A64 3500+ Overclocking Question

[novacthall]

The first time I ever overclocked anything was this afternoon, about two hours ago when I started to try overclocking my computer, so please bear with me.

I have an Athlon64 3500+ socket 939 (stock speed: 2244 MHz or 11.0x204) on an Abit AV8 motherboard. I printed out the overclocking guide found stickied in this forum and followed it from the beginning. I found my maximum FSB to be 294 with a lock at 295. 95% of my that gives me a true maximum stable FSB of 279. After that, I set the multiplier to maximum (which also happens to be 11.0) and started running the Prime95 tests in 5 MHz increments to my FSB.

200 passed.
205 passed.
210 passed.
215 failed.

As per the guide, I took 95% of 215 and got... 204.

That lands me back at stock settings. Did I do something wrong or is the 3500+ in this socket just an awful overclocker?

 

[secretanchitman]

did you lower your HTT link (4x or 3x)? hows your cpu voltage? what kind of memory do you have and what timings are they running at?

 

[Captante]

I had a 3200+ Winchester that wouldn't even hit 2.1ghz so there A64's that don't overclock well at all, however I would expect that you should at least be able to hit 2.4ghz running any Venice core 3500+ & likely higher so I suspect the limiting factor is somthing other then the cpu.

 

[Bill Kunert]

My A64 3500+ is running at 245 X 10 @ 1.48 volts. My HT freq multiplier is 4 and my dram clock is 333MHz. After you have established you max FSB you need to find your max multiplier at that FSB. Lower your multiplier to around 8 and start increasing it till you lose stability. As your frequency gets higher you will probably need to raise the voltage on your chip. If you are at 280 FSB you will need to lower your HT multiplier to 3 to stay under 1000 and your dram clock to 266 MHz to stay under 200MHz on your memory. After you establish your max FSB X multiplier you can play with other settings.

 

[novacthall]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
did you lower your HTT link (4x or 3x)? hows your cpu voltage? what kind of memory do you have and what timings are they running at?

I searched and searched and searched for my HTT link in the BIOS, but couldn't find anything. Later, I realized that it's hidden in the LDT/PCI Bus Control settings. I do not know why it's called LDT here, or even what it stands for to be honest, but I notice that there is a setting for "LDT Bus Frequency" and my options range from FSBx1 up to FSBx5. Knowing now what I do, kicking this down to four probably would have been prudent.



I didn't touch CPU voltage since the newbie guide makes it fairly clear that an inexperienced overclocker (that's me!) could really ah heck things up if I made a mistake.

The RAM I have is Corsair XMS 184-pin DDR 400 (PC 3200). It's 2x1GB with 2-3-3-6 timings. I do not know what it was configured at within the BIOS, but did not play with these during my overclocking endeavors.

Having uncovered the HTT setting, I see now what I was doing wrong. Unfortunately, my newfound understanding has rewarded me with a new problem of entirely different stock. During one of the bootups, I was greeted with a beloved BSoD. It stuck around for a second and then rebooted. On the next bootup, the computer informed me that there were some problems with the registry (new! joy!) but not to worry because it had found a better one that it could use. This "better" one not only fails to load any of my startup services (I'm locked out of msconfig as of now, it seems), but doesn't particularly like any of the programs I've installed and as a direct result won't show me anything in the Start Menu's "All Programs". Lesson learned: keep a copy of the registry. Lesson learned: set a restore point at your best working configuration instead of turning it off like a cotton-headed ninny muggins.

Safe mode sits at the XP screen (right before "Welcome").
Normal boot sits at the XP screen.

Either way, I can't seem to get to desktop. Soooooo, options? I am without Windows XP CDs since the computer maker sent me one of their "Recovery CDs" (lesson learned: ask for an XP CD). Do I try that or is this salvageable? Do I run to Office Depot and go pick up a copy of XP Professional (or maybe Vista, since resistance is futile?)?

I apologize that this topic has crept beyond the scope of its original posting. I assure you that was not my intention. What began as a simple experiment has ended in me really scratching my head.

Maybe I'm just not cut out for this computer stuff anymore...

 

[GuitarDaddy]

First thing to try is clear CMOS by moving the CMOS jumper on the motherboard to the reset position for a minute or two then back to the normal position. If that doesn't fix your problem, try poping in the recovery CD and see if you can restore your XP install that way.

And once you get windows back, don't be afraid to up the vcore. Anything up to 1.5v is safe even on stock cooling, I ran my A64 at 1.55v with good aftermarket cooling. And make sure you use ram dividers when looking for max CPU overclock just like you did when searching for max FSB