Im looking to get some more performance out of my PC before I got ahead and upgrade it so I tried overclocking the CPU. Jump in BIOS, up the speed from 2.6 to 2.8 and when I go to boot the system it cant find the hard drive. If I revert it back then its fine.
Suggestions?
System is:
Genuine P4 2.6
1BG Ram
Abit motherboard
120GB HDD
ATI 9600 256mb vid card
i would leave it at stock speed , ur gonna have all types of issues if u dont take the nessary precautions
even a slight increase like that will require the following.
A better heatsink, OEM fans/sink blow
increaseing core voltages
increaseing ram voltages ( some chips don’t like this)
icreasing bus speed, some ram, and some boards don’t like that at all
With increased volateges you will reduce the lifespan of all compnents on the motherboard.
if the system posts, but hang or refuses to find items there are serious issues with the cpu, and as above don’t do it.
I’ve got a atlon 3200xp+ running at 2.5 (1.8 spec)and has been like that since I got it years ago, but I know what I’m doing I have the appropriate hardware to support the increased speed, as well as a liquid cooling system to keep temperatures low and quiet. Ram is an integral part of OC’ing anything if the ram you have doesn’t like increased voltages or speeds then it ain’t going to fly no matter how you work the Ghz math.
If you don’t even know the model name of your mobo, you should probably not attempt to overclock your CPU! Things like you described are common when you try to overclock something that’s not really designed to handle it.
heck my board was designed to overclock the cpu and RAM and the sound card takes a shit as soon as I move the fsb 1mhz.
Thanks guys, the mobo is an ABIT IS7. I realize I need to increase the voltage, I also have a larger heat sink on the CPU and Ive done some reading on overclocking but I guess Ill leave it be since I really dont have the time to muck around.
I generally pick CPU’s that can be OC’d and not the other way around. I don’t know what the P4 2.8’s like however I’m sure there are some reviews on what people did to OC it stable.
Good luck… and it’s well worth it.
as far as I know, those P4’s have their multipliers locked. So you can only increase the bus speed (say from 200Mhz to 220Mhz or something like that). Assuming your 2.6Ghz P4 is at 200Mhz, then the multiplier is 13. Increasing the bus speed from 200 to 233 makes it a nice 3Ghz cpu (and I think those P4’s can be run at 3Ghz).
The problem with that is that your memory will also run at a higher speed. In order to reduce the speed of the ram but still keep the bus speed higher than normal, you need to pick a right FSM:RAM ratio for the ram. If the fsm:ram ratio is on 1:1, pick 4/5 and you can run the bus at 250Mhz, while the memory will still be at 200Mhz bus (250 * 4/5 = 200Mhz).
Also, increasing the supply voltage for the ram can sometimes stabilize the ram when it’s running at slightly higher speed (or if you changed the timings). I would suggest to stay away from changing that voltage if possible.
The fact that your HD is not being detected is not unusual. Check all the settings in the bios to make sure only the FSB is being changed for the cpu and not the ram (i.e. pick the right divider).
Also, you’ll most likely have to increase the supply voltage of the cpu. Otherwise it’ll most likely be unstable. Just keep in mind when you do raise the supply voltage, you’ll also make the cpu run hotter. So a good cooling solution is a must.
That’s all I can think of right now, good luck trying to overclock it 