Help me! Just tried overclocking and now I can't boot up...

[srygonic]

I been reading up on overclocking for a few weeks and decided to try it using Zeno's sticky guide. Wrote down abit of his instructions and got down to doing it...

Here's my computer specs first:
- AMD 64 3000+
- MSI K8N Neo4-F
- 2x512 MB Kingston
- 160GB IDE Seagate HDD
- 450 Antec PSU (came with Antec Sonata II)
- Leadtek 6600GT

Did the HTT part first. Increased my HTT until about 240 when it couldn't boot up at all... I had to reset the button on the motherboard to get it to boot... then I made my HTT about 220 to be safe.

I booted in to windows with alot of errors. With zonealarm if I'm not wrong something to do with root registry, I forgot already... I'm not aware that modifing your hardware affects the software as well? I could not inability go on the internet... I could connect to my wireless but I couldn't use the internet at all. And my USB 2.0 was not installed suddenly (got some error about high speed device plugged into a low speed device)...

Decided to reformat my computer ... and due to my stupidity.. I wanted to overclock my RAM too... So I went to make my RAM to 216Mhz which I thought would be safe and made my HTT to 216Mhz too to make them run 1:1 (is that right? from what I've been reading up on).

After I tried rebooting... my computer could not boot at all and BEEPED loudly and incessesantly. NON-STOP. I had to reset my CMOS again on my motherboard using a button... and I tried reformating my computer...

I booted from CD.. check check check check.... deleted C drive and made a new partition. Installed XP on that partition... format drive... copying files... restart in 15 seconds... rebooted... went back to press any key to boot from CD... rebooted again... got stuck at press any key to boot from CD.
Tried:
- Booting only from HDD in CMOS... stuck at detecting drives or something.
- Booting from CD and reinstalling again. (Tried BOTH 'quick NTFS format' and 'NTFS format')
- Resetting CMOS again...

Intially I thought it was my RAM... I brought it over to my girlfriends house to install and check. Booted up fine. Ran memtest until about 230%... no errors.

Please tell me how I can get my beloved less then 1 month old computer to work again? Please!!

 

[Topweasel]

Did you try taking the CD prior to it getting to the press any key part. If your CD is a burned CD i have seen computers hang when they are left in the machine when rebooting.

 

[Parkre]

Originally posted by: Topweasel
Did you try taking the CD prior to it getting to the press any key part. If your CD is a burned CD i have seen computers hang when they are left in the machine when rebooting.

quite right...

 

[n7]

Did you lower LDT to 4x instead of 5x?

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: n7
Did you lower LDT to 4x instead of 5x?

That's the first thing I was going to ask when I noticed the first thing the OP said was that he increased his HTT.

 

[srygonic]

Thanks everybody for your replies and helping...

Originally posted by: Topweasel
Did you try taking the CD prior to it getting to the press any key part. If your CD is a burned CD i have seen computers hang when they are left in the machine when rebooting.

What do you mean? Yes my CD is burned... but I've reformatted tons of time with it when it was inside the CD drive when it was rebooting... if not how am I supposed to boot from CD?

Originally posted by: n7
Did you lower LDT to 4x instead of 5x?

No. I didn't really change anything else. Would you mind explaining what's LDT? Is that the option which you can only go up to a max of x5? I kinda confused that with the multiplier at the beginning -.- How important is it?

 

[rei]

reset the cmos memory via a jumper or something. on my msi board it's an actual button.

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: srygonic
Thanks everybody for your replies and helping...

Originally posted by: n7
Did you lower LDT to 4x instead of 5x?

No. I didn't really change anything else. Would you mind explaining what's LDT? Is that the option which you can only go up to a max of x5? I kinda confused that with the multiplier at the beginning -.- How important is it?

There's your problem. Reboot and enter BIOS. Lower LDT to 4x. At 5x * 219 your running your board at 1100MHz, which is putting too much strain on it. You've got to keep LDT*FSB close to or under 1000MHz.

Most common mistake I see new overclockers make is to neglect that setting.

Edit: I copied this line straight from Zebo's overclocking guide:
"VERY IMPORTANT to keep in mind at all times is hypertransport needs to be around 1000, meaning LDT x HTT (aka FSB) ~1000 or less. "

 

[srygonic]

Originally posted by: icepik

Originally posted by: srygonic
Thanks everybody for your replies and helping...

Originally posted by: n7
Did you lower LDT to 4x instead of 5x?

No. I didn't really change anything else. Would you mind explaining what's LDT? Is that the option which you can only go up to a max of x5? I kinda confused that with the multiplier at the beginning -.- How important is it?

There's your problem. Reboot and enter BIOS. Lower LDT to 4x. At 5x * 219 your running your board at 1100MHz, which is putting too much strain on it. You've got to keep LDT*FSB close to or under 1000MHz.

Most common mistake I see new overclockers make is to neglect that setting.

Edit: I copied this line straight from Zebo's overclocking guide:
"VERY IMPORTANT to keep in mind at all times is hypertransport needs to be around 1000, meaning LDT x HTT (aka FSB) ~1000 or less. "

But my CMOS is already resetted.. so it should be like 200x5. It sounds promising though. I'll go home and try it tommorrow. But what if it's already 200x5, what should I do then?

 

[srygonic]

I set my CMOS to boot from HDD only and it got stuck at 'verifying DMI pool data'..

 

[Duvie]

Do it again...reset that is...

This time unplug power supply from from wall power and pull lithium battery on motherboard for a few minutes and then place back in....

If it freezes in the same spot, then restart again and see if you can get in the bios and hit set to all defaults...

 

[srygonic]

Oh... Where do I find this lithium battery? I'm using a MSI K8N Neo4-F. How does it look like?

 

[srygonic]

I just did a quick check and I think I know roughly how it looks like.. Thanks. So just off power, take out, wait few minutes, put in, power back on again? Anything else people?

 

[Duvie]

Thats it....

 

[0roo0roo]

lesson, always image your os partition before embarking on overclock. yes windows sometimes corrupts itself when ur chip is going haywire

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
lesson, always image your os partition before embarking on overclock. yes windows sometimes corrupts itself when ur chip is going haywire

That is fine and all but if it freezes on verifying dmi pool then it wont make it to reformating a HDD or launching the Win XP disc....That is the issue...I think it is more then just a corrupt HDD...

 

[srygonic]

It launched the WinXP disc and lets me create and delete partition and all that stuff but after that it reboots and is supposed to go to the installing Windows XP disc then it freezes there at verifying dmi pool data..

 

[srygonic]

Hey, I just test my HDD on my GF's computer and it gave me the same error. It got stuck at verifying DMI pool data. So I'm assuming it's the HDD... is it a goner? I didn't test whether I could reformat my computer with Windows CD again as she didn't have enough IDE cables for the HDD and CD Drive (she's using a sata HDD)...

Is my HDD really gone? I'm on the computer now with the HDD as secondary drive.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

It could be? Run chkdisc, then then try reformating

 

[Budman]

What bios are you running? i ask because the earlier bios suffered from a non boot at 240mhz and up. flash to the latest bios ver 1.6 to remove that bug.

Running my Venice 3000+ at 267 fsb here without any problems on this board.

Here's a forum thread you might find interesting.

Latest Update on "219 Bug" & "240 Bug"...

 

[srygonic]

I already had v1.6 BIOS... but thanks for that interesting feedback... I'll try that all again. If all else fails then I'll see if I can RMA then drive or not..