ECS Mobo - Limit Removal?

[kyle2020]

right, i recently had a blast at overclocking my 5000+ BE, and it was all going great until, at setting 215, (was going to 220) my motherboard would not post, reading a message of "system now in safe mode. please reset CPU frquency in CMOS". Now, someone told me that this is normal woth ECS motherboards and its a sort of limiter - my question to you, fine people of TPU, is is there any way of removing this limit? or does this situation entail the purchase of a new Mobo? the model just incase you need it: ECS NFORCE6M-A V:2.0

[spearman914]

Since it saids plrease reset CPU frequency in CMOS, then do it.... And I've never bought anything from Elite Group (ECS) so I have no proof.

[kyle2020]

Since it saids plrease reset CPU frequency in CMOS, then do it.... And I've never bought anything from Elite Group (ECS) so I have no proof.

thats what ive been doing, and i can get it back up to 215, just no further. even at 216 it wont post. anyone with an ECS know a solution / lack of one? :confused:

[kyle2020]

bump - anyone have any ideas?

[JrRacinFan]

What's your HT multi set at?

[MadCow]

I would think that ECS put that limit there because their shitty mobos can't handle any HTT above that. Why did you even buy ECS in the first place?

[JrRacinFan]

Well if he is anything like me, a budget builder ....

Seriously though Kyle, you got a pretty good rig on your hands. Could potentially be better with a different motherboard, but its still a nice rig, nothing to scoff at.

[kyle2020]

I would think that ECS put that limit there because their shitty mobos can't handle any HTT above that. Why did you even buy ECS in the first place?

i bought this "shitty" motherboard because ECS are a brilliant company, not to mention very reasonably priced - next time think about your post before you hit submit? :shadedshu

and yes Jr, you and me are budget builders. i originally set myself a £300 limit to build a pc to run crysis - obviously i then decided to wait a while and get better quality items. at the time, over clocking was a mystery to me, but now as i have more confidence i thought i would try it. If i had known the motherboard had restrictions on it i would have spent some more on one that didnt have a limit. but at £30, with not a single hiccup under its belt, its a damn good motherboard.

and thanks again Jr, thanks for the complient. not too bad yourself! :D

[philbrown23]

yeah I've had 4 ECS amd boards and all had the same limiter except my 939 one, but all 3 am2 ones had it, not sure why but they did, hope this helps.

[kyle2020]

yeah I've had 4 ECS amd boards and all had the same limiter except my 939 one, but all 3 am2 ones had it, not sure why but they did, hope this helps.

cheers for the heads up. i think i might wait a bit, save up and go intel + quad core.

[timta2]

I agree that a replacement is your best bet. Not too long ago I replaced my ECS 945P-A and I am so much happier now. If I set the bus speed over 240 my SATA drives would not show up in the bios! ECS boards although economical are not good for overclocking. I always wondered why the guys in the store kept suggesting that I buy another board, I thought they were just trying to upsell me but after I had the board installed I realized why they were trying to prevent me from buying it.

[kyle2020]

I agree that a replacement is your best bet. Not too long ago I replaced my ECS 945P-A and I am so much happier now. If I set the bus speed over 240 my SATA drives would not show up in the bios! ECS boards although economical are not good for overclocking. I always wondered why the guys in the store kept suggesting that I buy another board, I thought they were just trying to upsell me but after I had the board installed I realized why they were trying to prevent me from buying it.

i see what you mean - i have another problem though. i purchased an academic upgrade version of vista (seeing as im 16 + full time education) but obviously as its OEM its tied to a single motherboard. someone told me i can ring or contact microsoft, say that for example my motherbaord has broken, and that i need my licence key re setting. is this possible? if im buying a new mobo i dont want to be also purchasing another copy of vista.

