stupid question?

Big.Wayne said:
[edit] the more you write nicnac1 the less I have to write, more details please!
Click to expand...

Roger.

first time i used this tool, have only ever once flashed a bios before and that was with a mate on his computer about 2 years ago!!

was following the instructions i linked above. set the bios to run the usb stick first and typed "runme.bat"

all seemed to work fine, got all the confirmation messages, enter, enter, enter, etc and it said it was wiping the old bios and replacing it with the new one. then 5 system beeps and a blank screen. :confused:
 
yup definitely the right bios :)

would have to buy a floppy drive (although i know they're not exactly dear)

dreaded question... do we risk trying it again but this selecting "load optimised defaults" or "fail safe defaults" before flashing??
 
against my better judgement i tried it again and it worked!!!

Winner!

version 17 installed although strangely CPU-Z is now displaying Version 6 but with the date of version 17 (the bios itself says 17 - which i'm more inclined to believe)
not sure why it didn't work properly the first time...

*massive sigh of relief*
 
evening

Right, had a flick through the new bios and i can honestly say that i can see no difference except it is displaying version 17! lol

1066 still isn't available so i tried running prime95 with the memory at DDR2-1100 and it crashed so i'm guessing it's not up for that at the moment!

got the memory back to 1004MHz and ran prime95/couple of games at the settings above and got the following results

vcore idle - 1.300
vcore load - 1.270
temp idle - 42C
temp load - 60C (tuniq tower fan at 50%)
memory - 1004MHz

so far so good
 
bluescreened in windows
restarted and it got as far as the windows loading screen
pulled out the plug, rebooted, same thing, windows loading screen, bluescreen but didn't switch off. pulled out the plug tried again... same deal
 
Plec said:
/While we’re having a short interlude...

This is fast becoming a definitive guide.

Nicnac1, you struck overclocking gold – regardless of the outcome...



Big.Wayne, once this thread has completed its course you should compile your entries and edit them, accordingly, into the above format as you will have, essentially, written the very ‘comprehensive guide’ that you feel is lacking from these boards.

You will have done all the grunt work by the time the thread has run its course and it will only need minor amendments/appendages for other setups.
I’ve never read a more comprehensive walk through. Your articulate attention to detail is a real asset in this kind of instruction/guide and, as such, should be compiled and edited for a sticky. (Obviously, reposted as a dedicated thread of its own.)

You may disagree, but before you do, i would re-read what you have written to date and what you anticipate writing in your next few replies. Even you, modesty permitting, will realise that this would be a missed opportunity if this thread’s contents were to disappear?!

It would still require quite a bit of work to get it flowing into one continuous guide but it’s worth it – what do you reckon?

Here endeth the sermon... ;)
Click to expand...

+1

If i had found anything even nearly this good when i started out, then my life would have been a lot easier!
 
Big.Wayne said:
While you working away I'll let you know whats next!

first go into BIOS and change the memory divider so its running 1:1 sync (i.e the same speed as the FSB so if 333MHz-FSB then select DDR2-666) then save & exit then back into BIOS and select the same 355MHz-FSB as you did before and let me know if the PC blue screens again. The difference this time around is we are reducing the strain on the Northbridge by slowing the memory down [1:1/710MHz] instead of [3:2/1066MHz]

On the outside chance that works fine (3.2GHz CPU/1420MHz System Bus/DDR2 710) then reboot back into BIOS and drop the Multiplier down from [x9] to [x6] save & exit and cross your fingers as you will now be running your NBCC at 533MHz. good luck! :cool:
Click to expand...

Sadly didn't boot at 355MHz @ 1:1

got to the windows logo and blue screened

got all my files backed up on an external HD and still got the vista installation disc... i'd be able to rebuild on that wouldn't i?

the voltages are still on auto, is that ok?
 
Big.Wayne said:
Ok that's as expected, so to recap

3.0GHz CPU, 333MHz-FSB (1333MHz System Bus) and 500MHz/DDR2-1000 is good

3.0GHz CPU, 333MHz-FSB (1333MHz System Bus) and 333MHz/DDR2-666 is good

3.2GHz CPU, 355MHz-FSB (1420MHz System Bus) and 533MHz/DDR1066 boots sometimes and eventually Blue screens in Windows, also sometimes doesn't go past POST

3.2GHz CPU, 355MHz-FSB (1420MHz System Bus) and 333MHz/DDR2-666 just doesn't POST?

