Overclocking doesn't seem to work!

megamaced

megamaced

Geek Geek Geek!
Hi

You probably get these kinds of questions all the time so I do apologise in advance!

I have an ECS (Elitegroup) P6BAT-A+ motherboard. It features a maximum FSB of 100 MHz and a clock multiplier that goes up to 8.5. I am running a Pentium 3 700/100/256/1.75 Slot 1 processor.

I have been building PCs for a while but I’ve never tried to over clock until now. My problem is when I set a higher multiplier, the bios seems to ignore my settings and automatically detect the factory settings for that CPU. I can’t change the FSB because I am already running at the maximum 100 MHz. Interestingly, I can set a FSB of 133 MHz in the bios but then my PC won’t start.

Can someone tell me why my computer is ignoring my settings. I would like to point out that this PC is not my primary PC so I am free to take risks!!

:ff:
 
Intel has had locked multipliers on retail CPUs for years, although they may have changed this with some of the newer Pentium 4/D CPU's. Unless you have an engineering sample, you're not going to be able to change the multiplier While I don't know off-hand how well the 850 Celeron's OC'd, I don't think that they had the capabilities to hit the 300MHz OC you're trying to accomplish without extra voltage and some sort of cooling I guesstimated the 300MHz given the multiplier and the 33MHz FSB increase. That motherboard doesn't seem to be built for any sort of overclocking at all, given the available FSB selection. If you really want to try OC'ing, see if you can find an Abit BE6 or Asus CUSL2 or TUSL2 (the 'T' supports Tualtin p3s and Celerons because of the newer i815E over the i815). I suspect you could pick up either one pretty cheap if you look around. The BE6 uses the i440BX chipset, which back in the day was the only chipset worth squat to the overclocker.
 
After fiddling around with various settings, i realised i was doing something wrong. Anyway, now i have figured it all out i successfully overclocked my CPU!!

By default, my CPU is 700MHz (7.0 X 100). My motherboard gives me the option to increase the CPU's bus but not the multiplier. So firstly, i changed the bus to (7.0 X 112) which gave my CPU a clock of 784 MHz!

Then i took a risk by increasing the bus to 133 Mhz (7.0 X 133) which clocked my CPU at 933 MHz!! Thats an extra 233 MHz that i didn't have before! Suprisingly, my system ran quite stable.

Now that i have mastered the overclock, i need to ask a few obvious questions.
My CPU overclocked at 933 MHz gave me a temperature of 30 C and a system temperature of 32 C. Is this reasonable? At what temperature should you start worrying?!

My second question has to do with the CPU voltage. The default for my Pentium 3 is 1.75v. Do i need to gradually increase this as i overclock? At the moment, i increased it to 1.80v, is this okay?

My third question would be how far can i go with this? Baring in mind my Pentium 3 is reasonably old and a slot 1 processor. Am i shortening the life of my CPU? Would you consider a 233 MHz increase to be a good overclock?

Sorry, lots of questions..
 
That depends if it's stable. The generally accepted means of doing this is to run [google]Prime95[/google]'s tourture test for 24 hours (or more) and not come up with any errors. You don't want to up the voltage if the CPU is stable, as it's unnecessary and adds extra heat to what's been added. However, if you do need it, up it by the smallest increment possible and try again. Just because you've booted into Windows doesn't mean its stable.

30-32*C is safe. If you see temps getting up around 50-60 degrees, then you might want to check your cooling or look into something a little stronger.

In theory, yes overclocking does decrease the lifespan of the CPU, but instead of 15 years, you might only get 10. Most people don't keep their main computer for 10 years.

You've got a 33.2% OC out of the chip, and that's pretty good. You have a Coppermine core P3, which ran from 600MHz-1GHz...so in theory, you might be able to hit 1GHz. Of course, overclocking does come down to luck as you're not guaranteed anything over stock speeds. ;)
 
Have i overclocked my RAM by increasing the CPU bus?

I bought 2 128MB NEC PC100 SDRAM sticks to match the CPU bus speed. Now that the CPU is running at 133 Mhz FSB, is the ram also running at that speed?

If so, is that dangerous?
 
The Memory:CPU FSB ratio. If that's set 1:1, then, yeah, it's running at 133MHz.

If you're not crashing, you're probably alright. This setting may be referred to as FSB: CPU or Mem:CPU and may have different ratios.

[google]Memtest[/google] is a great tool to have on hand, and not just for overclocking. If you can, run it for 24 hours, but if not, run it overnight (8hrs or so) and you should be able find out if the RAM is running alright. I'd grab the ISO file to burn to CD, but that's just me.
 
