Need help w/ stability prob

[LesPaul]

Ok, I finally got my parts in..

specs:
2500+
slk-800u
NF7-S rev 2.0
1 GB Corsair TwinX PC3200
Latest WHQL Nvidia Nforce Drivers
GF4 Ti4200
350w PSU (new 420w + chieftec case is in the mail)
Windows XP Pro SP1

Anyway, here's the problem.. I slapped the new stuff in my current case, loaded windows, drivers, patches, etc.. Then went on to overclock this thing, my goal getting at least 200 FSB (200x11) with some nice and tight memory timings. When I set it to 200x11 with my memory timings @ 2-3-3-8 it works pretty good for awhile.. but after a few hours of prime95 or BF1942, i get errors or a reboot. It won't even load windows with either of the middle two timings at 2 (2-2-2-8/2-3-2-8/2-2-3-8). Temps on my CPU are good.. ~37 idle and 47C under full load. I tried upping the vcore to 1.725 and raised the vdimm .1 volts also.. still no luck.. Any suggestions on getting this stable? More voltage?
One thing that concerned me.. my memory, when set to "By SPD" sets the timings to 2.5-3-3-8. I was under the impression that the TwinX PC3200's default SPD settings should be 2-3-3-6 (according to corsair's website). Think I might have some bad RAM?
I have BIOS version 6a61ba1bc-18... I have all of the spread spectrum options disabled, along with the BIOS and Video Cachable options disabled. CPU Interface = disabled, CPU disconnect enabled, CPU throttling = disabled. All extra devices, controllers, and ports I don't need/use are disabled.

Thanks for any help in fixing this.

 

[rgreen83]

1, use CPU interface, this works on my board and makes it more stable when overclocking (some have reported it broken).
2, dont expect so much out of your power supply, most 350 watt PSU's only really push around 250-300 and dont provide enough amps on necessary lines, get motherboard monitor (it has a special setup for the NF7-SV2.0 to check voltages and post them for us to see.
3, try timings of 7-3-2-2 (reading from top to bottom in bios).
4, tell us your temps, use motherboard monitor for this also.
5, get the newest bios, V1.9 (get this from flashmenu, use version 1.30).
6, if none of these help, then check into the memory more (I think corsair started setting the SPD settings looser to ensure broader compatability and for noobs)

 

[Duvie]

Les...I see you are running winxp...In winxp you have a setting in --- control panel --- performance and maintenance --- system --- advanced --- startup and recovery....make sure the automatically restart on errors is not checked....

This way we can identify if it is a memory error which should just BSOD while a slipping power supply will be more likely to restart a system...usually memory errors will BSOD while a power supply can restart or just plain hardlock the system....

If it is the power supply then you may have it fixed with the 420w coming....I think you should run all your timings through memtest for a couple of passes to make sure you are 100% stable...

 

[LesPaul]

I always have MBM running on new setups, just to make sure everything is running smoothly.. It reports all of my voltages and temps as being just fine.. cool, and stable voltage rails.. none of them fluxuate at all hardly. The amperage may just not be there though.. hopefully like you said, my new 420w will fix the prob..

Here's the voltage rails MBM is reporting:
+3.3: 3.28 to 3.3
+5.00: 5.03
-5.00: -5.29
+12.00: 11.92
-12.00: -12.03

The +12 is a little low.. is that enough to cause instability? I wish these sensors measured amps too, that's what i really want to see.

I set my FSB down to 190 and 11x mult with 2-3-3-6 timings, and it hasn't locked up yet.. I go up to 200MHz and it starts crashing pretty quick. Sometimes blue screens and sometimes hard reboots. Duv, disabling auto-reboot on errors is one of the first things i do for reasons such as these. Normally the blue screens only happen after POST when about to start windows when I set the memory timings tighter. When i'm playing BF1942, it usually just hard reboots, only once did it blue-screen while in the game, and i don't recall the error.. That sound like its a PSU problem to you?

I'll try enabling CPU Interface and flashing my BIOS to 1.9, hopefully this will bring me some more luck hitting 200+ x 11. I know the CPU can handle it no prob.. its temps are low and i can pump the multiplier up more, but its when i start pushin the FSB and memory

I'll update once i get my new PSU and flash these bios.

 

[Duvie]

Voltage rails look tight, but with an AMD system concentrate more on the 5v and 3.3v rail...Also are those voltage under a load situation??? Get prime95 and run that and watch the voltages for any spike or wide fluctuations in voltage rails...


The reboots are definitley not memory and are usually associated with heat whether it be the cpu/ northbridge/ or GPU, or power supply issues....

 

[LesPaul]

at work now, so can't do anything with my PC, but to respond to your post..

