Undervolted AMD Mobile 64 on desktop board

[dajo]

Hello,

I have a 3200+ mobile dtr AMD 64 running on an ECS nforce4-a754 board. The chip is recognized as a mobile 3200+ and runs fine except that the bios shows 0.94v as the default voltage. CPU-Z reports this value also. The chip won't run at 10 X 200, probably due to the undervolting. I've bumped the voltage in the bios but even at 2.54+ (don't remember the exact wording in the bios - it basically adds to the default voltage), it maxes out at 1.15v. Setting it to the max of +3 results in a no boot, probably due to some failsafe voltage shutoff feature in the chip.

Anyway, I can only run at 8 X 200 (1.6) and don't seem to have any other way to up the voltage.

It's odd that the board recognizes the chip as a mobile 64 3200+ processor but cannot provide the correct voltage.

Is there anything I can do or it that pretty much the end of the story for this setup?

Thanks!

 

[Lord Banshee]

Wow i did not know there was nf4 socket 754 mobos lol

1) my first guess would be update bios...
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/P...0&LanID=9&DetailID=501&DetailName=BIOS

2) maybe try nTune? I never used it but it says it can adjust mobo voltage
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html

question for you, what kind of heat sink did you use and were you afaird on breaking the chip lol?

 

[Mingon]

If you find out what pins control what on the underside you can use a wire mod to up the voltage. By doing this my dothan has 1.5v rather than 1.34v despite no vcore adjustments on my mobo.

 

[dajo]

Are you talking about the pins on the processor? Sort of like the old days of tracing the dots on the top of the Athlon/Durons?

Heatsink is Zalman CNPS7000B-CU (blue) $39 shipped from zipzoomfly. Wasn't afraid because of the mounting process. Heatsink rest squarely on top of core with good clearance and visibility so you can see what you are doing. I don't like the "open core" chips because I have crunched a few in my time. This was easy, though, because it didn't have clips (just screws) and I could see everything. This hsf is quite big as it "fans out and up" so it won't work on every board.


I'll do some research on the pin config topic. Seems like the best way to go.

Thanks - will report back.

 

[monster64]

Some other guy had a problem just like this a few days ago and he fixed it with a bios update.

 

[Vegitto]

Well, I can understand it not being able to do 10x200, because all Athlon64 chips (except the FX series) have upward-fixed multipliers. Try 8x250 or something.

 

[Furen]

Originally posted by: Vegitto
Well, I can understand it not being able to do 10x200, because all Athlon64 chips (except the FX series) have upward-fixed multipliers. Try 8x250 or something.

The 3200+ does allow a 10x multiplier.

A bios update is your best bet, but remember to set your bios voltage down before you actually do it, just in case your mobo doesnt clear the cmos (dont wanna overvolt it so much).

 

[dajo]

I appreciate all this support. I'll try the BIOS but I think I already have the latest - maybe not. I could try 8 X 250 but I'm pretty sure the chip won't do that because of the undervolt.

The chip will do 10x - I tried it in a DFI UT 250G. That board is totally screwed up and would have been RMA'd but for the fact that I let it sit around too long before testing it. (Can I RMA it directly to DFI?)

Does the Cool And Quiet setting have any bearing on the performance of these DTR chips? I think it might be set to "Auto" still and I could try disabling it to see if I could go higher.

I keep thinking that the voltage really isn't as low as I'm seeing, but CPU-Z reports it as such and it won't boot at 9x or above.

I'll play with it some more tonight. Didn't have much time before leaving for work this morning.

I really like having the 1meg cache. This system is primarily used for .Net web development. I could put the 2800++ back in and run it at 2.0G - sort of a toss up - 1meg cache at about 1.7G (or so) or the 512KB overclocked to 2.0G!

The A754 is not a bad board at all. Fast out of the box, and has vcore bumping up to +375mV, dimm up to 3.11v, and FSB to 250. I wish I could get this chip's vcore up. I think it would be a lot of fun, and a very good dev machine for .Net web apps.

My gaming rig is in my signature.

 

[dajo]

I updated to the latest bios which gave me 0.05v more (max is 1.2v) but I discovered something else interesting and I don't know if the previous bios supported it or not because I didn't try it. While any of the even multipliers above 8x result in a no boot scenario the half point multipliers of 8.5x and 9.5x work!.

I'm current running at 9.5 X 200 for 1.9G which is close enough to warrant keeping the chip in my rig. I'll probably lower the multiplier and play with the FSB but for now I'm just enjoying the chip. It's very fast, especially loading programs and compiling .Net projects.

Some functionality is still aberrant, though, as I cannot restart without a shutdown. Probably the wrong interrupt signal is being sent to the chip. That's no big deal to me and since I got the chip for $78 shipped from ebay I am quite satisfied.

Thanks again!

 

[Furen]

Have you tried running a mem divider? Using half multipliers underclocks the memory slightly, so your mem could be the problem...

 

[triscross]

hello i am new to this i have not used a forum before i have just taken the step into a dtr system i have just got a ATHLON 3000 1.8- 64 BIT-AMA3000BEX5AP chip a DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb MOTHERBOARD and a Akasa Evo 120 Quiet CPU Cooler
Ijust wanted to know if this would work and what i should know before putting it together ie bios settings
thanks everyone here i got all my info from you i wil be switching it on tonight and i dont want to blow it up pleas help

 

[Furen]

Instead of resurrecting dead threads you should start a new one...

The Heatsink will not make contact with the CPU if it uses the default retention bracket so you'll need to either modify the bracket or modify the heatsink. Just throwing lots of thermal paste in between the two wont work, by the way.

 

[triscross]

i have removed the retention bracket and mounted it with the springs that came with the heatsink i hope that will be o.k. because i have don it now .thanks for the tip