Printable View
Hi,
I have an AMD Athlon 4000+ cpu, CPU frequency is at 234 mhz, the ram is at 166 mhz, and the CPU has a multiplier of 12. That puts the cpu just above 2.8 ghz but it is somewhat unstable. Sometimes I will get the error "IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL" Any suggestions for improving stability? Will caching my BIOS make it more or less stable ?
In order for you to tweak your system as safely as possible, here are some hints:
- You should reduce the Hypertransport multiplier to 3x or 4x from the default 5x, as 1.5GHz is a bit too much for Hypertransport
- You will probably have to raise the CPU core voltage to 1.5V or even 1.55V
- You better have excellent cooling too; we had some temperature induced crashes at 2.7GHz with the standard cooler until we added extra cooling.
- Make sure you have good thermal compound applied in a thin even layer, and that the heatsink is making good contact with the processor
If you don't want to overclock the core, and you have good enough memory, you can run the processor at 8x300MHz, which is the same as the 12x200MHz core frequency it normally runs at.
Go into your PC's bios. This is accomplished by restarting your computer and when prompted to enter setup hitting either F1 or DEL. It varies on your computer as to which key to hit.Enter Advanced Chipset features, it's on the BIOS menu. (Note, some bioses require you to press crtl F1 to display the advanced features)
Find HTT Speed and lower it to either 4x or 800MHZ for 939/AM2 and Socket 754 users need to lower it to 600MHZ. Stock with be 1000MHZ for 939/AM2 and 800MHZ for 754. Make sure you keep it under 1000mhz, for 939/am2 and under 1600mhz for 754. Lower the RAM speed to 166MHZ for DDR 400, or 133MHZ for DDR 333. Stock will be 200MHZ for DDR 400 and 166MHZ for DDR 333. For DDR2, lower it to 667 for DDR 800, or 533 for 667 (Depending on your RAM and how far you want to OC, you might be able to leave this alone. More explantion below)
Increase your CPU FSB slowly, 5MHZ at a time, until it either A, it won't boot, or B you are happy. If you're happy, skip to step 7. If you crash Increase CPU voltage by one notch and try again. Never go over 1.55V with stock cooling. For X2 users, never go over 1.45V. Always keep your temperatures below 50*C at FULL load. For X2 users never go over 45*C at full load. Stress test with prime 95 and memtest to ensure stability.