really STRANGE A8N-E Overclocking problem

[Unkno]

The specs/overclock (only changed cpu today) i used one week ago:
Asus A8N-E Bios 1008 (date 8/22/2005) with Zalman ZM47J passive NB cooler
X2 3800+ OC 250x10 - HTT:4x - Stock Voltage
OCZ EL Platnium PC3200 2x1024mb CL2-3-2-5 at DRR416.6 (divider:166)
X800GTO2 Unlocked to 16Pipes and OC to 510/564
Seagate 7200.8 250GB
Antec Sonata II With Antec Smartpower2.0 450W And panaflo front case fan

One week ago, I was running my OC Cpu at 250x10 fine and it was stable (tested with two instances of Prime95, small fft, priority 10, 16 hours). I had ABSOLUTELY no problem. I even tried to set it at 2.6Ghz, it was stable at 1.385V. But I decided to go back to 250x10 and OC it 2.6Ghz later.

A few days ago, I tried to OC it to 2.6Ghz (260x10, HTT:3x, Divider: 133, all PCI/AGP are locked) but this time when it booted up, it froze (CTRL-ALT-DELETE, and keyboard didn't work) in the page where it tells about the primary/secondary ide and sata drives. Thinking it was just some random error, I pressed the restart button on my case. The same thing happened (froze).

So, I backed down the OC back to 2.5 and the same thing happened, froze on that same page. What's more strange is that, if i shut down the computer, THEN restart it, I was able to run the cpu at 2500ghz (didn't try 2600Ghz). I can play stressful games and tested with prime95 and superpi, no errors. Even though the system would work when i start it up from a shut down state, it would NOT work if I restart within windows or a cold boot (would freeze in that same page).

I have pinpointed the errors to be somewhat bios or motherboard based. I am able to restart the computer by setting the FSB no larger than 230 (tried multipliers on the cpu to made sure it wasn't the cpu). Something strange was that at 230x10 in the bios, CPUZ reports a FSB of 216...Well at least i can restart the computer now but anyone know how to fix this.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Muggy]

Hmmm... Same thing happened here. Was running a 3000+ Venice E3 at 256*9 (2304). Had to revert back to stock for some reason (Not sure what !). After that when I tried to OC it by taking the FSB directly to 256, it simply refused to go past the logo screen. Then tried backing it down to 240 - Same again. backed it down to 220 - Booted fine. Ran the CPU at 220 for an hour, restarted the comp and pushed the FSB to 230 - Worked fine. Then 250 after sometime and finally back at 256 - Everything fine. IMO, ASUS boards don't seem to like FSB jumps. Only gradual increase works. Why don't you reset the BIOS, clear the CMOS and start all over again ? I know that it's a pain, but it might work !! Hope this helped you.

 

[Unkno]

thanks for replying....



i have already tried resetting the BIOS, same problem (resetted bios, then pushed the fsb from 200-210-230-250) when it got to 250, the same thing happens, freezes. Would clearing the CMOS be any different?

 

[Unkno]

bump

 

[Muggy]

There's nothing wrong in trying clearing the CMOS. In every possibility, it might actually work.

 

[atmorell]

Hello.

I have the exact same issue!

A8N-E
2x512 Mb Corsair XMM 3200 2--2-5
AMD X2 3800+ 2@2,5 Ghz

Suddenly my computer becomes unstable - and freezes every time I login to Windows XP. Did you find a solution/work around for this problem?

 

[Unkno]

yea, my problem was fixed a few days ago by clearing the CMOS, try that, if it doesn't work, reply back

 

[Plester]

this board seems to have a cold boot issue.

 

[Gerbil333]

Read my newest post in this thread. My A8N-E likes to set itself to 216MHz too, and I don't even OC. It's definitely a bug. It always boots at the correct speed on cold boots, but if I restart it sometimes changes to 216MHz.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by; Unkno
... resetted bios, then pushed the fsb from 200-210-230-250

Hmm, those seem like big jumps... Try upping your FSB by 5MHz a time... Otherwise, you might want to lower your HTT, or supply it with more voltage...

Nice system BTW :thumbsup:

 

[dwcal]

I had the same problem with the bus setting itself to 216 or 201. Enable the floppy drive in the BIOS even if you don't have one. It's a stupid BIOS bug.

 

[pmoynaha]

Hi all,
I had the same problem with the 3800 x2. I OCed to 2.5ghz and dropped the speed of the memory from 400mhz to 200 mhz. It worked fine, but I don't know if this hinders performance.

Has anyone updated to the 1010 BIOS? If so, does this fix the problem?

dwcal, does just enabling a floppy drive fix this problem, or did you do other stuff?

thanks