960T BE in M4A79XTD EVO OC failures

[johnniedoo]

I have the older asus evo board and wanted to use it. have another one with a 965BE which has been running for 2yrs overclocked to 3.8g at bios 901 i think. it has been totally trouble free and been all over the place as i tested out stable settings. it had been used to oc and open a 4th core on my original (for that particular board) 3core 720BE. it immediately opened up the 4th core and bingo. i got rid of that cpu and moved right into the 965.
I just put the 960T BE 4core in it and am unable to do anything . i updated the bios to 2003 from901 or 604, where ever i had left it off in 2010.
it fails everything. i have used at least 3 other processors in this asus board, it is a well known overclocker for this 960t cpu , yet i can get it to do only 'auto' or it black screens. i can get it to boot only if i disable unleashing but no unlocked core and the error message that 'overclocking failed' and the F1 option to reset bios. i have done all changes in bios as i had before . i tweaked voltages for cpu and ht move the fsb times around, did not take the ddr3 1600 down to 1333 as some had, but others have been ok with leaving it at 1600. the ram is the same i used on this board with the other build and tested out fine in mem test.
i have another 965 4core and a 1090T be 6 core in gigabyte boards which have overclocked easily and well.
i am less interested in bumping out 2 'free' cores than just overclocking the base and/or turbo multipliers and fsb combo as i have in other builds. i have tweaked the voltages, within standard increments as i re try the bios settings. I entered this build in the 'details' part of the cp or whatever it is. but it doesnt seem to be showing up in the builds. beyond the 2 things listed in the title, i have 8gig gskill ddr3 1600 cl9 approved list, raidmax low end 530w atx rx530ss meets crossfire specs, though i would use it for that and the gpu is gigabyte HD4670 zalman fan version 1gig ddr3, hdd is Samsung spinpoint f3 1T..
i must be overlooking something yet do not know what, i go one at a time with lots of restarts. but when i get to the acc/unleashing it black screens. i do not know if enabling the surge protection is interfering with the other voltage changes.
the mb and cpu temps, core temps have been well within the lower range but the llc seems to be bumping the voltage up to 1.46 or more on the vcore temp for no particular reason. i have disabled the C&Q and C1 but leave the turbo ratio and mult. alone, have to really, so far
i didnt really know where to post this, in the motherboard or cpu, but since i already know this board from over 2yrs tweaking the other , twin, of this, i guess the unknown quantity is the cpu and its mysteries.
there is one more bios update but it seems to be solely for newer gpu compatibility and this one,2003 directed at the thuban or 6cores segment of the phenom II with turbo enhancement i have not used the turbo v or key, nor aod for software tries, i have a pretty good idea where i would like to go with this thing only getting there is a rocky path, so far. i must be leaving something enabled or disabled and not seeing it or overlooking it? i hope. it is responding(the cpu) almost as if it isnt a BE though the box and numbers indicate it is. and,it is always easier to blame the product for operator failures.
thanks for any insights or experiences
JD

 

[trents]

Try the ram at 1333 just for the sake of experimentation. The AMD ICM is only rated for 1333.

 

[johnniedoo]

no acc

Try the ram at 1333 just for the sake of experimentation. The AMD ICM is only rated for 1333.

i have tried that scale back on the ram but no use. i have the ram in slots 3 & 4 as the manual suggested. i would have normally put it in 1 and 2 but didnt.
all else, whatever that may be, is working on the board and processor. i cant even get the acc to invoke via the boot screen from defaults. the 'press 4' thing in the logo page. i have never needed to do anything like this with any other BE amd processor, which is all i get. i have had 5 of them and never had any issues, even the first one i ever did was less hassle. i am going to try the other ram slots and maybe it is a bad processor, though in the couple of hours i had it running it seems to be ok though no stress tests of any kind. i have a bigger heat sink on it and temps are low, i went up on the voltages to 1.425 i think it is and the ram and ht only .02 ram should be fine since i backed off on the fsb increases until i can get the multiplier to work. if i had more time i would put this 960T in one of my gigabyte boards, but not now. i have the twin board with the 965be and it is over 3.8gig for about 2yrs , not any issues, and i keep reading how no one had any problems with the processor and this board. but i do. i have cleared cmos and the rtc is automatic anyhow but jumped the pins.
i have to make some decision whether to do something with this processor. it is supposed to be the BE and multiplier should work; it acts like a normal non-BE cpu the way it wont let me do any oc on it at all.

