What should I tweak to stabilize this...

[ST4RCUTTER]

Hey guys, I just got my new system put together and running. Here are the specs:

Athlon 1800 (currently overclocked to 1600 with FSB @ 140Mhz)
Shuttle AK31 Rev.3
Crucial DDR2100 (non-registered, no ECC)
2 Maxtor 7200 ATA100 HDD
1 CDROM 52X, 1 CDRW (crappy Creative 8/4/32, Lite-on 24/10/12 on the way...)
PNY GF3 Ti 200
Netgear RT312 NIC
Creative Sounblaster Live (value)

OS: W2K

Here's what's happening; when I run 3DMark2001 my comp will either reboot or dump back into windows at the low detail Nature test. This happens every time. Both the CPU and DDR are currently running stock. Which one of these should I try bumping up? My CPU is currently running at 38C according to the MB thermistor, which seems a little odd because the water block feels like it's running at room temperature...I guess this is a quirk of waterblocks...anyway, ideas? At first I thought it was a driver issue, but I'm not so sure anymore cause it rebooted once just for the heck of it. For the most part it's stable though. I can play games and it's been running for the last 12 hours straight.

Oh yeah, do you think I could overclock any higher than this? There's no manual adjustment in the BIOS for dividers, so I guess the motherboard does it automatically. Could some of my PCI/IDE components be preventing me from getting higher? I tried 145 with the Vcore and DDR set at 1.775 and 2.55 respectively but it wouldn't boot. Should I bump these values up higher? How much can I expect it to take? My DDR timings are as follows:

hostclk
2
4 bank
2t
6t
2t
4 level
1 command

Thanks!

 

[SilverBack]

1st Try and limit your memory just a hair, go back to the CAS 2.5 your memory is rated at.
If that doesnt work turn off the interleaving.


It may be a power supply problem as well.

 

[chizow]

Yah I would go with silverback's suggestion by backing down the RAM timings at first. What are your 3.3V and 5V rail readings? Do they fluctuate a lot? How about your 12V? You're running 2 HDD's and 2 CD drives...that sucks up a lotta juice, so your PSU may not be up to snuff. If your rails are close to spec, I would max out your Vcore (I think 1.85 is max on most boards without modding), and maybe try upping your Vdimm, but if it won't boot at higher voltages, that might not help.

Also, it could very well be one of your components holding you back. I reinstalled my Lite-On 24x10x40x this weekend and was shocked that I could no longer boot into Windows past default 133 FSB. I moved some cards around, reinstalled my side panel with 2 80mm blowholes, added an enermax bay cooler and slot blower, so there was a lot more going on in my box suddenly. Thought it was a power issue at first, but my rails looked good, just as before. Then figured it was my Lite-On, and woulda been pissed b/c it ran OC'd before in my Asus. Turns out it was the PCI slots. I moved them back to their original spots and all was fine again. I guess its because the lower PCI cards have priority with interrupt requests (I read this in the manual), so one or more of my PCI devices was probably hanging.

Chiz

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

chizow,

Thanks for the good information. Hmonitor is reporting the following:

+12V (+12.22V)
-12V (-12.37V)

+5V (+4.96V)
-5V (-5.00V)

I/O (+3.26V)


The Vcore is currently 1.73V. I will try to back down the memory timings first. Then see if I can complete 3DMark. If not, I'll try upping the DDR voltage. If that still doesn't work I'll drop the bus until I can run completely through. If that still doesn't work I'll see if there's a driver conflict.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Silverback,

You were right on the money. I backed the CAS down to 2.5 and it completed 3DMark. I'm a little bummed though cause my performance took a good hit. Now nature is jerky. It pans forward a few feet and stops then goes some more and stops. It used to be one smooth flow. The images in tests afterwards are also jerky. So now my question...can I fix this by lowering the CAS back to 2 and then upping the Dimm voltage? Is there another setting in the DRAM BIOS controls that I can adjust to make this better? Thanks guys...you rock! Oh yeah, here's my scores on Mad Onion. I hope you can get to them using this link...don't see a number at the end there so it may use a cookie to match users to their scores resulting in you getting your own scores or an error message.

