Did I just trash my UD3R?

Okay guys, I'm a complete failure at overclocking. I've never done it, nor was I qualified to attempt this on someone's computer.

My boyfriend recently purchased a computer, specs: Bloom i7 930; gigabyte x58a-ud3r. I decided I would try to overclock while he's away since I had nothing else to do. He knows relatively little about overclocking, so I thought this would be an unexpected treat. So basically, I just copied someone's BIOS with similar settings and went with a restart (felt generous only pushing for 3.8).

Now, the computer just repeatedly restarts very quickly. This is before the comp can even begin a boot process, how do I get back to BIOS, but from a USB, or anything?

Did I just completely bung-hole his computer?

what youre describing, post loops, sounds like a common failure of gigabyte x58 motherboards. you didnt do anything to cause this. try unplugging the power supply and removing the motherboard battery for about 20 minutes to allow the bios settings to return to default. and stay away from gigashyte.

and be careful with taking advice on voltage settings from simplified how-to guides as they usually tell you to overvolt everything which isnt good.

Fear not, motherboards are pretty resilient nowadays! You can reset the bios by moving the jumpers on the motherboard that are for resetting the bios. The user manual will provide you with the exact location and instructions to reset the bios without turning on the computer.

Nothing to worry about, although I was sure the bios would go to stock settings if it can't post due to over clocking (happens on my gigabyte board).

My UD3R will do that if the settings aren't right. Just press the button on the back of the mobo and it should restart with the default BIOS. Might have had the mem or qpi freq too high.

BTW that board is probably the best overclocking board for the money.

i have never had post loops on anything but gigashyte boards.

Ahh! Thanks so much!

Lesson learned today: I need to not be an idiot.

Did the CMOS reset fix your problem?

If so that is not being an idiot that is learning the limits of your hardware

READ READ READ. There is much more going on when you overclock a fixed multi CPU... need to know what everything is capable of and learn what BSODs signify what parts of hte system failing (or subsystem)

Markymark3, glad your problem was resolved. I am a somewhat newbie at over clocking but the below is how I have gone about it. Not in great detail, but hopefully it gives some thought to the overall process I go through when attempting it.

I have a P35 Gigabyte mobo and if an overclock setting is too high to start up the OS or post, it will boot loop reboot a couple of times and auto reset the bios to original settings. Then all is well again.

I have a friend with a gigabyyte x58 mobo and he had experienced a similar issue of looping and not posting as you after an overclock. I forget how he fixed it. Probably did one of the above answers.

I'm still learning to overclock and have had some success. The most important thing I have learned, is do it in small increments to see what will work and what won't ( I have heard some people do the opposite).As you go up, in say .2 gigahertz at time, load test and monitor temperature. Load test, meaning run a demanding game, and benchmark software like 3dMark06 or something better, and if it does not crash, and temps are still within acceptable range, continue the increase. If it crashes, usually a bump in voltage stabilizes it. If it does not even post, back it off. Bench test again, then maybe increase voltage etc... or adjust the bus speed and multi plier and the cycle continues. Maybe not how the pros do it, I duno. There are pros on this site that can chime in for sure. My my bud taught me to do it in small increments till it fails, and then change something. The end of the increase cycle will usually be either the cpu limit, bus speed or temp. Usually temperature and or bus speed will stop the increasing further. In my short lived experience that is. Good Luck!

U NEED TO LOWER THE UNCORE SETTINGS BELOW 3800 - 3500MHZ FOR EXAMPLE