Problems overclocking with Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2

[Ry@n]

Hello all, this is probably a simple question for someone out there. I can't figure out a way to overclock my processor with this board. The software that came with it included an application called EasyTune5, but the overclocking tab is greyed out. The famous CTRL-F1 in the BIOS doesn't appear to open anything advanced (I may just be missing something) I found a setting in the BIOS that said cpu clock speed. It said the setting range was 200-500 Mhz, which is much slower than the AMD 2.2 Ghz Athlon 64 processor. Anyone out there ever overclocked with one of these boards? I would really appreciate any helpful input. Thank you.

[OptyTrooper]

Originally Posted by Ry@n

Hello all, this is probably a simple question for someone out there. I can't figure out a way to overclock my processor with this board. The software that came with it included an application called EasyTune5, but the overclocking tab is greyed out. The famous CTRL-F1 in the BIOS doesn't appear to open anything advanced (I may just be missing something) I found a setting in the BIOS that said cpu clock speed. It said the setting range was 200-500 Mhz, which is much slower than the AMD 2.2 Ghz Athlon 64 processor. Anyone out there ever overclocked with one of these boards? I would really appreciate any helpful input. Thank you.

OK, forget EasyTune.

When you hit crtl+F1 it won't be very obvious it usually just shows up under Advanced BIOS.

200-500 refers to your HTT not your CPU freq.

[Ry@n]

Well that didn't help. HTT?

[OptyTrooper]

Originally Posted by Ry@n

Well that didn't help. HTT?

HTT = FSB

Hyper Transport Tunnel, Hyper Transport Technology there is some debate about what the acronym actually stands for.

[Ry@n]

So is that how i overclock? Change that value from 200 to 300 or something like that?
ty

[MrObvious]

Gradually. It's the same process as any other rig (Intel), increase the base HTT bus, and watch the CPU start overclocking. Have you read the stickies?

[trajik78]

CPU is connected to the memory controller internally by the HTT. The HTT talks to the FSB of the computer. 2.2gHz CPU - 11x mult - 200FSB (memory to system) - 5x HTT link - 1000mHz HTT (memory to CPU)

as you raise your HTT (FSB) you'll have to lower your "HTT link" which will show up as a divider in some MB's. by default it's set to 5x ( 5 x 200FSB - 1000HTT) and you should try to keep your HTT at 1000mHz until you become more accustomed to OCing.

so as you OC from 200mHz +, it will raise your FSB (HTT), CPU and RAM speed. lower your HTT link to 4x which will safely let you raise your HTT to about 250mHz. anything above 250mHz FSB you should set your HTT link to 3x to be safe. it's ok to run your HTT under 1000mHz as it won't effect performance.

depending on what type of ram your using you'll probably have to run a memory divider too. that will lower your ram speed to keep it within spec. AMD boards are very tricky compared to Intel. you may find some dividers won't OC as far or even at all even if the divider is keeping the ram within spec.

[Slash_Kiron]

I have this same motherboard (a gigabyte ga-ma69vm-s2.) Anyway I cannot find a Pci-bus lock. Does this motherboard have one? Also, I cannot figure out how to change the voltages in the bios.

[MrObvious]

You may not go anywhere until you buy a motherboard worth overclocking. I'd recommand a Biostar 790 for $81.99 off newegg.com.

[Ry@n]

Well I gradually increased the value from 200 to 270 with no problems, and stopped at 2.97Ghz. (that is what shows up in windows system information) The multiplier was set at auto with a X5 as the lowest setting, so I left it on auto. I have been reading about the 5 GB of RAM I have installed in this box, and from what I can surmise, Windows XP 32bit isn't capable of reading more than about 4 GB. Currently there are 2 - 2GB modules and 2 512MB modules installed in this box. I think I am going to remove both the 512 stix. Reply to this post if you have any thoughts about this. Thanks for reading.

[Slash_Kiron]

Did you change the speed on the ram before you started overclocking?

[Ry@n]

No the only setting not higher than x5 was auto, so I left it on auto.

[OptyTrooper]

You surmise correctly XP 32 can only recognize 4G of memory total. You might want to pull those two 512 DIMMS if you want better clock speeds as 4 DIMMS can cause trouble when overclocking due to the additional stress on the IMC.

Lower thier speed to 667 or 533 in BIOs and as others mentioned lower your HT link speed to a 3x multiplier (600Mhz) for now.

[Ry@n]

I lowered my HT link speed to 600Mhz. Now how do I lower the DIMMS speed to 667 or 533? What am i looking for in the advanced chipset feature?

[OptyTrooper]

On my GA-M61P-S3 (different model Gigabyte obviously) it's called "memory clock speed" I believe and it can be changed by setting it to manual and then selecting a speed from the drop down menu by hitting enter.

[Ry@n]

Well i found where to lower my DIMMS rate to 667 or 533 right now they are at 800 and everything runs fine. should i change them or leave them at 800?

[OptyTrooper]

Originally Posted by Ry@n

Well i found where to lower my DIMMS rate to 667 or 533 right now they are at 800 and everything runs fine. should i change them or leave them at 800?

You may have to lower them to 667 to get higher stable clock speeds from your CPU i.e. place them on a divider.

[Ry@n]

All this talk about stability confuses me, it has ran just fine since I overclocked the first time without changing anything else. Im just gonna leave it alone perhaps.

[MrObvious]

Ack this thread confuses me.

[wiggywild]

I was going to start a new post for this board but I'll start here and see if I can get any help. Are there any voltage mods (ie hacked bios) that will allow me to change the Vcore? I read about the pin mod technique but screw that. I got up to about 2.8 from a 2.1 just by OC'ing the FSB. The HTT frequencies seemed to result in instability much sooner. I haven't messed with mem frequencies yet.

@Ryan two examples of instability: my screen flickers when its OCd too high, and it will shut off at times. Run a test prog like prime65 or memtest to find less obvious instability issues.