Can't get past 185 FSB!

[TheGreenGoblin]

For a while now I've been running my Barton 2500 + at 2170 MHZ (13x166) with a Vcore of 1.725 on an Abit NF7 Rev1.1 board. When I first bought the board , DDR 400 was way too pricey so I went with 2 sticks of Crucial DDR333 which I've just sold to get a 512 MB Samsung DDR 400 module.

I was hoping to jump to 200 FSB but I'm having trouble getting even 185 FSB stable. I can't get 185x10 to work well. I've tried setting the Vdimm to 2.7 and Vcore to 1.75 with no effect. The SPD timings on the ram are 2.5-3-3-8 and i've loosened those with no effect . What would be the slowest timings I should set on those modules ? 3-4-4-11?

I also raised the chipset voltage from 1.5 to 1.6 (don't know if I should have) but that didn't fix anything.

At the higher fsb's i've tried (200 + 195) I was unable to boot into windows (courrupt system file error) but at 185 , even 190 I can boot into windows but most of my games crash after a a couple of minutes, or windows locks up etc.

I've set my ram divider to 5/6 and have it running at 400 mhz while keeping my cpu at stock speed (1.83) and FSB (166) and it seems to be solid. I'm going to run Prime and Memtest + overnight over the next 2 days and if it I don't get any errors at all can I completely rule out the ram as my reason for stalling near 185 ?

I'm starting to think that the early board revision of my NF7 is what's holding me back. I know it doesn't "officially" support a 200 FSB but , like most people at the time, the net was full of 200 FSB o/c stories , same as now . The 2.0 boards were only first starting to appear when I bought my board.

Anyone here have any trouble getting to 200 on an older NF7(Rev1.1-1.2) ?

I might be able to install my cpu and ram in my cousin's NF7 2.0 to eliminate the motherboad hopefully , until then I was hoping someone here might have some hints or suggestions. Thanks.

 

[Tiamat]

I think it is your mobo. I have the NF7-S version 2.0 and I can get above 200fsb. I think teh older versions were restricted to below 200, although i cant say that with certainty

 

[Fern]

I've set my ram divider to 5/6 and have it running at 400 mhz while keeping my cpu at stock speed (1.83) and FSB (166) and it seems to be solid. I'm going to run Prime and Memtest + overnight over the next 2 days and if it I don't get any errors at all can I completely rule out the ram as my reason for stalling near 185 ?

I think so.

Anyone here have any trouble getting to 200 on an older NF7(Rev1.1-1.2) ?

If I were you, I'd go over the nForcersHQ.com site and check out the forum for Abit boards. Somebody over there will know what you can do with the v. 1 boards. Maybe some modded BIOS available etc.

Fern

 

[Shimmishim]

first thing to check is your bios...

see what version you have and maybe try updating that to the newest one

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

I flashed to the latest bios (v27) yesterday, didnt make a difference.

Fern: Good idea. I'll take a look later.

 

[ectx]

I have a 8rda+ 1.1 and a a8n8x 1.1 and I could not get above 194 fsb on either one. I have 2 nf7-s v2.0 both runs at 210+ w/o any mod.

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

My post should actually be called "can't get 185 stable" to tell you the truth. It looks like I could maybe get 180 stable. I'd be happy to get 195 FSB at this point.

 

[TerminatorEX]

What PSU u using?
UR 2500 Barton might hold u bak.
I had 2500 Barton and can never do 200FSB until I sold it and replace with a 2500 M.

2500M @2.4 12x200 1.75V Prime stable
2x512 PDP 2-2-3-5 (only 165 now from newegg) replaced my HyperX DDR500
Enermax 435 CoolerGiant

 

[natto fire]

I'm having the same problem as you and I was told it was most likely the chip. I have an Asus A7N8X Deluxe though. Highest I could get stably was 183. This is with Corsair PC3200 and tried almost every voltage, although according to CPU-Z this board overvolts slightly. I wish they had the mobiles out when I bought this over a year ago!

 

[TerminatorEX]

Oh for ur ASUS A7N8X DEluxe, u need to mod ur mother board to raise ur Vcore for ur Chipset. Its default at 1.5 I believe(one of my friend has that board moded) u need aleast 1.7V to get to 200FSB. Abit and DFI can change those setting in the bios but for u ASUS u need to mod it to get 1.7 or else u will be out of luck. I know I might conflict what I said before, but I just realize that Vcore Voltage part might be the reason stopping u guys to reach 200 FSB.
Try to set it to 1.65 V for CPU
1.7 for Chipset Voltage
leave the RAM and VGA

 

[BlueWeasel]

I've got an early revision 8RDA (non + version) and it doesn't like a FSB above 190-195ish. I'm currently running my mobile at 12.5x187 = 2.35Ghz

 

[icarus4586]

My Barton 2500 has a somewhat similar thing. It won't work in the 185MHZ-199MHz host clock range, but it works beautifully at 200MHz. Couldn't figure it out. But I have my RAM running at PC-2700. I have to loosen it to like 2.5-4-4-9 to get it to work at all at 400MHz. But then it crashes after not too long in Windows.

 

[PliotronX]

The older revs seemed to only apply the correct Romsip table for ~200MHz with CPU's that defaulted to 133MHz or 200MHz FSB. CPU's with 166MHz, such as your Bartty 2500, have been known to start hitting some kind of wall with the older rev NF7 boards at 176~188MHz. The way to fix this would require modding the CPU which will void the warranty if it's a retail chip (this may or may not be important to you). Check out the Abit official forums for the L12 mod. Ironically, the rev 2.0 boards seem to have the reverse issue with 133MHz FSB chips. The replies are good here, the older NF2 chips were not really certified for 200MHz, and a lot of them need 1.7v to get stable there. Newer 1.2 rev boards with the A1 stepping were the first to actually run default voltage reliably at 200MHz, and this was the same chipset that led to the rev 2.0 where it's certified for 200MHz. It would also be worth lapping the northbridge as that recessed metallic area makes surface contact difficult. Also a reapplication for the heatsink with AS5 or Ceramique would be a good idea, so you can kill two birds with one stone

That said, with my particular rev 1.0 board, it just refused to go passed 192MHz, producing mucho errata in Memtest #5. I fed her BH-5 memory, a TruePower PSU, a 133MHz FSB Thoroughbred chip, enhanced/lapped northbridge cooling, northbridge VMod at up to 2v, etc.. The bastard refused to remain stable at near 200MHz I feel your pain.

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

Terminator: I'm using an Antec Truepower 330 W PS.

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

So Pliotron I should definitely set my chipset voltage to 1.7 before trying to up the FSB at all ?

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

I'm going to try my dimm in slot 3 and if that doesn't improve things i'm going to cut the l12 bridge.

Here's the link for anyone else who wants to try it. This is for anyone trying to get a 166 FSB Barton to work at higher FSB's on an older nforce2 board.


link

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

Did the L12 mod and it seems to have done the trick. I'm at 200x9 right now. I wasn't able to boot at 200 at all previously. Gonna do some further tests but it looks like it was successful

 

[ScrewFace]

I'm afraid only the Abit NF7-S v1.2 and v2.0 and not the v1.0 and v1.1 are able to hit the 400MHz bus stabily. You'll have to upgrade your board. :frown:

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

If i can get 2.1-2.2 mghz with of an fsb of 190 or higher , i'll be satisfied at this point. I'm not going to buy another socket A board at this point , just to squeeze an extra 10 or 20 on the fsb .