"Asus nFORCE2 (thread retitled)"

Hi guys, got some trouble on my A7N8X (rev. 2.0) so I hope you can help me. The main problem is this board is kinda inconsequent. One time I can run a certain FSB (say 200 MHz) with 12 hrs of Prime 95 stable. Then, after some experimenting (e.g. raising the FSB to 205, unstable, set it back to 200 again), the board allready shows me an error on Prime95 after 15 minutes or so. The only thing changed was FSB, so I can't see why it would be stable one time, and fail pretty soon the next. I set my MP to 9 just to be safe, and know CPU speed is not the problem.

This is my 2nd A7N8X, and both have given me the same problems, although this one is slightly better I admit. Maybe it's some other hardware causing the trouble, but it just doens't make any sense.

My full specs:
Barton 2500+
1x 512MB HyperX PC3000 (known stable up to 200Mhz 2-5-2-2 @ 2.7V)
Asus A7N8X 2.0 (BIOS 1007)
Sapphire 9800np (currently non-overclocked)
SB Live! 1024 Player
IBM 180GXP 120GB

The CPU and chipset are watercooled, CPU temp is 46C/114.8F stressed, 40C/104F with case open (got a small case that gets up to 37C/98.6F when stressed for a long time).

Another thing I'm noticing is slight stutters in games at certain FSB speeds, I need to raise the AGP speed to up to 72Mhz to fix this. Anyone else experienced that?

Any ideas on why my board is stable one time, but fails pretty quickly the next? Getting kinda frustrated by this board :(

Quote:

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Originally posted by kokoro_kara
Awsome!! Thanks Saaya: was that 205 WCooled???

Also, another question ;) what the heck does dc at the end of your 255 stand for:confused:

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Dual channel ofcourse ;)

I have the A7N8x Delxe PCB 2.0 BIOS 1007 and only uing Corsair XMS LL PC2700 RAM at 3-3-3-6, dual channel 256MB x2

Barton 2600+ running at 2.305GHz @ 200x2 vCore at 1.81v
Temps are 32c on die (MBM5) while Folding (F@H)

At 200 with this RAM things get loopy.

Are you guys using the standard A7N8x?? Or the Deluxe??

Duh, Thanks :banana::banana::banana::banana:!

I have the deluxe with 106 bios, I'll check what the new bios is :D

I'm frustrated with this boards OC'n ability too. This is my first time and it seems like you really have to trick it to get those higher fsb's. :( Which, as far as volt modding and such I'm pretty much have put that off of my risk taking level right now.

Once in awhile I hear a 210 fsb out of the box. But it seems most have a hard time getting above 200?

Anyone figure out for sure what this hang up is? I've heard theories but nothing concrete enough to do, yet?

Good luck all, and I hope this thread isn't that dead yet?

I'm using a 2.0 non-deluxe. Got it running at 210FSB now, after testing the memory at a friends place (he got is board voltmodded to over 240FSB using 2.1V). The mem tested ok to at least 220/230, so after having a lot of trouble, finally got it stable.

First of all, you need the CPU_FSB jumper at 200FSB, for sure. Then reset your BIOS, and start raising the FSB. I found it best to start with a 8.5 MP, so the CPU wouldn't be an issue, even later on. We want FSB first here, then CPU :)

I had trouble running higher than 190FSB or so, but when I tested my mem, and put it back in the most right memory slot, I could go to 210 FSB easily! Yeah - I'm only single channel powered. Don't matter too much for an AMD anyway, so didn't bother to upgrade - especially cause it overclocks really well for 183Mhz RAM.

So, try to move your mem around a bit, might help you guys to. Test your memory somewhere else, so you know that's not the problem and set the timings safe. I used 11-2-2-2 at 2.8VDDR all the time cause I already knew it wasn't the bottleneck.

I can boot to Windows at 225FSB, maybe even 230, but then all is over pretty soon. I'm sure I can get it over 235 with a VDD mod, but I'm kinda too busy to be uninstalling my watercooling...

Hope it helps you guys out!

