Phenom II x4 960T OC Woes.

[cloo124]

CPU: AMX Phenom II x4 960T Thuban
MOBO: ASRock N68-VS3 FX
CPU Cooler: Evercool Transformer 3
RAM: 4x2GB DDR3 (i forgot the brand, I can open up that punk to find out if necessary but the RAM is brand spankin new)
Power: 500W Kraft ATX-AS 500
GPU: VTX Radeon 6850 HD 1GB

I'm sure that I am doing many things wrong here with my OC but so far I'm stumped..

I try my luck at stability testing and I manage to get to 3.6GHz at 4cores at 1.375v and I will get dumps and crashes.
Anything before this works fine and it is even stable at 3.1GHz hexa-core.

I've tested everything and managed to get to 4.0 GHz @ 1.45v 12xNB multiplier; 1.333 on Ram and it goes all fine until a random dump an hour later and even at default it will freeze at the Windows log-in screen until I wait a good 20 minutes later and everything is fine..

Unless my temperature reading is bugged out, I never get over 45C in Prime but I still get constant crashes.

I've tried most of the forums on the topic, tried other user's settings who have a similar setup to mine but I constantly get crashes, dumps, and freezes.

Maybe my MOBO can't handle it?

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks..,
desperate newbie overclocker.

 

[cloo124]

I was also wondering, is there a place that explains the details and effects behind changing certain settings while overclocking?
IE. raising the voltage allows me to clock up to such and such but is more recommended for water cooling over air cooling.
or.
if you have such and such error, turn down this-or-that and it may be more stable.

I've read the step by step guides and realize that certain CPU may perform better then others of the same type but I'm just trying to educate myself while not frying my system.

Thanks,
cloo

 

[cloo124]

Just tried to turn on the CPU at defaults and it froze on the Windows login.
Confused.

 

[cloo124]

I booted up in safe mode and restarted back into normal boot and everything is fine.
I'm assuming it had something to do with my RAM because of all the crashes and such but can anyone explain this? I'll google it anyway..

 

[RGone]

I'm assuming it had something to do with my RAM because of all the crashes and such but can anyone explain this? I'll google it anyway..

I don't see any screen captures of CPUz showing the CPU, Memory and SPD tabs that would give us information from which to see and perhaps determine what might be happeing. Without some real information like that; I don't see how anybody can guess at what your issue might be.

 

[cloo124]

i'm working on it, i'm posting these from my laptop and i've left the pc off for now. when i get back from my errands ill get those screenshots.

 

[caddi daddi]

have you read dolks guide in the stickys?
I think it helps every time.

no skimming the stickys

 

[cloo124]

Here is my CPU-z settings.

I did skim over the stickies.. I'll go and start reading them through again.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Can you download http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed/ and report back what it says about your BSODs?

If you've been having some BSODs, the types of BSODs you are getting may lead us into the right direction as far as a potential hardware problem.

 

[cloo124]

using dolk's guide and I'm trying to get the stable 3.8GHz to try to overclock more.

I used prime95 to run a test and got a crash, twice with different voltages but same result (1.4v and 1.425v)


On Sun 8/19/2012 11:45:38 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\081912-19562-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal+0x12A3B)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFFA8007F8C028, 0xB6004000, 0x68000135)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.


On Sun 8/19/2012 11:45:38 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal!HalBugCheckSystem+0x1E3)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFFA8007F8C028, 0xB6004000, 0x68000135)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.


another screen of my rates

 

[cloo124]

i didnt even check to see that i'm displaying the same page of cpu-z 3 times. sigh, i should try overclocking when i'm not so exhausted

forgot to mention.. AMD OverDrive does not detect my AMD chipset. would this issue be relevant?

 

[BeepBeep2]

Need more vcore. Try 1.475v

 

[drosera01]

your ht only 1000? you might want it around 2000.

 

[cloo124]

your ht only 1000? you might want it around 2000.

oh.. i'm not sure how that changes. in my bios it says ht bus and it's set to auto which I assumed it would scale right along with my CPU-NB but I guess not.. I'll have to set it to 2x then wouldnt I? I only get 5 options which is 1x-5x

Pumped up the voltage to 1.475 and it blasted through the prime95 test without crashes.
Which then brings up a question.. I know I'm going to eventually find a sweetspot but how is it that lots of users hit 4.0GHz+ at lower v-core and similar CPU-fans? I'll look more into it but i'm starting to wonder if I got my hands on a faulty product ):

 

[trents]

1. I think the motherboard is not well-suited to the CPU. The 1000 mhz HT Link frequency tells me it has a very low end chipset. Stock HT Link for that CPU is 2000 mhz. Those Thuban core CPUs don't like a lot of separaton between the NB frequency and the HT Link frequency. You might try lowering your NB from 2000 down to 1400-1600.
2. Your PSU is a piece of manure. A 500W Kraft? Never hear of that brand and you can bet it's maybe putting out 250-300W of continuous power. And you're trying to power a 6850 video card with that? Don't think so.

 

[cloo124]

1. I think the motherboard is not well-suited to the CPU. The 1000 mhz HT Link frequency tells me it has a very low end chipset. Stock HT Link for that CPU is 2000 mhz. Those Thuban core CPUs don't like a lot of separaton between the NB frequency and the HT Link frequency. You might try lowering your NB from 2000 down to 1400-1600.
2. Your PSU is a piece of manure. A 500W Kraft? Never hear of that brand and you can bet it's maybe putting out 250-300W of continuous power. And you're trying to power a 6850 video card with that? Don't think so.

I'm about to try to adjust the HT link, so I'll see what I can do.

Kraft is a Korean company that specializes in computers and electronics and was actually preferred over the imported counterparts in quality (when used with the 220v Korean outlets). AGAIN, I will post back my results. If need be, I can replace the MOBO but I'm sure that isn't the problem..

 

[trents]

I'm suggesting lowering the NB, not the HT Link. The HT Link is limited by the motherbaord chipset, I think.

 

[cloo124]

I'm suggesting lowering the NB, not the HT Link. The HT Link is limited by the motherbaord chipset, I think.

Yeah.. contacted ASRock, seems this motherboard can't raise the HT Link any higher then 1000 MHz (As far as the person I was talking to knows).

In Dolk's guide, doesn't he say it's better to have the NB at a fixed rate in relation to the CPU clocking? Would this cause any negative effects for the clocking process?

 

[trents]

Yes, he says that but normally that refers to overclocking the NB. MY understanding is that he advocates keeping the HT Link and the NB in lockstep but I have not found that to always be possible. I can't get my HT Link as high as my NB. I have found that if there is too much separation between the two you can encounter instability. That's my pwersonal experience. Some will disagree with me.

 

[trents]

Is this the board? http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/N68-VS3 FX/?cat=Specifications

It only has two ram slots. How is it you say in your first post that your are using a "4x2gb" ram kit? Or are you using just two of the for sticks from the kit?