Please Help!!!

[racerboyf1]

I just went from a P4 2.4B to a 2.8C and now my system runs like crap. I have not tried any OC yet, but cpu-z shows the speed ranging from 2770 to 2798 or so and continues to fluctuate. I had none of these problems with my old CPU. What the hell is going on? System seems to be stable, but 3Dmark scores are worse than they were before. Help!!

Here's my specs:
Asus P4C-800-E Deluxe
P4 2.8c
Radeon 9500 Pro
WD2000JD 200GB SATA HDD
2X 512MB Corsair 3200XLPRO

[silenze]

Have your FSB at 200, voltage at 1.5v, hyperthreading on, and ddr at 1:1? (or some bios read it 2:1 so ddr = 400 effective)

[racerboyf1]

yup. I just ran 3dmark 2001 and my scores went from 13,800 to 9,100. This is really a drag.

[racerboyf1]

voltage is fluctuating from 1.504 to 1.584. It did not fluctuate that much before.

[silenze]

yikes.. that is odd..

I'd suggest waiting for someone who's an Intel buff to reply..

:?

[KryoNexus]

voltage is fluctuating from 1.504 to 1.584. It did not fluctuate that much before.

that much of a fluctuation isn't uncommon. it isn't necessarily the best thing for overclocking, but it happens quite a bit. in fact, Abit RMA'd my board because of a fluctuation slightly larger than that. that's Abit though, don't know if Asus will.

i'd say start off by resetting your BIOS to factory defaults and see what things look like then. it's hard to say what the real problem is right off hand, especially considering the bus speed increase coming from the new chip. it could be a busted up northbridge or a number of other things. anyway, reset your BIOS and then come back to me. (maybe even upgrade your BIOS as well)

[racerboyf1]

Kryo-I alread have reset the bios and checked for updates and I'm all set as far as that is concerned. I have a spare drive, do you think a fresh install of xp might make a difference?

[KryoNexus]

umm, it might help with the speed of things (particularly since winders likes to hold onto old drivers for everything).

however, it won't help your voltage fluctuations.

pop your old cpu in and see if the speed comes back. also, check what the voltage fluctuations are with it. if your fluctuating more with the new cpu than the old, it is likely a hardware issue. but the speed thing itself could very well be windows. remember though that this cpu has a faster bus than your previous chip, so any malfunctions on the motherboard will be much more noticeable with this cpu, particularly if you have a problem with the northbridge or interfaces between the northbridge/ram/cpu.

[racerboyf1]

I've been working way too much to spend any time working on this problem. I will try a few things in the next couple of days and post my results. Thanks for the help.

[Roadracer_4ever]

The 2.8 C uses more voltage than your previous cpu, tru upping the VCORE in your BIOS one notch, and see what happens. You may also try a BIOS update if you're comfortable with doing one, if not, leave it to a proffessional. It could also be your ram holding you back. Not sure on the FSB rates supported off hand, but I believe newer gen cpu's usually support faster ram. Where your old ram may have been perfect for your old cpu, it may not be so with the new one. may want to back the ram off on the ratio range and see if it settles down there as well. Try a 2:1, 3:1 ratio and see what happens. Bumping the chipset voltage up a bit(vdd) for stability can't hurt either. I run 1.8 constantly on my chipset. Even with the CPU set at defaults for fsb, having it slight overvolted(vcore) and the chipset slightly overvolted produce more stable running and higher clock speeds(go figure??) The gain isn't much at stock fsb...but a solid 1.22Ghz over stock 1.917 is pretty good without upping anything else. Currently running at 2.3 Ghz on stock cooling with an AMD 2600XP+ Barton(not mobile) Have managed to hit 2.51, but backed it off due to the stock cooling, for the moment.

[silenze]

Here's my specs:
Asus P4C-800-E Deluxe
P4 2.8c
Radeon 9500 Pro
WD2000JD 200GB SATA HDD
2X 512MB Corsair 3200XLPRO

800Mhz effective FSB = 200Mhz actual FSB * 4...

PC3200 = 200Mhz/400Mhz effective...

ram isn't the problem.

1/10th of a volt isn't likely to make a difference, if the cpu was starving for voltage, you think it would randomly reboot/lock up under heavy load... but it wouldn't hurt to try...

Btw: What kind of power supply do you have?

[racerboyf1]

I doubt that the ram is the problem 2x512mb Corsair pc3200xl pro. Power supply is antec true power 350 watt. Could that be it? CPU specs state that voltage should be 1.525 max, but that does seem a little low to me. Bios is up to date and I have no problem updating that myself via the gui utility that comes with the mobo or using dos to flash it.

[Roadracer_4ever]

My own cpu uses a default of 1.64v, mind you, it's AMD, but I'd give 1.6 a try in the BIOS on yours and see if that smoothes it out. I generally run slightly over-volted even with current cpu and seem to produce more stability, and better clock speeds at default FSB settings. I'd bump the vdd up a notch to, as it never hurts. What rev is your board?

[racerboyf1]

OK-I finally had time to work on the problem. I did a fresh install of xp and the speed seems to be back. 3dmark01 scores are back up to 13,900. I just find it weird that there is still a fluctuation in clock speed, from about 2784 to 2798. Voltage fluctuations seem to have leveled to about a .02 variable. System oc's stable to about 3400 but runs very hot. I think I'll leave it stock untill I get some better cooling. Thanks for all the help guys.

[Caj Darkmoon]

Heh, it's windows, no one understands WHY it does what it does, we just learn how to fix it. :)