• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

New user with new build issues

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

kris214

New Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Hello all.

I have just built a new computer and am having issues.

New build spec:

Case: Corsair 600t
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-PRO
CPU: Intel i5 2500k
Cooler: Coolermaster V8
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz
Hard drives: Corsair DDR3 SSD 120GB for programs and Western Digital 500GB HDD for files
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Setting all this up was relatively straight forward and very quick.

I used the Asus automatic overclock function and got to 4.4Ghz but when it ran a system stability test it failed. I then decided to scrap doing it automatically and set it up manually to run 4.5Ghz and when I put it through its paces on prime95 for a few hours all was well. I had the CPU core voltage set to 1.32 and I turned off everything within the BIOS to do with Intel speed step so it was running the full 4.5GHz constantly.

One thing I did notice in the BIOS was that the memory was only running at 1333MHz so I changed the setting and its now running at its full 1600MHz.

At these settings I could run high demanding programs and play games without any issues but when I was just browsing the internet I would suddenly get random crashes and the dreaded BSOD. It would do this roughly twice within about 6 hours and there didn't seem to be a repeat pattern. I thought there must be something wrong with my overclock so I upped the core voltage to 1.34 and I turned on everything to do with Intel speed step so now the CPU defaults to 1.6Ghz at idle then gets the full 4.5GHz when running more demanding programs. This has helped keep temperatures very low at idle (around 35-40 degrees) and makes the system very quiet. When running more demanding stuff the temperatures rise to no more than 65 degrees which I've read are good for this kind of overclock.

At first turning Intel speed step and upping the core voltage seemed to help with the system running good for an entire day with no crashes but another day later and the whole system has began to freeze. It doesn't crash and display the BSOD or anything like that now just everything freezes (keyboard, mouse etc) and it just sits like that not responing. Only way to get it back up and going again is to hit the reset button which seems to behave differently from time to time. Firstly it can either be non responsive for around 5 seconds before finally restarting the system and secondly it can be unresponsive for around 10 seconds and then everything just turns off and I have to use the power button to turn the system back on again.

Another odd thing it does too is sometimes it doesn't seem to boot up properly. Most of the time as soon as I press the power on switch the system works fine but at other times the fans will start up as normal and after about 5 seconds the whole system goes dead just as if it has turned off but then after a further 5 seconds it will turn on again all without any additional press of the power button and will proceed to boot up normally.

I am totally baffled as to why it does all of these things but the freezing is starting to annoy me. It has froze while I was listing my old motherboard and processor on eBay and I had to restart typing my listings again which was very annoying. The biggest thing that baffles me though is why it only seems to freeze when the whole thing is doing very little and not while playing games or running demanding programs.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated on this.

Oh and one other annoying gripe I have is with the Asus bluetooth driver which seems to reinstall itself to a different COMM port at nearly every boot up...its now on COMM port 20 and it started out as COMM 1.

Thanks.
 
Another odd thing it does too is sometimes it doesn't seem to boot up properly. Most of the time as soon as I press the power on switch the system works fine but at other times the fans will start up as normal and after about 5 seconds the whole system goes dead just as if it has turned off but then after a further 5 seconds it will turn on again all without any additional press of the power button and will proceed to boot up normally.

Don't mind that part. A few motherboards from different companies do it, my EVGA X58 does, but it's not a real problem.

If it doesn't fail on SmallFFT Prime 95, it's probably not your CPU. (Exception, I've heard some stuff about how SB oddly BSODs when it downclocks.)

If it doesn't fail on Furmark, then it's not your video card.

If it doesn't fail on Prime95 and Furmark at the same time, it's probably not your PSU.

Memory, I'm not sure of any really intensive stuff. If I have memory errors, usually I'll fail Prime95 blend with rounding errors. You can try Memtest86+.
 
Hi again and thanks for the replies.

My PSU is an Artic 600W which I carried over from my last build.
 
Back