a7a266 no overclocking fsb

[solidsnake]

mobo is a asus a7a266 with audio. using ocz 256 pc2400 ddr 2 sticks for a total of 512. have installed the newest bios and the old ones. have amd xp 1800 and ge force 2gts w/ 64mb ddr. vantec 6035d heatsink delta 7000rpm fan. temp stays about 57c full load. i cant get the fsb to overclock at all. have unlocked the chip. i can use a higher multipler to gain some overclocking but cant get fsb any higher. system either frezze up or will lock. is any body having the same problem or can someone steer me as to why? i have even tried changing memory for pc133. will not even help to lower mutiplier. my brother has almost same setup except he has 1.4 athlon same problem on his system.

[Antix]

Your CPU's are overheating badly!
The Athlon's are only made to handle up to 60C and you are running at 57C full load. This is why you can't overclock.

Get yourself a better heatsink (get rid of the AMD stocker), and get some ventilation going in your PC's.

[Antix]

I have a GlobalWin CAK38 (full copper) heatsink, Delta 7K fan, regular compound, Athlon XP1600+ @ 1.4GHz and my temps are 45C idle, 47C full load, 25C ambient.

[gibsinep]

Dont overclock till you have good cooling.

My specs. T-bird 1.33 stock heatsink.

idle 30 C
full 36 C

thats with an 80mm SUnon fan attached to top of case blowing directly on the cpu

[DocEvi1]

my system: 1.4 TBird runs at 40C idle, 46 load.
To get this I put a bay cooler in the top of the case extracting air, probably the same as a 120mm fan.

I was paranoid, when my temps were 53C Load, you should be terrified. Having said that unless you're using a P4 or XP, don't trust the temps completely - the measuring of them isn't the best.

Stefan

[gibsinep]

well i dont know he should be terrified but a bit worried mabey

[shaggy]

I have also had little luck overclocking bus. If I set it to 140 the sandra memory test locks up 50% of the times I run it.

I haven't got around to investigating it yet tho'

Mobo ASUS A7M266, CPU idle 44 max 48 (80mm fan @ 2700 blowing onto 'flower cooler' which I am not impressed with).

57 sounds quite high to me for a 7000rpm fan, I think either your heatsink is awful or your thermal compound is no good but I don't think that is why you can't overclock the bus.

[solidsnake]

the temps were took with asus pc probe software. dont know exactly how accurate that is. had the stock volcano 3 on it run about 7 degrees hotter still no fsb overclocking everthing run just the same. so later i bought the vantec after some research seen lots of high reviews with good scores. drop my temp between 7 to 10 degrees. no fsb overclocking. not stable anyway. dont think temp is the problem. had a 1.4 athlon when i built the system. still would not overclock fsb. changing the mutiplier it would overclock to 1529 stable. xp 1800 overclocks to 1600 stable. my brother has the athlon now with same mbo,ddr,and video card. does eactly same thing no fsb overclocking. dont know whats wrong. read about alot of overclockers changing fsb to 145 or 150. not me. thanks for all the response.


use artic silver w/ 2 fans one blowing in one blowing out.

[araaraara]

I have my AthlonXP 1600(1.4ghz) overclocked to a 1900(1.6ghz), even though I'm only using a Volcano5 with the thermal pad, which is only rated for 1.5ghz Athlon but 2.0ghz for pentium4. My cpu temp never goes over 40C. I've got the fsb on my MSI K7T266 Pro2 @ 152mhz. My system NEVER locks under WindowsXP Pro, and very rarely under Windows98SE.

[Ammok]

AMD say their chips will run at 90 centigrade. So ya boo.

Personally, I wouldn't like to go past 55c. and I can confirm that the higher the cpu temprature the slower it will go. Or more precisely the, the less likely it will overclock.

All the advice on cooling is good, I can get my FSB up to 147mhz, but only with several additional fans and a ten inch desk fan rattling like buggery blowing into the open casing.

So, it is cooling you need lad, and no need to be terrified if you believe the AMD statement.:p

Life is a bowl of cherries

[gibsinep]

ammok set up one of those fans about 5 inches from the heatsink and have it blow righjt on it. will cool donw bye a lot.
possibley mount from top of case

[Ammok]

Got a hot melt glue gun, so i stick em anywhere, some places better than others. Experiment.