Is that correct so far?
Click to expand...

Yup, absolutely right... will check the MCH now
 
Big.Wayne said:
Ok cool, so reboot into BIOS and manually dial-in 1.35v for MCH (aka Memory Controller Hub, also know as Northbridge , vNB etc) save & exit and enter BIOS again to check Health Page and see if the MCH voltage is raised as you expected, if so then work your way up from 333MHz-FSB straight to 340MHz-FSB and then just keep raising the FSB 5MHz at a time trying to get to 355Mhz (or beyond). If that doesn't work boost the vNB up to 1.4v and try again, you can go up to 1.55vNB* for this testing process, keep an eye on the NB temps which should be ok but may rocket under load!

If the 355MHz attempt isn't happening with memory at [1:1] sync then change it again to [3:2] and try to work your way up from 333MHz to 355MHz remembering to start from about 1.35v on the Northbridge, see if this gives us a bit more ground! :p

Your board has offficial support for 333MHz-FSB (1333MHz System Bus) so anything above that is not guaranteed, having said that when you started this thread you were already running 368MHz-FSB (1472MHz System Bus) so that kinda points out there is some headroom, maybe 355MHz is a bad number and we may need to try a bit higher or lower than this.

If you select higher than a 355MHz FSB at the moment then don't forget to keep the memory under DDR2-1066 speeds as otherwise you will be overclocking it which hasnt been tested yet!

* Work your way up the vNB (1.35v, 1.40v etc), don' just whack it straight up to max!
Click to expand...

Morning Big Wayne,
After a few hours testing last night i've not got much good news to report. :(
I tried all the methods above but it always bluescreened during prime95.
Vcore is still only 1.3 though, should that be upped? Also ddr2 voltage was 1.8
upped the MCH to 1.44 but only got as far as 345MHz FSB without it being unstable...
how come i was getting it stable at 368MHz before? what are we doing differently?
is it worth getting it back to the stable 3.31Ghz OC and working up from there? I'll leave it to your expertise though :)
 
glad to hear what we're encountering is normal...

i really like the way you give background info before we try something (telling me why we're trying something) It's really helping me learn. do you do this for a living?

I'll get on to this tonight when i get back from work.

what sort of result am i looking for in this step? the highest FSB and fastest DDR2 speed combined? do i do that then start lowering the multiplier?

Just out of interest, are the blue screens and crashes damaging at all to the system in the long term?
 
sadly i've not had a lot of time to do much testing tonight (only just got in from work)!!
although... out of curiosity i set back to my original settings at 3.31MHz, booted, fine, went back into the bios and upped the FSB by 10. Booted, prime95 all ok except core 2 which had an error (sum was 5.394866373950674e+016 , expected 5.391359305433142e+016 if that means anything to you)...
am now running at 3.4GHz DDR2-925 and it seems to be working ok apart from prime95. still no blue screen though. :)
shall i go back to 333MHz and work up from there as suggested or use this as a base and play around with these settings?
 
dropped the muitiplier to x8 and it's now stressing fine @378MHz
Vcore idle - 1.45
Vcore load - 1.39
Temp Idle - 43C
Temp load - 66C
been using the blend test each time
does this confirm it was a CPU error? is it fixable?
should i try going up or down with the memory ratios?
 
i've put the multi back to 9 and upped the Vcore a couple of notches to 1.4575 however CPU-z is reading 1.440 at idle and 1.390 at load
Prime blend displays same error for core 2 after 30 seconds (it's always core 2)
i don't understand why upping the vcore in the bios is not reflected in cpu-z
 
for my original OC the vCore was running at 1.4250... with the NB at 1.37
i upped the core a few notches and it made no difference to the uguru utility... the voltage stayed around 1.41... didn't increase even after saving, booting and checking again. Is it being bottlenecked somewhere? how far can i push it?

At work again so unable to take a picture atm but i can give you a run down of my spec

Icute jet turbine case
Abit IP35 pro
Q6600
Tuniq tower (w/ arctic silver thermal paste
4GB Kingston Hyper-X 8500 Ram
OCZ StealthXtreme Silent PSU 600W
Hitachi 320GB HD
Zotac 260-216 Maxcore
Asus Xonar Essence STX
Philips DVD-RW drive
Samsung 22" Monitor
Vista 32bit

Will get a picture this evening :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom