Problems with overclocking A64 3200+w (corruption, etc.)

[Elemennop]

System:

MSI K8n neo2 Platinum mobo
Athlon64 3200+ winchester
Corsair Value Select PC3200 2x512MB RAM

I fooled around with overclocking today; got up to 220HTT without anything, then encountered a problem. Once I bumped my HT mult. down to 4x, I didn't get the warning from the mobo anymore. However, I raised the HTT to 230, and encountered a problem:

It would POST fine, but when trying to boot Windows it would give an error saying there is a corrupted or missing file in \Windows\system32\config\system, and that I can put in the Windows XP disc and press 'r' to reinstall. However, when I lowered the HTT back down to 220, the file 'magically' reappeared. It only became corrupted when the HTT was raised to 230.

Is there anything I'm doing wrong that would cause this? I know about the problem with the SATA controllers on the neo2 Platinum, and my SATA drive is hooked up to SATA controller 3. I read through the stickied post and didn't see a solution, so I'm guessing this isn't a general problem.

Any help?

 

[Duvie]

Likely your memory is too far out of spec...

Also even earlier bios had some locking issues...set agp to 67 or use a bios of 1.36 or greater since I know they have the woprking lock even if agp is at default 66....

So question are...

Memory divider???
Memory timings???
Memory vdimm???

Have you ran memtest86??? boots before windows....

Bios version??

Is agp at 66 or 67???

 

[Elemennop]

agp is set at 67, and AFAIK it is acting as if it was locked.

The divider is set to 1:1, and the timings on my memory is 2.5-3-3-8 1T, and the vdimm is set to AUTO.

All I could find in the BIOS for version was 1.3. I'm not sure if it's less than 1.36 or better.

Right now it's running fine with HTT at 225.

Edit> I just played around with looser timings (3-3-3-8 1T to 3-3-3-11 2T) and a mix of 1.50 to 1.65 vdimm, and every single time it wouldn't work; when I got up to 1.65 I had to clear the CMOS to get the comp to even boot.

 

[spaceghost21]

I would try inceasing the divider.

 

[Elemennop]

how? It's not an option in the BIOS.

 

[Duvie]

Not increasing but trying 166 and 133 and rule out the memory rather quickly in this ocing issue and corruption....

 

[Zebo]

I fooled around with overclocking today;

You can't just fool around with it. It must be methodical, with notes, and Isolate then Consolidate

mem corrupution is my bet the way you're going about it...

 

[Zebo]

and a mix of 1.50 to 1.65 vdimm,

So such thing...

Here I'll make it easy for you.

Set HTT 250, LDT 4, Vcore 1.5, Mem setting 166, VDimm 2.8, 2.5-3-3-8 1T, try and prime for a couple hours.

then try HTT 255, then 260 leaving all same

 

[Elemennop]

It was a memory problem; I realized MSI did the 166/133 thing instead of flat-out saying it's a memory divider; I have it running at 2.4Ghz, and it's wroking fine right now.

Edit> I tried those settings above and it wouldn't get past the windows splash screen, if that.

 

[Duvie]

Did you try 250 with the 133 divider??? 166 with 250 is running over 400ddr and thus out of spec possibly for your value stuff...

Run 133 and try it....Also 1.5vcore on MSI board is about 1.43-1.44v so maybe bump it to 1.55v and try it....Actual voltage below 1.54v is pretty safe as it is within 10% range....

Also try bumping vdimm to 2.7v or 2.75v...some ram can do more with a light boost. MOst modern pc3200 can take 2.8v very easy....

 

[Elemennop]

I did the isolation test for the processor and my processor wouldn't boot at 260 FSB.

Edit> And my RAM won't work past 225 FSB and my HTT goes up to at least 340.

 

[Duvie]

When it didn't boot did you give it a boost of vcore??

1.5v and 5% over vid should be about 1.52-1.54v...

again try vdimm at 2.7-2.75 if not maybe 2.8v....

I always boost the vagp to at least 1.55v

 

[Elemennop]

I believe it was at 1.55vcore with 0% over vid, but I couldn't check once it started having those errors because it wouldn't even make it to the BIOS screen.

I'll work with it tomorrow.

 

[Duvie]

remember the MSI boards undervolt quite a bit...So that was like 1.47v likely...you have some troom to grow...

definitely need to try to run at 133 divider to isolate the ram out of equatoin and then try raising fsb in 5 fsb boost and going up as high as 1.5v with 5% overvid...Stock cooling should be fine even with this vcore boost...

 

[Elemennop]

I was running the RAM at 100 divider, and since I had been running 2.4Ghz earlier today with 166 divider I decided to test the processor straight out at 250FSB; however, this encountered several big errors (including a 'Warning Overclocking set to default levels please check them' message during POST), and eventually wouldn't even let me enter the BIOS (at which point I had to clear CMOS).

I'll raise the vcore tomorrow and see if it'll run stable at 2.5ghz.

 

[Duvie]

I would try flashing to 1.41mod bios...use winflash....very easy in windows app...beware do it at stock settings unless you have a known 100% stable speed (take no chances here).....

Older bioses have been know to be holding oc's back....

Try this link to see if we have messed any setting to help you out....

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthr...46730&highlight=IDE+SATA+Problems+Neo2

Things like disable cool-n-quiet, disable aggressive timings, etc....

Who knows it may be the cpu limit....I mean they can't all be ocing to same levels....

 

[Dadofamunky]

Does sound like the memory is at fault. I swapped out my Mushkin PC3200 (which was perfectly good RAM, but not for overclocking) for some PC4400 sticks and got some more speed headroom and a big boost in memory performance. Corsair isn't necessarily the best option.

I see guys with 3000/3200+ Winnies getting amazing numbers with the same mobo that you and I have, so I may get a different CPU in a few months. But I'm very happy with the results using PC4400/DDR550 RAM. It really does make a difference. Value RAM is value RAM for a reason. I didn't pay any more than I did for the Mushkin Blue and the results were obviously better.