Very strange problem

[graftonater]

i have been able to play quake 3 engine games for a long tim on my systemm, however after making the following changes (upgrade drivers to modded 3.2 cat drivers and overclcok from 13*166 to 11.5*200) they crash on the first step of thge initiallizing box screen, (ill provide screen shots if any1 wants them) i have tried to fix both of these by reverting back to old drivers and also putting my fsb back to wut it was, other games work but just not these =(....any advice people?


UPDATE: all proggys work but after about 60 secs loading where a process called system takes up like 90% cpu times

[Liquid3D]

I don't beleive it's the Catalyst driver version, in fact I'm getting better results with the 3.2 version. The problem is the high FSB speed your running. Sounds like your running a TBred-B 2400+ slightly overclocked, and possibly wanted to improve your video performance by rasiing the FSB, and lowering the multiplier to compensate, as to not raise the processor FSB clock too high. Anyway, not knowing what type of motherboard you have, makes it difficult to offer any specific help. I would reinstall the Cat 3.2 drivers, and simply try raising your FSB albeit in smalle increments. Try 12x190, and reduce the memory timings to a slightly less aggressive settings. Also raise the Vcore slightly, if your at, or just above your deafult processor clock speed, then don't go too much higher then 1.675V to 1.75V. Not knowing what sort of memory your running is also makes it difficult to dispense advise.

Another solution would be to lower the mutliplier to 10x200, raise the VDIMM (voltage to the DDR) slightly above default which I assume is 2.5V, perhaps rasing it to 2.63V (or similiar) maybe even 2.7V, 2,8V depending on what type of memory your running. Remember 200FSB is 400MHz DDR which is PC3200, or DDR400. So if your running PC2700/DDR333 your going to have to raise the DDR voltage even higher, but no higher then 2.9V to be safe. If your using an nForce2 chipset many struggle at 200FSB, and the memory, timings have to be just right. If your are using an nForce2 chipset, make sure the following BIOS conditions are met; "CPU Interface - Aggressive", "Memory Frequency - 100% or Sync",  "Memory Timmings - Optimal",  "FSB and AGP Spread Spectrum - Disabled" and "AGP Frequency - 66MHz" not AUTO. Let us know what happens. Remember baby steps. Next time try only making ONE adjustment at a time, to eliminate the number of variables. Of course in this case, your going to want to raise VCore, and VDIMM (voltages) concurrently with the high FSB speeds your attempting. IF you don't have an nForce2 chipset, then don't do anything, because my advice would be different for different chipsets. Basically if your chipset doesn't allow adjustment of the AGP bus, then the reason your system is stable at 166FSB is because of the 5:2:1 divider, which is keeping it at default speeds, in that case you may only be able to attain 185-190FSB at the highest. The Nforce2 however locks the PCI bus, so you don't have to worry about that, but you do have to adjust the AGP Frequency manually, and 66MHz is the default AGP bus speed.

[graftonater]

thanx for all the help, i shld have specified my specs, i am running 2100xp b, 512 3200 twinmos with winbond, and asus a7n8x with radeon 9700 pro, 196*11.5 vcore @ 1.7 i rolled back my windows xp to earlier date and seemed to work for sum reason, with my setup wld u know wut i cld achieve?

[Liquid3D]

I think if your really lucky and your ambeint temperature is VERY low, you might be able to reach a FSB speed as high as 225FSB without performing a modification to the VDD (voltage to the nForce2 chipset) Although that depends upon getting a quality nForce2 NB, (NorthBridge) and that your PSU is supplying stable/adequate voltages. It also depends upon very small things like the types of voltage regulators, and resistors they used on the motherboard itself. With a VDD mod, the sky's the limit, if you priovide adequate cooling for the NB, in fact that couldn't hurt in any case, and is a fairly simple mod. What I would do if I were you, is carefuly remove the HSF from the NB, and clean it off, applying quality thermal paste, then reattach a more powerful HSF. Perhaps you have an old Pentium III HSF lying around, or a small Thermaltake Volcano may work. Make sure it's not too heavy, as you don't want to crack the core of the nForce2 NB. Even if you JUST remove and reapply thermal paste you'll probably see a difference. Your going to be surprised when you do remove the fan that's on there because it barely covers 1/3rd the surface of the chip! I mean how do you think your CPU would perform if it's HSF was incorrectly mounted, or too small for the processor? Well your entire ability to reach higher FSB speeds depends upon the performnace of that NB. How it's cooled, and it's receiving adequate voltage.

Anyway, stock you should reach 205FSB - 215FSB.

[Invalid]

Originally posted by Liquid3D
you might be able to reach a FSB speed as high as 225FSB without performing a modification to the VDD...stock you should reach 205FSB - 215FSB.

...i think the A7N8x FSB only goes up to 210MHz ...although i may be wrong


Ross

[Liquid3D]

The BIOS is now adjustable to 250MHz, I beleive you may be thinking of the  original BIOS, or that the BIOS allows 1MHz increments up until 210MHz (211MHz actually). However here's a review which the author mentions a "Jack of all trades" BIOS which allows for VDD increases. http://www.digital-daily.com/motherb...8x/index05.htm

[muzz]

As far as I know ( and I do NOT claim to be an expert on the Asus board) the VDD selection in the bios ( it was hidden) does nothing.... AFAIK you have to actually mod the board to raise the VDD.
I could be wrong, but I have seen talk of this.