I just got a new AMD Athlon 4600+ x2 and was hoping to get some pretty good numbers out of it. If I over clock by just 1MHz I get a screen at start up that says " Warning system running in safe mode please re-setting cpu Frequency in CMOS set up" or something like that. It says press F1 to continue, delete to enter set up. If I hit F1 I can start windows with no problems but when I check the CPU it is running at 2411MHz. So my changes are not being applied. I have never had this problem before. How do I get around this or what do I need to change?

All I did was swap out a sempron 3400+ 1.8G for a Athlon 4600+ 2.4G. Before the swap I did reset the factory settings in the bios.

I had my Sempron 1.8 running at 2.43G problem free and never passed 33*C.

I must be missing something simple. I hope

 

The first thing I would look at is to see if there is a bios update for your motherboard.

 

Already did. I have the latest. I just bought the MB also, about a month ago. Bios version is only 4 months old.

 

You should have gone with Intel! J/K. Have you read up on all the tips and tricks for overclocking your chip? I am assuming you are trying to increase the FSB speed and not the multiplier right? I know on my old AMD, you could only overclock with the FSB speed but that was a few years ago as I have been with Intel since that PC.

EDIT: After reading your post more carefully, I just say search some Internet forums to check on the "overclockability" of the chip you got. Remember, not all chips are created equally as well. Some can overclock no problem and some already are being pushed as hard as they can with the factory clock speed.

 

i wouldnt try to overclock the AMD dual core. that thing is a monster already. i know you can overclock intels pretty good since they dont get as hot. `im not sure about the dual core though.. my old p4, the fan went out, and it was like that for about 3 weeks, gaming every day. i noticed the computer was quieter, but i thought that was cuz i had cleaned it. 3 weeks later it froze, so i checked it... chip was a dark purple color and the fan was all melted around it. my grandpa accidently forgot to hook up the fan to his amd athlon xp, and it went sky high. just my 02. question though.. why do you want to overclock a monster already?

 

i'm running and opteron 165 (stock 1.8 ghz) and is overclocked to 2.7 and completely stable. my temps run from 30 C idle to 45 C load. these chips run competely fine under 55 C. you mine as well make the most out of your cpu when they're proven to be able to be stabily overclocked. afterall i did pay $325 for my 165 and put a 50% oc on it. at the time you couldn't even buy a chip that fast and the chip at 2.6ghz went for a grand.

the x2's are pretty much the same as opterons so i might be able to help. i'm not totally sure what exactly your doing to try to overclock your setup but start by taking the voltage up to 1.4 V and then start uping your fsb. i would say you should be able to get that chip to at least 2.6 from what i've seen. lots of people get those things to 2.8ghz so don't be afraid to push it. i wouldn't put more than 1.5 v in just so your safe. and don't worry about it when the comp crashes over and over. when your ocing you should plan on this. it's the only way to find out what your chip can do.

if you're still having problems, go to ocforums.com for you specific issue, search or make a new thread on this forum: http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3

 

dunno if this has been sorted out but make sure your bios isn't in that safety mode or whatever. don't remember the specific name but i remember back in the day most bioses would have a failsafe mode where if the clock speed wasn't what the cpu was originally designed for, it would default to something real slow (to avoid processor damage, apparently).

 

Don't know if you're still interested in overclocking, but if you are, I'll be more than happy to help you out. You didn't list anything about your rig other than the CPU, and when it comes to overclocking, every component is important, and failure of overclocking can come from multiple areas. The most vital, other than your CPU, is what you're using to cool your CPU, what motherboard you're using, what RAM you're using (especially things like if it's DDR2 800 or DDR2 1066 etc), and what type of power supply you're using (the brand and wattage at a minimum, the model line if you know it).

Of equal importance are the settings you're trying to run. As I'm sure you know, you're CPU runs at a speed determined by multiplying the CPU multiplier by the Front Side Bus speed - so by raising either one, you effectively raise the speed of your computer. However, by raising the Front Side Bus you're also raising the speed of the memory, PCI bus, and drawing more current. As you overclock higher and higher, you often have to raise voltage levels on the CPU, RAM, and other components to help combat signal leakage. This in turn, raises temps. So we need to know if all you did was raise the FSB by 1 MHZ? Or did you try changing other settings? Try running CPU-Z to identify what settings you are running (multiplier, front bus speed, RAM, and voltages).