 

[chizow]

Cool! glad you got 3dmark working again

Yeah your next step would be to try and up your voltages, however, I'm not sure how stable it will be, especially if you back your timings to 2 again. Your 3.3 and 5V rails are slightly below spec, but they should be OK as long as they aren't fluctuating all over the place. Not sure how they will look though if you up your Vcore and Vdimm though. That might be too much for your PSU to handle (what PSU are u using btw?) I would try upping the Vdimm first to 2.80. Then check your rails, if they still look okay, then try running some benchies and see if it is stable. If it isn't and you crash, try upping your Vcore as well. Check your rails again. Then try running the bench again. You may be at the point where your PSU can no longer handle it, as I don't think your Crucial is holding you back as I'm running 150FSB at cas 2 and others have run their Crucial much higher. Also, try some intermediate FSB speeds as well. 5mhz is a lot when it comes to overclocking. It'll take a bit of time to find your sweet spot (between mhz, mem timings, voltage settings, multis etc.) that give you the best results. Also, remember that higher MHZ doesn't always translate to better performance. RAM timing and a higher FSB can be better than increased mhz. Good luck!

Chiz

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Ehhh...I've been playing around with this some more and discovered a little bit about what I can and can't do. 3DMark will not run at CAS 2, period...unless I drop my FSB below 140 which is something I'd rather not do (something psychological about 1600Mhz---could it be that I really wanted a 1900+.) I think my powersupply is too weak to handle the load. It's a 300watter and the it's off brand I think. It has worked very well for the last year oh well...time to save up. So I guess my choices are to lower the FSB or drop to CAS 2.5, I wonder which one would be the greater detriment to system performance? I think the new Det's screwed up the video and are causing it to jerk. I forgot I installed the 21.83 version in an effort to get better scores...I think I'll revert back to the ones that came with the PNY CD.

 

[SilverBack]

Hi,
The jerkiness that you describe is often contributed to DMA not being enabled on one or all of your drives.
If you have an early version of Win 2k that is more than likely the problem.
The early version, before the SP1 was added in, had the second ide comtroller at PIO by DEFAULT.
Go to your device manager and check the advanced properties of the second ide controller. Enable "DMA if availble" on both channels if it isn't already done.

The jerkiness really has nothng to do with a CAS2.5 setting, although the memory scores are slower, you would have a very hard time noticing any difference visually, unless of course you see that 3fps difference on a counter.

If you would like raise that memory score, you will find that you can now operate your FSB a little higher now that the memory is set to CAS 2.5
It wouldn't surprise me if your ram will do 150MHz. You will need to up the dimm voltage and the cpu core voltage as well. Remember cooling is critical.
BTW my 1800+ will do 1702MHz with just the fsb higher and the core set to 1.85.

Another thing. You didn't mention it , but the newest VIA 4-1 drivers really need to be installed to get the proper ATA100 from your drives. Current version is 4.35.
Win2k natively doesn't support ATA100 drives.

Ok another thought.
This is a no brainer if you build systems, but make sure there isn't anything in the PCI slot next to your vid card. That slot will use the same IRQ and resources as the video card, and no matter how good MS says IRQ sharing is or the greatness af ACPI, it doesn't work properly with the AGP slot.

Keep trying you will get smooth as silk.

 

[rogue1979]

You definately need a bigger power supply, I bet you will be able to raise the ddr voltage and run a 150MHz fsb fine at cas 2 when you upgrade to a better one.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Good advice guys, thanks! I will try to get a better powersupply in the next month or so. I think with the better PS, my CPU and DDR will be able to overclock better. If I have to drop to 2.5 so be it. I would also like to get some more use outta my Palo before I try tweakin' with the L1's. Overclocking sure was easy with the T-birds. FWIW, I'm running W2K with SP2 and I check both IDE controllers...the current xfer mode is DMA.

Right now I'm running at 39C at full load with my waterblock. This is about 2 degrees C hotter than with my FOP-38 similarly loaded, but it's about 10X quieter. I have two 120mm Panaflo's pushing through this radiator. They're the only fans in the case other than the PSU and the one on the GF3 Ti 200.