Noob OCer Question

[ADay2Long]

Hey guys,

Sorry for the noob question, but yesterday I was playing around with OCing my RAM and when I tried to push it to 1600 (stock is 1333) the computer rebooted like it's supposed to but the screen would give me the no signal .... so I didn't know what else to do so I cleared my CMOS and re-entered my OC stats and kept it at 1333 this time ....

Is there an easier way to do this?

Like when I'll be OCing my CPU and it won't boot anymore, do I have to clear the CMOS everytime to be able to get back into BIOS?

Thx for baring with me guys!

[Arinoth]

Depending on the motherboard, some that i've dealt with is, if they get 2-3 failed boot/post attempts they will reboot at the last known good boot bio settings or just back at stock. If i see an OC fails the initial boot, i turn it off, turn on the computer, wait a few seconds, turn it off again, then turn it on again and voila, computer recognizes failled boot/post attempt, i get post and everything is back to stock/last working settings

[ADay2Long]

Alright will try that, thx man!

[Squeetard]

You may want to take smaller OC steps too. Find your top out 66mhz at a time. Did you up the timings also with that OC?

[ADay2Long]

[sswilson]

Heh... baby steps, especially when it comes to memory vrs CPU clockspeed on the AM3 platform. :)

I'm currently working a 720be on the same board as you and can attest to the finickyness of bumping the memory. It's a slow process, but IMO if you're just starting out and want to learn the ins and outs of getting a good stable OC (as opposed to just wanting a performance boost) the AM3 platform offers the best possible learning experience.

I did the same as you and set my memory up according to spec at stock speeds, but then found that any bumps to the CPU (even while keeping the mem under spec) resulted in either a lack of stability, or (as in your case) failure to boot. This is mostly due to the fact that the integrated memory controller (on the cpu) is greatly affected by clockspeed/NBspeed/HTT speed so you'll need to bump your northbridge voltages up in order to keep the tight stock memory settings.

I found the easiest way was to leave the memory on auto settings while I worked on my cpu OC, bring it up slowly, and once I found the max stable OC, I then went in and started playing with the memory timings. I'm currently running @ 3660, with a NB of around 2450, and memory running slightly over 1600 clockspeed 8-8-8-26, even though the memory is rated 7-7-7-24 @ 1600.

[ADay2Long]

Thx, I was only playing with the RAM right now since I'm still running on stock jet engine AMD HSF

Can you write in bold next time? I'm having a hard time hearing you with all this noise!

[sswilson]

Even if you're only playing with the memory, you'll want to bring it up slowly to see how the northbridge reacts, and when you'll need some extra NB Volts. Bringing it up slowly also allows the "AUTO" settings of your memory to adjust to the higher speeds as you ramp up.

Rather than bumping the memory up to 1600 by using the memory divider, try downclocking your cpu (drop the cpu divider) first and then bring up the bus speed to raise your memory clock. Remember to keep an eye on your NB & HTT speeds in bios, you'll want to use those multipliers to keep them as close to 2000 as possible (seems to work fine +/- 200 on either side).

[ADay2Long]

Perfect I'll try to play with it tonight or tomorrow! Thx for the help man!

[sswilson]

It's also a good idea to make full use of the "user settings" in bios for an easy return to your most recent stable attempt. I save stock settings in the #1 slot, best stable OC in the #2 slot, and then my current attempts in the #4.

This way, when I need to use the cmos reset function I'm able to easily load up stable settings as well as return to my most recent attempt to make minor adjustments.