Voltage questions...

hey all

Can having to low a voltage cause your system to crash???

reason is, yesterday I was messing around with trying new drivers for my new 6600GT and I started to have a look and a play with some settings in my bios also.

I saw that in someones sig in a thread - they had their Vcore voltage at like 1.5** V which I thought was amazing... such a low voltage for todays cpu's...

Anyway I dropped mine to just under 1.6 and the machine booted fine, but everytime I tried to play HL2 it would shutdown and force a reboot..

Soon as I put my voltage back to around 1.65 everything was fine again..

So I guess I am asking if it was deffinately the voltage drop that was the cause of the crashes and reboots...

I mean obviously everything is/was leading towards it being that, as soon as I upped my volatge, things went normal again... but I also got the new card the other day as well..

So is it normal for things like that to happen when the voltage is to low??

007

Your Pc is restarting because the cpu is unstable (low voltage) different chips/clocks/steppings can be stable at different Voltage, its the luck of the draw.

007 said:

Anyway I dropped mine to just under 1.6 and the machine booted fine, but everytime I tried to play HL2 it would shutdown and force a reboot..

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HL2 was the only game that did this to me as well. I used this method to determine the absolute minimum voltage while keeping stability as close to 100% as possible. I can now prime95 my current rig overnight and it will still be running when I get home from work the next day. Try running Prime95 and see just how stable your system is. Very few games (if any) actually take full advantage of your clock ticks whilst P95 leeches the proc for all it is worth. Good luck.

-Fb

falcon u need a new psupply!!

nstabl said:

falcon u need a new psupply!!

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if you want to low your voltage, you will have to low the cpu speed as well.
At the same clock speeds but with lower Vcore the processor will probably cause error soon or later. The clock will not have the time to reach Vcc and will probably interpretate 0s inspite of 1s. This will obviously cause a blue screen of death or inexpected reebot. Its Boolean logic

nstabl said:

falcon u need a new psupply!!

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While I agree, this isn't the beefiest of PSU's, it gets the job done without complaint. So far, I have had no hold backs due to the PSU. An upgrade is definitely in order for the near future...this one came with the case and it's a very stable and clean Antec with rails off only .05%!

-Fb

FalconBlade said:

While I agree, this isn't the beefiest of PSU's, it gets the job done without complaint. So far, I have had no hold backs due to the PSU. An upgrade is definitely in order for the near future...this one came with the case and it's a very stable and clean Antec with rails off only .05%!

-Fb

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I'm running almost the same system with an Antec TruePower 330 with no problems at all. 6600GT and Athlon Mobile 2600+ both overclocked. Tested underload at the ATX connector all voltages right on the money. Antec did a good job building these supplies.

If you use this technique from Sen, you can get high FSBs with low voltage. It is a time consuming process but thats the necessary evil that you need for reaching those high FSB low temp overclocks on air. Its working for me and definitley worth it!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=382751

Scary_Penguin said:

If you use this technique from Sen, you can get high FSBs with low voltage. It is a time consuming process but thats the necessary evil that you need for reaching those high FSB low temp overclocks on air. Its working for me and definitley worth it!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=382751

Click to expand...

'

Thanks for that great info! I'm saving back for a good 500+watt PSU so that I'll have a good one on hand for my next rig.

-Fb