At default voltages with that chip, you should be able to hit about 2.6 without too much difficulty, but your settings are going to be key.

Without knowing more, I'd say that most likely your problem is that you didn't change your Hypertransport multiplier. Your default multiplier with the 4600+ should be a 5, I'd suggest trying to lower it to a 4.

Regards,

Bill

 

I have actually got it to go up to 204 fsb, but going to 205 gives me the message again.


Stock heatsink and fan. Fan RPM never needs to go over about 1050RPM. It will hit 1120 or so when gaming. Temps peak at about 35C.

120mm three speed fan in the case. There is also a shroud in the side of the case that feeds cool air to the CPU fan.

Ok. First of all let me thank you all for the replies. I have looked for help on many other forums and got zip.

I have actually got it to go up to 204 fsb, but going to 205 gives me the message again.

My specs are.

Biostar NF61s-M2A SE
Athlon 4600+ x2
Kington 1GB DDR2 800MHz
Antec NSK4480 Case W/OCZ powerstream 520w PSU. 620w peak
Western digital 250GB SATA hard drive.
LG all in one drive
ASUS X1950 PRO

Here are the shots of cpu and memory info from CPUz



Here is a shot from when I had the sempron With the exact same stuff only I had Kingston DDR2 667 vs my current 800



Here is a shot of the ram settings in my bios. Anything you see that i need to change?

 

Added some screenshots of cpuz

 

Like what was said before do a google search on your processor and motherboard to see how others did with overclocking. another think you can check is if your mobo is supplying the proper voltage to the cpu core. if its not running a high enough voltage it might run ok at stock settings but will be unstable as soon as you overclock it.

are you overclocking with the frontside or the multiplier? im not sure if these cpu have a locked multiplier as some of the old 32 bit amds did.

 

Earlier you had posted a link to an OC forums thread - they basically suggested you do what I suggested to you - to lower the HT multiplier from 5x to 4x - you had posted on that forum that when you did so, you were able to overlock slightly more, IIRC about 2.5-2.6 Ghz.

Unfortunately, the 4600+ will not go much more than 2.6Ghz without some serious effort. You'll have to dump the stock cooler and get a decent CPU cooler - it doesn't need to be water cooling, but you definitely need high end air to hit more than 2.6 Ghz.

You'll want to make sure the PCI-E clock is locked at 100Mhz, running that out of spec (it usually goes faster as you overclock the bus) will definitely affect the stability of any overclock.

Your CPU-Z screenshot also shows a low voltage for the processor - the default voltage for the 4600+ is 1.25, and you're showing 1.232.

If you want get higher than 2.5-2.6, you'll definitely need to up your CPU voltage. You'll also need to raise the memory, HyperTransport, and chipset voltages. This is why you'll need better cooling - while your stock cooler may not be overtasked with a slight overclock, it is not up to the task of cooling any more of an overclock combined with a voltage bump.

Finally, your Kingston Ram is not doing you any favors. At 400 Mhz, it's rated to run 5-5-5. You're running it at 5-5-5 at 409 Mhz. If you want to overclock, you'll have to do something about that. You can increase the memory voltage slightly (from 1.8 to 1.9, even 2.0) and that may help, you can also try lowering the timings from 5-5-5 to 6-6-6 if your board supports it (though I'd try to avoid that if possible - a CAS latency of 6 will most likely result in decreased performance despite a higher clock speed). Better would be to pick up some new memory. You can pick up DDR2 quite cheaply these days - I'd try either some PC1066 or higher, or some PC800 that has a lower CAS latency (of 3, for example). Those higher quality RAM sticks are going to be able to hold the higher frequencies that you are trying to throw at it. You may also be able to set the frequency of the RAM in your BIOS to a lower number (usually it's a divisor of your main FSB) - you'll want to set that so that your RAM will be running at 400 Mhz or less.

~Bill