SOLVED Having a hard time OC'ing my 955 BE

[LukeX]

Hello everyone!

Ive been playing around with my Phenom II x4 955 BE but started having some problems.

With Dolk's guide i got it running 3.6ghz but after 7~10 minutes of prime95 blending bsod.. bumped up volts of cpu and nb with no luck crashed even faster so i tought lets start over.. cleared my cmos and got back to windows (7 x64) and now my CPU-Z shows core voltage 1.396~ is this a bit high for stock setup?

And i also get bsod with stock setup with prime95 blending after 15 to 20 minutes "Memory managment" error.. Ran memtest86+ last night 10 hours or so with 0 errors so no ram problem right?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[trents]

When you post pics of CPU-z please add the SPD tab. We need that more than the Motherboard tab. The SPD tab displays info from the manufacturer about the recommended voltages and timings for your ram when running at various frequencies.

Also, showing us pics of CPU-z when everything is at stock doesn't help us see what could have been wrong when you were using settings that caused it to BSOD. Wish you would have left them as they were. So, could you restore the overclock setting you were using when it was crashing and could you add the CPU-z SPD tab please?

Also, have you been monitoring core temps as you were stress testing your overclock settings? You say nothing about core temps. High core temps are one of the primary causes of instability when overclocking. You don't even tell us what kind of CPU cooler you are using. Neither do you tell us anything about most of your hardware. We need more info to help you.

Please supply us with info about these components:

1. Make and model of CPU cooler (Is it the stock one or an aftermarket cooler?)
2. Make and model of ram
3. Make and wattage rating of PSU
4. Make and model of video card
5. Make and model of case

Were you using the CPU multiplier or the CPU frequency (aka, "FSB") to overclock?

 

[LukeX]

Sorry about the missing information.. Updated my setup on my sig now hope this helps

So back to problem, not 100% sure if this was my setup back then. Anyway voltages are set to auto now not tested with prime yet ram voltage set to 1.90 everything else should be stock.

I will start running prime after finishing this post probably gonna crash within 5min

Core temps topping at ~50c with this setup

EDIT: Workers stopped in 1min due to rounding error

 

[trents]

I wonder if your problem is that you are running 4 sticks of ram. I have some suggestions.

1. Don't overclock with the FSB. Just use the CPU multiplier. Using the fsb causes the other frequencies that are tuned to it to also increase in concert, e.g. the ream, the HT Link and the CPUNB ("NB" in CPU-z). In particular, with the Deneb core CPUs the HT Link will not tolerate frequencies much above the stock 2000 mhz at all.
2. Take out two sticks of ram. Four sticks of ram often present sync problems in older motherboard chipsets.
3. Bump the ram voltage up a little, to say 1.825-1.85.
4. Bump the CPUNB voltage up to 1.25

See if these suggestions don't help.

 

[manu2b]

1.39v for 3.6GHz with a C3 is way too high...

Try with one stick of RAM only.

And all that Trents says.

 

[trents]

I would also change your ram from ganged to unganged mode.

 

[LukeX]

CPU-Z seems to ignore my ram voltage settings for some reason

FSB set to 200 multi 18x core at 3612MHz voltage shows 1.39 set to auto in bios so should i force core voltage to lower? could it be that high becouse of my mobo?

CPUNB voltage 1.25

Gonna try remove some ram sticks next.

 

[trents]

I would leave your CPU core voltage where it's at for the time being as you say your core temps are topping out at 50c. As long as it stays below 55 or so the core temps shouldn't be causing instability. The higher core voltage should help with stability as long as temps don't become a problem.

Current ram voltage settings do not show up in CPU-z. The CPU-z SPD tab is showing what the manufacturer is recommending, not what it actually is.

 

[LukeX]

Yeah i figured that out

Bsod within 10min on this setup 2 ram sticks installed (4gb)

HT Link set to 1800MHz

 

[trents]

Okay, it doesn't do any good for you to show us the HWMonitor interface when everything is at idle. Run the Prime95 blend test again for 5 minutes with HWMonitor open on the desktop. It will record max and min and current temps and voltages. Then repost the HWMonitor interface pic.

 

[trents]

Luke, compare the CPU-z Memory tab with the CPU-z SPD tab, particularly the JEDEC #3 column. It looks like the the tRAS and the tRC are set incorrectly. Those two timings are currently set too aggressively and this could very well be the reason for your instability. You will need to go into the bios memory timing section, set it to manual and then manually enter the correct values for those two parameters.

 

[LukeX]

Ok. Fixed the memory timings ran prime for 9 min now, starts to look more stable Here is the hw monitor after 7min of blending but thats it for today ill get back to this tomorrow

See you all and huuuge thanks to everyone you helped alot!

 

[trents]

Your CPU cooler is inadequate and is going to really limit your overclock.

 

[LukeX]

I know its old and all but ill be very happy if i can get it running stable at 3.6 GHz or so.
For now...

 

[LukeX]

So it seems like if i set core voltage less than 1.400 volts in bios it becomes unstable. Oh well ran prime today for 20 minutes with 0 errors

Update: Bsod after 30min of blend testing

 

[trents]

So it seems like if i set core voltage less than 1.400 volts in bios it becomes unstable. Oh well ran prime today for 20 minutes with 0 errors

Update: Bsod after 30min of blend testing

What were your core temps?

Have you tried bumping up the CPUNB voltage a bit?

 

[LukeX]

Now prime ran for 1 hour 24 minutes 0 errors with bumped up voltages, Core temp topped at 54c so its getting a bit high..

 

[LukeX]

Current setup in bios. Also checked some watercoolers from local internet store only Antec and Corsair watercoolers in stock atm.. any suggestions wich one to get?

 

[trents]

Corsair H100 if you can afford it.

You're making progress. It looks like the increase on CPUNB voltage helped. My rule of thumb is if I can pass two hours of Prime95 blend I call it stable. Others on the forum recommend much longer tests (like 8 hrs.) but I have never encountered instability in real life computing if I can pass 2 hrs.

 

[LukeX]

Ordered that Corsair H100 cooler hope it fits it in my case or else i have to modify

Thanks for all your help trents! i guess i see you when my WC gets here