Q6600 Overclocking Problems

[soulis101]

Hello! I'm new to this forum, but I've been squeezing more power from mostly older systems for two or three years. I finally decided to overclock my main computer, whose specifications are the following:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz (Kentsfield, 65nm technology, 266Mhz default bus speed, stock cooling, multiplier locked between 6 and 9)
Asus P5KPL-VM mobo
2x Transcend 1GB 333Mhz RAM
nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512MB GDDR3

Well, I increased the bus speed up to 285Mhz i.e. 2,57Ghz. without any problems or hangs, even in Crysis Warhead, where the loading time decreased by 5-10%.
Then I increased it to 290Mhz i.e. 2.61Ghz. No problems or hangs while playing CW, and the difference between 290 and 285Mhz wasn't obvious. Before I resumed by overclocking, I thought I should check my emails. That's when I realized Firefox was loading web pages at a VERY slow rate. I booted up my netbook and I verifyied that there was no problem with my Internet Connection, pages loaded like they usually do(I'm on an 8mbps connection). I took the FSB back to 285 and the problem disappeared (although it did reappear during my registration on the site, only briefly, on 285 mind you). The problem completely disappears back to 266Mhz. Is there any way I can solve this? Oah, and how can I stop SpeedStep? I set the multiplier to 9, switching off Auto, and then I Disabled SpeedStep, but CPU-Z shows the multiplier is 6x except under load.

 

[kkpudge7]

First of all welcome to the forums! You will find a vast sea of knowledgeable people here, all of whom are more than happy to help with anything computer related

Anyhow, I suggest that you start here. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316 It is a very in depth article that will guide you in the right direction. When I first got into the OC scene about a year ago or so, I read that article probably 5 times before I was able to achieve a stable overclock.

My guess is that you are going to need to adjust either A. voltages on your NB/Vcore or 2. Adjust your FSB:RAM ratios. For starters why dont you post up a couple of pics from cpuz, one of the cpu tab and one of the memory tab.

 

[EarthDog]

You will likely be limited tremdously by 333Mhz ram when you get that high. But no doubt check out that guide.

Disable Speedstep/C1E/EIST until you get stable, then try turning it back on (info found in guide ).

 

[Neuromancer]

Yup. Check your instability out by running Stress programs.

I 24/7 clock my PCs "stock" menaing all voltages at stock, and just some little adjustments for speed. Like increasing FSB on intel quads. They really like some high FSB, even when not overclocked the performance differnce is measureable.

Start with testing your RAM. Really there is not a such things as DDR2-667 in my book. All DDR2 runs 800 easyily. maybe just needs more volts. It is always good to research your RAM, find out the type of ICs that are on it and then get a good idea of what other people are performing with those specific chips (not necessarily with your brand)

You drop the CPU mlti to 7 or 8 for a to still get a small CPU overclock and get your NB and ram up to about 400MHz (1600MHz FSB, 800MHz RAM) and your system will perform a lot better. May have to adjust NB voltage though especially if you are running 2x2GB sticks.

 

[soulis101]

Here are the images. I also enclosed the SPD tab if it helps. I got back to 2.4Ghz because the prob sorta appeared on 2.57Ghz. The multiplier is set to 9x because the F@H is working. I'll overclock it at 2.57 and 2.61 and post images too.

 

[erricrice]

You sure you've got all your drivers loaded properly? Looks like you might be missing at least your video drivers. Unless you set it to low color on purpose...

 

[EarthDog]

And are you F@H while trying to overclock? I dont get why that was mentioned..?

 

[soulis101]

I set the images to low colour because they were exceeding the file size. And I mentioned the F@H because I have noticed it increases the multiplier to 9x when the SpeedStep is on, though I managed to turn it off today. Also, I did some stress tests with Prime95 yesterday. Even at 2,7Ghz it was stable for 3,5 hours, and with no problems at all. But that Internet thing is still there

 

[soulis101]

I think I sorted this thing out. You see, I read the how-to post you so kindly sent me a link to, and it said that PCI-E stuff tend to raise their frequencies too if left at AUTO when you O/C the CPU. Also, the RAM timings as well as the DRAM Frequency were left at auto. So I changed the PCI-E freq at 100, RAM timings at 4-4-4-12 from 5-6-6-12 (I think) and DRAM frequency at 667Mhz. Now the Internet works just fine, probably due to the PCI-E frequency set to 100. Does everything sound ok? Should I raise the last one to 800Mhz? I'm gonna run stress tests and return results later today.

 

[Kuroimaho]

You could save the images as jpeg that is a compressed file format so those images would fit without reducing the color depth.

The multiplier would raise with any application which puts high load on the cpu.

I would try to test the components as separated as possible, to know the limit of each, maybe that would help you figure out what has effect on the net.

By the above I mean, to check the ram lower the multi of the cpu and raise the FSB, when you reach the maximum stable then check the mobo max FSB with dropping the ram setting and trying to push it further, maybe you will experience the net issue with your ram being pushed only.
Also drop the ram speed when you aim for high clockspeed to know for usre you are cpu limited and not ram, when you have these all figured out then test out various combinations to choose the most suitable for you.

Although I think this is more likely to be connected with the network adapter but unstable ram can do quite strange things.

 

[soulis101]

Uh-Oh, Houston we've got a problem. I raised my CPU Frequency to 320 from 300, and now the screen is blank, and the only think the computer does is to boot and shutdown. HELP!!!
I think I also raised the DRAM frequency to 800Mhz, could that be relevant? nvm, how can I reset the BIOS?

EDIT: Scrap that, I reset the CMOS and now it's alright. Also, I found out, by taking a peek at my RAMs, that they can't handle 800Mhz. I didn't have my say at that when we bought the PC, or the PSU, which is made in China with an output of 405Watts. I'll be changing both, but RAMs first. Thank you all for your help!