Whole slew of problems overclocking, almost lost my system, help!

[CrazyDiamond]

Ok, by the title, you can probably guess that i'm a newbie

Here's my system setup:

Duron 700
Abit KT7A mobo
ASUS TNT 2 Pro
SBlive OEM
256 MB Infineon RAM (i bought these from compuwiz, supposedly some run @ 150 MhZ)

Ok here's a little description of my O/Cing misadventures:
Ok, after reading some guides, i go into the BIOS and max out some of the settings for RAM and other stuff(i.e. 4 way interleave enabled, DRAM Bank Timing set to Fast)... well i tried setting the RAM to CAS 2... no go (what? i thought this RAM is supposed to run fast!). Ok so i set it back to CAS3 and it boots fine. Now i want to start overclocking my system. I go into bios, O/C the bus from 100 to 105, lower the multiplier from 7 to 6, and raise the core voltage from 1.65 to 1.7, reboot and... lockup?! Ok i couldn't figure out at first, so i took out some peripherals, rebooted, and saw that the clock multiplier was posting at 7!. So to be sure, i went into the BIOS and i saw that i did indeed change the multiplier to 6, WTH?! Did i screw up the pencil trick or something?! Ok so i set the multiplier and FSB back to what it was, but leave all the other tweaks the same, and now i'm writing to you guys... Anyone know whats up?

 

[arod324]

When your system cannot boot properly, you should press "insert" when you bootup. The reason it reset to 6X, is so that it will boot up properly. Don't worry, your thing is okay,I did that to my duron when I first got it. All you need to do is put a THICK coat of pencil lead on each L1 bridge..

 

[CrazyDiamond]

Ack, screwed this message up...

 

[arod324]

Hmm.... so your bootup screen shows 7X, and then your bios is set @6?.... If so, check something out by going into sandra... or anything that identifies your cpu speed and tell me what you get.

 

[CrazyDiamond]

Hehe, no i screwed the first message up... i initially lowered the multiplier from 7 to 6, but when i booted up, it was posting at 7! I went into the bios, and it said it was @ 6 though.

 

[CrazyDiamond]

OH btw, when i first built my system, it booted up as 6x100, so i know this system can do a multiplier of 6.

 

[CrazyDiamond]

Hmm... anyone got any suggestions? :\

 

[grendelkhan]

yeah, you prolly need to redo the pencil trick is all.

 

[CrazyDiamond]

I don't get it, i mean, right now i just tried lowering my multiplier from 7 to 5, and it didn't work... surely a messed up pencil job can't be the culprit, can it?

 

[Trippin]

one tip try changing one thing at a time so you can identify the culprit of any problems...just my .02

T

 

[overclockedfreakboy]

CrazyDiamond:

I have the ABIT KT7-RAID. Here are my system specs.
Abit KT7-RAID
300 Watt power supply
Duron 650@850 can do 900 (need better cooling).
Modified Coolermaster 60x50mm heatsink with 60mm Sunon 23cfm fan.
Win98 4.10.1998
128 MB Ram
Diamond Monster MX400 sound card
Obsolete 3dfx Voodoo 2000 AGP oc'd from 143@170mhz
Creative 12x DVD.
POS 2x Free mitsumi burner
Puny 8 gig maxtor hdisk.

Your assumption sounds correct. In my opinion the most likely culprit is the pencil trick.

First, make sure that you set the bios back to all the default settings. Then, once you get the Duron running at the speed you want, go in and set all the other tweaks in the bios.

For the pencil trick, I recommend using a mechanical pencil. Find the SMALLEST diameter lead that you can. I have helped friends do this with the same board that you have and it works. Just make sure you don't get any lead "bleeding" over to the next L1 Bridge or you'll be sorry. If your not sure, erase the pencil and start over. Perhaps just one of your bridges isn't properly connected. Try a small lead mechanical pencil.

Hopes this helps.