[kyle2020]

i have another question for you people aswell:

if i was to say i had between £30 - £50 to spend on a new AM2 socket motherboard with good overclocking features / functionality, what would you reccomend? either brand or actual product please. seeing as this was my first build, im not quite sure what to look for. thanks! *oh, and if im not pushing it, is there a possibility i can get an SLI mobo if i stretch to around £60? to future proof myself*

[Solaris17]

kk first

you can call them and they will reactivate it i have an oem copy round here someware and iv installed it on 3 diff mobos no probs

2 ya ecs is good nice stable but OC functonality they purposely skimp out on every one iv e ver used has this problem and iv tried and tried and theirs no way around it.....so a new mobo is in order

a damn good mobo woul be her

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138102

i also have an Infinity UltraII M2 newegg doesnt sell tham anymore and at the time they were 70$ their really REALLY good solid boards if you can find one id get it their moddable to sli and have sata 3gb/s firewire 2 ide slots like 8 sata ports and 8-10 usb...every function imaginable really solid stuff

here are a few sites that still carry UltraII m2's their NF4 but damn good kinda dated but really good function and quality they still work great youll have to check if they ship to the UK but still within your proce range

and if you do get one i did everything with this board check my sig i can help you mod it to sli bios flash setting changes also i think Wile E has one he might be selling it

http://onsale.wholesaleclearing.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=5280&category_id=252&manufacturer_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

http://store.1stwarehouse.com/servlet/-strse-3942/DFI-INFINITY-NF-ULTRA-dsh-II-dsh-M2/Detail

http://www.pcplanetsystems.com/abc/product_details.php?category_id=118&item_id=673

[kyle2020]

kk first

you can call them and they will reactivate it i have an oem copy round here someware and iv installed it on 3 diff mobos no probs

2 ya ecs is good nice stable but OC functonality they purposely skimp out on every one iv e ver used has this problem and iv tried and tried and theirs no way around it.....so a new mobo is in order

a damn good mobo woul be her

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138102

i also have an Infinity UltraII M2 newegg doesnt sell tham anymore and at the time they were 70$ their really REALLY good solid boards if you can find one id get it their moddable to sli and have sata 3gb/s firewire 2 ide slots like 8 sata ports and 8-10 usb...every function imaginable really solid stuff

here are a few sites that still carry UltraII m2's their NF4 but damn good kinda dated but really good function and quality they still work great youll have to check if they ship to the UK but still within your proce range

and if you do get one i did everything with this board check my sig i can help you mod it to sli bios flash setting changes also i think Wile E has one he might be selling it

http://onsale.wholesaleclearing.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=5280&category_id=252&manufacturer_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

http://store.1stwarehouse.com/servlet/-strse-3942/DFI-INFINITY-NF-ULTRA-dsh-II-dsh-M2/Detail

http://www.pcplanetsystems.com/abc/product_details.php?category_id=118&item_id=673


now you are the kind of person TPU needs more of - i cannot express in words how thankfull i am that you did this research for me and gave me this information. i will now be looking into trying to find a mobo you suggested from a shop here in the UK. thanks so much solaris!

[kyle2020]

ok for this time i have decided against an SLI mobo, purely for the fact that next year some time will be my next major upgrade, possibly to the 9 series of Nvidia cards, intel + quadcore - for the mean time my 8800GT will last atleast another year, and so will my 5000+ BE once i get a mobo allowing me to OC. If anyone could suggest a mobo from £30 - £60 with all the features of one of those infinity ultras - by that i mean overclockability, stability, hopefully a well known named company, and plenty of room on the board. If anyone could hunt me one down, id greatly appreciate it. thank you again solaris!

[MadCow]

i bought this "shitty" motherboard because ECS are a brilliant company, not to mention very reasonably priced - next time think about your post before you hit submit? :shadedshu:

I'm a budget builder too, you might not think that looking at my mobo and 2 video cards, but I am. I've had one ECS mobo that downright sucked. It was slow and unstable even at stock settings. Maybe they're a better company now, but I'm not even going to consider buying one.

About your mobo search, I loved my ABIT KN8 SLI, I think that most of their KN9 series is in your price range.

