Older Opteron socket 939 OC vs. W7 64-bit

[mhn8d1]

Here's a rundown of the specs:

Antec Earthwatts 650w PSU
Asus A8N SLI Premium Motherboard
4x 1gb sticks of corsair XMS PC3200 twinXL matched memory
AMD Opteron 170 Socket 939 CPU
Saphire Radeon HD 5770 GPU
2x older Raptor 7200 RPM HDD in Raid 0
MSI DVD burner

Basically, here's what's happening:

I can overclock this thing up to 2190 mhz, and it's totally stable. Passes any kind of load testing I run, for as long as I run it. The CPU never gets above 39 degrees celcius, under load. This is on air cooling. All overclocking is being done through the BIOS.

Well, as soon as I run the CPU clock up to 220 x 10 multiplier, it won't even boot. Adjusting RAM timings, any voltages, etc. do nothing to resolve the issue. It seems almost as if the CPU goes outside the allowable parameters for what Windows 7 thinks it should be set, and the thing takes a dump.

Here's the only things I can think of that may be causing this:

1) I've got power management settings wrong (I set them to 'high performance' and left them there)
2) The HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) configured itself on the Windows install, and will no longer let the processor run outside the range of 2190 mhz
3) The chipset drivers or processor driver for W7 are causing some kind of similar problem to what may be caused by the HAL, and again it won't let me clock the CPU outside a particular range.
4) I got a bad PSU and the voltages are wavering
5) The 5770 + Catalyst drivers possibly despise the idea of an overclocked processor
6) Perhaps overclocking with a 64-bit processor is different than when running it in 32-bit?

The only things I can think to try are this:

1) Overclock the processor before even installing Windows 7, and then install and hope that when the installer picks up the clock speed from the BIOS, it creates a HAL that allows higher speeds
2) Uninstall the processor in the device manager, and then overclock, and then let W7 re-detect the thing on reboot. Rinse and repeat.
3) Do nothing, because it's an older board and processor (I can't afford anything new - I am disabled and bought this stuff entirely with gift cards I'd accumulated)

 

[mhn8d1]

Here's a rundown of the specs:

Antec Earthwatts 650w PSU
Asus A8N SLI Premium Motherboard
4x 1gb sticks of corsair XMS PC3200 twinXL matched memory
AMD Opteron 170 Socket 939 CPU
Saphire Radeon HD 5770 GPU
2x older Raptor 7200 RPM HDD in Raid 0
MSI DVD burner

Basically, here's what's happening:

I can overclock this thing up to 2190 mhz, and it's totally stable. Passes any kind of load testing I run, for as long as I run it. The CPU never gets above 39 degrees celcius, under load. This is on air cooling. All overclocking is being done through the BIOS.

Well, as soon as I run the CPU clock up to 220 x 10 multiplier, it won't even boot. Adjusting RAM timings, any voltages, etc. do nothing to resolve the issue. It seems almost as if the CPU goes outside the allowable parameters for what Windows 7 thinks it should be set, and the thing takes a dump.

Here's the only things I can think of that may be causing this:

1) I've got power management settings wrong (I set them to 'high performance' and left them there)
2) The HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) configured itself on the Windows install, and will no longer let the processor run outside the range of 2190 mhz
3) The chipset drivers or processor driver for W7 are causing some kind of similar problem to what may be caused by the HAL, and again it won't let me clock the CPU outside a particular range.
4) I got a bad PSU and the voltages are wavering
5) The 5770 + Catalyst drivers possibly despise the idea of an overclocked processor
6) Perhaps overclocking with a 64-bit processor is different than when running it in 32-bit?

The only things I can think to try are this:

1) Overclock the processor before even installing Windows 7, and then install and hope that when the installer picks up the clock speed from the BIOS, it creates a HAL that allows higher speeds
2) Uninstall the processor in the device manager, and then overclock, and then let W7 re-detect the thing on reboot. Rinse and repeat.
3) Do nothing, because it's an older board and processor (I can't afford anything new - I am disabled and bought this stuff entirely with gift cards I'd accumulated)

Continued:


4) Try another PSU. I have to say, though, I probed this thing with my dad's stuff, and the PSU seems to be putting power where it should be and when it should be there.
5) Cry


Any suggestions?

 

[mhn8d1]

Single bump, just in case. After this, I'll let it die.