***Volt Mod's For AsRock SataII***

[Hipcrostino]

*bump*

 

[Fangs404]

I'm thinking about doing the vcore mod. My 4400+ can't quite reach 2.5V on the 1.4V max the sata2 has, and I'm sure the extra 0.15V headroom will allow me to probably hit even higher (I'd hope!). I'm gonna head to RadioShack tonight to pick up a conductive pen, and I wanted to find out a few things first.

1. Can I still use the official P2.30 bios, or will I need a modded bios for this to work?

2. Which method is easiest? I've seen several, and I'm having a hard time deciding which one to do. I was thinking probably the techPowerUp one.

 

[funnyperson1]

The easiest Vmod is the OCW/TechPowerUp one imho. It will work with any bios (as will any of the vmods).

 

[RollingThunder]

I'm thinking about doing the vcore mod. My 4400+ can't quite reach 2.5V on the 1.4V max the sata2 has, and I'm sure the extra 0.15V headroom will allow me to probably hit even higher (I'd hope!). I'm gonna head to RadioShack tonight to pick up a conductive pen, and I wanted to find out a few things first.

1. Can I still use the official P2.30 bios, or will I need a modded bios for this to work?

2. Which method is easiest? I've seen several, and I'm having a hard time deciding which one to do. I was thinking probably the techPowerUp one.

Fangs,

I'm not the one to ask about volt mods, OCHungry is the man. He'll stop by and advise you. By the way, congrats on getting your PC straightened out. I didn't reinstall and format when I dropped in this Opteron. You may have had another issue holding you back, I don't know.

Our cores have the same BIOS voltage settings up to 1.400 max and I'm getting an 11% OC at 1.375 vcore. For you 2.5 GHz is almost 15% so I can see you may be close to more vcore than what the BIOS will give you. The v2.30 Asrock BIOS should be just fine. I don't see a problem there at all.

I know I could hit 2.75 GHz on 1.40 vcore but I realize CPUs and boards can vary from board to board. I don't have the proper cooling yet to do that and I'm quite pleased where I am now anyhow.

Are you sure it's vcore? Did you try dropping back your RAMs to 166 MHz and work the HT FSB up slowly to make sure it's not your RAMs holding you back? Max vdimm without mods is ~2.74v and ~2.66 under load. I checked mine with a DMM so it's actual. My board's vcore is a little more that the BIOS reading using a DMM. At 1.350v it's really 1.368v and at 1.375v it's actually 1.392v using a DMM. Your board may vary. Forgive me if I'm asking you the obvious. Just want to make sure you get a "screamer" out of your 4400. I think it's the same CPU OC has or had.

Keep us posted. RT

 

[Fangs404]

The easiest Vmod is the OCW/TechPowerUp one imho. It will work with any bios (as will any of the vmods).

Thanks, I've been reading about the mod, and this is the same conclusion I've arrived at. Have any of you guys used a conductive pen, or have you guys used solder?

Fangs,

I'm not the one to ask about volt mods, OCHungry is the man. He'll stop by and advise you. By the way, congrats on getting your PC straightened out. I didn't reinstall and format when I dropped in this Opteron. You may have had another issue holding you back, I don't know.

Our cores have the same BIOS voltage settings up to 1.400 max and I'm getting an 11% OC at 1.375 vcore. For you 2.5 GHz is almost 15% so I can see you may be close to more vcore than what the BIOS will give you. The v2.30 Asrock BIOS should be just fine. I don't see a problem there at all.

I know I could hit 2.75 GHz on 1.40 vcore but I realize CPUs and boards can vary from board to board. I don't have the proper cooling yet to do that and I'm quite pleased where I am now anyhow.

