SOLVED FX-8120/Sabertooth 990FX Problems

[goitalone]

My FX-8120 keeps jumping around from 1405 MHz, to 3411 Mhz and sometimes I'll see it even jump to 4 GHz and I do not understand why.

In AID64, it shows a 10% OC and I have it set to normal mode in BIOS.

I was running it in Performance mode and it was clocking out at 3888, but thought that might be causing the system problem described below.

The other problem I just sent a letter to Asus about:

My system keeps failing to respond overnight, ever single night while I sleep. I wake up the next morning to a blacked out monitor and a non-responding PC and I am must force a shut down by holding the power button in.

I am not sure what is causing it and would greatly appreciate any help you could provide in finding the cause of this problem.


My system:

Freshly installed Windows 7 64-BIT (w/KB2645594 and KB2646060 hotfixes and lastest 1102 BIOS)

Asus Sabertooth 990FX MoBo
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W
PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory
AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB video card
WD 640GB HDD


WTH is going on? Do you think I have a bad BIOS or board?


Thanks for any help or advice in advance,

- goitalone

 

[Neuromancer]

That is normal (the jumping around speed thing) thats uh.. well was called coolnquiet, then powernow, then I think it is back to coolnquiet.

It should be left on for a 24/7 system as what it does is clock the system UP when you need the power and turn it down when you dont. It generally works VERY well on AMD in my experience I have not tried it on Bulldozer yet though. (will be doing that in the next week though)

As for the no wakey bit. Thats a windows 7 thing, and very common. A search for S3 suspend issues should yield some results. I am not familiar with the details myself as I disable suspend/hibernate on all my PCs so no personal experience but I know lots of people have compained about it.It is one of windows 7's undocumented features that improve performance. (Forcing a restart improves performance )

 

[goitalone]

That is normal (the jumping around speed thing) thats uh.. well was called coolnquiet, then powernow, then I think it is back to coolnquiet.

It should be left on for a 24/7 system as what it does is clock the system UP when you need the power and turn it down when you dont. It generally works VERY well on AMD in my experience I have not tried it on Bulldozer yet though. (will be doing that in the next week though)

As for the no wakey bit. Thats a windows 7 thing, and very common. A search for S3 suspend issues should yield some results. I am not familiar with the details myself as I disable suspend/hibernate on all my PCs so no personal experience but I know lots of people have compained about it.It is one of windows 7's undocumented features that improve performance. (Forcing a restart improves performance )

I still get the multiplier/CPU frequency change even with cool and quiet off though. Plus, when I put the new mobo and CPU in, it showed 3100 MHz, but now it doesn't no matter what settings I change.

And I have never had any problems with my PC's in the past just completely quit responding every night while I am in bed.

Something is seriously wrong here, but thanks for chiming in anyway.

 

[Neuromancer]

I still get the multiplier/CPU frequency change even with cool and quiet off though. Plus, when I put the new mobo and CPU in, it showed 3100 MHz, but now it doesn't no matter what settings I change.

And I have never had any problems with my PC's in the past just completely quit responding every night while I am in bed.

Something is seriously wrong here, but thanks for chiming in anyway.

NP man just trying to help. If you prefer to goitalone feel free

hee hee

jk

Turbo modes have really busted up the frequency jumping thing at least on the intel side. Disabling the downclocking has been a seemingly impossible task and there are sub sub sub pages you have to hit in BIOS to eliminate. Just disabling EIST stops turbo, but not downclocking. Cstates dont do it either.

On AMD it has always been easy in my recollection. But I have only run 2x 990FX one of them being the sabretooth. I have one again so will be testing some stuff next week. But that does not help you now I know.

I think you have to sacrifice turbo mode to disable downclocking. At least from memory. though stopping downclcoking is not something I would do for a 24/7 PC.

As for the S3 issue. Have you set high performance mode in windows? Will prevent it from going to sleep and crashing at least. Until we find a solution to your dilemma

 

[goitalone]

I just turned off amd core technology setting in the BIOS and it now shows I am @ 3110 MHz.

I don't know if I should keep it disabled or not. I WOULD like a little overclock, but a stable one and it seems to keep getting more complicated with more and more settings that are new to me that I do not (as of yet) understand all that well.

I feel way too overwhelmed right now to try it manually.

 

[Neuromancer]

Well AMD does have software available that you can use from within windows. Both from ASUS or straight from AMD.

