FX6300 Black and Asrock 980DE3/U3S3 R2.0 Overclocked

[Blaylock]

So, is everything working properly, SATA, USB, Audio, etc? You haven't mentioned anything not functioning, just that the drivers are older.

 

[Wombatunder]

So, is everything working properly, SATA, USB, Audio, etc? You haven't mentioned anything not functioning, just that the drivers are older.

Everything did appear to be working fine, though I did have an odd pausing and screen flickering just now when I turned the machine on. I had to restart the machine. Event Viewer tells me that there were 21 application errors from 8:59:06pm to 9:11:02pm. The faulting application was DWM.exe the module is unknown teh exception code is 0x889800b but the faulting process id is different each time.

I had the machine on and was playing games well before this. I had shut the machine down to take some background sound level readings, turned it back on, got this problem, restarted and now it's behaving.

Could a gpu problem be causing driver errors and then an issue with dwm.exe? Could the cpu overclock be causing power issues with the pcie slot?

 

[Blaylock]

It's unlikely the DWM.exe error is caused by a driver. That's a M$ error.

 

[Wombatunder]

So, after having some odd issues like League of Legends absolutely maxing a single core and having delays when entering the pre-game lobby I decides to have another go at tweaking things.

I now have all 6 cores running at 3.8Ghz @ 1.2875V and max temp of about 60 degrees celsius under full stress, the HT at 2600MHZ and my ram is now running at 1600Mhz @ 1.5V.

Everything seems to be happier, loading snappier, games are behaving better and I no longer seem to be maxing a single core while the others do nothing.

I am having problems with initial first start for the day. I get a flickering screen when I try to log in to windows 10, sometimes it's so bad that I have to use the reset button, today all I had to do was be a bit patient and was able to use the restart function on the login screen.

I have windows set so that when I shutdown the computer it actually shuts down windows like a restart does instead of doing the stupid suspended for fast boot crap.

 

[knoober]

If I had an issue @ startup like that I would be tempted to add a tick or two of voltage to the cpu and see if it cleared up. But you are pushing max temps for your chip already so I might consider dropping a couple hundred mhz instead. There are other things that might help - like adding a tick to the NB - but all options will likely add heat, and you are at your limit as I already said.

Adding a tick or two to various voltages is not guaranteed to add more heat though. It is just the nature of the beast that your chip might run @ 60C for the next 2/3 voltage increments - in my experience anyway. But the next increase could send you clear up to 65C. The only way to find out is to test I guess

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Maybe increase the Vcore and reduce LLC by a notch each...

 

[Wombatunder]

If I had an issue @ startup like that I would be tempted to add a tick or two of voltage to the cpu and see if it cleared up. But you are pushing max temps for your chip already so I might consider dropping a couple hundred mhz instead. There are other things that might help - like adding a tick to the NB - but all options will likely add heat, and you are at your limit as I already said.

Adding a tick or two to various voltages is not guaranteed to add more heat though. It is just the nature of the beast that your chip might run @ 60C for the next 2/3 voltage increments - in my experience anyway. But the next increase could send you clear up to 65C. The only way to find out is to test I guess

I might be alright because I had the voltage up around 1.35V @4GHZ before but with 2200 HT and 1366Ram I will give it a go and see how it goes. Only seems to be on first boot that there's a problem. I will fiddle over the next few days.

Maybe increase the Vcore and reduce LLC by a notch each...

I don't seem to have an LLC option, the Bios (Not UEFI) is pretty ordinary, I think I'm lucky to have any overclocking options at all. I will see about some more Vcore and see what happens.

 

[Wombatunder]

Any hope for Win8/8.1 drivers to work? If they exist?

Sorry, I must have missed this.

I did download the driver packages for 8.1 64 bit, unpacked them then told device manager to have a look in those folders for more up to date drivers. The USB 2.0 drivers didn't change but the Asmedia ASM1061 SATA 3.0 controller, that has my Boot SSD and my main Games storage drive attached to it happily updated the driver.... though then I got a bluescreen every time I tried to open HWiNFO64 even after uninstalling HWiNFO64 and reinstalling it. I then rolled back the driver and everything worked properly again :S

 

[Wombatunder]

Soo, after fiddling with my Bios settings for a while now I still seem to have the odd behavior on cold boot that goes away once I restart the pc from the windows login screen.