So if I didn’t do the vvd mod right and had some 512DDR 3500 would I be able to run it on Asus A7N8X rev 1.6 at 217Fbs or maybe higher?

Thanks :banana::banana::banana::banana:, I also noticed slight stutters in games. I set my
agp to 72 and that stopped the stutters.The only thing is the
temp on my cpu went from around 43 to 49 with no load.
Is there anything else to look out for when raising agp buss?

Volcom: there's no guarantees, you'd have to be sure your mem is the problem atm.

Joe: I didn't see a raise in temps, weird. vAGP shouldn't really affect the CPU temp, *maybe* the GPU/mem of the AGP card a tiny bit but not much.
I also have a new discovery for ya: install the lastest nForce drivers from the nVidia webby. Great drivers, although some people seem to have trouble with them. For me, this solved the stutters completely and made everything feel SO much more SMOOTH, not just games, windows also. I can set AGP back to 66 now without any abnormalities :)

Small update:
got my comp completely adjusted (some fan holes etc. ;) ), and also got my mobo modded. I target for a quite performer, so I didn't did the Vcore mod (can't get rid of the extra heat).

My watercooling handles the Vdd mod really well, CPU is still at nice temps. Mem doesn't get warm either.

I can get to a max of 225FSB with CPU interface set to aggressive. Can probably get higher with it set to optimal.

Now for my problem: I can't get the 10/10,5 MP to work. I've had this problem before, but somehow solved it cause one day 200x10 (with my old CPU) was working flawlessly.

Now, if I set it to 10 it won't boot at all, and at 10,5 it does boot most of the time, but is so unstable the MP is useless. I scanned throughout this thread (damn that took long ;) ), but can't find a solution.

Anyone out there who can help me?

I'm so glad I only read the last 2 pages to find someone who's asking the same thing as me. And that is - i can't get the multiplier of 10/10.5 to boot either. I'm currently testing at 220fsb but i can't use this setting as the cpu is way to low at 9.5. Help!

Cheers,

neologan

Still haven't found a solution to it neologan :(

I know more people had this problem, but I can't find anything of it anymore. I tested about everything I can on this mobo, but still no go. What kind of sys you have there? Maybe we can compare to rule out some components.

So far I tried, as I said, about all I can with the mobo. All BIOS settings, the CPU_FSB jumper, BIOS 1004-1006. I also tried installing other mem - no go. Other PSU - no go.

Today, I borrowed a 2500+ to see if that will do the trick. Kinda know of nothing else which could be the problem.

10.5 I can boot at btw, but it one time I can't even get past the IDE detection, the next it will get into Windows but freezes then.

Wtf!

Specs:
2800+ currently at 216x11, 1.85v
A7N8X 2.0 non-deluxe, BIOS 1006 (CPU_FSB jpr @ 100)
2x256MB PC3500 BH-5 2-11-2-2
9800np
IBM 180GXP
watercooling

I'm on the 1007 bios and am having no joy, i guess if i don't solve this i'll start checking older bios'

Ok sys specs:

XP1700+ currently at 205x11, 1.65v (more like 1.7v in mm5)
A7N8X-X, BIOS 1007 (CPU_FSB jpr @ 100) How do I tell if it's v2.0?
256MB PC3700 Twinmos (old style) 2-11-4-4 (for now)
R8500 128mb
IBM 180GXP
Alpha Heatsink

Can;t think of anything to try tbh, it just won't do 10/10.5 and that is that :(

Cheers :banana::banana::banana::banana:

Got it to post and into windows, prime95 stable (so far)

I put my fsb down to 166 and multi to 10.5x and it worked. Now to see if i can up it past 166. fingers crossed ;)

I'll report back

As soon as I got to 200 it wouldn't post, anything under this and it's stable. Around 198/199 it would post but i'd get an error like you said.

So what to do? I chose this piece of crap over an abit and i'm pretty pissed now. I'll never do that again ASUS

I can get to 227 FSB Prime stable, anything higher and it hangs. Prolly caused by the memory tho... will try setting Vddr a bit higher, is currently 2.95V.

