Hit brick wall @ 180mhz bus on 2500+M

180Mhz * 12.5, default voltage, memory timings (Crucial PC3200) -- rock solid. Runs Prime95 all night with no errors. Bump the bus to 185 and Windows won't boot. Brought the CPU to 1.70 and the exact same story. Really strange being it's so solid just 5Mhz below that. I know it's not the RAM. Did I just hit the wall or is there anything else to try?

 

[TStep]

That's 2250 vs 2312mhz so that could be the reasonable end of the line for the processor. To rule out the motherboard, try a lower multiplier (like 10), loosen the memory timings a bit, maybe backoff the memory to 80% async to take it out of the equation, then incrementally increase the fsb to rule out the motherboard.

 

[Avalon]

Also, keep in mind that the late 2500+-M chips aren't very reliable. Some have had a hard time doing 2.4ghz, so that may explain it. You may be nearing the ceiling.

 

Oh well. I am happy to have a 3200+ speed chip for what I paid. I just don't like the whacked out bus speed. I don't really have a choice because for some reason the A7N8X Deluxe does not do some multipliers for this chip like 10 and such.

 

[BlueWeasel]

This is with the Asus A7N8X Deluxe? The problem could very well be with the board, and not the mobile chip.

Some of the early Nforce2 boards like the A78NX and the Epox 8RDA really don't like the higher FSB speeds around 200 FSB.

My 8RDA doesn't like a FSB speed higher than 190-195, and a lot of the A78NX boards act similar. Since my Vdd (Northbridge) voltage can't be changed in the BIOS, I really can't go any higher without a new board or modding the one I've got. Even still, I'm really happy with the 8RDA board, so I'll just wait until the next round to upgrade.

My 2600+M is running at 190x12.5 = 2375Mhz

 

For some reason my board halves certian multipliers. I wrote Asus and they said it was normal for unlocked chips. Really wierd if you ask me.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Multipliers are fully adjustable on my A7N8X-Deluxe using a mobile 2500+. Do you have revision 2 of the board?

 

[charloscarlies]

This is with the Asus A7N8X Deluxe? The problem could very well be with the board, and not the mobile chip.

 

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Multipliers are fully adjustable on my A7N8X-Deluxe using a mobile 2500+. Do you have revision 2 of the board?

Yeah, 2.0 with the latest flash. I can select and multipier I want, but if I chose 10 it will make it 5. Really bizzare.

Asus said this to me:

Dear Friend :

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is ZYC, and I would be assisting you today.
when you get a un-locked AMD ATHLON XP/Barton CPU ,
If your CPU default multiplier is 12.5 or lower value ,you can only adjust it from 5.5 to 12.5 ;
if the default multiplier is 13 or higher , you can adjust it from 13 to 24 .
a7n8x series motherboards are all the some .


Thank you for using ASUS products and services!

ZYC

ASUS Customer Service Center (Beijing,China)

 

[chinkgai]

so at 2250 u were running at 1.45 since u said default voltage? then at 2312, u bumped it all the way up to 1.7? thats a huge jump for only 62 mhz....

try lowering it and giving the chipset more voltage

the ram is running at what voltage? did u try adjusting that as well? how about timings?

if possible, try the chip in a friends board (a different one from what you have, such as an nforce2)

how about temps at idle and load at 180x12.5?

that seems way too low for a mobile...so i doubt its the chip