Overclocking help needed please

[supersi]

Hi All,

I have seen many posts claiming that an AMD X2 4200 cpu can be oc'd to around 2.45ghz.
I have tried to do this but the most I can reach is 2.30ghz. After that I get audio warnings of overload or various strange black screen messages from which I have to reboot. (Here's a link to an example - I wish I could just paste the pics into this post).

http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/100_05961200191820.jpg

sometimes I just get an audio overclock warning and a nice little purplish coloured icon.

or after POST it will hang with the name of my mobo at the bottom of the screen with no other cues or description. This doesn't happen when it boots normally.



I'm a complete novice to overclocking and I'm getting a bit confused with terminology. Trying to follow guides and faq's has been frustrating as definitions/layouts differ with motherboards.

My system specs are:

AMD X2 4200 cpu
A8N-SLI Premium mobo
2 x 1GB dual ddr pc3200 (200 mhz) RAM
Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS

Here are links to shots of the screens I have in BIOS which I'm having trouble interpreting.

This link refers to an initial screen which seems to split the CPU from the Hyper Transport options. This I am a bit confused about.

http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/100_0593.JPG

because then it gives me this option which I thought would be in the 'Jumper free' menu

http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/100_0594.JPG

Then of course I can go into the 'Jumper free' screen and am confronted with a plethora of options. About the only one I can change that will not hang the system on boot-up is 'CPU frequency'.

http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/jumper_free_menu.JPG

However the best I can get is maybe 235mhz then it will hang. I know that overclocking is a combination/balance of settings. How can I progressively up them?

Then of course I have the RAM settings to consider and these are a bigger mystery.

http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/DRAM.JPG

I've tried my best to give as much information as possible. I hope someone can shed some light on this.

 

[Hellion]

Can you post all of your system specs? Will your mb support 800mhz mem? Mem settings maybe to tight. Do you have CPU-Z? I am not to familar with the A8n bios. I have my system OCed to 2.7 on a AMD 4200 AM2 in a MSI K9N SLI Platinum. Watercooling the cpu and gpu. Running DDR2 6400 mem. If I can I will try to help.

 

[supersi]

specs from CPU-Z screenshots

Thanks,

Here are the specs over 4 screen shots.

1. http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/11200804377.jpg

2. http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/21200804432.jpg

3. http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/3.jpg

4. http://www.imagef1.net.nz/files/4.jpg

 

[Blind Dragon]

im not too familiar with cpu-z but it looks like your memory timings are 3-4-4-8 and it should be 3-3-3-8

 

[Hellion]

Set your mem settings to manual. Enter the numbers that CPU-z gives you. Is your mem running at 400mhz? because the screen shot dram jpeg has your mem at 266 that x2 is 533. Mem is overclocked by this setting. Set your cpu settings to manual. Htt set at 3x, set fsb at 210 and test with Orthos for 6hrs min. If no errors up fsb 2 or 3 mhz and test again. Keep going until you get errors. You may have to up vcore to stabilize the system. BUT only when needed. Is your system watercooled? If not and you want to get higher mhz think about investing in a wc system. Hope that helps.