[gibsinep]

help my temps out a lot except i mounted moine on a piece of metal i put across the top of my case. Case top still fit on and everything. Had to cut a intake hole for an d put a grill on. Droped temps by 10 C

[shaggy]

Not quite sure who the

b*ll*cks is directed at.

Anyway, what are your temps at 147MHz, what voltages do you change ?

[Ammok]

Not you Shaggy.

It's at the statement "athlons are only made to withstand 60c". They may well fail at this, but AMD boast 90c. Mine stays at less 50c:p

Volts are 1.825 and full loads are currently 47c cos I couldn't stand the noise with the desk fan on.

[shaggy]

I'm fed-up today cause I'm still underclocking (1.33Gig @1.33Gig).

Joined up the four L1's with a 2B pencil to unlock the processor as it said on a website. Put it all back together and hey presto the multiplier was still greyed out showing 10X in the bios. Had also set the CPU to 1.85V so tried a gentle 140MHz. Windows booted, I ran sandra cpu b/mark OK then memory b/mark and got a blue screen. Temp was 46 Deg.

I have gone back to underclocking, i.e. the rated speed. :(

Have got 1 Crucial DIMM and 1 Generic will maybe try Crucial on its own tomorrow or maybe just sulk.

[Ammok]

Sharpen Pencil, read the SysOpt overclocking guide, and go for it.

[gibsinep]

good Luck

[solidsnake]

i have tried about everything a know to try have experience with overclocking. that was the whole reason i bought a asus mbo. as for heat related i dont think thats it. if a change my multiplier to say 10 and fsb to 140 that would only be a 1400 and its a 1.53 mhz. i would think that heat would be less but not sure. even with 10 multiplier it still will not overclock fsb more than 133mhz.

read lots of good reviews about asus a7a266 overclocking but its not working for me. maybe i just bought the wrong board for overclocking?

[araaraara]

Maybe you're just unlucky and got one of the rare, un-overclockable chips? :(

[gibsinep]

Hye mabey

[solidsnake]

i had a 1.4 athlon before the xp1800 in this board still no fsb overclocking. think maybe its the board. just dont know for sure. my brother has the same board with my old 1.4 athlon and same memory as i do. he gets the same results no fsb overclocking?

[gibsinep]

then it is probally the board

[chewboxa]

it is your board for sure. i have the same board and have a 1.2 tbird. the option in my bios is greyed out as well. had to use the jumpers on the motherboard to get good overclocking. kinda suks when i bought a "jumperfree" mode board, but i got it done none the less. Good luck.

[solidsnake]

i can set the fsb higher in the bios. have all options available tried to up the voltage produced nothing. when i mean no fsb overclocking. i mean it wont run stable or it hangs up. would be interested in knowing how anyone has overclocked the fsb on this particular board?

[benchristian]

ok...it's quite possible that some of your other PC components other than your ram and cpu or slowing you down. When you overclock your FSB, you overclock the speed of your agp, and all of your pci slots. If your sound card isn't good, it could screw things up. A raid controller, the NIC or modem. Anything can screw up a FSB o/c.

I used to have this board, and I was able to o/c my 1.33 up to 1.45 without changing the multiplier.

[solidsnake]

useing on board sound.no raid controller,ge force 2gts video card with 64mb ddr and its not overclocked. modem is actiontec with its own cpu. my brother has same board with same memory and video card everthing else is completly different cpu is 1.4 athlon. he has the same exact problem. its got to be one of the three.
what was in your system that you overclocked this board with?


thanks for all the help!

[gibsinep]

WAnt kind of RAm, SOund, and modem to you have

[shaggy]

Don't give up yet Solidsnake.

Thanks to benchristian I took out my NIC card and tried again. Success, I changed my FSB to 145 and ran the system for hours (inc. burn-in) totally stable with no special cooling (temp did go up to 52Deg). I didn't even up the voltage from 1.77 !

So thanks again to benchristian. There's always hope.