e2140 problem

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Hey. I've just built a new rig comprising of an e2140, Foxconn mobo, x1900xt and 2Gb of ocz. I ran 3dmark06 and got a score of 5009 which i'm pleased with seens as my old comp had an amazing score of 339:D I'm chuffed with its peformance in half life 2 and some other games, and for a grand total of £230 I really pleased.

Heres a link to the mobo I'm using;
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...D=en-us0000171
And also a review;
http://www.pcstats.com/artvnl.cfm?articleID=2012

However I'm having some trouble overclocking the e2140. I planned to overclock it from the outset after reading the WHOLE of this thread, and seeing many peoples results. Basically as far as I'm aware all I need to do to increase the cpu clock is increase the cpu fsb from 200mhz to anything upwards, right?

Heres my problem then, I can increase the fsb mhz to say 205mhz, but then when I change it to 210mhz, the system crashes and starts beeping. The first time I changed the fsb was in foxconns overclocking(?) programe "foxone". When I rebooted it I went into the bios and the fsb was back to 200mhz, so I changed it to 210mhz, and it crashed again. But this time when it got to the bios after starting it back up it wouldn't go into the bios, or any further. It stayed like this until I had to reset the cmos on the mobo, and its fine now. Sailing along at stock speeds;)

My question is, am I doing anything wrong concerning overclocking the cpu. Is there anything I need to enable/disable or change in the bios etc? Basically, can anyone help me?

Thanks, Borgia:)
 
What memory are you using and what speed, you may need to lower the memory ratio say from 800mhz to 667mhz, check memory voltage as well.

Have a read of the overclocking sticky.

Rob
 
As above it is probably a memory problem. It maybe set to auto timings (i.e quite tight timings) and so any increase in speed may cause a problem. Check the memory voltage, it will probably be on auto or 1.8v - put this to 2.0v. Make sure you turn off any auto overclocking features as well.
 
Right. Well I done that and I could only get the fsb up to 230mhz. After that and the monitor would not come on when trying to reboot. I lowered the speed to 533mhz and I could get it up to 245mhz, and after that the same thing would happen.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Borgia :)
 
Memory overclocks nowhere near as well as your cpu, and having to reduce your memory speed isn't really reducing it, if you decrease the memory speed and up the fsb, your memory will be at the same speed as before.(I don't know the exact details) Make sure your memory is not set to auto and manually set to 2.0V though, so you know you're not undervolting it and limiting it's capability.
 
Hey - the problem with overclocking a board you've noever seen is that you've never seen the BIOS. I've just downloaded the manual, and the BIOS for this board is quite unusual, but if you're up for a bit of messing about, I'm sure we can work this out.

The first thing I would do is to load the BIOS defaults (F6).

Then I'd go into the Advanced BIOS features menu and;

Under CPU feature, just set everything to Disabled.

That should do it there - now back to FOX Central Control Unit (who makes these names up?)

Smart BIOS to disabled if it will allow it.

Leave the memory on AUTO until we figure out the CPU (although we might need to change the divider in there)

Fox Intelligent Stepping to Manual
Auto detect PCI clock to disabled
CPU Spread spectrum to disabled
PCIe Spread specturum to disabled
CPU clock - set it to 235 at the moment
CPU Vcore Over Voltage Setting - set it to 1.325V or .1.35V
DRAM Voltage Select - set it to match your RAM - it could be 1.8, 2.2V or whatever
MCH Voltage Select - whatever it defaults to, set it to the next one up
CPU Termination Voltage - leave this at the moment, but it would be good to know the possible options

Now go back to DRAM Configuration

DRAM Timing Selectable - leave it at [By SPD]
Memlock index value (Mhz) - set this to the lowest possible value (probably 400 or 533MHz) which is a multiplier of either 2.0 or 2.66 - if it's 2.66 then you may have problems getting a massive overclock as by 250FSB the RAM is at 667 and by 300 the ram is at 800, which is your RAM normal speed. With only having the 8x multiplier, you need big FSBs to get a good overclock, so pray there is a 400MHz option;)

The other factor that will limit your overclock is the apparent lack of a PCI/PCIe lock as I cannot see one anywhere in the manual. Without a PCIe lock, you will very rapidly run out of FSB headroom (this may well be why you're failing to boot at 245FSB and above).
 
Hey, thanks man, that was really helpful.

The lowest the memory will go is 533Mhz :( And I can't seem to find PCIe lock either.

I disabled everything you said, but still no joy really.

The bios reads this;

memory fsb 400mhz

cpu clock 50mhz

dram fsb 200mhz

Those are the numbers anyway, not sure if the wording is right.

But basically, if I change the memory to 533mhz, the dram fsb lowers to 133mhz. So with my understanding of things, when I raise the cpu fsb this in turn raises the dram fsb, and it becomes unstable when the dram gets overclocked too much? Have I got the jist of things? Lol.

Anyway, if I change the cpu fsb to 210, with the memory fsb already changed to 133mhz(533mhz?), and "save to cmos and exit", when I go back to the bios, the memory fsb has shot up to 200 and somthing, 213 or somthing along those lines. And what has happend is the dram timing has changed back to [By SPD].

How can I stop it from changing back to that, and just staying on manual?

I'm pretty sure thats one problem anyway, although it looks like from what you've said this mobo won't be very good to overclock on anyway :( But if I can manage to get the cpu fsb to 300mhz, and in turn get 2400mhz out of the cpu, that would be better than it staying at 1600mhz for sure.

Thanks, Borgia :)
 
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If a mobo isn't a very good clocker [there are plenty about] then expecting a 50% OC maybe a little optimistic.
 
I asked if anyone could help, that clearly didn't help me. Regardless if I'm being optimistic or not. If someone has got any idea how I can stop the ram settings changing back to auto instead of staying on manual I will love them forever ;)
 
Unselect [By SPD] and set the RAM timings, but the Memlock is just the starting point for the RAM, as soon as you touch the FSB for the CPU the RAM will also increase and if you've set the timings too tight, it could lock up, but if you set it for 800MHz (PC6400), that shouldn't happen.

The fact that you have numbers like DRAM FSB 200 and Memory FSB 400 then 133 and 533 would indicate to me that there is a dynamic divider working away the background somewhere.

What was the best stable overclock you've had so far? 245FSB? That might be all you get unfortunately. If you think about it - with the starting point for the CPU at 200 FSB then your PCIe bus (start point 100MHz) must be running at 145MHz which is a heck of an overclock for that component.

It does sound unfortunately like the board isn't going to be a great overclocker I'm afraid.
 
Unselect [By SPD] and set the RAM timings, but the Memlock is just the starting point for the RAM, as soon as you touch the FSB for the CPU the RAM will also increase and if you've set the timings too tight, it could lock up, but if you set it for 800MHz (PC6400), that shouldn't happen.

The fact that you have numbers like DRAM FSB 200 and Memory FSB 400 then 133 and 533 would indicate to me that there is a dynamic divider working away the background somewhere.

What was the best stable overclock you've had so far? 245FSB? That might be all you get unfortunately. If you think about it - with the starting point for the CPU at 200 FSB then your PCIe bus (start point 100MHz) must be running at 145MHz which is a heck of an overclock for that component.

It does sound unfortunately like the board isn't going to be a great overclocker I'm afraid.

Thanks mate. Where is the PCIe lock normally in the bios? Maybe its worded differentley or somthing? Stab in the dark I know :rolleyes:
 
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