Do new BIOS's sometimes improve the performance and overclocking abilities of a board?

[Chubbz]

I have recently bought the Abit AT7 and IT BLOWS at overclocking, I can't get past a simple 137 FSB without it locking up like crazy, I REALLY HOPE A NEW BIOS IS COMING, do those normally fix these kind of problems?

 

[Zap]

A new BIOS _can_ do such things, but may not. It depends on what's causing the problem, and when you're overclocking then it would usually be your CPU, RAM or one of your peripherals that cause you grief.

 

[J3anyus]

Sometimes a new BIOS will help, sometimes it will make things work. It just depends...might want to give it a shot though, if you're having a lot of trouble.

 

[dunkster]

My own experience and my impressions from reading many other overclockers' posts lead me to believe that the culprit is usually the cpu that you have. Some get cpus with a lot of overclocking headroom, and some don't. It's pretty much a lottery.

New BIOS offerings usually cover just a few shortcomings, such as hardware incompatabilities, specific-situation hardware/software incompatabilites or added capabilites such as extended multiplier values for newer cpus.

I suggest that you specify your problems with your system clearly and post them on the 'Abit Motherboards' forum at amdmb.com. You'll get excellent responses from AT7-board users at that forum.

Hope this helps!

 

[Chubbz]

could the cpu hinder the overclocking performance of the memory? should i try reflashing it?

 

[Geoffrey]

I myself have gotton a processor up to 140 FSB and fried it in the process, so 137 is not too low a number for a FSB. A new bios really won't help you in overclocking, but some motherboards do come with a bios that have built-in overclocking programs...I have heard great things about RedStorm, which is an overclocking program that I have only seen in AWARD v6.0 BIOS. The great part about overclocking programs is that they will only go to the point where your system will get unstable, then they knock off a notch on your FSB, but when I used RedStorm, it fried my processor...so just be cautious when you're overclocking, and only do it if your motherboard and processor are under warrenty, or else it could be an expensive fix. Plus installing a new bios on your motherboard can be very risky.

 

[kursplat]

abit be6-2 - thing overclocked like crazy right out the gate. don't think the bios updates helped at all.

soyo dragon+ - bios update was the only thing keepin' it from flying out the window. it wasn't stable at default settings , let alone at overclocks.
have fun...

 

[Finite]

Yes flashing the bios can improove overclocking abilities. Some bios versions for certain mobos are know for increasing performance and state this in the discription what the particular version does/fixes.