Voltages all seem pretty stable during prime95, slight fluxuations.. As for heat.. CPU and memory are both running cool, not sure about the Northbridge.. is the system temp what i should be looking at to see if my northbridge is running hot? Southbridge feels pretty hot to the touch, i'm thinking I need to stick a heatsink on there. Video card's running fairly hot, but its never caused probs before, and i'm actually running it at stock clocks now. I really don't think heat is the issue, unless its the southbridge.. its the only component that feels hot to the touch.

 

[JustStarting]

What is the CPU FSB/DRAM ratio??

You need to have it set to 6/6 for high FSB. A lot of people don't understand the meaning of this setting.

Lets say your FSB is 200.

The first number is what you divide by to figure your PCI bus freq.- in this instance it is 200/6= 33.3mhz- just what it should be.

The second 6 is what you multiply the PCI bus freq. by to determine your memory speed- in this instance it is 33.3mhz x 6= 200.

Now you can see if this setting was off- lets say 5/5- your PCI bus is way out of spec (200/5= 40mhz)- hdd corruption you say?? Yes.

Try 6/6 and see how it is.

 

[LesPaul]

ahhh, thank you very much for that clarification.. I never understood the difference.. i had it set to 3/3 at first and tried auto next.. I think I might have had it set to 5/5, but I don't remember what the other settings were with that divider.. I'll set it to 6/6 as soon as i get home.. I can see why its locking up if my PCI bus is running so fast.. That could also explain the hot southbridge... This along with my new PSU coming in today sounds like it should fix me up *hopes*

 

[Doh!]

wrong thread. nm.

 

[JustStarting]

Originally posted by: LesPaul
ahhh, thank you very much for that clarification.. I never understood the difference.. i had it set to 3/3 at first and tried auto next.. I think I might have had it set to 5/5, but I don't remember what the other settings were with that divider.. I'll set it to 6/6 as soon as i get home.. I can see why its locking up if my PCI bus is running so fast.. That could also explain the hot southbridge... This along with my new PSU coming in today sounds like it should fix me up *hopes*

Don't feel alone- lots of people are blindly changing that setting, having no idea what it means/does. It is a very small blurb in the manual, that most blow right over.

 

[Duvie]

For all intensive purposes it sets the pci and agp bus...I hope it is it...usually it causes corruption when the pci bus is too far out of spec but not reboots...I haven't heard of it causing reboots when the agp is out of spec either, but who knows!!!

 

[JustStarting]

AGP is locked on this board.

 

[LesPaul]

ok, got everything in my new case with the new 430w PSU.. Flashed my bios to 19, enabled CPU interface and set the divider to 6/6. Memory timings at 2-3-3-6

Played BF1942 for about an hour before flashing the bios (with new psu/case), no crashes or lockups.. I'm thinking hey, the PSU fixed my issues. Well, I flash my bios, set everything like i mentioned and prime95 is still erroring out within 10 minutes with the FSB @ 200 or higher. The new case brought my cpu temp down 2 degrees, but right now that doesn't mean much until i can get this thing stable @ 200 FSB, lol.

Southbridge is really hot to the touch.. could this be causing p95 to stop? I need to look into getting something to cool that with quickly..


Any other ideas?

 

[LesPaul]

wierd.. looks like my HDD's data did get corrupted.. Powered my PC on today (didn't change anything) and could not boot into windows.. Got a blue screen right before the login screen everytime, reguardless of settings.. Luckily for me, I ghosted my drive after I installed everything before i did any overclocking, so a quick ghost got me back and running. Now back to getting a stable overclock....

Update: Ok.. right now i'm at 200x10 w/ 6/6 divider and 2-3-3-7 timings, so far its made it through 2 hours of a 40 player BF192 game and 1 hour of Prime95. So it seems that right now it -is- my CPU holding me back.. I'll boost the voltage up to 1.8 and see if that stabilizes it out @ 200x11.

 

[LesPaul]

18.5 hours Prime95 - no errors. I'm stable @ 200x10, time to kick up the voltage and push for that 200x11 mark again :evil:

 

[DrZone]

Originally posted by: JustStarting
What is the CPU FSB/DRAM ratio??

You need to have it set to 6/6 for high FSB. A lot of people don't understand the meaning of this setting.

Lets say your FSB is 200.

The first number is what you divide by to figure your PCI bus freq.- in this instance it is 200/6= 33.3mhz- just what it should be.

The second 6 is what you multiply the PCI bus freq. by to determine your memory speed- in this instance it is 33.3mhz x 6= 200.

Now you can see if this setting was off- lets say 5/5- your PCI bus is way out of spec (200/5= 40mhz)- hdd corruption you say?? Yes.

Try 6/6 and see how it is.

I was under the impression that the PCI bus was locked on the NF7-S! I'm having a very similar problem with the bootup. If I have DDR266 ram, and wanted to overclock, what settings and ratio should i use? I'm currently doing 200 x 10.5 and ratio 6/4.