I do suggest you try and play in the BIOS a bit, you can ALWAYS do a CMOS reset and go right back to new boot situation anytime you like.

And there are plenty of helpful guys on this forum. they don't need to have a sabertooth or even a 990FX to assist you with specific questions.

AMD overdrive will help you make some quick core adjustments. . You wont get far, and I do not suggest using it for votlage changes.

ASUS software will give you finer control and is among hte best asoftware avilable from a motherboard company in myexperience. I still dont install because I am comfortable in the BIOS.

but the software does allow you to use the same computer to look things up while you make changes. Problem wih ASUS software it can override the BIOS. Now that you have CnQ disabled if you make a change in asus EPU.. you are screwed.... at least that is my experience

I have had to flash the bios to disable that downclocking before lol (once again and intel thing...) after installing the ASUS EPU software and playing with it I mean.


Learn how to reset CMOS (both jumper and battery/power pull) and if you really are trying to OC via BUS clock make sure you know that booting with a single stick of RAM in the farthest slot from the CPU can help boot an otherwise unrecoverable system. After that do whatever you want in the BIOS and enjoy it. (after banging your head against the keyboard a few times )

 

[goitalone]

Yeah I always have Windows set to high performance mode

 

[goitalone]

I used to OC my older 3800+ and have it stable. My 965 black as well but could never get it stable no matter what I tried.

This setup, to me, is entirely different. I do not feel comfy in the BIOS like in the old days, plus I have forgotten almost everything I knew back then about OCing anyway.

Right now though, I just want to find out what's making my PC die at night, EVERY single NIGHT, lol.

 

[Joni]

If you don't want to overclock then keep AMD Turbo Core technology on, it is a nice feature. If you wan't to get slight performance boost you could try to disable Turbo, then change the CPU ratio to 20x so you will get 4000 MHz. Don't touch the voltage, it should be fine as auto, about 1.212V. You could also change CPU/NB and HT link to 2400MHz which is stable on default voltages on new Asus boards.

Leave all the power options default, there is no need to disable those nowadays unless you are going to maximum overclock. C6-State in BIOS disables the low idle at 1400 MHz if you wan't but you should leave that on too.

Check your temps with Prime95 (blend, 8 workers) to make sure those are ok. HWMonitor is a good program to monitor temperatures.

There is some confusion about the maximum temperatures with FX. Maximum is 61C but no one seems to know if it's socket or core. Someone asked this from AMD and the reply was "as long as your core temperature has not exceeded the high side of the 60 degree mark for extended periods of time you should be ok. 62 degrees holds a generous safety net to begin with." Also AMD overdrive displays temperatures as core temperatures so I guess that when they state a maximum operating temperature in specs, it means core temperature.

 

[RGone]

You need to check Windows Event Viewer to see if it may point to an issue causing overnite issues and I would check to see if there are any memory dumps saved that might indicate the computer is rebooting overnite and not coming fully back to life. Those are two places where windows might have saved a clue to your problem.

 

[ekoh]

Wow, I wanted to chime in on this as I have the EXACT same combo except for ram and I had the EXACT same issue. Dead overnight! I found the issue to be that I was running my main SSD for windows off the JMICRON controller ie sata ports 7 and 8. Big no no, JMICRON is junk. Moved them to my AMD raid ports and the issue has not happened since!

 

[caddi daddi]

the sabertooth has ai suite on the cd, overclock software.
test your clocks with it, then make the settings in the bios.

 

[goitalone]

I don't know...I did an OC manually instead of using default BIOS settings and it's been perfectly stable ever since.

Think it may have been Turbo Core causing the problem. Not sure though.

I have a feeling ASUS may yet need a new BIOS update...or three.

Thanks for the responses and lack of responses from myself to you all. I haven't been feeling well and I wasn't feeling up to replying back on some of the suggestions listed mentioned here.

Much appreciated though,


- Goitalone

 

[goitalone]

Oh and BTW, I am not sure if marking this thread as solved is appropriate or not as I am still unsure what I changed in the BIOS to end this nightmare.

I even forgot the settings I changed, so let me know if I should mark it solved or not I guess.


-

 

[RGone]

Make it solved since it is solved by whatever you did in the bios that you did not log so you could remember. In just a little bit you will not be coming back regularly anymore is the likely scenario so no since it not having it show as REsoloved.

 

[goitalone]

OK, thought this issue was resolved, but apparently I was wrong.