 

[trents]

Put the ram in the same color slots right next to each other. Manuals are notoriously confusing when talking about channels and slots.

 

[keny]

I had a similar problem and it ended up being my board assigning wrong values on HT(was 800 instead of 2000) and NB was the same, I also had to assign the correct dram voltage as it was way too low and would not even boot @1.5 which it was assigning on auto, I have the same CPU and when it unlocked one core was bad and it was failing to boot but I was trying to disable core 5 or 6 to see which one or both were bad and it took me ages to work out core 3 was bad, so the assigned core numbers do not represent the order when unlocked (if that makes any sense)lol

 

[johnniedoo]

bad auto values on board?

I had a similar problem and it ended up being my board assigning wrong values on HT(was 800 instead of 2000) and NB was the same, I also had to assign the correct dram voltage as it was way too low and would not even boot @1.5 which it was assigning on auto, I have the same CPU and when it unlocked one core was bad and it was failing to boot but I was trying to disable core 5 or 6 to see which one or both were bad and it took me ages to work out core 3 was bad, so the assigned core numbers do not represent the order when unlocked (if that makes any sense)lol

I have never gotten this to get past the check for unlocking cores...it black screens and i have to power off and reboot.
i can live with only 4cores, it is all i want, i have 2 other 1090Ts and would have gotten another one if i wanted another 6core. i was only thinking that this one may have more than 2 bad cores, if there is even 6in this. i get the same x4 multiplier with c&q shut down. it is throttling down instead of up when i put the turbo boost to 17.5 and primary ration to 16x. i have now reduced the voltage again and rebooted . now it is not throttling back but is , or seems to be, doing the proper deal, x16 most of the time with the boost to 17.5x sometimes , just like the 1090T works when i have the turbo enabled.
i have read that others have had trouble with oc'ing this thing and the reboot can help. so far it hadnt, till this one case.
i can not get unleashing to post. get the error message and have to disable it or i black screen no matter how much voltage i go up or down.
i still get the high voltage readings even though i have taken it down to just over 1.35.
i had been tinkering with the dram clock timings and voltage ,reducing them from auto which is 1600 and 9s., 28. i took it back to 9 and 1333 with no changes.
i have altered ht volts only one step, .02 i think. no post , black screen , which is supposed to indicate volts many times. never any blue screen though.
i am only looking for modest oc in the multiplier and i moved the fsb up to 215 now. it wouldnt do 210 and only a 15.5 bump nothing to the boost. at first. i have tried auto , which i never liked, but in the absence of knowing all the proper settings i did it first day.
i may have to enter everything i can instead of 'auto' in the end. but i do like to leave some things on that , or did. i get the bad auto selections as well. at this point, it is good to know it isnt only me. my board(m4a79xtd) is from 4/2010 when i replaced it with 890 gigabyte board. so i wasnt sure that even with the 2003 bios update, it was going to handle the new 960t.

 

[keny]

I disabled the turbo completely, as it was just messing things up once I started changing things from auto, I also had to have unlocking disabled but core control on manual and have all 4 cores enabled, any other setting and it would not even post with just 4 cores running. Keep messing with it ! It will all of a sudden work and you won't be able to remember what you've changed in the bios lol.

 

[johnniedoo]

960t oc ills

I disabled the turbo completely, as it was just messing things up once I started changing things from auto, I also had to have unlocking disabled but core control on manual and have all 4 cores enabled, any other setting and it would not even post with just 4 cores running. Keep messing with it ! It will all of a sudden work and you won't be able to remember what you've changed in the bios lol.

