Cannot overclock my E8400 on P35-DS3R at all! :( Please help.

[DjNemes1s]

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate any help at all with regards overclocking my E8400 3.00Ghz CPU on a P35-DS3R motherboard. As most of you will know, these chips are supposed to be fantastic overclockers. However, I have had absolutely no success at all. I've searched all over the net for tips, guides, settings etc with no luck. I'm told it should overclock to 3.6Hz easy with only a simple bump on the FSB from 333 to 400, but again no joy.

I've tried all sorts of settings, attempting to isolate exactly which setting is causing the failure for the O/C to past POST, and it seems if I set the FSB to ANYTHING except 333Mhz it fails to POST, motherboard hard resets and all BIOS settings revert to default.

I know my way around my PC, but I'm a total newbie when it comes to overclocking so I would really really appreciate any help you can offer on this as I feel I've tried pretty much everything and feeling pretty dejected as I don't know what else to do, or why it won't work.

My Details are as follows:

Gigabyte P35-DS3R rev 2.1
Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
4*1GB Crucial 800Mhz RAM (2 sets of TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4/4/4/12 2.1v)
512Mb Nvidia GeForce 8800gt (PCI-E)
M-Audio 2496 PCI Soundcard
Win 7 32Bit

I've posted some photos below (sorry for the blurriness) of the furthest I've got in terms of adjusting settings towards an O/C. With these settings I can boot into Windows no problem. However, the final piece of the puzzle, upping the FSB, causes MB to crash before POSTing.

• I have checked that I can change 'CPU CLOCK HOST CONTROL' to 'Enabled' and still boot ok, and I can, as long as I set the FSB at 333. Anything above or below that crashes the system.
  
• When I've tried changing the FSB to recommended 400Mhz for a 3.6gz Overclock (9x400), I of course adjust the system memory multipler to 2.00 (2x400Mhz FSB = 800Mhz for the RAM as rated).
  
• I've also tried the overclock with the memory timings loosened to 5/5/5/18, but no luck.
  
• I've tried different voltages on the CPU from 'normal' up to 1.35 which is probably way excessive, but even then it still does not get me past POST. I've also tried setting EIST to 'disabled' along with the other options on that BIOS screen. These settings boot fine, except again when I change the FSB
  
• I've tried setting the PCI-E Express Frequency to 'manual' - 100Mhz as this has been suggested on other posts, but didnt seem to make any difference.

.

Thanks a million in advance for any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong here!!

James

 

[redduc900]

Try removing two of the four sticks of RAM, and leave the remaining two in either slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. This w/ all voltages on Normal except for the +0.3V DDR2 OverVoltage Control, and DRAM Timings Selectable (SPD) set to Auto.

 

[SamSaveMax]

That board has a high vdroop and vdrop.
It wouldn't hurt if you set 1.40 vcore to get 1.360 idle and 1.328 underload in CPUZ
Change your System Memory Multiplier to 2.00 if you want to go higher.

 

[DjNemes1s]

redduc900!! You are an absolute legend!

I took 2 of the sticks out, went back into BIOS and changed everything as you said, set FSB at 400, plus set the System memory Multiplier at 2.0 to keep the RAM at 800Mhz (I think on auto it would have pushed it to 960) and it's booted absolutely fine! Having changed who knows how many settings and trying untold combinations of things, I've never got it to POST before let alone boot windows!

Thank you so much!

Would you happen to have any ideas how I might be able to get it working with the other 2 sticks back in? I'm guessing the fact it's now working, indicates it was a RAM related issue previously, though I'm still at a bit of a loss as to exactly why as:

* The FSB is still 400Mhz, which didn't work previously, but does now.
* The Multi is still 2.00 which I tried before.
* We haven't changed the DDR2 overvoltage - still +0.3v = 2.1v

Something northbridge related possibly? :S

Thanks again for all your help!!

 

[DjNemes1s]

That board has a high vdroop and vdrop.
It wouldn't hurt if you set 1.40 vcore to get 1.360 idle and 1.328 underload in CPUZ
Change your System Memory Multiplier to 2.00 if you want to go higher.

Hi Sam, thanks for your reply! I have EIST disabled in BIOS (at least while I'm trying to get the O/C working) which I *think* stops the voltage drop on underload. When I've booted into windows with the FSB at auto and different voltages, the vcore has shown as stable in CPU-z as opposed to when EIST and C1E (I think?) were enabled.

