Help with underclocked CPU

[flipflopjim]

Interesting problem with my mobo and CPU, wondering if anybody has any suggestions.

Please keep in mind I'm a beginner at computer tinkering and have never experimented with OC'ing or anything, so feel free to threadcrap if it's obvious that I'm doing something wrong.

I was cleaning up my desktop at home, both inside and out. I installed everest and noticed that it listed the processor as an Athlon XP-A 1700+, clocked at 100x13. Now this ticked me off because the CPU, according to the guy who built it, is an athlon xp 3000+.

Now i figured he didn't lie to me (or not at least as severely as everest would suggest), so I did some searching around these forums and others and found that apparently some people had been having some problems with mobos underlocking their CPU's. So I went into the BIOS on my MSI KT6 FIS2R and upped the FSB on my CPU from 100 to 120 MHz. Then I rebooted and everything was stable, so I tried upping the FSB to 150 and the system locked up on reboot. It didn't fail to post entirely, but would hang on the opening mobo logo screen. I had to reset the CMOS jumper just to get the system to boot into windows again, with the FSB back at 100. Now from what I understand, the XP 3000+ is supposed to be easily clocked up to at least 166 MHz. But instead, I'm sitting with the rig listed below and a CPU underclocked to 1300 MHz! So what the heck is going on between my CPU and board?

Thanks much,
James

note to self: learn to build and service your own pc, or *dude, you're getting a dell*

 

[Calin]

Use a single stick of RAM, and set the processor's FSB to 166 MHz. This is the way it should be (I think).
You could open the case and take off the processor's heat sink. The processor should be labeled with its speed.

Anyway, check in BIOS under temperatures, and see if the processor stays at a sane temperature when it is at FSB 120 and 150 (sane means something under 65C). The max temperature (According to AMD) would be some 80-95 *Celsius (100*C is boiling point for water).

 

[nyarrgh]

Does your motherboard have a deafult 166 setting? If your trying to run your proc at 150 and above, but have the memory multiplier set to a setting for 133, you might be trying to run your memory too fast.

Or, you might have an old motherboard without a native 166 setting in which case you're trying to overclock your memory, AGP and everything else too fast.

*edit*
the MSI KT6 Delta-FIS2R does support xp 3000+ so it might just be the multiplier settings. Look for AGP/PCI speed/multiplier and Memory speed/multiplier in the bios setting. also, try to download CPUID at www.cpuid.com (it's called cpu-z) to find out if you indeed have an XP3000+ and what settings it's currently at.

 

[flipflopjim]

What are the FSB and mutliplier supposed to be set at for an XP 3000+?
Also,

Use a single stick of RAM

Why is this?

 

[zbalat]

Originally posted by: flipflopjim
What are the FSB and mutliplier supposed to be set at for an XP 3000+

166x13=2167MHz for the 333MHz FSB version

 

[Fern]

HERE'S a link to an AMD CPU chart. I don't see any 1700+ with a multi of 13, they are all 11 (11 x 133 = 14636mhz). So the proggie is mis-identfying your cpu.

You don't say what you ram is? PC 2700 or PC3200?

Just a thought, I can't tell if your mobo has an AGP/PCI bus lock. If not, running a FSB of an odd number (Ie, other than 133 or 166mhz) may cause problems. Your mobo won't be able to auto set a divider for those busses, thus running them out of spec of 66/33 mhz respectively causing stability probs and perhaps data corruption on the HDD.

Try a FSB of 133mhz, skip the 120 stuff. Then go for 166mhz.

Make sure your vcore is set 1.65volts (voltage to cpu).

Fern

 

[cirthix]

look for a 100/133+ jumper on your motherboard and set it to 133+

 

[Gentle]

When you boot it up, what does it say about the processor on the boot screen?

Gentle

 

[Antoneo]

If you are a bit daring, you might want to remove the heatsink and fan on your CPU and verify it that way. Otherwise, I agree with the CPUID idea as your best bet to figure out what chip you got, and then handle the situation from there.

 

[flipflopjim]

I loaded CPUID, which also said i was running a 1700+. I bumped the FSB in the bios up to 133 anyway and everything stayed stable. Now CPUID says it's an xp 2200+, so no real help there....

On the upside, changing to 133MHz did not significantly increase my thermals, up to about 51'C from 47' or so. The ram is PC3200 and is now running at the full 400 MHz instead of clocked down to 333, which my mobo was doing automatically with the FSB at 100.

I'd really like to avoid pulling off the heatsink if I can, so first I think I'll check the vcore setting and then try and clock straight up to 166x13 in the bios - I specify 'in the bios' because MSI has utility designed for OC'ing in windows, but as far as i can tell it works like crap.

I'll post again to say how things went.

 

[flipflopjim]

Success!

Vcore was already set to default 1.65 volts, and clocking straight to 166 FSB worked! Stable boot and CPU thermals are still a cool 53/54'C with the stock HSF. The fans aren't even running any faster than they were before. CPUID shows athlon xp 3000+. I would seem that did the trick.

Hopefully I haven't corrupted any data on my HDD, but the Western digital has been giving me noise trouble for a while and I might replace it soon with a clean Windows install on a new HDD anyway. Thanks much for the help, everybody. I'll post again only of things go awry from here.

James

 

[Calin]

Excelent. The reason the 150MHz FSB hasn't working because either PCI frequency or AGP frequency were out of working range for some devices.