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer with this info.
i thought i must have gotten the only loser chip they sold. i keep reading about all those successful 5 or 6 core bonuses plus the ease with which they were able to achieve over 4ghz on their 960t. i have felt lucky to be able to bump the multiplier up one step and see voltage readings over 1.46something.
As you point out, it is getting better as i continue to fool with it and i have been finding out exactly what you predicted. i am making progress and i have been forced to do only one thing at a time or had been getting a failed boot, again, with the black screen.
thanks again
John

 

[johnniedoo]

960T and RAM speed

I disabled the turbo completely, as it was just messing things up once I started changing things from auto, I also had to have unlocking disabled but core control on manual and have all 4 cores enabled, any other setting and it would not even post with just 4 cores running. Keep messing with it ! It will all of a sudden work and you won't be able to remember what you've changed in the bios lol.

I neglected to ask whether you used 1333 or 1600 ddr3 ram and/or mess with the clk timings?
Trents has suggested moving the ddr3 1600 ram i have in here and is seen as that in this new bios. my past experience with this board was to have to manually input the speed and change the clck etc. i had forgotten all about the problems i had the first time, a couple of yrs ago getting board to take the 1600 gskill even though it was on the vendor list. i didnt realize how little difference it made in bottom line then. might have been better to just left it at the 1333 level as the controller was maxed at anyway, it was seen as an overclock at 1600. i just left it at 1600 and it has never had any issues in any area with the phenomII x4 965BE and logged lots of trouble free hours 24/7 for at least 2yrs.
I liked this particular asus board for its ease of overclocking, it unlocked my phenomII x3 720 be but i dropped it and messed up a few pins and immediately got the 965be.
it is that reason i am so flummoxed by the difficulty i am having with this processor. i know the board in my limited way so am caught off guard with my high hopes for this processor. I was on the fence about just getting the 955 or 965 all over again for only about twenty or so dollars more.

JD

 

[keny]

I ran my ram @ 1333 or as near to it while clocking the chip so just to keep it out of the loop of failing items to deal with, I know the thuban imc is better than the Deneb ones but just to be safe while I was reaching my max clock I left it @ stock, it now runs it well above 1333 but I have not gone for stability with mine as I only bought it to bench with and it will boot windows @ 4.5ghz but it's only stable for a quick bench then bsod on me so they do clock high once you mess with the bios, it is definately not as easy as a Deneb BE to clock, atleast that's what I found anyway. But keep plugging away and it will come right, "trust me" lol they are a good chip really

 

[johnniedoo]

960T and RAM speed Asus board

I ran my ram @ 1333 or as near to it while clocking the chip so just to keep it out of the loop of failing items to deal with, I know the thuban imc is better than the Deneb ones but just to be safe while I was reaching my max clock I left it @ stock, it now runs it well above 1333

good idea, and , thanks again for that. this bios ,2003, sets my gskill 1600 as the speed. i have to go de clock it to make 1333 now. the first time, i used the same ram, twin board, but i had to manually make it go for 1600 or higher; the board picked 1333 and 9....24, for clocks. which was before and in bios 90x forget the number. i was surprised to see that the ram was at 1600 in the auto since i immediately went there to change it. i just have been leaving it alone after trying the 1333 and 9 settings without any changes.
to affirm or concur , this is a much tougher BE to mess with, on this board at least. i have mostly used gigabyte boards since this one asus. i like msi as well, but they are the only 3 i have used so have really limited perspective on the whole picture. they all work well for me and never had any issues , till this one, and the prices were always down for some sale or other.
i am now way back on the cpu voltage 1.34x yet it is still going up over 1.45 with very modest oc. 215, 16 and 17.5 for the turbo, i am keeping it for now. i have taken it off in my 6core 1090T but am toying with it in this for a bit, couple of days. i will not use it normally , dont think. never know. i will not be the primary user of it
and core temp, is reading the processor as '9060e BE Thuban'
i havent seen that on posts before at the other forums i checked and no word back from them as yet.
i will be plugging away at it though . i do everything in bios. do not use aod or turbo either. i guess i should use the software, i used to use it all the time and save profiles etc but i have become more moderate in my boosting goals and minimize the areas of attention or need for attention in the process. one thing at a time , more or less.
john