Too hot to OC? OC woes on Albatron PX845PEV Pro and 2.4B C1 SL6EF

[acx]

CPU: 2.4B C1 SL6EF
Mobo: Albatron PX845PEV Pro running bios 1.08
Mem: Corsair 512MB XMS3000
CPU HSF: Intel stock HSF
Idle temps: 43 C on sensor 1 and 37C on sensor 3 in MBM5 and speedfan, BIOS says 42C on cold boot
OS: Windows XP Pro

BIOS Settings:
AGP/PCI: Lock at 66Mhz/33Mhz
Mem Settings: 2-3-3-6
Delay to Thermal: 16 Min
AGP Aperture Size: 64MB
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
Mem Multiplier: 2.00xFSB
AGP Voltage: 1.5V
SDRAM Voltage: 2.5V

Any amount of overclock, even by 1 Mhz causes freezing after booting into Windows XP. I can log in. All startup items run and are loaded into the system tray. I can even move the mouse for a couple of seconds and click and interact with menus. But a few seconds after that, the screen just freezes and stays that way until I physically turn off the machine. Upon reboot, the HW monitor in BIOS shows cpu temp always around 47-49C.

Also although I have set vcore in bios to 1.525 volts, MBM shows core0 as 1.49V and core1 as 1.57V. Are these readings correct? Oh where oh where have I gone astray on the road of overclocking? Anyone have a clue to what I'm doing wrong?

 

[MulLa]

Hi

Apologise for not offering much help but what are your mem timings and AGP/PCI speeds?

I do have a 2.4B C1 SL6RZ that won't go above 150FSB. It just shows a blank screen with no beeps whatsoever. Just me being unlucky I suppose. Although I haven't tried more relaxed memory timings on it yet.

 

[oldfart]

Not sure what your overclocking problem is, but for CPU temp in MBM5, use Sensor 3 set to Winbond 2 Diode and add + 15C of compensation. Speedfan, go to advanced, set temperature sensor diode 2 to PII diode. This is also 15C low, but Speedfan has no compensation like MBM5 does.

 

[canadianpsycho]

Few things I'd suggest, however lame or menial they might seem:

• 
  Ensure the Heatsink is properly mounted
  
  Did you do a fresh install of your OS?
  
  Did you install the proper mobo chipset drivers? INF, etc.
  
  Double check your BIOS settings. Make sure your Mem ratio is at 1:1, or maybe even the "troubleshooting" ratio
  
  Make sure your RAM is set to SPD or most conservative timings
  
  PCI/AGP locked?

Try running the PC with the bare minimum of components... Try to single out what the problem might be. BIOS settings would be nice.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

I have the exact same MB with a 2.53. I've had limited success overclocking it to around 3ghz with memory in the 400mhz range. After that it gets unstable. I'm almost certain the problem is the northbridge as it seems to radiate pretty substantial amounts of heat even at stock settings. It is passive, so another fan might help you squeeze a little more out. Still it's odd that you can't get ANY oc. Try underclocking the ram and make sure that the agp/pci speed is LOCKED in the albatron bios, otherwise you'll have problems.

Good luck-

 

[maxSe]

It seems like the HSF might not be sitting correctly... Also, if you still have that black thermal tape on HSF, I suggest that you get rid of it and put some grease on it.

I don't think it's the memory since it's running @1:1 ratio, right? (I don't have Albatron board, so I don't know how it's configured...)

 

[acx]

Even more strange things.

Setting the AGP/PCI speed to be locked at 66/33 Mhz allows no overclock at all. However, with the same exact settings in the rest of the BIOS except changing the AGP/PCI speed to be manually be FSB/2.5 allows me to overclock. Initial Prime95 testing shows no errors. Strange huh? Anyone else experience this? Is the AGP/PCI lock broken in 1.08 bios or is my Radeon 9500 Pro just too sensitive?

 

[oldfart]

Maybe you got a bad board? I'm running 170 FSB 66/33 locked.

 

[lookin4dlz]

Late to this thread, but I have your solution!

You need to cool the NB - I think. The reason I say "I think" is that, if I remember correctly, I placed a fan to blow on the NB hs & temps went down a bit but when I put the fan on the Winbond W83627HF chip area they went down even more! I have some 3" tubing on a case fan (7v mod Vantec Stealth so it's not really blowing much air), so I can only blow it on a 3" area of the board.

Anyway, my temps under load (MBM winbond 1) have fallen from 55C to 38C and my oc has increased from 2.7GHz to 2.75GHz. You also might want to flash to bios rev 1.09 as that helped my stability.

 

[lookin4dlz]

Just did a search & found that Winbond W83627HF monitors CPU temperature,system temperature and DC Voltages.

In addition to monitoring, this chip controls a ton of stuff!
Winbond site

Floppy disk controller
UART's
Infrared
Parallel Port
Keyboard Controller
Game Port
MIDI Port
General Purpose I/O Ports
OnNow Functions