Can't lower the clock multipler on XP 1700+

[mike400hp]

Hey,
I have an Athlon XP 1700+ that I have unlocked. I'm able to raise the clock multipler over the default of 11x, but I can't lower it any. Right now I have the CPU running at a very stable 12x133 = 1596MHz. If I turn up the FSB ANY the system will either not boot or crash within windows. Before I had unlocked the CPU I was able to turn up the FSB to about 150MHz as a maximum. Normally I ran it at sometime like 11x145 = 1595MHz. So I'm guessing that the maximum speed I'm going to get from this particular XP 1700+ is around 1600MHz. In either case, upping the FSB or upping the clock multipler, I have to increase the CPU core voltage to the max of 1.85V to get it to run stable. Cooling is not an issue, because I'm using a Swiftech liquid cooling system. Under full load for hours and hours the CPU barely gets over 50 degrees C. I want to experiment with the maximum FSB that my Crucial PC2100 DDR can take. So I wanted to lower the clock multipler and run up the FSB. That why I wouldn't be overclocking the CPU, but I would be increasing the RAM speed. However, when I turn down the clock multipler to anything below the default of "11", the system will not boot at all. I get nothing, and no signal to the monitor. Can anyone think of anything I am doing wrong? Here is my configuration:

Abit KR7A-RAID (latest BIOS)
Athlon XP 1700+ (unlocked)
Gainward GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB
Swiftech water cooling for both CPU and GPU

Thanks!!!!

 

[Links4me]

Does that board lock the pci and agp busses? I had a KK266-r mobo and it used the same chipset and the pci and agp busses weren't locked, so when you overclock you are overclocking the pci bus and agp bus as well. The hard drive is on the pci bus, so that could fry the hard drive if the bus goes to high. You are better off getting an Nforce2 board if you want to overclock that chip.....of course then you would have to buy new memory too.....