APU Overclocking Mystery

[WheatleyCore]

Hello,
I have been using OC Genie to overclock my A6-5400K to 4.0Ghz, and it has been working very well. However, recenly I attempted a manual overclock to 4.2 GHz (I set the multiplier to 42 x 100GHz, also enabled XMP and disabled AMD Turbo)
When I rebooted I was welcomed by a blank screen; no POST. I cleared CMOS and successfully made it into the BIOS. Everything seems to be stable at the default setting (3.6GHz). Although now, even if I try using OC Genie or change any overclocking settings, I get no POST and I have to reset CMOS again.

What is happening and what should I do?

MSI A78M-E45
A6-5400K
2 x 4 GB Kingston Black
550W PSU
Asus GTX 750 Ti OC

 

[rayraysfunhouse]

Have you set all the voltages to stable settings instead of auto which they would most likely be on. And have you made sure to disable amd turbo, core c6 state, c1e,

Also do you have adequate cooling for overclocking before you OC and end up over your max temps.

Make sure to do small changes at a time and work your way up. Don't try to up voltages and multi's to fast and risk overheating. And it helps to keep track what may be causing you to not post by doing small changes.

 

[WheatleyCore]

Thank you for your answer.
I am using the stock cooler, but with a 4.0 GHz OC Genie overclock I was getting ~35C temps on idle. I would assume that the temperature will not be much different with a 200MHz step up.

I am confused why OC Genie stopped working after my manual overclocking attempt.

 

[Trollyy]

Can you post screenshots of CPU-Z (CPU tab, memory tab, spd tab.) and can you also post a screenshot of HWmonitor with all the temp readings?

What are your voltages in bios? also what are your temps in bios?

As rgone just said, i suggest you also do a complete CMOS reset by removing the battery for a few minutes and also clearing your jumpers. Should reset to factory defaults for bios.

 

[RGone]

After what seems might be a rather massive failed overclock, it is often necessary to let the CMOS clear go for longer than just a few seconds of pressing a clear CMOS switch or moving the pins to clear the CMOS for only a few seconds.

Depending on the bios and the board itself, I often had to remove power from the wall outlet to power supply and move CMOS jumper to the clear position and take the battery out and leave sitting for at least 5 mins or sometimes longer. This worked more times than I can count when a big overclock failure was experienced. I can even remember back to a couple boards made by a manufacturer that would appear quite DEAD but jumper CMOS to clear mode and remove battery for at least over-nite and next day the board was risen from the dead. So just a quick hit at CMOS clear may not suffice all the time to return the board and bios to previous conditions. Most of the time a quick hit at a bios clearing is plenty, but there are times when it just seems not so.

I can even remember a few brands of motherboard a number of years ago that after a hefty overlcock fail, the bios had to be reflashed to regain normalcy. It was so for just about all that used that brand/model. Things are less problematic today, but when I hear that after a hefty crash, the board will not seem to return to the previous but lesser overclock, i always try a longer CMOS clear as my first option.
RGone...

 

[WheatleyCore]

Thank you RGone,
That seemed to have worked. Will test further.

 

[trents]

WheatleyCore, idle temps don't tell much unless they are unusually high. In such case we begin to look at a poor CPU cooler mount or poor application of thermal paste. What you need to do is monitor temps while the CPU is under heavy load, like the Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes. The best temp monitoring of the AMD APUs seems to be with AMD Overdrive as other utilities such as HWMonitor seem not to give accurate results with the APUs.

 

[WheatleyCore]

Something very odd is happening. After reset, I was able to use OC Genie once successfully, and then I was once again stuck without POST on second reboot. I also noticed that enabling XMP makes OC Genie return a failed overclock attempt message.

I also can't find voltage control in the BIOS. I suspect that my CPU is not getting enough voltage and thus it needs to be increased. (As soon as a cross the 4.0 GHz line) I am using AMI BIOS v25.5 (2014-10-20).

I'll be posting my stock clock load thermal margins shortly.

 

[RGone]

Genies and what is in bios...

...Some procedures I learned a long time ago.

I also noticed that enabling XMP makes OC Genie return a failed overclock attempt message. << That sort of crap is exactly why most of us that are overclockers do not use software or Genies to overclock.
1. Genies are prone to raise the heck out of the cpu voltage to ensure that the un-initiated don't have failed overclocks so much.

2. Most Genies used to pay nO attention to the cpu mulplier locked or unlocked but rather raised the FSB and jockied with the ram to get the overclock. That is why enabling XMP profile maybe giving problems.

3. After I caught my first Genie attempt on a board I don't even remember now and looked at the voltage humped over to the cpu, I have never used a Genie since and that must have been 10 or 12 years ago. Maybe Genies work better somewhat today with newer stuff but I will not be testing them anyway.

4. Many newer mobos have a feature in bios that will allow using F-12 key to save a pic of the bios as you are seeing it (exactly as you are seeing it without scroll to show an entire page) and save it to a Usb stick formatted to FAT32.

5. Without some idea of what is available for change in bios...we are just looking off into space.
RGone...

 

[Johan45]

You said it in a nutshell right there Bobert. Even using software to "manually" OC can be touch and go.

 

[bassnut]

WheatlyCore might be right ...... took a look in the user manual and did not see anything listed for changing voltage except for DDR.

 

[RGone]

took a look in the user manual and did not see anything listed for changing voltage except for DDRe might be right ...... .

We have certainly seen some cheaper entry level motherboards come thru here that actually did not have any user adjustable cpu voltages in the bios.
RGone...

 

[WheatleyCore]

I have stress tested with Prime95 for about 20min on stock speeds and had a thermal margin of 42C, 70C at idle.

Here is my BIOS:

 

[RGone]

From MSI's own forum...

...

MSI A78M-E45 Now I know that the new board isn't top shelf
won't support overvolting and are not intended to offer such beacuse of the power design
RGone...ster

 

[WheatleyCore]

I suppose this means no overclocking for me until the bios gets a new update. Do you think I can still raise the Turbo multiplier? I suppose the voltage should adjust automatically, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Johan45]

II think the line not intended to offer such because of power design says to me there won't be a BIOS that allows OC at all. You can try raisng things slightly and see if the board will compensate. I wouldn't bother with turbo since it really won't benefit you very often. You'll just have to clock within the boards parameters.