Duron wont post past 800, do I need a new power supply?

[Muerto]

Right now my Duron wont post at anything over 800 MHz, not even at max voltage (1.85). I've got at Alpha PAL6035 and Arctic Silver thermal compound. My CPU temp is 50 C and the case is 39. CPU voltage is 1.75 V. My BIOS is 1004c.

When I turn my computer off and on again (at 800) it wont post the first time. But if I hit the reset button it does. It then automatically brings me into the BIOS and says a speed error has occured. I then exit the BIOS and it boots up fine. But at 850 I get nothing at all.

Does this sound like my power supply might no be giving enough power to the CPU? If you have any other ideas let me know. Thanks.

P.S. my power supply is 250 W but it doesn't have a brand name on it. I think it may be a generic one.

 

[RabidJigglypuff]

What is your FSB set to? I had the same problems when I set it higher than 105.

 

[Muerto]

My FSB is at 100 MHz. Any higher and it wont post.

 

[RabidJigglypuff]

A very helpful site for a7v problems is here.

 

[paulip88]

I have several suggestions for you:

1) Get some more case cooling. Your case is at hot as my CPU reading, and that can't be a good thing. With the HSF you have, you should not have 50C CPU (which is OK, but could e lower). Cool air around the Alpha would give it a place to dissipate the heat.

2) Your problem with the cold boot seems like it may be that the mobo detect the core voltage out of spec. The earlier BIOS revisions have the vcore higher than what you set it at. Don't know of a real way to fix it. My mobo just stopped complaining after a while. Try jumper mode though. That might solve it. Besides, it runs more stable.

3) If you are using the pencil trick, try something else, like a defogger repair kit. Got an extra 50MHz out of my CPU using that.

Of course you could have hit the wall. A lot of Durons are hitting the limit at around 800. Good luck.

 

[Muerto]

paulip88,

Actually my motherboard isn't detecting the core voltage correctly. It's always 0.04 V higher than what I set it to. Right now it's set to 1.75 V and it's reading 1.792 V. I'm using the 1004c BIOS so I guess it still hasn't been fixed.

I'm not using the pencil trick. My Duron came with the L1 bridges connected. I'll try a few case fans and see how that works. Thanks.

 

[igowerf]

This strays from the topic a little but my P3V4X also sets the voltage .04 higher than my settings. Maybe Asus will fix this problem in future bios updates.

 

[frogg]

Maybe it's not that your BIOS is reading the voltages incorrectly. Could it possibly be that the voltages from your PSU are fluctuating? Just a thought.

 

[Muerto]

frogg,

Good point, that's another possibility. Unfortunately I don't have another power supply to test.

 

[cdrakejr]

I would replace the power supply. That generic power supply at 250W is something like having a Corvette and using regular gas, just won't get it. Especially when AMD is emphatic about need for high quality power supplies.

Never understood why people will spend hundreds of dollars on the latest and greatest and then want to get by with mediocre power supply, the thing that makes it all work. Especially when a top notch power supply like the 300W Antec PP303X only costs $40-45.

May be another problem but even if it is, you are ahead with a better power supply.

 

[Muerto]

Thanks cdrakejr.

I got this power supply with a K6-2 system I bought a little over a year ago. The store that I got it from loves generic stuff. I don't shop there anymore. It seemed to be working fine but with all these problems I think I might just go out and buy a new one. Thanks again.