OCing a 2400 XP

[ak_smallz]

I got a 2400+ athlon XP because i heard of it's enormous overlcocking potential... but so far i cant get it higher than 2 gigs (and many have easily gotten it to 2.2 gigs). I have a 350 watt PSU, asus A7V8X-X mb, 768 mb pc 2100 (256x3) kingston value ram, and a Thermaltake Volcano 11+.
im thinking that the RAM is limiting everything, because i have tried multipliers of 10,11,12,13,14, and 15 and i cant get over 2 gigs.
once i reach 2 gigs, the temps are 40c and load of 48 or so. I move the fsb up a little and i get the black screen of death. So i up the V-core and still no luck. I then have to reset it back down to get it stable again. Any ideas on what to do?

thanks for any help

 

[Nubius]

....yeah....it's the 35w 2400+ XP-Mobile that has an 'enormous overclocking potential' ....got mine currently running at 2.7GHz....you won't be able to OC a 2400+ XP very far especially since after week39 of that chips production they started 'super locking' all their chips multipliers so the only way to OC would be to raise the FSB unless you can unlock the multiplier to your chip.

im thinking that the RAM is limiting everything, because i have tried multipliers of 10,11,12,13,14, and 15 and i cant get over 2 gigs.

That's because your multiplier is locked at 15 and it won't let you set it to other multipliers, although your PC2100 RAM is KILLING you and even if you did have the right chip you'd need to get better RAM to be able to better OC.

I move the fsb up a little and i get the black screen of death. So i up the V-core and still no luck.

That's overclocking your CPU as well as your RAM which your RAM being slow as it is, doesn't want to take it...you have to raise your Cycle Time (Tras) up one or two to help stability when raising the FSB..and sometimes bumping the DRAM Voltage up by .1 is necessary also to get it to run the faster FSB, but you'd better have RAM Heatspreaders because like I said Raising the FSB = overclocking the RAM too....not only that, but when you raise the FSB you're also raising your AGP and PCI bus which if you can't lock those (generally you'll see an option for the AGP Frequency which should be at 66MHz and when you lock the AGP it auto locks the PCI at 33 because it is AGPCI at a ratio of 2:1 so 66:33 see?)

You also might want to consider getting a better PSU in the future if you want to OC, you'll have to be able to rely on your PSU to give you the extra voltages sometimes required for OC'ing

 

[ak_smallz]

i think my multipliers are unlocked. What i meant by 10-15, was that i set it by 10x190, and i couldnt get it over 10x200. im looking into getting better ram, which should help everything. Also, is the XP-M compatable with my XP board?

 

[Nubius]

Also, is the XP-M compatable with my XP board?

Your board isn't an "XP Board"....it's a Socket A motherboard and you need to know this kind of simple stuff if you want to overclock especially...The only thing you look for in compatibility when it comes to mobo's and CPUs is if they have the same socket (and of course if the board can support the speeds)......the 35w 2400+ XP-M uses Socket A just like the 2400+ XP and well the XP series in general.

i think my multipliers are unlocked. What i meant by 10-15, was that i set it by 10x190, and i couldnt get it over 10x200.

If your computer did not boot when you changed the multiplier, or the speed was not changed, then your multiplier is locked. If you just bought or received the 2400+ XP chip chances are it is NOT unlocked and it's just defaulting to 15 multiplier everytime even though you're putting it to 10...that's what a locked multiplier does....so change your multiplier (go down not up dont want to fry anything and are just seeing what its at) and download a program like CPU-Z and it'll tell you what your FSB and multiplier is set at...that'll tell you 100% for sure if your multi is unlocked or not....

Other than that, have you made sure you're leaving your PC2100 RAM at 266MHz? Because with your CPU FSB up at 200 the RAM would be trying to run at 400MHz and that'll simply fry it.

So all in all, you need to download that CPU-Z and find out whether or not your multiplier truly is locked or not.

 

[ak_smallz]

Your board isn't an "XP Board"....it's a Socket A motherboard and you need to know this kind of simple stuff if you want to overclock especially...

i knew that
thanks for the help, ill work at it... i guess im still gaining experience

 

[Nubius]

thanks for the help, ill work at it... i guess im still gaining experience

lol none to worry, I didn't exactly learn all this crap overnight...I didn't even attemp to OC until I had read about it for atleast a month or so.

 

[ak_smallz]

oh yea, 1 more thing... i notice you have 256mb of PC2700 RAM in your specs. why dont you use more of something better?

 

[Nubius]

Well, it says FTM and I know no one knows what it means but it stands for "For the Moment" I had a 512mb stick of PC3200 RAM, but 1. It got fried during overclocking 2. It was 3-3-3-8 Value stick, so I've already RMA'd it and I guess it'll show up in like 2-4 weeks or so and then I'm going to sell the 512mb value stick and then just save up for some Corsair XMS PC3200 RAM. This 256mb stick I have is 2.5-3-3-7 timings and my computer runs completely stable with those faster timings whereas I couldn't get 2.7GHz stable with my 512mb stick no matter what. So I figure I want to keep my 2.7GHz, sell the 512mb stick and save a few more dollars for the XMS series with 2-3-3-6 (1T) timings instead

 

[mlr]

hey nubius that vcore is pretty high man mines at 1.68 at 2.525ghz,i should have the vantec totnado fan tomorrow so im hoping for 2.7ghz at 1.85 vcore, let you know how it goes

 

[Nubius]

Have you prime95'd it yet? Because mines +12 hours at this speed...it's weird though because it originally liked being at 2.075 and as time went by....it froze up once...I raised the Vcore to 2.1 it froze again...I lowered it to 2.05 Vcore and now it works like a champ! Yes it is a rather high vcore I have, but I have adequate cooling and can easily keep it below 45C so it's really not a big deal Also currently I'm working with a 256mb stick of PC2700 RAM....don't know how that's effecting me, I got a 512mb that's been RMA'd to kingston so that'll arrive in 2-4 weeks I guess, but I'm going to sell that and eventually get the Corsair XMS because my computer wants the lower latencies...other than that, I don't know if it'll stay prime95 stable if I lower the Vcore, but I do actually need to try lowering it, because I've heard of people being able to lower voltages after the chips 'burned in' a little and settles to it's speed....I can get my computer running 2.5GHz at 1.68 Vcore, but it won't necessarily be prime95 stable