Associate
Hello all, my first post in a looong time. Tis good to be back 
I was helping an old friend (improbablytall on here) out with overclocking his old AMD X2 6000+.
Specs are(were):
Gigabyte M750 Sli-DS4 (AM2+)
Athlon 64 X2 6000 (Cooler: Zalman CNPS 9700)
4x 1Gb Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400
Gainward 8800GTS 768mb
Stock settings were:
200Mhz Set FSB
15.5x multiplier
Ram at DDR800
1.425vCore
1.85vRAM
First we went up up to 210FSB without changing anything else. Posted.
Second overclock was 220FSB No post. Ram set down to DDR667, posted.
Third overclock was 230, then 240FSB, posted. Windows loaded.
250 wouldn't post, even with loose RAM timings and pushing voltages to 1.475vCore and 1.9vRAM.
Decided that we'd capped the board at 240/15.5x/DDR667/1.425vCore. The board then didn't post at these settings, but seemed stable into Windows at 1.45vCore.
On a subsiquent boot attempt the board wouldn't post at these settings.
We then dropped back to stock settings and the board posted, but then we couldn't get it to clock past 225FSB with any settings.
Then, in an attempt to improve on this overclock, we dropped the multiplier to 12x and upped the FSB to 258 (setting RAM to DDR533). This gave us stock (3.1Ghz, ~800Mhz on the RAM) with the lower multiplier and higher FSB. Or would have, if the machine would post at all. It wouldn't.
Now, that was the back-story. What follows next is the dead-motherboard saga.
Standard clearing of CMOS didn't seem to work - the machine wouldn't post at all. Power off, power cable out, Removed CMOS battery for 1/2 hour, no post. power of, cable out and removed battery, this time shorting the battery +ive and -ive terminals as suggested by Gigabyte in the motherboard manual. No Post.
The Motherboard has DualBIOS, and Gigabyte suggest that the way to force the backup BIOS to overwrite the main is to press and hold the power button until the PC has powered up and then powered itself down again. We tried this three or four times, to no avail.
We're now thinking of RMA-ing the board, as the CMOS isn't resetting and either the backup BIOS is as broken, or it's not overwriting the main BIOS.
RAM, PSU, CPU, GFX all tested with known-good replacements. No dice.
Is there anything we've missed? Does anyone have experience of Gigabyte boards doing this? Is there any hope for the board?
and lastly, for my interest and education, what could have gone wrong? I suspect that the BIOS is corrupt or broken in some way and either the backup is as well, or it's not overwriting. Is it possible that we've fried something else due the higer FSB (though the board ostensibly supports up to 600mhz)?
Cheers!
Mike
I was helping an old friend (improbablytall on here) out with overclocking his old AMD X2 6000+.
Specs are(were):
Gigabyte M750 Sli-DS4 (AM2+)
Athlon 64 X2 6000 (Cooler: Zalman CNPS 9700)
4x 1Gb Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400
Gainward 8800GTS 768mb
Stock settings were:
200Mhz Set FSB
15.5x multiplier
Ram at DDR800
1.425vCore
1.85vRAM
First we went up up to 210FSB without changing anything else. Posted.
Second overclock was 220FSB No post. Ram set down to DDR667, posted.
Third overclock was 230, then 240FSB, posted. Windows loaded.
250 wouldn't post, even with loose RAM timings and pushing voltages to 1.475vCore and 1.9vRAM.
Decided that we'd capped the board at 240/15.5x/DDR667/1.425vCore. The board then didn't post at these settings, but seemed stable into Windows at 1.45vCore.
On a subsiquent boot attempt the board wouldn't post at these settings.
We then dropped back to stock settings and the board posted, but then we couldn't get it to clock past 225FSB with any settings.
Then, in an attempt to improve on this overclock, we dropped the multiplier to 12x and upped the FSB to 258 (setting RAM to DDR533). This gave us stock (3.1Ghz, ~800Mhz on the RAM) with the lower multiplier and higher FSB. Or would have, if the machine would post at all. It wouldn't.
Now, that was the back-story. What follows next is the dead-motherboard saga.
Standard clearing of CMOS didn't seem to work - the machine wouldn't post at all. Power off, power cable out, Removed CMOS battery for 1/2 hour, no post. power of, cable out and removed battery, this time shorting the battery +ive and -ive terminals as suggested by Gigabyte in the motherboard manual. No Post.
The Motherboard has DualBIOS, and Gigabyte suggest that the way to force the backup BIOS to overwrite the main is to press and hold the power button until the PC has powered up and then powered itself down again. We tried this three or four times, to no avail.
We're now thinking of RMA-ing the board, as the CMOS isn't resetting and either the backup BIOS is as broken, or it's not overwriting the main BIOS.
RAM, PSU, CPU, GFX all tested with known-good replacements. No dice.
Is there anything we've missed? Does anyone have experience of Gigabyte boards doing this? Is there any hope for the board?
and lastly, for my interest and education, what could have gone wrong? I suspect that the BIOS is corrupt or broken in some way and either the backup is as well, or it's not overwriting. Is it possible that we've fried something else due the higer FSB (though the board ostensibly supports up to 600mhz)?
Cheers!
Mike
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