 

[SamSaveMax]

EIST has nothing to do with vdroop nor vdrop.

Try this for 4GHz
445 fsb * 9

Ram change to 555-15
DDR2 Voltage= +.3
System Memory Multiplier = 2.00

Vcore_1.40000 or 1.41 if run Prime95 fails
PCI-E Voltage = +.1
FSB Voltage = +.2
MCH Voltage = +.2 if not, go for +.3
PCI-E Frequency = 101 or 102

If you do get a boot into Windows, please capture 2 screenshots for me to see voltages.
1= 3 CPUZ windows IDLE with CPU, Memory and SPD tab open.
2= then run Prime95 for 18 min....and capture all including CPUZs.

I suppose you can put back all 4 sticks of rams without issue.

 

[DjNemes1s]

Thanks SamSaveMax, I'll try upping to 4Ghz as a next step I think, but first I would still like to try to get the 3.6Ghz overclock working with my other 2 sticks of RAM. I only bought them in the last week so will probably send them back if it's not going to work with 4x1Gb.

 

[SamSaveMax]

Thanks SamSaveMax, I'll try upping to 4Ghz as a next step I think, but first I would still like to try to get the 3.6Ghz overclock working with my other 2 sticks of RAM. I only bought them in the last week so will probably send them back if it's not going to work with 4x1Gb.

Are they mis-match? Ideally would be all matched kit.
Best would be 2x2GB kit.

 

[DjNemes1s]

They are all Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 800Mhz sticks. Each set is a matched pair. 1 set is a couple years old though, and I bought the other pair last week to support future move into 64bit and the overclock.

I guess possibly it's an issue with running all of them at high speed or need more northbridge voltage (though I did try bumping that up +0.1v in the past).

This is from Corsairs Tech Support page:

"Tested Settings for this Module: Speed: 800MHz Latency: 4-4-4-12-2T Voltage: 2.1

Here are some common tips that you should try before proceeding with a full technical support case.

Four modules won't run at the speed and/or timings I expect them to.
The problem you're experiencing may be from a motherboard limitation. Most motherboards may be able to run four modules at a time, but not at high speeds. You may have to slow your memory down and/or increase your northbridge voltage slightly to get all four modules running. If you’re not comfortable making these adjustments, or if the BIOS doesn’t allow for these adjustments to be made, you might want to consider one of our 4GB memory kits.


I have 4GB of memory installed on my computer but less than that shows up in Windows.
This is a limitation of a 32-bit operating system. In Windows, the Windows memory manager is limited to a 4 GB physical address space. Most of that address space is filled with RAM, but not all of it. Memory-mapped devices (such as your video card) will use some of that physical address space, as will the BIOS ROMs. After all the non-memory devices have had their say, there will be less than 4GB of address space available for RAM below the 4GB physical address boundary. "

 

[MARCI]

bump MCH to .2 or .3, that should make it stable with all 4 sticks.. unless you have a bad stick, or bad socket

 

[DjNemes1s]

Fantastic!! Thanks Marci, that worked a treat!! Am now back in windows with all 4Gb installed and still at 3.6Ghz!

Just couple of follow up questions:

* Is the northbridge ok at +0.2v? Dunno why but northbridge fiddling always scares me a bit.
* What's the best way to stress test my system now it's actually booting overclocked? I've tried running Prime 95 'blend' stress test but it doesn't even go a few seconds without stopping! this was the same before I added the extra 2 sticks. However, PC Mark 06 benchmarking runs fine, Crysis FPS Demo works no problems, and I've played Blur for a couple of hours with no problems, so I'm a bit confused why Prime 95 is failing and especially so quickly. Is there something else you would recommend I use to stress test to see if there is a real underlying problem or whether it's just something wrong with P95?

Thanks again!

Edit - with P95 image:

 

[MARCI]

what's your Cpu Voltage at?, along with temperature.

I'm running mine at .2, and haven't had any problem at all. If you're concerned, there are aftermarket NB coolers.

Also. 3.6g, You're using a 32bit os. that's all you're gonna get.

