Cannot change CPU multiplier

[smn198]

I am trying to overclock a 1.33GHz Athlon in a Asus A7NX8 Deluxe motherboard. The CPU is weird. It had 3 of the L1 bridges in tact. I only had to join one. See link

The motherboard will let me change the CPU multiplier but it will keep using the 10x multiplier. I will sometimes get the POST warning that the CPU isn't overclocked right when keeping the original FSB. Surely it should let me reduce the multiplier!?

 

[smn198]

Anyone?

 

[BD231]

Those cpus are unlocked from the factory, your extra connection is most likely causing the problem.

 

[maninthebox]

If your board shipped with the 1001.g BIOS then you need to try downgrading to an older BIOS. Mine came with the 1001.g and I had the same problem with an 1800+ T-bred, but when I downgraded to the 1001.c BIOS I was able to overclock fine.

 

[smn198]

Originally posted by: maninthebox
If your board shipped with the 1001.g BIOS then you need to try downgrading to an older BIOS. Mine came with the 1001.g and I had the same problem with an 1800+ T-bred, but when I downgraded to the 1001.c BIOS I was able to overclock fine.

Thanks Maninthebox. They had just releaced the 1002 beta BIOS so I tried that and it works fine. Currently using a 166MHz FSB. Will try more later

 

[Denkkar]

OMG, this was giving me such a headache. It's just the silly 1001g BIOS revision causing the problem?

Thanks a million mhz ;-)

 

[Denkkar]

WTH? I just upgraded my BIOS from 1001.cg to 1002 beta 001. Still don't have any ability to do 1 mhz increment adjustment, just the standard 100, 133, 166 choices for the FSB. And while the 166 choice now works well enough so that I can boot my 2400+ processor with it, 3D Mark 2001SE crashes right away when I try benchmarking (I suspect my DDR 333 RAM doesn't actually work at 333 mhz).

I then downgraded my BIOS to 1001.c to see what would happen. Basically was like 1002 beta 001... I couldn't see any difference... except that now the auto settings for the Clock Multiplier set my CPU to < 1000 mhz and manual settings only go up to 12.5x which is 2000+ athlon. The 13x which is, for reasons beyond my understanding, at the bottom of the list, actually sets my CPU to < 900 mhz settings. Ewwwww.

Is there some jumper that enables/disables rationality on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe somewhere? :-(

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Denkkar
WTH? I just upgraded my BIOS from 1001.cg to 1002 beta 001. Still don't have any ability to do 1 mhz increment adjustment, just the standard 100, 133, 166 choices for the FSB. And while the 166 choice now works well enough so that I can boot my 2400+ processor with it, 3D Mark 2001SE crashes right away when I try benchmarking (I suspect my DDR 333 RAM doesn't actually work at 333 mhz).

I then downgraded my BIOS to 1001.c to see what would happen. Basically was like 1002 beta 001... I couldn't see any difference... except that now the auto settings for the Clock Multiplier set my CPU to < 1000 mhz and manual settings only go up to 12.5x which is 2000+ athlon. The 13x which is, for reasons beyond my understanding, at the bottom of the list, actually sets my CPU to < 900 mhz settings. Ewwwww.

Is there some jumper that enables/disables rationality on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe somewhere? :-(

For the FSB settings, I think why you're only getting 100, 133, and 166 is because you have ur FSB set to something other than Manaul. I think the 3 choices are Manual, Auto, and Optimum, with Optimum I think being what yours is set on.

 

[maninthebox]

Other than unlocking the multipliers, does anyone know whats new in the beta bios?

 

[Denkkar]

I found my problem, not exactly well documented

I just had to play with one of the settings, something like CPU Interface, and set it to Aggressive.

This unlocked the FSB 1 mhz increments and allowed me to use the bigger multipliers ;-)

I'm now running my 2400+ @ 2.13 ghz (145 ext. frequency and I forget the multiplier setting now...). Oooh, wow, a 6.5% overclock. I know for a fact that Win XP won't boot if I set it to 150 external frequency, so I'm pretty much at my max right now.

FYI: Don't buy OCZ Performance RAM (http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory_specs.php?id=7). The only thing that performs is the sticks they hand pick for the reviewers. Or maybe I just got a lemon? At the speeds they show on their website, my computer won't even POST. Setting the memory to 166 mhz (333 DDR) with CAS 2 (and *any* value for the rest of the RAM timings, including really really lax ones), doesn't POST either. CAS 2.5 on the other hand lets me boot the OS. Fails the Prime 95 tortue test in something like 5 minutes and fails 3D Mark 2001 SE almost instantaneously (how sad is that?). IMO these sticks are 266DDR pieces and should be sold as such ;-(

 

[Jeff7181]

Well you ARE running your FSB and your DRAM async. Try running them sync... why would you run a 145 FSB when you have DDR333? Set it to 166 and lower your multiplier. Test it first at 2.0 GHz with a 166 FSB, if it's stable, increase the multiplier, testing for each half point increase until it's unstable, then back it down and do a longer torture test on the whole computer, not just the CPU and RAM. Reason being is that some CPU instabilities only show up when your GPU is working hard too... sometimes a power hungry AGP card sucks so much juice that the vcore drops and you get random lock ups and reboots. Happened to me with my XP1700 Palo and GF4 Ti4200 and Shuttle AK31A.

 

[smn198]

Well I managed to trash my BIOS chip with the latest BIOS. Seemed to flashed fine. Soft boot no problems. Then I shut down and after that it would not boot. Just sits there doing nothing. Ordered a replacement BIOS chip and got the guy to put on a BIOS revision I know worked but still nothing. He didn't have the same chip so he gave me one he thought would work. Guess not. :|

Anyone else had any problems flashing this mobo or getting a replacement BIOS? Sure I didn't do anything wrong. Must have been a power spike or something but soft boot worked and showed new BIOS revision. (I flashed it properly through DOS and not a silly windows BIOS wrecking program)