Overclocking anomaly

[domsq]

Hi guys

I have the strangest problem... I have overclocked my P4 2.8C to 3.2, by virtue of increasing the FSB to 229 MHz. I set my RAM to run at 333 MHz (it's actually DDR400, but I didn't want to be stressing my RAM, so now my memory runs at 381 MHz). When I boot up, according to the BIOS I now have a 3.2 GHz CPU, but when I get into Windows, my CoreCenter program tells me I'm running an FSB of 115 MHz, which when coupled with the 14x clock multiplier of my CPU, gives me a paltry clockspeed of 1603 MHz! What the heck gives here?! :|

How can the BIOS be recognising my overclock just fine, but Windows isn't?

I have an MSI 865PE Neo2-S motherboard.

 

[JesseKnows]

Did you try Intel CPUID?

 

[RussianSensation]

Trust the BIOS before anything else.

CPU-Z tells me my RAM is running at 320mhz but BIOS says 400 and I get 5000mb bandwidth sandra score which is impossible with 320mhz ram.

Run PCMark2002 and see if you are around 7600-7900 CPU points for the 3.2. IF you are not then you have a problem.

 

[domsq]

Hey there

Well, as it would appear, Windows is reading only half of the FSB and CPU clockspeed. As I said, I've overclocked my FSB to 229 MHz, and my clockspeed is 3206 MHz (according to the BIOS). According to Windows, I'm running an FSB of 114.5 and a CPU speed of 1603 MHz (exactly a half of what it actually is). If I leave my RAM frequency setting in the BIOS to 'Auto', then Windows does recognise the proper settings. However, then my RAM has to run 458 MHz, which it doesn't like. :frown:

So, this anomaly only seems to creep in when I set my RAM to anything other than 'Auto' frequency.

If I run PCMark 2002, with this supposed clockspeed of 1603 MHz, I only get 3500-3700 CPU Marks! :Q So, my CPU is actually running as a 1.6 GHz. If I set everything back to defaults in the BIOS, with my stock clockspeed of 2.8 GHz, then I get about 6700-7000 CPU Marks which is about right.

I don't know what's going on here! :|

 

[fredtam]

Thermal throttling? Crappy MSI products? You most likely need a bios update.

865PE_Neo2-S v. 1.3 377 kb Intel AMI BIOS 8/15/2003 218
1. This is AMI BIOS release.
2. This BIOS fixes the following problems of the previous version:
- Adds MAT support for all 865PE version
- Fixes Maxtor S-ATA HDD sometimes will hang during HDD detection
- Fixes CPU ratio which cannot be set over 23X
Please Note: 1.x~2.x BIOS cannot be used on 865PE Neo2-PS series & 865G Neo2-PS series.

Model Version Size Platform BIOS BIOS Date Counter
865PE_Neo2-S v. 1.2 377 kb Intel AMI BIOS 5/29/2003 1043
1. This is AMI BIOS release.
2. This BIOS fixes the following problems of the previous version:
- Adds Dynamic Overclocking item in the BIOS setup (support only 865PE Neo2-FIS2R)
- Fixes some system which cannot be overclocked
Please Note: 1.x~2.x BIOS cannot be used on 865PE Neo2-PS series & 865G Neo2-PS series.

 

[domsq]

Hi fred

Those 2 BIOS updates you mentioned for my board don't mean much to me... I'm currently running a version 2.1 BIOS. And no, I wouldn't go so far as to say that MSI products are crappy.

My theory behind why my overclocking settings in the BIOS are so limited, is because MSI wants you to make use of D.O.T, should you want/need to overclock. For those who don't know what D.O.T is, it stands for Dynamic Overclocking Technology, and basically adjusts your FSB in slight increments, depending on what the CPU is currently doing. So, if your PC is sitting idle, D.O.T will slightly down-clock your FSB, to keep temperatures as low as possible. Conversely, if you're playing a game, your FSB will be brought up a bit, for a little bit of extra speed. My only problem is that D.O.T doesn't overclock as aggressively as I'm wanting to, with even the highest D.O.T setting only raising your FSB by 8-10 MHz.

