Overclocking, the saga continues, but it LIVES!

[Stealth1024]

Alright... I'm left with not much to do this evening so I figured I might try to get a little more power out of my PC.

I'm not even all that sure this is possible with the Asus A7V, and of course I don't want system stability to fall off a cliff either.

I just wanted to get the input of all you seasoned pros out there (yes, no, if yes how, etc..)

 

[Athlon4all]

When you say Retail fan you mean just came with the CPU right? I wouldn't do much ocing without getting a better fan. As far as the A7V, It was one of the first Socket A mobo's to really do stuff with Ocing. It's one of the best boards ever made, and same can be said about the A7V133.

 

[BCYL]

yes, definitely overclockable...

I have almost the same setup as you do, Asus A7V, retail heatsink, but I have a T-Bird 700Mhz... I successfully got it up to 910Mhz with perfectly stability... I did not need to upgrade the HS/F...

 

[Stealth1024]

cool, I just upped the FSB from 100MHz to 110Mhz (Mushkin REV2 SDRAM now at 146MHz I believe) with a CPU voltage of 4.5, so my total processor speed should be 1100Mhz. Windows system info reports it as such and so does the BIOS on bootup, however I never performed any unlocking procedure on my processor. I did order the processor, motherboard, and heatsink preassembled from MonarchComputer.com so perhaps they unclocked the processor or am I totally off base on this? lol

 

[Stealth1024]

Greed will lead to one's demise... I checked the CPU temp at 1.1GHz after it had been running a while. The reading was 115 degrees F. So I tried 1.2GHz, system doesn't post. Alright... now I have to find the motherboard manual so I can set the dip switched to reset mode. Gosh I hope I didn't fry anything...

 

[Stealth1024]

EDIT: although maybe it wasn't working because I needed to up the core voltage a little from the default value...

 

[BCYL]

You dont need an unlocked CPU to change the FSB or voltage... As long as your mobo supports it, u can change it...

however you have to unlock the CPU if you wanna change the CPU multiplier... Try changing the multiplier on your mobo, if it doesnt change your CPU speed, then that means your CPU is still locked...

 

[BCYL]

Oh by the way, when I was overclocking my system with the A7V, I found that the fastest FSB I could run with the system perfectly stable was 107Mhz... so I am not surprised it wont boot when u have the FSB set to 120Mhz

I had my multiplier increase from 7->8.5, and had the FSB increase from 100->107Mhz... which resulted in my CPU running at 910Mhz...

 

[Stealth1024]

thanks, but now my PC won't post and I would like to just reset the MB settings before going any further, since I can't find my A7V manual, do you happen to know which dipswitches need to be set where to reset the BIOS or how I can fix this problem?

 

[BCYL]

I am assuming you are using the jumper free mode in A7V, which means you were using the BIOS to change the FSB and voltage... can you go into BIOS now? if so, all u need to do is go change the performance setting (can't remember the exact name, as I am at work now) back to standard instead of user defined... That should change the FSB back to 100Mhz...

If you can't even get into BIOS, this will be kinda of tough without the manual... basically you have to move a jumper to switch from jumper-free mode to jumper mode, then use the dipswitch for the FSB and set it back to 100Mhz...

you might want to go to Asus' website and see if you can download the manual... cuz it will be very difficult for me to tell u which switch u need to adjust and which setting is 100Mhz... my A7V manual is at home so I cant get to it for at least a couple of hrs too...

 

[BCYL]

hehe, so cool... everyone in this thread has the same icon

 

[BCYL]

Here's a link to Asus's website to download the A7V manual... just change the jumper to switch to jumper mode, and use the FSB dipswitch to change it back to 100Mhz...

After that, you can switch again back to jumper mode and use the BIOS to increment the FSB and voltage...

 

[Stealth1024]

Yep, I'm in jumper free mode. Thanks for the link, and yes it is confusing with the same icon. I've been reading overclocking guides from Anandtech and others... one thing I'm not sure about it what sort of speeds to expect but I guess if I get this working I'll see...

 

[BCYL]

you have a 1Ghz T-Bird, right? I would say you can expect to be able to overclock to ~1.2Ghz... This is only an estimate based on what I see people achieve on these forums...

keep an close eye on your temps after you overclock... A7V's usually read higher temps than other boards (due to where the heat sensor is located)... you should be OK as long as your CPU temp does not go over 60C (dont know what that is in F)...

By leaving my case cover off, my temps actually drop more than 1C, but the parts do collect dust more easily and you will have to clean it once in a while...

Have fun overclocking!

 

[Stealth1024]

Dang... I set the jumper to jumper mode instead of jumper free, I then followed the manual's guide for a 1GHz processor and set those dip switches, and NO LUCK! Do you think its the board or processor, or just the memory, sound card, networking card, etc. that may have been fried?

 

[BCYL]

Ok, stay calm... I don't think you can fried your system that easily... u had your HS/F on all the time, right?

make sure you set the dipswitch for the FSB right... I find the diagram in Asus' manual to be very confusing... when I first did it, I wasnt sure which way is on and which way is off... so play around with the dipswitch for a bit, and maybe try setting it the opposite way...

To totally reset the BIOS, you can also take out the battery on your mobo for a couple of minutes and putting it back... that should reset your BIOS completely... but remember, it will also wipe out any settings you did...

 

[Stealth1024]

Yes heatsink was intact...

YAHOO! It lives! Thanks BCYL! Once I tool the battery out and reset the BIOS it booted normally, wierd but I won't complain. Now I'll experiment a little with multiplier and well now that I know the system is completely stable at 110MHz FSB and not 120FSB I have a starting point there as well.

By the way, temp running after a while at 1.1GHz was 46 degrees C.

 

[BCYL]

well I am assuming 46C is not a full-load temp (ie. not 100% CPU utilization)... as long as your CPU does not go over 60C under full load it's alright... I find the best way to get the temp under full load is actually run one of those RC5 clients... the client will use the CPU 100%, and u can let it run for a while and check the temp again...

yeah... since now you know that your system can run stable at 110Mhz FSB, you can try unlocking the CPU and increasing the multiplier and voltage until u get the desired speed... However, you can boot into windows with FSB @ 110mhz does not mean it's stable... try using your PC for a while without making any further changes (like running a game demo or something) to test if it's really stable... this way when the system becomes unstable later after some other changes, u know it's not becuz of the FSB...

 

[Stealth1024]

Well I had the computer perform some alterations on a 40MB wav file and I tried playing Unreal while Norton scan thingy was running in the background, I'm fetching some ZDnet benchmarking software to test things further.

Thanks for the patience. I've built systems for year, never did much overclocking except a 120MHz Pentium up to 133Mhz. lol

 

[BCYL]

Oh, one more note about overclocking... when you are taking the HS/F out to unlock the CPU, BE CAREFUL! When you are trying to get the HS/F pins off the socket, dont scratch the surface of the motherboard! If you do, you might destroy it and be forced to get a new one...

It is best to take out all the ram and other cards so you have more room to work with...

 

[Stealth1024]

now if I could only find a good motherboard temp monitor... the Asus one works under Win98 and WinME but for some reason freezes during install on Win2000Pro

 

[BCYL]

hmm strange, I have no problems with Asus PC Probe under win2k... maybe you can try downloading a newer version here.