Duron wont post past 800. HELP!!

[Muerto]

My Duron 600 will run at 800 MHz @ 1.70 V but wont even post at anything over that. Not even with max voltage (1.85). When I try anything higher the screen stays black and I get warning beeps after 10 seconds or so. Have I reached the limit for my chip?

Not to say that I'm not happy with 800 MHz but every other Duron I've seen can do at least 900.

I'm using an Alpha PAL6035 and Artic Silver thermal compound. I'm running it with the case open right now. The CPU temp is 45 C and the case is 31. I put just enough thermal compound on to leave a tanslucent layer on the chip.

Is this as far as I can go or does anyone have any bright ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[loogie]

You prolly hit the limit of your chip. [Nelson]HA ha[/Nelson]
With my chip, if I had the multiplier at 10, it would go no higher than a gig, but I set it back to 9.5 and it can go to 1017...haven't tried higher. So maybe it'll go higher if you try bumping it up via fsb.

 

[hungrypete]

I too am desperately trying to get my 650 over 850. no post at 1ghz, freeze during post at 950 and instability at 900. 200 mhz overclock is still nothing to snicker at but I want 1ghz just so I can say 1 ghz for under $100 and make some friends at school jealous.

 

[BA]

Are you sure your HSF is in complete contact with the core? On there nice and tight and flat? Try reseating it. And if you pencil-unlocked it, try redoing that while you're at it.

 

[BA]

Arr...

 

[hungrypete]

mines one of the early ones that was never locked so no pencil, and my golden orb is installed with arctic silver and seems ok (i smashed my thermal sensor in a little mishap, DOTE! no cpu temp for now). I think I have gotten close to it's limit without less than ambient temps. And I just don't have the pocketbook to set up a liquid cooled rig... I'm tempted to unlock my brothers 600 and see what it'll do though....

 

[Kris]

I will toss out a little data I have collected using some of the same hardware.

I began with a a7v and 800tbird/alpha.
Points to mention:
Runs fine 100x9
wcpuid sees 100x9.5 as 908mhz
not stable above 105
not stable 100x10
runs windows at 95x10

I later got a duron600.
Ran o/n rc5 100x9.5
put tbird back in next day, set aside duron
several days later, tried duron again, and black screen no matter what 7x or higher.
(I am using a sparkle, which has a feature new to me---switch on psu, not computer, and fans start up for a few seconds, then go off. Then turn on computer itself to begin post.)
The above is normal operation at default x. When x is set to 7 or above, with the duron, and psu is switched on, fans start, and stay on, no subsequent shutdown. No post.
I have tried three durons, all retail, using different heatsinks.
Because of the psu feature, I believe it to be a mobo issue.

I have no suggestions for you muerto, just pointing this out because it might lead you or someone to uncover some board setting responsible for this behavior. I realize my data is sketchy, but that's as far as I have had time to get with this issue. I have repenciled the duron several times, but have not ruled that possibility out yet, but as a 600 it does run at 6.5 with my penciling. Why not 7x? I would assume bad duron luck if not for three things:
Ran 950 once
The power supply oddity
Three durons behave the same way

So...check your motherboard?
Good luck to both of us!

 

[Tedtalker1]

My Duron is acting weird now too.It was doing fine at 896mhz.Now I can't post with anything other than 600mhz.I got her up to 950 before but she was running too hot so I took it down some.Then yesterday I was playing with the FSB settings and when I tried to reboot It wouldn't post.Zilch,nota-just a blank screen.But even before this my Duron would only work with even number Clock settings.It used to clock at 6.5,7.5,etc.I am using the stock HSF with Arctic Silver compound on an Abit KT-7 with the latest BIOS.I sure hope one of our Anandtech computer gods can figuer this out.It's Driving me crazzzzy!!!!-

 

[Muerto]

Thanks guys.

I tried changing the FSB settings but it wouldn't even post at 101 MHz. I'll keep playing with it for a while longer but I think I've hit the limit on this thing. Oh well, 800 MHz isn't to shaby. But I was hoping to make some people jealous with a 900+ MHz system. Darn...

 

[Kris]

I think you have NOT hit the limit, as it seems unlikely you would see no post with that much voltage headroom and alpha cooling. I suppose it is possible, however.

 

[Tedtalker1]

I'm beginning to think it's my power supply.Funny thing is I could overclock fine before.It Was clocking fine at 900mhz for 3 weeks then all of a sudden strange behavior.Sometimes If I push reset and hold down the Insert key on my keyboard I can get it to boot properly at 900 just like before.Other times holding down Insert brings it back at the default 600mhz.This is still driving me crazy and no one has pointed to the most likely cause.Overclocked fine now it doesn't.Any Geniuses on this forum or somebody...anybody take a swipe at it please.I am thoroughly baffled.My power supply is 300 watts but it is not on AMD's approved list.

 

[Kris]

Well, to anyone who read my post above: I mistakenly attributed the fan-on-then-off trait to the sparkle psu, when in-fact the same thing happens using another old 200w psu. So that is a mobo feature.

Ted, I am now running the a7v and have for several hours using the 200w psu, with a geforce. I an not certain the socket a platforms require as robust a psu as the classics did. From what I read, you could not use a geforce and a classic on a 200w. Shrug. Duron (@600) was happy in UT for an hour...
since I still can't achieve an o/c I can't test it higher.

This has me just as baffled as you two. I would like to get another a7v, and see if something went wrong with this board. I already bought two more durons to address this enigma, and they behave exactly the same, as I mentioned above.

Maybe a bios flash...
I may try that, even though currently running latest. I hate flashing...
Let's keep each other posted on this quirk, thanks.

 

[Tedtalker1]

Thanks kris

 

[2dfx]

I had the same problems.

Then set voltage using jumpers and no more hassle.