[kyle2020]

I'm a budget builder too, you might not think that looking at my mobo and 2 video cards, but I am. I've had one ECS mobo that downright sucked. It was slow and unstable even at stock settings. Maybe they're a better company now, but I'm not even going to consider buying one.

About your mobo search, I loved my ABIT KN8 SLI, I think that most of their KN9 series is in your price range.

ill have to look them up, thankyou so much for the input. could you just quickly check me this (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142651) motherboard out? i know its SLI but it look a good board + ASUS are a good brand, im running an ASUS 8800GT TOP currently.

[MadCow]

ill have to look them up, thankyou so much for the input. could you just quickly check me this (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142651) motherboard out? i know its SLI but it look a good board + ASUS are a good brand, im running an ASUS 8800GT TOP currently.

I don't really like ASUS, but my cousin has that same board and it seems fine. He doesn't overclock or anything like that though. I've had a pretty bad experience with my old A8R-MVP, and the chipset fan on a friend's ASUS board died, which killed the baord. Also, I doubt ASUS actually manufactures their video cards unless they're not reference-based, so you can't really judge them by that.

But if you want good overclocking, you should get an ATI chipset board, they're a bit more quirky than nvidia chipsets but they overclock better and are a bit faster.

[Solaris17]

np man hope i helped a little :)

[blkhogan]

I had many ECS boards in the past few years. My wifes gaming setup is build off an ECS board, runs cod4 like a dream. Its a 3800+ / ECS N7 Lite / 2 GB supertalent DDR / Sapphire XT1600. I wouldnt knock ECS unless you have had personaly experianced probs with them. They seem to be a average to slightly above average board for a great price. Alot of people that I know dont have alot of extra cash laying around, so they choose to use ECS equipment. They are not built for extream oc'ing, but they are good for what they do.

[hat]

Well you do have a black edition. You could just raise the multi.

[Solaris17]

he's onyl pushing 215 fsb and thats his complaint so im rpetty sure his muti is already maxed

[strick94u]

I have that same motherboard on a rig I just built 215 tops out no big deal at least it over clocks. You could do far worse with a decent video card it should run anything. ECS maybe cheap but their getting better was not to long ago ECS boards had 8x pci-e slots.

[dark2099]

There have been a few posts like this on the forums (one by me) and from every person who has owned this board, they generally get a max FSB of 215-220. It's not a great board for overclocking but beyond that it makes a nice board as is.

[hat]

Solaris, not according to his specs. 13x215 is 2795. And he's posting about having trouble with anything beyond 215.

Kyle you should see something in the BIOS like CPU MULTI or something similar. Just look for an x13 wherever your other oc controls are.

[Solaris17]

o ok my bad didnt see that i would have figured he tried the max multi if he knew he couldnt pass 215

[kyle2020]

There have been a few posts like this on the forums (one by me) and from every person who has owned this board, they generally get a max FSB of 215-220. It's not a great board for overclocking but beyond that it makes a nice board as is.

yep, i agree. its not going to overclock any further, but im going to leave it as it is. i might buy a new mobo this week, but im kinda stuck on a decision. plus i have no idea on how to contact microsoft to reset my licence key either. so i dunno :ohwell:

[kyle2020]

Solaris, not according to his specs. 13x215 is 2795. And he's posting about having trouble with anything beyond 215.

Kyle you should see something in the BIOS like CPU MULTI or something similar. Just look for an x13 wherever your other oc controls are.

hat, thanks for the input, ill have a look for you, and put some pictures up if it evades me. cheers!

[kyle2020]

Right, i have took pictures of the Advance chipset options bit, thats where im changing values. the first picture shows that. The second and third picture show what happens if i try to go any further (i was going to OC in 5Mhz steps, but as you can see i cant. cant even go to 216 :banghead: ). anyone help? :laugh:

[candle_86]

actully the 6m is the worst OC'r ECS makes sadly, there more expenive boards work great, had alot of success with there Nforce4 SLI 939 board back in the day, and i hear there 770 board works wonders

[kyle2020]

bump - does anyone have any idea based on the pictures i have posted, in terms of Hat's input? thanks!