 

[DjNemes1s]

My CPU voltage according to CPU-Z is 1.184v, according to Coretemp it's 1.225v. Motherboard also states that normal is 1.225v and I have it set at normal. Do you think I would need to bump it up at all? I've read the E8400 will normally overclock fine on stock voltage, but i guess they're all different?

Temperatures on the 2 cores are 27 and 31 degrees celcius at idle.

Oh and sorry, I wasn't too clear before, I meant I was happy that it was now booting with 4GB and the 3.6Ghz overclock. Previously I could only do one or the other, not both. I'm on Win 7 64bit now to make full use of the 4Gb RAM.

 

[MARCI]

okay.. if you're at 1.184 after vdroop, then raising it a couple of notches from 1.225 won't hurt you at all, set it to 1.25 in bios, then run prime95 again and let us know whatcha get.

the 1.184v in my sig is just bragging, I got lucky with a very nice chip.

 

[DjNemes1s]

Argh, I'm back at the start again!!

I can't get it to POST at all now when overclocked, even with +0.2v on the Northbridge. I've even tried upping CPU, FSB and PCI-E voltages but still can't get it to post with a 400Mhz FSB.

These are the settings which worked previously, but no longer work:

ROBUST GRAPHICS BOOSTER............................ AUTO
CPU HOST CLOCK RATIO.................................. 9x
CPU HOST CLOCK CONTROL.............................. ENABLED
CPU HOST CLOCK FREQUENCY........................... 400
PCI EXPRESS FREQUENCY (MHZ)........................ AUTO (100 also worked)
C.I.A.2.......................................................... DISABLED
PERFORMANCE ENHANCE................................... STANDARD
SYSTEM MEMORY MULTIPLIER........................... 2.0
DRAM TIMINGS............................................... AUTO
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOLTAGES..................................................... ALL NORMAL EXCEPT
DDR OVERVOLTAGE CONTROL............................ +0.3v (2.1v)
(G)MCH OVERVOLTAGE CONTROL....................... +0.2v

Do you have any ideas what I could be doing wrong? could it be settings elsewhere in the BIOS messing with the overclock at all? I'm really surprised that it worked ok, even after a few reboots (as I installed Win 7 64bit), but now it won't work. :-(

 

[MARCI]

won't POST, or won't load windows? if you can get to bios, check the Vcore (cpu voltage) set it manually to 1.25v, and see if that helps.

If it won't post at all, then it's time to start over.

 

[DjNemes1s]

Yup, it won't post at all, just restarts straight after the BIOS image disappears and then all settings revert back to default.

I really can't figure out where I'm going wrong here. It seems it's only when I change the FSB to anything except 333Mhz it has a problem, even with the voltage boosted (tried vcore up to 1.30v). However it didn't mind the FSB being 400Mhz when I only had 2 sticks of RAM, or for the few times it worked when i had 4 sticks but upped the Northbridge to +0.2v.

Could something else have changed that I'm not seeing that could be contributing - i.e. something outside of the M.I.T. settings? Or do I have to apply the MIT settings in some kind of order to get it working? E.g. up the voltage, restart, change memory multiplier, restart, change something else, restart and THEN up the FSB? :S

Thanks for your continued support with this btw, it must be pretty hard trying to figure out what's going on with someone else's machine.

 

[SamSaveMax]

Argh, I'm back at the start again!!

Problems at what FSB are we talking about here?

 

[DjNemes1s]

It's at any FSB except for 333Mhz (x9 multi - 3.0Ghz). If I leave FSB at auto (333Mhz default) or enable clock control and set it at 333Mhz manually, it boots fine. Anything different and it fails to POST, machine restarts and BIOS settings revert to default. I have tried even just bumping FSB by just 1 to 334Mhz as well as by 17 to 350Mhz (probably not great tests really, but I thought it was worth seeing if it could step up in smaller amounts).

It did work for a bit at 400Mhz, with all 4 sticks of RAM with only voltage boosts on the DDR RAM (+0.3v = 2.1v) and Northbridge (+0.2v) - but these settings no longer POST (perhaps, when the BIOS reverted to default, it's changed something elsewhere, outside the MIT settings, which have had an impact?).

 

[wingman99]

On a P35 chip set the MCH to 1.3v for 400 FSB the P35 chip is stubborn some times. It was designed for 333 FSB not 400 FSB the P45 will do 400 stock.

Also do a mem86 test to check your memory.