If I could just change my FSB to RAM speed ratio to 5:4, then it would help me immensely! That, or I could splash out and buy some DDR466 or DDR500 RAM. However, simply changing the ratio would be a little cheaper though.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: domsq
Hi fred

Those 2 BIOS updates you mentioned for my board don't mean much to me... I'm currently running a version 2.1 BIOS. And no, I wouldn't go so far as to say that MSI products are crappy.

My theory behind why my overclocking settings in the BIOS are so limited, is because MSI wants you to make use of D.O.T, should you want/need to overclock. For those who don't know what D.O.T is, it stands for Dynamic Overclocking Technology, and basically adjusts your FSB in slight increments, depending on what the CPU is currently doing. So, if your PC is sitting idle, D.O.T will slightly down-clock your FSB, to keep temperatures as low as possible. Conversely, if you're playing a game, your FSB will be brought up a bit, for a little bit of extra speed. My only problem is that D.O.T doesn't overclock as aggressively as I'm wanting to, with even the highest D.O.T setting only raising your FSB by 8-10 MHz.

If I could just change my FSB to RAM speed ratio to 5:4, then it would help me immensely! That, or I could splash out and buy some DDR466 or DDR500 RAM. However, simply changing the ratio would be a little cheaper though.

OK let get to the important stuff. MSI =Crap for the last year.
Now that we have that out of the way lets see if we can fix your crap.

1. Bios up to date -check.

2. Did you immediately try for 3.2 or did you try for anything lower than that and still have problems?

3. What are your temps?

Things that would help.
1. The correct name of your board.
2. MSI's crappy manual links actually worked.

 

[Viper96720]

You can change your ratios

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: Viper96720
You can change your ratios

Yep. But I don't know why he thinks that will help him immensely. The wrong CPU speed has no relation to the memory speed IMO.

 

[domsq]

Hey fred

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like MSI stuff... anytime I've used their products they've always been pretty good. Oh well, one person's experience will vary to another's I guess.

Viper is quite right... according to what RAM speed setting I have running, it does indeed change the ratio (I checked this out with CPU-Z). I now realise that the anomaly only arises at 229 MHz FSB. I took my FSB back to 200, and then increased it in steps of 5 MHz. Windows was then registering my settings correctly, at every step (except at 215 MHz FSB, which Windows recognised as 214, but that's just splitting hairs I guess). I then eventually ended up taking the FSB to 230 instead of 229, and now Windows tells me I have a 3.22 GHz CPU, which is perfectly correct. PCMark 2002 now also delivers a correct CPU score.

You also said I must check temps, and they appear to be quite normal. I have also double-checked my BIOS version (by seeing what it actually says when the PC powers up), and it is running version 2.1.

Thanks for your advice, and also the others who replied to me.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: domsq
Hey fred

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like MSI stuff... anytime I've used their products they've always been pretty good. Oh well, one person's experience will vary to another's I guess.

Viper is quite right... according to what RAM speed setting I have running, it does indeed change the ratio (I checked this out with CPU-Z). I now realise that the anomaly only arises at 229 MHz FSB. I took my FSB back to 200, and then increased it in steps of 5 MHz. Windows was then registering my settings correctly, at every step (except at 215 MHz FSB, which Windows recognised as 214, but that's just splitting hairs I guess). I then eventually ended up taking the FSB to 230 instead of 229, and now Windows tells me I have a 3.22 GHz CPU, which is perfectly correct. PCMark 2002 now also delivers a correct CPU score.

You also said I must check temps, and they appear to be quite normal. I have also double-checked my BIOS version (by seeing what it actually says when the PC powers up), and it is running version 2.1.

Thanks for your advice, and also the others who replied to me.

That is where I was going with:
"2. Did you immediately try for 3.2 or did you try for anything lower than that and still have problems?"
I figured as much after seeing:
"- Fixes CPU ratio which cannot be set over 23X" in the bios update.

Glad to hear you got it working.