NEED HELP AW9D-MAX VERY STUBBORN

Good evening everyone. I need some help trying to get a stable oc with this mobo. I've owned this board since Dec 06 and I really never found the sweet spot. I've read the stickey for this board on the site and tried a few settings but to no avail, I'll either get it to boot into xp then BSOD or fail to start. My sys consist of the following components:

AW9D MAX BIOS 1.7 (updated today from 1.5)
CD2 E6600 w/THERMALRIGHT HR01 w/COOLING DUCT 120mm (cpu)
EVGA GTX 260 216 55NM
GAMXTREME 700
CORSAIR DOMINATOR DDR2 PC8500C5DF 2X2 4GB
WD 250 X 2 RAID-0
WD 74GB RAPTOR
SILVERSTONE TJ09
WIN XP SP3 32BIT

Here are some of the settings I've used
373X9 3357 (This is my everyday setting)
MCH 1.70
CPU 1.35
DDR2 1.95
DRAM SPEC DDR 667 (4:5)
N/B STRAP PSB 1066


375x9 3375 FAILED
MCH 1.6
CPU 1.4
DDR2 2.10
DRAM SPEC DDR2 533 (1:1)
N/B STRAP PSB 1066

380X9 3420 FAILED
MCH 1.65 / 1.70
CPU 1.45
DDR2 2.1
DRAM SPEC DDR2 533 (1:1)
N/B STRAP PSB 1066

Okay these latest attemps at further OC my machine I've been using the 4GB kit from Corsair. My most stable OC came from the 2GB kit that I sold. Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong? My level of experiance is Novice, I know enough to be dangers. I think my problem is with my memory settings not really sure about the ratios.

well at 1:1 ratio with fsb at 380 your ram is only running DDR2-760 cas5... so if your overvotling the ram for those loose timings you are making the ram error out... to much voltage at low speed with loose timings causes problems. samething as if your tring to go to fast with not enough voltage.... if they added it to the bios try the 1333 fsb strap...

Evilsizer I never thought of that, about the overvolting of the ram, because that is the rams max 2.1. But all I'm really trying to do is get atleast 3.4-3.6 stable and maintain 1:1 if at all posible. And yes I do have 1333 fsb strap but like I mentioned earlier I would like to stay at (1:1). Also I'm abit confused now because I thought changing the DRAM SPEC controls your memory spd? So If I set my DRAM SPEC to 533 that= 1066=(1:1)?

bankheadd said:

Evilsizer I never thought of that, about the overvolting of the ram, because that is the rams max 2.1. But all I'm really trying to do is get atleast 3.4-3.6 stable and maintain 1:1 if at all posible. And yes I do have 1333 fsb strap but like I mentioned earlier I would like to stay at (1:1). Also I'm abit confused now because I thought changing the DRAM SPEC controls your memory spd? So If I set my DRAM SPEC to 533 that= 1066=(1:1)?

Click to expand...

that doesnt work like that.. the reading in the is for the actual ram speed, so 533/2=266mhz. to get 1066 you need 533fsb when on the 1:1 ratio for that speed. still thoug your overvoltaging your ram for DDR2-533 speeds... you didnt say what timings but never leave timings at auto, that can mess with ocing.

My timings for my ram is 5-5-5-15-43 @spd not sure whats a good setting for these thats why I never adj. Okay I have three attemps this morning to get a good OC.

400X9 3600 FAILED 3DMARK06, FAILED ORTHOS 2MINS 2SEC (BLEND CPU&RAM)
MCH 1.70
CPU 1.42
DDR2 2.1
DRAM SPEC DDR2 677 (1:1)
N/B STRAP PSB 1366

385X9 3465 PASSED 3DMARK06, FAILED ORTHOS 2MINS 2SEC (BLEND CPU&RAM)
MCH 1.75
CPU 1.42
DDR2 2.1
DRAM SPEC DDR2 677 (1:1)
N/B STRAP PSB 1366

385X9 3465 PASSED 3DMARK06, FAILED ORTHOS 11SEC (BLEND CPU&RAM)
MCH 1.70
CPU 1.42
DDR2 2.1
DRAM SPEC DDR2 677 (1:1)
N/B STRAP PSB 1366

From here not sure were to start?

