you need to set the correct bus speed and multipliers.

sounds like it's gone back to CMOS defaults - either you reset it (by jumpering it) or you've done a BIOS update or your CMOS battery has discharged.

Edited by - Tawakalna on 9/4/2007 2:54:52 AM

Before you screw your system up, test it again when you have full load on the cpu (cpu usage >50%)

It may be Intel Speedstep throttling your cpu in halt state.

I thought Speedstep only applied to mobile cpus and you wouldn't see any reference to it at POST anyway

Taw, I'd prefer not to muck about in the BIOS without knowing exactly what I'm doing. Would you mind telling me what to do?

sounds to me like you need to make a pilgrimage to the Grand Central Mosque of Tawkalnistan (it's NOT a palace, honest!) and make some offerings to the Holy Shrine of CMOS (cash, debit or credit, all major cards accepted, barter and p/x considered)

..or..

tell me what motherboard you're using, including the version revision, then I can look up the BIOS in My Bumper Book of BIOS (£9-99 from all good Tawakalni bookstores) and then, if it's sympatico, send you some screenies and instructions of what to do. how's that sound to you?



Edited by - Tawakalna on 9/5/2007 6:32:20 AM

Taw, you're my hero. It's a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 with BIOS version F7. Is that what you need?

sorry for the delay, no interweb connection in the Hovel this week, and too busy at work! Have no fear, Gigabyte BIOSes are very forgiving and if you totally screw it up, you can rely on the dual-BIOS to rescue you or just clear CMOS to go back to deafults and start again. You won't irreparably destroy anything, and Uncle Taw's always around to help (ignore the Rabbit though!)

ok, first off, press "del" as your pc boots. This will take you into the BIOS (CMOS Setup)

the first section that you will need to go into is "Advanced BIOS Features" (this is just some preparatory housekeeping but do it anyway)

you need to make sure that the following are set to the values I'm giving you. Don't touch anything else, unless you know what it does.

cpu hyper-threading - enabled
cpu thermal monitor - enabled
cpu eist function - enabled
virtualiSation technology - enabled (stupid American spelling with a Z, ffs!)

Esc out of that and go into MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.)

CPU Clock Ratio - 8 (FSB 266mz x 8 = 2128 therefore will be detected as 2.13ghz) It's possible that you not be able to change this (i.e. the cpu has been top-locked) in which case the next step (C.A.M.) applies.
C.A.M - High (this sets the clock ratio for frequency-locked CPUs to High. Keep it at this by default even if it has no direct effect on you.)
CPU Host Clock Control - Disabled
CPU Host Frequency - 266mhz (as you use a 1066 MHz FSB processor, you must set the "CPU Host Frequency" to 266 MHz.
C.I.A. 2 - Disabled (this is a dynamic overclock utility {for dunces} but I think it's cr*p and doesn't work)
System Memory Multiplier - Auto
Memory Frequency (Mhz) - 533 (this should be greyed out because it's automatically set by SPD in the previous setting)
DIMM OverVoltage Control - Normal
PCI-E OverVoltage Control - Normal
FSB OverVoltage Control - Normal
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control - Normal
CPU Voltage Control - Normal

Esc out, then Save and Exit setup (F10 "exit saving changes" and you'll see that the system now detects a 2.13ghz processor, unless you've been flogged a dodgy re-mark and re-clock (but I dunno nowt about those Yer Honour, and never would!)

That's it, all done; that wasn't so bad, was it? Don't be tempted to go overclocking even though it's easy, because for the increase in performance that you get you have to correspondingly cool the system, and even moderate overclocking demands a fairly capable method of active cooling - that's why that C.I.A. rubbish doesn't work.)

Please not complete lack of Eskwilurx input - presumably Typhon's broke again!


Edited by - Tawakalna on 9/10/2007 12:23:51 PM

Incidentally, sorry to cause confusion - I've found that turning off EIST and C1E will force a motherboard to always run a CPU at the rated speed, at the cost of slightly elevated temperatures.

Call me naive, but shouldn't the stock coolers be able to handle working at the advertised speed?

yes they should... but often don't. depends which Chinese sweatshop they've been knocked out of.