HELP! A very frustrating overclocking experience...

[chrismcclellan]

I'm a relative newbie to overclocking...I did the pencil trick on my Duron 800 about a month ago, and I was able to hit 950+ easily. However, over time my system would boot to 550 when the multiplier was set to 9.5, and 500 when set to 9 (and 600 at 10x). A quick reboot would usually put it back to 950 (my usual speed). It will boot to 850 with some hassle usually involving having to boot the system once and then hitting reset. So I took the system apart and did the trick again, and once again, booting only at 500-600 (btw, it will still boot at the default 800 just fine). Did the trick YET again, being extra careful to lay down plenty of pencil on it. I can boot at the lower multipliers just fine (500-800), but any multiplier above 8.5 refuses to work at all. What gives with this? Have I done something to the core? I've been running voltages normally around 1.75 and temperatures have been around 105 most of the time, 115 being the highest ever. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated! Also, seeing that a few people have been asking about hard locking their processor, is that an option to think of as well?

my system:
Duron 800@who knows anymore
MSI K7T-Pro2a bios 2.7 and the oc bios installed
256 mb PC133 RAM
Western Digital ata/66 7200 rpm hd 13.6gb/Quantum Fireball ata/33 3.2gb
Radeon LE@185/185
Maxi Sound Muse
Generic Winmodem (Rockwell chip)
Realtek 10/100 ethernet

 

[chrismcclellan]

bump

 

[chrismcclellan]

(yet another) bump

 

[MrThompson]

This is a classic case of the L1 birdges not all being closed. Get a mignifying glass and check your pencil work. A better solution is a rear window defogger kit or a conductive silver pen.

 

[Richardito]

Get a high-graphite pencil and re-do the bridge work. Use the eraser to eliminate the old work and simply re-do the connections. If you want to use the defogger paint it would be a more permanent solution. If you use the paint make sure you have some cleaning solvent handy in case you mess up the job.

 

[MrThompson]

Remember graphite is a resistor. A defogger kit or conductive pen is a better solution.

 

[chrismcclellan]

Thanks a lot. I'll try that out and see what happens. Hope it works!