Everything is running OK. My CPU has been overclocked for a few days now and i haven't had any problems (touch wood).

I guess it pays to use branded memory! I have good faith in my old NEC sticks! Would it make sense to buy PC133 Simms in the future if the memory bus is now running at that speed.

There are a few things i don't understand now. My motherboard is only supposed to support a 100 MHz FSB, so in theory, is my motherboard working overtime as well?
Another thing, ECS states my motherboard is only compatible with CPU's up to 850 MHz, yet my overclocked CPU is running at 933 MHz!
My motherboard CPU multiplier only goes up to 8.0, so how would i set a CPU multiplier of 8.5 or above? Would my motherboard detect it automatically?

cheers
 
The limitations are what's spec'd and guaranteed by the chipset manufacturer (like Intel, SiS, nVidia, etc.) guarantee. Anything over that is generally not guaranteed.

As for the multiplier, that really depends. Some motherboards (and your motherboard is probably old enough for this one) have a bank of dipswitches used to set the multiplier. Generally, if you have the dipswitches on the motherboard, you woun't be able to adjust it in BIOS. Now, if you can in BIOS, there may have been a BIOS update that could allow for the higher multiplier.

Another thing to consider is that CPU's may have only been available up to a certain speed at the time the motherboard was released, and was only tested at that speed. Considering how frequently specs change in this industry, it'd be rather confusing for companies to constantly update everything, as some motherboards might be equipped with newer chipset revisions or clockgenerators, etc.
 
The motherboard sets everything by the bios, and uses very few jumpers. I think there is a jumper that sets the FSB, but that is also available in the bios.

Upgrading the bios might help. My version is 5.4 and the latest in 5.6. I have tried to update the bios several times with no luck. First i tried the awardflash utility that works within Windows, but it displayed a message saying my bios cannot be upgraded this way.
Instead, i made an MS-DOS bootable from within Windows XP and restarted my machine. I loaded up a DOS compatible flash utilty (made by award) in DOS, but it gave me a different type of error. It said something like bios or file not found. Strange..

The specifications of my motherboard says the max processor is 850MHz (at that time) with a 100FSB. Do you think my mobo will automatically set the multiplier for a 1 GHz processor?

Just one other thing, i think i said on another thread that this mobo has both a slot 1 and socket 370. Interestingly, the specifications say this slot can only handle 'new generation' celerons running at 66 Mhz FSB with a maximum speed of 584 MHz. Do you think this is another example of the manufacturer updating the specs when new processors come out. I think at the time there were only celerons using socket 370? Surely if the slot supports Pentiums with 100 Mhz FSB then the socket 370 would as well?

If you don't mind looking, the link to the .pdf manual for the mobo is:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Downlo...al&DetailDesc=P6BAT-A (2.2)&MenuID=45&LanID=0

Thks for you help so far
 
New RAM has effected my overclock

Hi

As you know, i was quite happily running an overclocked CPU, but now i've added memory, i can't overclock as much anymore!

I was using two identical 128 MB PC100 NEC sticks (with 8 chips each, on one side only). With this setup, i could run a 133MHz FSB.

Today, i received a new stick of PC100 128 MB NEC RAM. This stick is different to my others because it has chips on both sides. Anyway, with this installed, I received a memory error at the POST screen! When I change the FSB back to 100 MHz it works!
The highest i can set my FSB with this new RAM installed is 112 Mhz! That only overclocks my CPU to 784 Mhz, compared to 933 Mhz before - pretty naff. :(

I never realised different types of memory can effect your overclock, especially when they are from the same manufacturer. I guess some memory is built better then others.
 
Depends on the memory chips used. Some memory chips, by design, will only go up to a certain speed. You may have heard about the Samsung TCCD DDR stuff. It overclocks very well with minimal voltage increases. Depending on the DDR PCB (Printed Circuit Board) used, the overclocking can also be affected.

The other thing that can factor into the OC equation is if the sticks are single-sided or dual-sided, meaning if one or both sides of the PCB have RAM chips on them. Typically, dual-sided don't OC as well as single-sided, everything else being equal. The other piece deals with the chipset and motherboard's ability to deal with dual-sided RAM and in what configuration. Some motherboards can only handle 4 banks of RAM. The motherboard may have 3 slots, totalling 6 banks, but you'd only be able to use 2 dual-sided sticks at a time without problems...and that's just one example.
 
I guess i will have to find another stick of single sided NEC RAM.

Once again, thanks for your help Big B.
 
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