HELP - OC'd the FSB and now I cant get into bios or boot!

[gimpycow]

HELP - Overclocked FSB and now system wont POST

In some need of serious assistance but I am not sure there is anything that can be done. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Issue:
I tried overclocking my front side bus from 166MHz to 200MHz. I did this by going into the bios and changing the CPU External Frequency from 166 to 200. Immediately after doing so, I tried to boot into Windows but my monitor would not accept the agp signal from my video card (Radeon 9800 Pro). I also tried my old Radeon 8500 but it did not work either.

So, now I need to get back into the bios to change the setting back to 166MHz but I cannot access the bios to do so.

Another strange thing is that my hard drive light constantly stays on so I guess it is spinning but not working properly?

I am thinking that maybe adding a PCI video card in my machine might at least get me into the bios? Unfortunately, I do not have one to try...

Finally, I tried pulling out 1 stick and then the other stick of my Corsair PC2700 DDR but that did not help. Could it be a memory problem now as well that the FSB has changed?

So, that is where I am at. I thought worse case scenario would be the machine not be stable or not booting but I never dreamed I could not get back into the bios to undo what I have done...

Am I hosed?

 

[TheMajor]

Check your manual on how to reset your BIOS.

 

[Kadahaf]

Wow your screwed.............












J/k take out your memory clean it and the port and replace then turn on

 

[gimpycow]

I already took out the memory and cleaned it but that did not work. I am fairly certain this is an issue with ocing the FSB. To reset the bios, I believe I need to get into the bios and to do that, I need a signal to my monitor which my system is not giving me right now.

That is my problem...how can I possible reset the bios without being able to get into the bios due to the monitor not getting an input from either the agp/card or the hard drive?

 

[Win2kpatcher]

Usually taking the CMOS battery out for like 10 minutes will clear that right up.

 

[TheMajor]

No, you do not have to get in your BIOS to reset/clear it. Resetting your BIOS is needed if you cannot get in your BIOS/comp not booting. It restores all settings back to default, similar to "default settings" in your BIOS.

Usually there's a switch or jumper on your motherboard to reset it.
You can also take out the battery for a few minutes.

 

[Nubius]

No to reset the CMOS/BIOS you simply take a little jumper generally near the CMOS battery and change it from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3 for about a minute or so and it'll clear the CMOS and BIOS options you previously set.

You REALLY need to read up on OC'ing man because I wouldn't be surprised if you've perhaps fried your CPU. That's the reason your computer won't POST or anything is because the settings are way beyond what it can handle.

You seriously jumped up the clock speed which really is not a good thing to do.

Supposing a computer is stock 1.6GHz at 166FSB that'd be 166x10 = 1.6GHz you changed it to 200 basically jumping a 400MHz increase in that scenario but I'm sure yours around that if not more.

Find the CMOS Jumper and clear it like I told you how. Hopefully then you should be able to get your computer booted. You'll have to go into the BIOS and redo everything, but for the love of god man read up on what you're doing before you go and decide to just change numbers like that.

 

[lazerman]

Usually start upping the front side bus in 5mhz increments... after each time you do that, Prime95 torture test it to make sure it is stable.

 

[millerhighlife_]

My god, that was a HUGE jump. And I thought I knew nothing about OC'ing...... LoL. Just kidding. Hope you can get it all worked out !

 

[gimpycow]

Ha! I hear you. I do know nothing about OCing but I read where the Athlon XP's and NForce 2 boards were supposed to be able to handle a 400 MHz FSB so I figured lets just start ocing there...

Anyhow, the following did the trick:

I had to take out my mobo battery, change a jumper setting on the mobo, wait for a minute, change the jumper setting back, put the battery back in and bang...bios was reset to default. I was able to get into it and change the settings to what they should be and boot into Windows.

Hopefully nothing fried in the process....ha!

Note to self...don't overclock again (accept for video card that is)...

Whew...thought I was a goner...