The vMCH is way too high at 1.7v+ w/ an FSB of only 385MHz. You shouldn't need to increase it past the default 1.5v (and if so, then only slightly higher) w/ that low an FSB, even w/ 2 x 2GB sticks of RAM installed. Try increasing tRFC from the current 43 to 54 (leave all other sub-timings on AUTO)... and it's not absolutely necessary to stay at 1:1 (333/667 NB strap) for best results. Instead try a 4:5 ratio (266/667 strap) for an effective 950MHz DRAM freq. at an FSB of 380MHz w/ a slightly lower Vdimm, then run Memtest before booting into the GUI.

well the fact is ocing with the SPD set to auto doesnt work well when ocing, that is why you manually set them to the SPD timings...now the other problem is your using blend test which means it could be ram or cpu... use small ..... what RED said as well....

I found that the 1333 strap is very squirrelly on the AW9D & it does really weird things to the timings when they are set by SPD. It's better to manually set the strap to 1066. Also always use the DDR533 divider (1:1 with a 1066 FSB CPU). I found using an upward divider got unstable at 333 FSB / 416 RAM.

I ran 1.65v MCH with a 400 FSB, but that was with only 2x1GB of RAM. Running 1.70v on that board seems reasonable with your 2x2GB (lets just say the AW9D is special that way. lol). Make sure you have good airflow on the NB heatsink.

The RAM is rated for 5-5-5-15 @ DDR1066/533MHz. You should be able to manually set the timings to 4-4-4-12-48 @ 360-420MHz with about 1.95-2.0v.

Both my E6600 and X6800 need 1.475v to run @ 3.6GHz, 400 FSB. The E6600 ran with 1.350v up to 3.3 GHz. 3.4GHz needed about 1.375v & 3.5GHz needed 1.425v.

Red, I ran memtest86+ for about 4hrs 20mins and I had failures, I just don't know how to interpret them. I was looking for away to attach the pic but I don't see anywhere to do this. At the time my spec was:
400x9 ERRORS IN MEMETEST
PSB 1366
DDR2 667 (1:1)
400 DDR2 800
CPU 1.37
DDR2 2.1
MCH 1.7
5-5-5-15-56 MANUAL

375x9 3375
PSB 1066
DDR2 667 (4:5)
469 DDR2 938
CPU 1.35
DDR2 2.0
MCH 1.65
5-5-5-15-56 MANUAL
CHG 5-5-5-15-46 MANUAL FAILED
CHG 5-5-5-15-43 SPD FAILED

I guess I need to figure out what those errors are can anybody show me how to post pic to this site?

no need to post a pic of memtest... i told you the problem but you ignore it.... right now you have upped the ram speed to DDR2-800 using a 1:1 but YOUR still overvolting the ram... JDEC spec for DDR2-800 cas 5 is 1.8-1.9v ur putting 2.1v into the ram. that causes errors when you do that....JDEC spec is to be followed by all memory makers, get into windows at defautl everything, run cpuz and look at the SPD tab...

Okay Evilsizer I took your advice and lowered my cpu volts. Here are the setting I used:
385X9 3465 (SETTING UNSTABLE IN WIN XP FREEZE UP)
N/B STRAP PSB 1066
DRAM SPEC DDR2 533 (1:1)
CPU 1.375
DDR2 1.95
MCH 1.65
MEMORY 4-4-4-12-48 (SET TO MANUAL)
MEMORY 5-5-5-15-48 (SET TO MANUAL)

385X9 3465 (STILL UNSTABLE IN WIN XP FREEZE UP)
N/B STRAP PSB 1066
DRAM SPEC DDR2 667(4:5)
CPU 1.375
DDR2 1.90
MCH 1.65
MEMORY 5-5-5-15-54 (SET TO MANUAL)