Are you sure it's vcore? Did you try dropping back your RAMs to 166 MHz and work the HT FSB up slowly to make sure it's not your RAMs holding you back? Max vdimm without mods is ~2.74v and ~2.66 under load. I checked mine with a DMM so it's actual. My board's vcore is a little more that the BIOS reading using a DMM. At 1.350v it's really 1.368v and at 1.375v it's actually 1.392v using a DMM. Your board may vary. Forgive me if I'm asking you the obvious. Just want to make sure you get a "screamer" out of your 4400. I think it's the same CPU OC has or had.

Keep us posted. RT

Yeah, I'm hoping that it's just the vcore. I'm pretty sure it's not my ram because I've got the DDR500 G.SKILL Extreme stuff (http://www.gskill.com/en/f1-4000usu2-hz.html). Running at 250 still isn't even overclocking it. Most guys can hit 270-290 on my ram. And the kicker is that it does all of that on about 2.6-2.7V (the site says 2.8V, but I've never heard of anyone needing to run it that high). I had it running at 250 with my Venice for the past few months at 2.7V, and I never had a single hiccup (it'd memtest and prime all day and night).

I've had ORTHOS running all afternoon at stock speeds just to make sure the reformat fixes my freeze problems. So when I get home from work, I'm praying that it's still running. If it's frozen at stock speeds.....well, I'm guessing I'll have to go mobo shopping. Otherwise, it's volt mod time.

 

[Fangs404]

Well, here's an update. I got home, and apparently, after 1-2 hrs (I forget, I didn't look closely enough), ORTHOS and everything else froze. I hard to reboot. And this happened with the CPU running stock speeds. I really don't know what the hell is causing this, but I'm pretty sure it's a mobo issue. Do any of you guys have any idea? I haven't heard back yet from ASRock's tech support, and I'm thinking about running to Fry's tomorrow to pick up a new mobo just to find out. Gah, this is so frustrating. And I had just bought a soldering gun and some solder, too! Oh, well.

 

[RollingThunder]

Well, here's an update. I got home, and apparently, after 1-2 hrs (I forget, I didn't look closely enough), ORTHOS and everything else froze. I hard to reboot. And this happened with the CPU running stock speeds. I really don't know what the hell is causing this, but I'm pretty sure it's a mobo issue. Do any of you guys have any idea? I haven't heard back yet from ASRock's tech support, and I'm thinking about running to Fry's tomorrow to pick up a new mobo just to find out. Gah, this is so frustrating. And I had just bought a soldering gun and some solder, too! Oh, well.

BIOS set on "auto" for timings? What vcore? Vdimm set on high? Pass Memtest86 and SuperPi 32 mb before Orthos? What priority Orthos?

 

[funnyperson1]

I hope by Soldering Gun you mean soldering iron/pencil. A true soldering gun will do all KINDS of damage to your board. What you want is a 15-30W soldering iron (and the VCore mod can be done with a conductive pen), anything above that is dangerous (and as far as I know soldering guns are 100W+), especially in the hands of a novice solderer (not sure of your experience level with soldering).

 

[RollingThunder]

I hope by Soldering Gun you mean soldering iron/pencil. A true soldering gun will do all KINDS of damage to your board. What you want is a 15-30W soldering iron (and the VCore mod can be done with a conductive pen), anything above that is dangerous (and as far as I know soldering guns are 100W+), especially in the hands of a novice solderer (not sure of your experience level with soldering).

FP,

I wouldn't touch soldering volts mods with a 10 foot pole! I've seen what a little 15w pencil can do.

I think he needs to find the problem @ default speed first. Might be something very simple like a little vcore. He's close, it runs a couple hours in Orthos. Volt mods can come later.

 

[Fangs404]

BIOS set on "auto" for timings? What vcore? Vdimm set on high? Pass Memtest86 and SuperPi 32 mb before Orthos? What priority Orthos?

Nah, I've explicitly set the bios for my ram's rated timings (3-4-4-10 2T). VDIMM is set to high (2.7V), and VCORE is set to 1.4V (highest I can get for the X2). Yeah, I pass Memtest86. I haven't tried SuperPI 32MB. I'll try that next and report back when it's done. I'm running the large in-place FFTs test in ORTHOS on priority 9.

