The Professor Strikes Again

Short story to describe the topic title: in elementary school, my main excuse for not turning in my homework was that I had forgotten it at home. My teachers could see my potential and brains, but I hardly did any homework. One teacher began calling me the 'absent-minded professor' for these reasons. The name stuck and soon everyone was calling me 'professor'.

How does this tie in with computers? Well, it seems that in my last couple of orders I forgot to buy thermal paste! I've been trying to stretch my last small glob of AS1. I'm finally getting around to making my last order for a long time, from SVC. I'm buying some Ceramique, Arctic Alumina Epoxy (cheaper and coordinates better with Ceramique), and these ramsinks to put on my MOSFETs. I'll also be buying a keyboard to replace the one that I recently spilled half a can of coke on, and a couple network cards; one in case my built-in ethernet gets flaky again, and the other to set up NAT on my server machine so I can dodge the rules about IP's at my college.

So... should I get anything else? I'm trying to get my system (in sig) up to 2.3 GHz, but currently it refuses to POST at that speed from anything but a cold boot. I know it's not the fault of the FSB, because my system consistenly gets unstable around 2.3 GHz whether at 12.5x184 or 13x177. How can I get my overclock up to 2300 stably?

EDIT: My current temperatures are 47C load (unknown idle), case temp is 32C near the power supply. Northbridge temp reaches 50C at load. I have a Volcano 11+ on now, but tomorrow I will be receiving an SK-7 - I'll put off attaching it until I get my Ceramique.

you would need to get better cooling if you wanna hit those speeds..

we'll since you're forgetful ill let this go =x but you obviously fail to mention your cooling setup.. so if its not a good sink then obviously tahts the reason why you're not hitting 2.3.. you should alost list your psu as that can sometimes hinder the oc at higher vcores

slk-900u

cherryp00t said:

you would need to get better cooling if you wanna hit those speeds..

we'll since you're forgetful ill let this go =x but you obviously fail to mention your cooling setup.. so if its not a good sink then obviously tahts the reason why you're not hitting 2.3..

Click to expand...

Restorer said:

EDIT: ... I have a Volcano 11+ on now, but tomorrow I will be receiving an SK-7 - I'll put off attaching it until I get my Ceramique.

Click to expand...

I don't know if you saw this - you may have responded before I edited (which was almost immediately after I posted). Twest17 - I can't use any 'U' type heatsinks, as my motherboard doesn't have the mounting holes. The SK-7 is as high as I am willing to go in air cooling, and I won't have the money for water cooling anytime soon.

If you want my full cooling setup, here goes: Lian Li PC-60, two front intake 80mm Vantec Stealth fans, two rear 80mm exhaust fans (one Stealth, one no-name 26.4 CFM fan), one top exhaust blowhole 80mm Stealth, PSU has three fans (total flow through it should be around 35 CFM), a slot cooler (exhaust) under my video card, Smart Fan II on the heatsink, and a 120mm Evercool Aluminum fan intake over my CPU. Every single fan, including the slot cooler, is controlled with various rheostats on the front of the case.

cherryp00t said:

you should alost list your psu as that can sometimes hinder the oc at higher vcores

Click to expand...

My PSU is a Raidmax 400W.

Complete information can be found at a previous post.

raidmax is a bunch of poo poo...
get an antec (not smartpower...) or fortron

I have no plans to replace anything major (CPU, PSU, mobo, cards, case, drives, or my 120mm fan), and I only MAY replace my no-brand case fan. I am asking what I should get in addition, if anything. Should I perhaps somehow fashion my 40mm fan to blow air across my blue Zalman passive northbridge cooler? Or maybe set it up to blow across the MOSFETs?

set it up to blow air on the northbridge. Have you tried increasing the voltage, just to see if that's the problem?

My dumb Gigabyte board has settings for stock voltage, +5%, +7.5%, and +10%. Right now it's set at +7.5%, but the last time I tried upping it to 10% it didn't help with the reboots. That's why I'll be cooling the MOSFETs - to see if I can get the voltage to be more stable, in case that's the problem.

