PCIe and PCI speeds are increasing with the CPU speed, which is the last thing you want. PCI in particular is very sensitive to increases in speed and could corrupt HDD data if pushed too far. But don't worry about what's already happened - PCI is usually OK up to 36-37 MHz and you've just now (@ 220) made the 36 mark so your data should be fine. It could very easily be responsible for your error message though ...

 

[Chefsp0t]

You had the pci and pciex thing right. Here's the settings that I think you need to know.

DRAM settings range = 100, 133, 166, 200mhz
LDT bus frequency can be set at auto, 1ghz, 800mhx, 600mhz, 400mhz, or 200mhz
pciex clock sync can be turned off
pciex clock can be set to 100 or 200 mhz
pci clock sync can be turned off
pci clock can be set to 33, 37.5, or 40mhz
CPU clock can be set anywhere between 200 and 400mhz
CPU mult can be set auto or between x4 and x11 in half increments too
HammerVid control can be set to startup or between 1.4 and 1.1v in a bunch of increments between the two.
Memory voltage adjustment can be set between 2.6 and 3v.
CPU Vcore offset can be set to +100mv or +200mv

 

[QuietIce]

DRAM settings range = 100, 133, 166, 200mhz
LDT bus frequency can be set at auto, 1ghz, 800mhx, 600mhz, 400mhz, or 200mhz
pciex clock sync can be turned off
pciex clock can be set to 100 or 200 mhz
pci clock sync can be turned off
pci clock can be set to 33, 37.5, or 40mhz

CPU Vcore offset can be set to +100mv or +200mv



You can check the CPU-Z SPD tab for stock memory timings and voltage. Be sure to use the values listed under 200 MHz even though you're lowering your setting to 166.

See how far those settings will take you. You'll also need to keep track of the core temp under load. Use Prime95 or OCCT to load the CPU and CoreTemp to read the temp from the processor ...
Prime95
OCCT
CoreTemp

 

[tsranch]

ASUS A8V Thoughts

Somewhere along the line you've tweaked things beyound AI and AI will try and incorporate those settings. Try setting you bios to default settings, reboot again and then identify your drives (hdd and optical) disabling anything that doesn't exist for a quicker boot. If you hdd and optical are both primary, disable the secondary controller. Otherwise disable the slave drives on both the Master and Secondary controllers. Reboot again and boot should come up faster. Go over to your AI setting and start with the 3% and it should boot right up. I've a similiar board and 10% overall produces some killer results. I'm still messing with the more agressive settings, I'll never quit.