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whenever i o/c my Athlon MP 1800+ to the max it gives me a windows error and it corrupts a lot of files which doesnt allow me to get back into windows, in or out of safe mode. Causes me to format....why does it do this. is it because my ram cant take the fsb, or what....i am lost...

Basic overclocking fundamentals tell you that running anything over its rated speed can cause errors. Its the risk you take when overclocking. It can be a number of things and quite frankly without more information no one is going to be able to answer that. You have to be VERY detailed when asking overclocking questions.

okay....

Maybe your idea of "to the max" isn't the same as what your proc's idea is.

Try bumping the fsb a little at a time, and then stepping back once it becomes unstable. That should be your "max".

This is my first post, but i feel compelled to offer my experiences here.
I have been overclocking since I pushed my AMD 486DX40 all the way to 50

This is one component that is often overlooked when o/c'ing is the Hard Disk Drive. I haven't used an ABIT KR7-A before, so I don't know if it support multiplier o/c, or if your used FSB o/c'ing... If your o/c'ing the FSB your hard drive _could_ be the weak link in the chain.

I have managed to corrupt several installs of Windows (esp WinXP ) to the point of not booting, by pushing my FSB higher than my HDD could handle. _Most_ hard drives can tolerate a PCI speed of 37Mhz, above this I tread carefully (or have a full back up and watch for errors) Some can handle 41.5Mhz, but this is approaching the PCI tolerance limit (if not the HDD, than other components in the system).

One option to test if HDD is the weak link, is to reduce the transfer mode of HDD in the BIOS. Turning it down from DMA Mode X --> PIO Mode X sometimes makes a difference, at the expense of some lost HDD speed.
If it does, that is where the problem lies.

Also, If you can't boot into windows and need to retrieve data, you could attach another boot HDD to your system. This works even for NTFS partitions.


ANZ_DiG

or u could just buy a good mobo with agp/pci lock solves some probs

My overclocking exp is that windows crashes half way through bootup.. tells me some registry file is missing or something. Returning it to the original FSB usually fixes the problem..