No matter what I do, what settings I use, OC'ed or not OC'ed, etc and so on..I still come back to my PC after I go to sleep and I come back to a powered on computer that has stopped responding with a black screen and requires me to power down by pressing the power button.

I have turned all sleep functions OFF!

This only happens while I am away from my PC for an extended period of time.

Never while gaming, no BSOD's...only when I am away and ALMOST every night, but not every night.

If anyone has ever had an issue like this, I would love to hear any input you might have.

 

[leftyman]

Hello:


I haven't written anything in english for more than 10 years, so excuse me for any mistakes made...


-I assume you have already updated to latest bios (these problems are usually addressed in bios updates)

- I assume you have dissabled the, turn off monitor Function too (this has given me terrible headaches with my new HD7770, causing the same symptoms you have)

Now my possible solution:

Every time your cpu auto-underclocks to 1405 Mhz it also undervolts itself to save power, somehow your voltage at 1405 Mhz seems to be too close to a "not enough Vcore" limit.

Get into your bios and raise your vcore voltage only 2 steps (I dont own a sabretooth), but in most motherboards that is only 0.0125 volts (be careful, it is not 0.125 which is a BIG increase 0.0125, should be fine).

Do not change anything else before testing, that will help you to be certain that that was the problem.


Good luck, and keep us informed!!!!!!!

 

[Neuromancer]

Setting voltages manually is an excellent suggestion. I thought that was your fix before when you set manual everything.

I saw a recommendation for 1.212 VID for 4 GHz. dunno, that seems really low. I STILL have not hooked up the sabertooth 4 core I got, this time of year I have had 8 PC repairs, 1 PC upgrade, a wood stove removal (including brick removal and replacing floor in Indian slate tile) and two paint jobs lol. in the last two weeks plus three reviews. Not to mention my normal landscaping/masonry jobs i always seem to come up with in the warm months..

Still 1.2 seems really low for an 4c/8t cpu at 4GHz stability wise especially with downclocking.
It might boot but that does not make it stable. Especially if you are running windows 7. That is such a forgiving OS. Try XP, if you are slightly unstable it will crash jk...

Obviously stability tests will not work in your situation since your issue is related to downclocking and undervolting. Manual settings should have prevented that. One iof the many comlpaints I have with "stability" testing. Goal is as a couple of people mentioned already is to try boosting downclock voltage.

Pretty sure this works since it is an ASUS. instead of using a manual voltage you have to use an offset voltage. Just bump the offset up a notch or two and try again.

Thing is you do NOT want to prevent downclocking because it usually works SO well on AMD.


Post up your BIOS settings. From HTREF (reference clock) and multis to all voltages and Advanced CPU features.

We will get this sorted for you


EDIT: I just reread your original post. Have you tried running it not in performance mode? Also read you contacted ASUS about this. It has been 3 weeks, did you receive any information from them? ASUS has always been good to me as far as support goes. If not from RAM department you can contact one fo teh reps that visit their forums directly pretty easily. check out the ROG ASUS forums. (yes I know sabretooth is not an ROG platform, but it is pricey version of their mainboards and they will help you out there )

 

[goitalone]

Hello:


I haven't written anything in english for more than 10 years, so excuse me for any mistakes made...


-I assume you have already updated to latest bios (these problems are usually addressed in bios updates)

- I assume you have dissabled the, turn off monitor Function too (this has given me terrible headaches with my new HD7770, causing the same symptoms you have)

Now my possible solution:

Every time your cpu auto-underclocks to 1405 Mhz it also undervolts itself to save power, somehow your voltage at 1405 Mhz seems to be too close to a "not enough Vcore" limit.

Get into your bios and raise your vcore voltage only 2 steps (I dont own a sabretooth), but in most motherboards that is only 0.0125 volts (be careful, it is not 0.125 which is a BIG increase 0.0125, should be fine).

Do not change anything else before testing, that will help you to be certain that that was the problem.


Good luck, and keep us informed!!!!!!!

Either the 1208 BIOS and/or the AMD Catalyst 12.6 video drivers, that fixed a wake from sleep issue with 7000 series cards, solved my problems.

Neither of which were released at the time I typed this, so now this thread IS truely and officially SOLVED!

Thanks for all the advices and help though.


- goitalone

 

[RGone]

Thanks again for the response and the (solved) as that is a key word for use in search that can narrow down posts with 'fixes' in them.