385X9 3465 (DID NOT POST, GOT C1 CODE (DETECT MEM)
N/B STRAP PSB 1066
DRAM SPEC DDR2 667(4:5)
CPU 1.375
DDR2 1.80
MCH 1.65
MEMORY 5-5-5-18-23 (SPEC FROM CPU-Z JEDEC #2 SET TO MANUAL)
Here are the settings that are reported in CPU-Z:
JEDED# 1
270
4
4
4
13
16
1.8
JEDEC# 2
400
5
5
5
18
23
1.8
EPP# 1
533
5
5
5
15
22
2T
2.1

So these setting's I'll have to manually put in the bios depending on what I set my memory to in the DRAM SPEC? Out of the previous attempts I've tried, could you kindly give me your settings you would go with with my sys, that would help me out alot.

i would stick with the 1066 strap, 1:1 memory ratio,manually set timings to 5-5-5-18... then use 1.95v on DDR2. leave the cpu voltage at 1.4v or till it reads 1.4v in cpuz. then slowly increase the fsb... if that doesnt work then the only other possible thing i can think of is the NB is running hot and needs active cooling. like i did with both my AB9-pro and IP35-pro i took a small fan and pointed it at the NB.

Evilsizer you said, set memory to 5-5-5-18 what about my tRFC? Also you got a point about NB possibly needing active cooling. Well I will see what she will do tonight and if I'm not able to achieve 400x9 or 385x9 I'll just have to settle for something lower. This setup is about to get replaced with my new build which I'll be using a EVGA 780 FTW mobo, dual EVGA GTX 260 216 SSC 55NM in SLi, C2Q Q6600 G0 Need to order another pwr supply looking at Enermax Revolution85+Series or Corsair 1000. Thanks for yours and everbody else that provided assistance as well

you just need to set the first 4 timings let the bios set the rest... as the other timings will get set based on fsb/nb strap....

Thanks, will try it tonight.

Well I attempted to try your settings Evilsizer, but while I was in my bios these settings were changing at ramdom. Is this a sign that something maybe going out. Have you seen this????
n/b strap went from 1066-1333 then back to 1066
dram spec changed from 533 to 400
mch 1.6 to 10 back to 1.6

never seen/heard of that... i would reflash the bios and then do a deep cmos clear... ie leaving the battery out for about a hour or so, with the cmos jumper in the reset postion. then leave the computer unlpugged from the wall when you do this..

I'm back, and I did your recommendations Evilsizer the problem now is that when I attempt to OC my board won't POST. I keep getting C1 code according to the manual it's under the heading of DETECT MEMORY: auto det of DRAM size, type & ECC & auto det of L2 cache (socket 7 or below). The settings used for my OC:

380X9 3420 Failed twice forgot to disable EIST & C1E
DRAM SPEC DDR2 533 (1:1)
EST NEW DRAM CLK 380 (DDR2 760)
CPU 1.4
DDR2 2.1
MCH 1.60
MEM @ 5-5-5-15-22 (MANUAL) (EPP SETTING IN CPU-Z)

400X9 3600 Failed to POST, C1 ERROR CODE (w/disable EIST & C1E)
DRAM SPEC DDR2 533 (1:1)
EST NEW DRAM CLK 400 (DDR2 800)
CPU 1.42
DDR2 2.1
MCH 1.65
MEM @ 5-5-5-15-22 (MANUAL) (EPP SETTING IN CPU-Z)
Tues I memtioned that I got errors running memtest for test #7? Not sure what that means. What should I do next?

try using a lower ddr2 voltage.... another thing to do is at fsb of 400mhz is to use the 1333fsb strap with mem ratio at 1:1. however this is really starting to sound wierd as to why it wont boot at those speed/setting for the last thing you posted...

Try setting your CPU to 380X7 (2.66Ghz) with the vcore at 1.350v. Make sure EIST and C1E are Disabled (I see you did it already) because the board won't POST with EIST/C1E and a lower multiplier set in BIOS. That can help you focus on getting the RAM stable.

The AW9D is really hard to overclock with 4GB of RAM. With 4GB you have to manually set the Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) to at least 48 in BIOS, maybe even 52 - I wish the Abit support forum was saved somewhere. We've lost so much helpful information.

Like Evil keeps saying - @ 380MHz 5-5-5-15 you only need ~1.90v.