Very Strange Temp/Stability Issues

[TheMonkey85]

I have been having trouble achieving the specs I hoped for with this system since I built it due to one strange problem. I have paired dual channel mushkin sticks (pc-4000, 2x1gb) on an Abit AV8 and A64 4000+, I planed on using the headroom of my ram to crank my frontside bus and let the zalman coolers handle the extra heat.

Problem is when both sticks are in my PC I get errors in prime95 within a minute if my FSB is above 200. But with one stick of RAM I can hit 250 and prime 95 all night no problem. I know Dual channel mode is harder to OC but the ram is rated to run at 250mhz, ITS UNDERCLOCKED! Anyways changing DRAM volts doesn't grant me stability, and I am running a 10x multiplier instead of 12x to ensure my CPU has nothing to do with this. My RAM timings are Stock and I having even tried loosensing them some, no luck. Also tried every combination of RAM slots with strange results, with both sticks only my slots 1,2 work (dualchannel mode). Other slots result in one stick not detecting or no posts, never a singlechannel mode or alternate dual channel mode.

And here is one that will make your head spin. When I was running one stick at 250mhz FSB my clock speed was 2500mhz at 10x. I took an Idle temp of 22C and after 5hours of prime95 my load temp was 45C. BUT when I was running two sticks at 200mhz FSB and had a clock speed of 2400mhz, 100mhz slower, my idle temp was 30C, and my load temp after 30 minutes of prime95 was 55C!

I feel like I've tried everything and no google search can find any problems like the one i'm having. Some help me please...

 

[myocardia]

You've bought the wrong motherboard for overclocking, especially with a processor that has a 12x multiplier. It has the Via K8T800 chipset, which doesn't have true PCI or AGP locks. Both your PCI and AGP buses will be running at the wrong frequencies if you run your HTT bus at any other frequencies besides 200, 234-237, or 267-270.

BTW, just because one memory stick will run @250 Mhz doesn't mean that the other stick isn't the problem. Also, unless you're keeping your total HT below ~1,000, you won't be stable at any processor speed. That's why you have an HT multiplier; it has to be lowered to overclock.

 

[TheMonkey85]

So you are saying my AGP/PCI lock in my cmos isn't really working? Well then why would we have success at 250mhz with one stick? What the lock only works with one stick? Makes no sense to me. BTW at 250mhz my LTD multiplier is at 4x, exactly 1000 on the HT bus.