I hope by Soldering Gun you mean soldering iron/pencil. A true soldering gun will do all KINDS of damage to your board. What you want is a 15-30W soldering iron (and the VCore mod can be done with a conductive pen), anything above that is dangerous (and as far as I know soldering guns are 100W+), especially in the hands of a novice solderer (not sure of your experience level with soldering).

Yeah, it's a soldering iron. I got a 25W one from Radio Shack. I've soldered a few things before, so I'm not too worried.

Thanks guys for all your help. ASRock tech support e-mailed me back. They said this:

There is a function you need to enabled called "AGP P2P Deep Fifo" in BIOS setting.
tis function is for NVidia video cards only and after you enabled please uninstall AGP (service pack for the chipset) and you video card drivers as well.
After you have uninstall ,please download the latest AGP from ASRock website and finally install your newer video card and install the driver .

However, I doubt this'll have any affect on me since I'm using a PCI-E 7900gt. Oh, well. I e-mailed them back to tell them my gfx card is PCI-E, but it's the weekend, so I probably won't hear back until Monday.

Also, am I right to assume that, generally, a CPU is either totally dead and the system won't post or it's alive and well. I've always assumed there's no in-between. Is this a correct assumption? I just want to be able to rule out the CPU as a factor.

 

[funnyperson1]

FP,

I wouldn't touch soldering volts mods with a 10 foot pole! I've seen what a little 15w pencil can do.

I think he needs to find the problem @ default speed first. Might be something very simple like a little vcore. He's close, it runs a couple hours in Orthos. Volt mods can come later.

Oh I agree with you there, the problems at stock voltage are obviously more pressing than squeezing a few more mhz out.

I wonder if this is related to the issues that we have seen here:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491384

I know my machine was freezing randomly like that and it didn't matter where I was clocked.

 

[Fangs404]

Oh I agree with you there, the problems at stock voltage are obviously more pressing than squeezing a few more mhz out.

I wonder if this is related to the issues that we have seen here:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491384

I know my machine was freezing randomly like that and it didn't matter where I was clocked.

Yeah, I saw that thread, too. I'm starting to think this board is on its way out. Also, I have yet to put my old 3500+ back in to make sure it's still stable. I'm gonna keep playing with this Toledo to see if I can fix it up. If you guys have anymore ideas, please let me know. I'm getting ready to go eat at Bennigan's (I need break!), and when I get back, I'll let ya know how SuperPI did (if it finishes!).

 

[RollingThunder]

Nah, I've explicitly set the bios for my ram's rated timings (3-4-4-10 2T). VDIMM is set to high (2.7V), and VCORE is set to 1.4V (highest I can get for the X2). Yeah, I pass Memtest86. I haven't tried SuperPI 32MB. I'll try that next and report back when it's done. I'm running the large in-place FFTs test in ORTHOS on priority 9.

Also, am I right to assume that, generally, a CPU is either totally dead and the system won't post or it's alive and well. I've always assumed there's no in-between. Is this a correct assumption? I just want to be able to rule out the CPU as a factor.

CPU ran a couple hours in Orthos. You're close. I would try unhooking your peripherals, DVD, everything. Is that Creatvie Audigy a sound card? If it passes SuperPi 32 mb I don't think it's a CPU problem at all.
No USB port conections. The Orthos site recommends running Orthos at priority 1.

 

[Fangs404]

CPU ran a couple hours in Orthos. You're close. I would try unhooking your peripherals, DVD, everything. Is that Creatvie Audigy a sound card? If it passes SuperPi 32 mb I don't think it's a CPU problem at all.
No USB port conections. The Orthos site recommends running Orthos at priority 1.