[Solaris17]

turn off your spread spectums thats horrible for OCing it currupts thing causes instability ETC...also enable bios shadowing. its supposed to improve performance.

[kyle2020]

turn off your spread spectums thats horrible for OCing

will it help me overclock further?

[Solaris17]

its a distinct possability look at my edit.

[kyle2020]

its a distinct possability look at my edit.

thanks again solaris - give me 5 minutes and ill report back.

[Solaris17]

rem,ember no garentees but altleast with them off you wont damage anything with your current OC most modern mobos auto disable them when you manually adjust the fsb or AI tune

[kyle2020]

rem,ember no garentees but altleast with them off you wont damage anything with your current OC most modern mobos auto disable them when you manually adjust the fsb or AI tune

thanks again solaris but the same result - went to 220 but got a no post. guess its a new motherboard for me. :(

on the subject, solaris how do i go about contacting microsoft to have my activation code reset? can i do it online? cheers!

[Solaris17]

no if you get an activation error you just install your OS than try to activeate if you get an error you click on "show me other ways to activate" and select the phone option....than you pick your country and it will give you a toll free number to call you call it and at first its automated....it will ask you all the numbers in the box infront of you..you give it the numbers..it confirms it than asks you how mnay computers you have it on...you say one and than it will ask you why your re installing major hardware upgrade or reformat..say major hardware upgrade than it will ask you again how many computers THIS copy of vista its on say one and it will read you the new numbers takes bought 5min. after which youll have about 2 or 3 more reformats b4 you need to call again.

[kyle2020]

no if you get an activation error you just install your OS than try to activeate if you get an error you click on "show me other ways to activate" and select the phone option....than you pick your country and it will give you a toll free number to call you call it and at first its automated....it will ask you all the numbers in the box infront of you..you give it the numbers..it confirms it than asks you how mnay computers you have it on...you say one and than it will ask you why your re installing major hardware upgrade or reformat..say major hardware upgrade than it will ask you again how many computers THIS copy of vista its on say one and it will read you the new numbers takes bought 5min. after which youll have about 2 or 3 more reformats b4 you need to call again.

brilliant. thanks again!

[Solaris17]

np GL on a new board youll be able to bring that proc to screaming speeds fropm what iv seen with a good board.

[kyle2020]

np GL on a new board youll be able to bring that proc to screaming speeds fropm what iv seen with a good board.

cheers, ill e sure to keep you posted :)

i have also heard the BE's crave the overclock - ill have to wait and see. hopefully ordering a new board next week. Need to find one first mind :laugh:

[Solaris17]

5000+ BE's can hit 3.2ghz around the net.

[kyle2020]

5000+ BE's can hit 3.2ghz around the net.

brilliant! was hoping to get 3Ghz out of it anyway, so thats good news. can you do me a really quick favour and give me a view on this mobo? http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GIG-M61S2L#

as in will it be as restrictive as my current in terms of ocing?

[Solaris17]

that doesnt look like it supports x2 procs....id their another site that ships to UK? ill find you one...if you want whats your budget like 40euro? also a hint

onboard vga boards usually dont oc well.

[kyle2020]

that doesnt look like it supports x2 procs....id their another site that ships to UK? ill find you one...if you want whats your budget like 40euro? also a hint

onboard vga boards usually dont oc well.

sorry i linked to the wrong one. this one is £47 and looks ok - its just i need someone as seasoned as yourself to confirm weather or not it will restrict me as my current does.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142651

[Solaris17]

yup good reveiws and good oc options most deff will help out your proc..i have the deluxe veriosn of this board go for it you wont be unhappy

[kyle2020]

yup good reveiws and good oc options most deff will help out your proc..i have the deluxe veriosn of this board go for it you wont be unhappy

thats my purchase next week then! again, i cant express how thankful i am to have recieved some of your knowledge and help. thank you solaris!

[Solaris17]

NP dude glad i could help i came to this forum with a problem and if i didnt get it solved than i would hve given up and never would have been were i am now just trying to spread the knowledge.