EDIT: GRAR! I can't do any testing in the meantime. My keyboard hasn't been feeling well since the coke accident, and the only button recognized in BIOS and GRUB is the escape key. So I can't change my OC, and I can't get into Windows.

give your keyboard a shower with h2o, then dry it with air.. i found this works one day when I found that my mother (this was about 10 years ago) washed my keyboard under water.. I freaked out, but then plugged it in and it worked perfectly AND it was clean.. so now I do it to all my keyboards with no problems.. you can also take off all the keys and clean it, this way you'll know it won't get into any trouble, but it is very time consuming.

Trypt said:

give your keyboard a shower with h2o, then dry it with air.. i found this works one day when I found that my mother (this was about 10 years ago) washed my keyboard under water.. I freaked out, but then plugged it in and it worked perfectly AND it was clean.. so now I do it to all my keyboards with no problems.. you can also take off all the keys and clean it, this way you'll know it won't get into any trouble, but it is very time consuming.

Click to expand...

It works well, just make sure you COMPLETELY dry it before using it again.

i read that bost immediatly after you posted it so i did not notice the edit. and it took me a few mins to write up the response so uhh it wasnt there before hehe

and a SK-7 is def a good upgrade from the volcano 11.. it'll def drop your temps a couple of degrees...

as for rebooting thats the problem of your psu and its weak.. i would replace it considering you have good parts in your commputer why ruin it with a weak psu??

fortron and sparkle psus are cheap.. a 350 watt will suffice for your needs and will be much more stable than what you have now

I understand that cheap or weak PSU's can cause problems; I always thought this was due to excessive loading above its true limit (not always what it's rated at) or instability of the voltage lines. I'm not sure how either of these could happen on a reboot when they don't happen on startup. Aren't the hard drives taking more power spinning up? Doesn't it take a stronger surge of current to start up 10 fans than to just keep them going? My PSU is rock solid stable when it boots, even at 2275 MHz, but it plain refuses to boot from a restart at 2288. I think it's a fault of the CPU, and I don't have the ability to replace the PSU right now. If it turns out through testing that it is the power supply, I'll have to settle for 2250 for now.

Maybe I have it all wrong, so if there's something else that the PSU could be doing to keep my system from booting, please let me know.

I've decided that I must make this order by noon local time tomorrow, so if anyone can think of any suggestions as to what I should buy to increase my cooling capacity, please do so. In addition to my other stuff, I'm also ordering another Smart Fan II for rear exhaust.

actually a computer uses more power when its runnign then when its booting.. esp when you start playing games and what not when you put load on your cpu you're also putting a big load on your psu.. esp if its OCed and you increased your vcore.... if you run prime95 and notice your rails fluctuating too much out of range then your psu is too weak...

anywho back to the subject at hand.. i'd go with a sk-7 with smartfan 2 for your heatsink.. and buy wateva case fans you feel like =d

Like I said, my computer is rock solid stable when running, even at full load. The rails do not fluctuate. I see no reason why the PSU would affect POST'ing after a reboot.

Anywho Unless my temperatures get too high, I won't be using a CPU fan; only a duct.

I've completed my order from SVC. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

EDIT: Woohoo! My 100th post!

Three in a row... sorry...

Well, I gave my keyboard a bath in warm water, then set it out to dry with all the keys off. I left it overnight, draining sideways, with a fan blowing on it, then came back about 18 hours later and put the keys back on. It seemed to be nice and dry. Well, I plugged it in and as soon as it had power the lights began flashing. I unplugged it and left it for a couple more hours, then plugged it back in. Same problem. I started up the computer, and the keyboard was not functional. I shut down and unplugged the keyboard, and it's been over 24 hours since I bathed it. It still has the same problem, and I don't think it's moisture. If I've fried my keyboard, I'm blaming you guys. (Just kidding)

But it's okay, I have a keyboard in my order, and I'll be dropping by the local thrift store tomorrow for an AT case and PSU. I'll probably pick up a keyboard as a temp replacement.

You should really let it dry for like 2 full days.. espeacially a keyboard since the water will get trapped inside and stuff

Forgot to mention that I opened up the keyboard as much as possible, but there were three screws that my bulky screwdriver couldn't get to, so I couldn't take it completely apart. I will let the keyboard continue to dry and if it doesn't want to work tomorrow, I will buy a two-dollar keyboard at the thrift shop. No real biggie