OK, SuperPI passed just fine at 32mb. It took 35mins, but once I get this thing stable and am able to oc, I can get that way down. I did up the voltage. The voltage was at 1.35V, and I put it up to 1.4V, even though it's rated for 1.3-1.35V. We'll see if this helps. Yeah, the Audigy is a sound card. I just have a hard time believing it's anything but the mobo-cpu relations since the only thing that changed is the CPU. I think I'll try running ORTHOS again at priority 1 even though the CPU should theoretically be able to take any priority if it's really stable. I'll do that overnight.

 

[Fangs404]

Well, scratch that. I just ran ORTHOS on priority 1 for about 5 mins, and while I was surfing the internet, it locked up again. I think I'm going to go to Fry's tomorrow to pick up a new mobo for comparison. I bought this CPU OEM, so if it does turn out to be a lame duck, I need to return it to Newegg pronto because of their CPU return policy.

 

[RollingThunder]

OK, SuperPI passed just fine at 32mb. It took 35mins, but once I get this thing stable and am able to oc, I can get that way down. I did up the voltage. The voltage was at 1.35V, and I put it up to 1.4V, even though it's rated for 1.3-1.35V. We'll see if this helps. Yeah, the Audigy is a sound card. I just have a hard time believing it's anything but the mobo-cpu relations since the only thing that changed is the CPU. I think I'll try running ORTHOS again at priority 1 even though the CPU should theoretically be able to take any priority if it's really stable. I'll do that overnight.

Fangs,

You're closer. You're probably right in a CPU/motherboard combination. Just trying to rule out anything. I can't find where I saw priority 1 for Orthos. It may have been on another OC site but I was looking for this specifically. I really don't think it's anything major because your are running some stability time but not what is recommended. Possibly a timing tweak, I don't know. It would be different if Orthos failed in less than 10 minutes or if SuperPi failed. I've been there!

When I upped my HP FSB to where I am now from 2628 GHz, Orthos failed and I couldn't figure out why. I had already upped the vcore to 1.375 and it failed. My vdimm was 2.86v and OC suggested kicking up the vdimm to ~2.95v. I'm at 2.93v actual. It fixed it! I never would have thought that because who would have thought 2.86v wasn't enough? I was really surprised.

This is just an example, your RAMs are much different so I'm not suggesting it's voltage but it could be.

Hopefully OC will be by, he always has some good ideas.

 

[Fangs404]

Fangs,

You're closer. You're probably right in a CPU/motherboard combination. Just trying to rule out anything. I can't find where I saw priority 1 for Orthos. It may have been on another OC site but I was looking for this specifically. I really don't think it's anything major because your are running some stability time but not what is recommended. Possibly a timing tweak, I don't know. It would be different if Orthos failed in less than 10 minutes or if SuperPi failed. I've been there!

When I upped my HP FSB to where I am now from 2628 GHz, Orthos failed and I couldn't figure out why. I had already upped the vcore to 1.375 and it failed. My vdimm was 2.86v and OC suggested kicking up the vdimm to ~2.95v. I'm at 2.93v actual. It fixed it! I never would have thought that because who would have thought 2.86v wasn't enough? I was really surprised.

This is just an example, your RAMs are much different so I'm not suggesting it's voltage but it could be.

Hopefully OC will be by, he always has some good ideas.

Thanks so much for your time, by the way. It's nice not to have to go through this huge pain in the *** all alone.

Well, since ORTHOS just failed after about 5 mins (at a higher vcore no less!), I'm having some serious doubts. I don't really know if this is fixable. My ram is running at well under it's rated speeds, my CPU's getting extra juice that it shouldn't actually need. I just don't know what else I can do to make this work. I think the mobo is just on its way out. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna make that Fry's run tomorrow, so if I'm able to find a decent board there, I'll let you guys know what happens. I really hope it's not the CPU because an RMA to Newegg would be a pain, but we'll see....

By the way, I'm going to run memtest all night long tonight just to make absolutely sure it's not the ram.

 

[funnyperson1]

did you try taking all the back usb connections out if possible?

 

[jonspd]

I guess this thread is still going

 

[RollingThunder]

I guess this thread is still going

We call it "Eveready!"