Gigabyte 965P-DS3P + 7900GT volt mode problem

Hi there,

I oc'ed my 7900GT and managed to get 675MHz/1900MHz in windows with my E4400 at stock speed (2GHz).

However, as soon as I overclock my CPU by even 1MHz the system will POST but it will reboot instantly and reset my CMOS to default values.

I've tried upping the CPU voltage, I've tried increasing the PCI-e voltage, nothing helps. Same thing happens over and over again.

I got the latest bios for this board (F5) which says that it "Fixed issue with PCI-e overclocking", however I'm getting a problem that I've never seen before.

Any ideas?

Sounds like a power supply issue to me. Your video card is drawing more power overclocked than when it's stock. As for the MB revision fixing PCI-E overclocking issues, I'd imagine that it is referring to the actual PCI-E clock speed rather than overclocking on the PCI-E bus. (100MHz is the stock PCI-E bus speed.)

So basically I have 3 questions for you....
1. What kind of Power Supply do you have? (brand, wattage, and amperage per rail)
2. What are your voltages while under load and how much do they fluctuate? (using a multimeter)
3. What program are you using to test stability for your video card overclock? An unstable core can lead to crashes or freezing.

Best of luck!

I'm using a stock 430W power supply that came with my Thermaltake Soprano case.

I havent tested the voltages under load so I cannot say on their fluctuations.

Lastly, when my CPU is stock, I boot into windows, test the VC using 3dMark2006 and it works like a dream, over and over again.

However, I dont think any of these are applicable to my issue. When I overclock the CPU (even by 1Mhz), I dont increase the voltage.

The System POSTs, however just as it's about to show the summary window and try and load windows, it reboots itself.

My friend tried it on his 965P-DS3 board and it works fine.

Another question I have is my board supports ATI-Crossfire, and there is a molex connector on board to provide extra power. If I plug this in would it make a difference?

You need a new PSU, 430 watts is barely enough to run my rig and it doenst even have a high end video card.

USB devices, Nvidia cards and the 965P-DS3

I have the same problem. I have a 965P-DS3P rev. 3.3 with an e6300 CPU, an XFX 7950GT and a 550W Thermaltake PSU. Searching, I found that another person solved it by swapping out his 7950GT and replacing it with another card. This allowed him to overclock. He then switched back to the 7950 and he could still overclock. I tried the same thing and it worked... at least for a while. I could even change the overclock. All seemed to be working at 2.8GHz for a week or so. Now it is back to the old behavior, so I am looking again for a solution. I don't want to have to swap out the card on a regular basis.

From what I have seen this seems to be a problem specific to using an Nvidia cards with the 965P-DS3P. To clarify, for this problem to happen all you have to do is enable the manual clock setting in M.I.T. Even if you choose the stock clock speed of 266 the machine will reboot after POST and come back up with the manual clock setting disabled. So, it appears that the BIOS checks something which determines that it will not allow overclocking.

Okay, I just did a little more searching and found this page:
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=83335&page=63
They also link Nvidia cards to inability to overclock on the 965P-DS3. The one other thing mentioned there is that USB devices can cause this. I just realized that my system allowed the overclock as long as I left my WD 500GB External Hard Drive disconnected. Now that it is hooked back up it will no longer overclock. One post said that only a few types of USB devices would cause trouble and those would work fine if you put them on a PCI USB card. So I am going to get one of those 4 port USB PCI cards... I am betting that will fix things!

USB Cards

One last note: I did just unplug the WD USB Drive, rebooted and reset the overclock in the BIOS and it started without a problem at 2.8GHz - did not need to do the graphics card swap trick again.

-Dan

thanks for that, i'll give it a try.

the other thing though, if I use my 7800GTX(non volt modded) that everything works fine... I o/c my E4400 to 3.33GHz no probs whatsoever.

Is it only the newer Nvidia cards that are affected?

Plus in terms of USB devices, I have mouse, keyboard, Dell monitor, External HD, printers, Gamepad, 17-in-1 card reader, etc, etc.

Is it only USB devices plugged in the m/b USB slots or even USB devices plugged directly on the board?

Remove all non essential USB items and try again using 7900GT.

So only plug in mouse and keyboard and see if it overclocks.

I've never heard of this problem, it's wierd though

I got a second 7900GT, same brand as the first one, did the same mod & plugged it in my PC.

Guess what?

It booted no problems whatsoever. I gave the first one to my friend, he plugged it in his 965P-DS3 mobo & it worked flawlessly...

Weird!!!

The only other issue I have with this card is when I first boot into windows, and right click on the background, I get horizontal screen "tearing", which goes away completely after the first couple of clicks.

The "tearing" returns on next reboot? Is this a driver issue in Vista?

By any chance did you have a USB external HDD or other storage device plugged in at the time? My 965P-S3 won't overclock if I boot up with a USB external hdd plugged in.

You need a new poweaupply.[It isn't a very good PSU]