So you say u can get 10/10.5 to work, only if you have the FSB lower than 200? That's so ridiculous, I didn't even try it :)
Don't see the use, rather be doing 215x11 than 19Xx10.5

Cheers!

I've decided to live with 220x9.5 which is pretty §§§§ really. I really hate asus for this.

I managed to borrow a 2500+ from a friend, gonna try it right now to see if I can get it to go at 10/10.5.

U satisfied with 220x9.5? Why not try from 200x11 by upping the voltage to say 1.8v, I'm sure u can get a lot more out of the CPU, if your cooling can handle it.

Maybe u can reach an FSB high enough to have better performance compared to 220x9.5.

I've got around 2.3ghz from 1.8v but my cooling is not really good enough. I get about 52c idle at this sort of speed. I so need better cooling but I can't stand a noisy PC and I dunno if water or a prommie is really quiet enough for me to be happy.

I used to have my PC at 200x11 but i got bored with it lol. I'm not sure what is best really. 220x9.5 (2095mhz) or 200x11 (2200mhz) should be very close?

I might just try 11xhighest i can get at whaever voltage. I bored, I think I'll kill my CPU and get a barton afterwards :cool:

*EDIT* §§§§ it, i'm gonna try for 215x11 @1.9v :eek:

Well, it was prime stable for 2 iterations then i got real scared as it was going over 70c lol

How the hell do you guys manage to use 1.8v at these speeds and still get temps hovering around 55c. I'm using an Alpha PAL8045 with a silent 17dba fan which give 20.2cfm (ok theres my problem). I've got loads of silent case fans in there too.

Apart from this i think it might just be stable at 1.75v. BTW, i can't use higher than 1.75v on this board either!

Also, if i use mm5 and use the diode reading it gets upto 70 but the asus 1 board senser shows it idle at 53c instead of the diode temp of 63c. Which one should i trust more?

Managed to get the MP's to work! One of the following has to be the cause, as these are the only things I've changed:
1) APIC mode off
2) CPU_FSB jumper at 133/166 instead of 100
3) other CPU (borrowed a 2500+ from a friend)
4) A20 at normal instead of fast

Will be testing more and let u know. 10 and 10.5 are completely stable now :)
Personally,
Hehe mine gets pretty warm too, about 54c stressed atm with these FSB's.

They didn't work for me :( My guess is it's the barton....

Hello guys,i got an asus a7n8x deluxe rev1.4 and id like to say that despite the excellent stability extras etc..when it comes to overclocking it plainly sucks..i cant get it to go over 198 fsb..@ 199 the comp simply wont boot(its perfectly stable @ 13.5x198 and it wont boot @ 13x200..)..black screen.I even tried the UBER bios which adds the ability togive more volts on the chipset,but i think its just a fake thing cause i got nothing from it..anyway i am planning to change it.

yeah the uber bios doesn't add any vdd voltage, its just a setting that was disabled in the normal bios' and he just switched it on. Is rev 1.4 the latest, aren't they r2.0 now? that might explain why 200 might not be really easy for it to be working?

Anyway, have you tried a diff multi, in the post above i said how i can't get stable above 198/199 at certain multi's but 220 with others. And yes, I will not be buying an asus ever again.

neologan

Yes 1.4 is an old revision,but even if its an old revision..nforce2 board that won't boot over 198??i mean at least a solid 200 no?I even got the bios that officially makes the board capable of mounting the 3200+@200fsb cpu!

If I'm not mistaking, only rev2.0 boards officially support 200FSB's. Nevertheless, you should be able to boot higher. Is your southbridge warm? Did you play around with memory timings? Is your NB properly cooled?

All things considered, the board is a pain in the ass at first when it comes to overclocking, but after you get to know it, it's faster than any other nForce2 board out there, on the same speeds.

Example of this: when I was running single channel with 1x512MB Winbond BH5, I could NOT get my FSB over 200 Mhz. No matter what I tried. I then switched the memory from slot 1 to 3, and I could easily get over 220FSB. It has some peculiar features, but once u get to know them...