Unable to Overclock in x64

[attica61]

I've ran into an issue were either it's not overclock or Vista just isn't recognizing my overclock. My hardware is as follows:

Motherboard: ASUS M4N72-E
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400 Brisbane 2.8GHz Dual Core Black Edition
RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 8GB PC2 6400 Quad Channel Kit Desktop
Video Cards:XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Editionx2
OS: Vista Home Premium x64

Now i realize my CPU is kind of a weak link in my set up but i've had excellent results overclocking it until i moved to vista. I previously ran XP Professional SP3 and had the system overclock to 3.1Ghz with no issues. The CPU temp ran at full load around 39C. Before i upgraded to vista i set all system settings back to default did my upgrade and then proceeded to push my overclock again. No matter when i changed my settings to it would show only the 2.8Ghz for processer speed in system settings. According to my motherboard the bus speed and multiplier are set high enough to obtain the 3.1 overclock again but the system settings are showing it only at 2.8Ghz. Has anyone had problems with this before?

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Hello attica61,
What bios are you using ?.
Asus has had issues with the CPU speed not being shown accurately in Vista. If you go to the Asus web site you can check to see if there is a new bios which may solve you problem.
Also what speed is it showing in CPUz ?.
Hope this helps, good luck and post your results, thanks.

 

[smarteyeball]

+1 for checking with cpu-z

Vista sysinfo only shows the stock speed of your clock and not the actual current speed.

 

[attica61]

man i should have known to write dow that info for Bios. Im at work currently and thought i'd get some ideas. you've given me 2 good ones. I'm not familiar with CPU-Z but i'll check it out and tonight i'll figure out the bios version. I never flashed it upon reciept but i'll spend my day checking into BIO's updates. Thanks for the ideas. I'll post when i try these things and have more info.

Thanks!

 

[stoneys-nutz]

If you decide to update the bios, use the EZ flash in the bios, not the windows software update, it's too unreliable.

 

[attica61]

Well i ran CPU-Z i couldnt find a place quickly to post it but i'll get it up tonight. It did show my CPU speed at 2.8 Ghz. I rebooted and verfied that my multipler was set at 14x and the FSB is 228. This would equal 3.192 something like that. one thing i did notice is that the Hypertransport link is set to Auto with a variation of options. It also looks to me like not only is my CPU clock not working but my memory came up underclocked as well. It showed it was only running at 400Mhz where it should be 800Mhz. I'll get up the images of CPU-z this evening. Unless things have changed with the newer boards (this is my first update since my Socket A Athlon XP 2500+) then im not sure what im doing wrong lol

To answer the other question im using American Bios and it was updated 1-27-2009. I do show Asus came out with a newer Bios however they report it only covers new CPU support.(options for AM3) Should i go to it anyways? I looked for the EZ Flash bios last night but couldnt find it. Im guessing i need to boot to the CD and go for there? im downloading the manual for the board as we speak.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

In the bios you will find an option for speed trap or speed set, cant remember which one, disable all of them, they let your CPU idle and cut back Ghz when it's not being heavily used and can give a false reading.
I will go in to my bios and check which ones it is and post.
Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

No, it's not on this MB, had it on a striker 2 and had the same problem your having, after a bios update they cured it, but in the mean time i had to disable bits in the bios. I'm sure if you look, you will see what i mean, it's all under the CPU settings.

 

[attica61]

Ok so here is the shots from CPU-Z as you see it shows the multipler at 14 and the FSB at 200. This is not the case in the Bios Settings (any way i can take a picture of this?) I also show pictures of memory settings and SPD. The memory is PC2 6400 800Mhz memory but it shows it's only running at 400. This shows 800 in the Bios as well. Im going to try to upgrade the Bios tonight *crosses fingers* hope i dont have problems..i'll let you know the out come.

 

[attica61]

ok i updated the Bios to the newest version tonight and reset all my bios settings. According to the Bios my multiplier is 15.5 and the FSB is 200. this should give me an overclock around 3.1Mhz but cpu-z is Still showing what you see above. :/

any other ideas? I tried to email Asus about this but never received a response.

 

[smarteyeball]

Do you have the AMD equivalent to speedstep/c1e enabled?

ie the clocks drop to a lower speed when not under load.

 

[attica61]

Your the man! That was it! Future reference it's called AMD Cool N Quiet (i had to google it) It was enabled. I disabled this feature reboot and bam all settings see the system at 3.1Ghz now. Time to see how far i can push this baby!

One last question. Is it odd that my memory shows at only 400Mhz even when it's rated at 800Mhz? im guessing it has something to do with it being DDR2 and maybe that's just how it shows.

 

[archie123]

Your the man! That was it! Future reference it's called AMD Cool N Quiet (i had to google it) It was enabled. I disabled this feature reboot and bam all settings see the system at 3.1Ghz now. Time to see how far i can push this baby!

One last question. Is it odd that my memory shows at only 400Mhz even when it's rated at 800Mhz? im guessing it has something to do with it being DDR2 and maybe that's just how it shows.

cool and quiet software only underclocks your cpu when its not on load , if you ran a game or high cpu drain program you would see your overclock kick in automatically

that said your better of with anything like that disabled if your overclocking

your memory is DDR2 so its 400 x2 which equals 800

 

[attica61]

LOL ok makes sense. Thanks again ever for the help. Hope i can return the favor to someone some day.