Current settings are

Spoiler

Overclock Mode - Manual
CPU Frequency (MHz) - 200
CPU Dync overclocking - Disabled
PCIE Frequency (MHz) - 100
Spread Spectrum - Auto
Boot Failure Guard - Enabled
Bppt Failure Guard Count - 3
CPU Active Core Control - All Cores
AMD Turbo Core Technology - Disabled
AMD C-State Support - Disabled
AMD AMP - Disabled

Multiplier/Voltage Change - Manual
CPU Frequency Multiplier - x20.0 4000Mhz
CPU Voltage - 1.2875V
NB Frequency Multiplier - x12.0 2400MHz
CPU NB Voltage - 1.3000V
HT Bus Speed - x13 2600MHz
HT Bus Width - 16 Bit

VCORE Loadline - 1/4

Memory Clock - 800Mhz DDR3_1600
DRAM Voltage - 1.50V
Memory Timing
Power Down Enable - Disabled
Bank Interleaving - Auto
Channel Interleaving - Auto
CAS Latency (CL) - 9 CLK Manually Set
TRCD - 9 CLK Manually Set
TRP - 9 CLK Manually Set
TRAS - 27 CLK Manually Set
Command Rate - 2T Manually Set
TRC - 36 Manually Set
TWR - 12 Auto
TRFC - 110 Auto
TRRD - 5 Auto
TWTR - 6 Auto
TRTP - 6 Auto
TFAW - 24 Auto
TCWL - 8 Auto

NB Voltage - Auto No idea what the voltage is set to
SB Voltage - Auto
+1.8V Power - Auto
+1.4V Voltage - Auto

Cool and Quite is Disabled
Enhanced Halt State (C1E) is Disabled
CPU HTC is Disabled
CPU Thermal Throttle is Auto

I have attached the Manual from the CD if anyone would like to have a look at the bios settings available.

I can run Prime95 for 1-2 hours with no problems once I have restarted from the windows login screen.

I have re flashed the bios from a fresh download from within the bios rather than windows which is how I did it originally. no change in behavior.

Sometimes when I save settings in the bios and exit the machine appears to do a cold boot and others a warm boot. Not sure if that's related. I can tell because I have a Lamptron fan controller and it turns off when you cold boot and stays on when you warm boot.

On cold boot, when the windows login screen loads my mouse and keyboard can take up to 30 seconds to become active. I have a Logitech G510S keyboard and when the machine boots, cold or warm, the lcd on the keyboard is off to start with, I assume it's because the BIOS hasn't activated the USB ports. On cold boot at the windows login screen the LCD on the keyboard is off for up to 30 seconds while both the keyboard and mouse are unresponsive. The windows Boot screen also shows the wrong date and time even if the bios date and time are correct, it will then correct itself.

It seems that if I put the machine to sleep from a cold boot then wake it up by hitting a button on the keyboard it also behaves itself.


I have hooked up a small fan to blow directly on the VRM chips and turned my side fan on the case into an intake fan rather than an outlet fan, I now have positive pressure and the side fan is blowing on the northbridge chipset heatsink.

VRM Fan

Spoiler

 

[Blaylock]

Make sure the keyboard and mouse are connected to USB 2.0 ports. The USB 3.0 ports from that generation generally require drivers to initialize them.

The time issue is a bit more confusing. The only thing I've seen similar to that was caused from a virus/malware. I was unable to change the date or if I did it would change back. Be sure to run a respectable anti-virus/anti-malware just to be sure.

 

[Wombatunder]

Make sure the keyboard and mouse are connected to USB 2.0 ports. The USB 3.0 ports from that generation generally require drivers to initialize them.

The time issue is a bit more confusing. The only thing I've seen similar to that was caused from a virus/malware. I was unable to change the date or if I did it would change back. Be sure to run a respectable anti-virus/anti-malware just to be sure.

The Keyboard and mouse are both plugged into USB2.0 ports, I kept the 3.0 ports free for external storage as I figured my other stuff wasn't going to benefit from the faster speed.

I've had odd time issues on other machines because of a flat bios battery but the bios isn't resetting itself when I unplug the PSU and discharge the system with the power button. I might buy another battery and try that just in case. I will run a few scans with some different malware and AV programs and see if I come up with anything.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Turn off fast boot.
Lemme know if that cures your boot problem.

 

[Wombatunder]

Turn off fast boot.
Lemme know if that cures your boot problem.

Hi,
If you mean fast boot in windows 10 then it is already disabled. If you mean fast boot in BIOS then I'm stuck because this is an ordinary, non UEFI, BIOS board and there doesn't seem to be any options for fast boot.

I'm beginning to think I'm expecting too much from this board and a decent one is $190 (970 chipset)-$310AUD(990FX Chipset)

Looking at upgrading the ram, cooler and 2x case fans compared to a new ryzen build with 1600x and an Asus Prime x370 board with cooler, ram and case fans... there's max of $450AUD difference if I get the cheaper AM3+ 970 board.


Otherwise a mate offered his old Xeon system with a AIO water cooler and 16GB ram, cpu/mobo/ram/cooler for $300AUD. This is tempting as it will perform better, but as it's a xeon there's no overclocking

 

[Wombatunder]

-snip-
I don't seem to have an LLC option, the Bios (Not UEFI) is pretty ordinary, I think I'm lucky to have any overclocking options at all. I will see about some more Vcore and see what happens.

There is an option marked VCORE Loadline, The options were Auto, 1/2, 1/4 and disabled. It's currently set to 1/4

 

[Wombatunder]

So I've given up on the whole cold boot problem. I can't seem to find any pattern to it.

I decided to see how far I could push things off a warm boot and have now managed the following

Bus Clock - 220MHz
CPU Multiplier - 18.5
CPU speed is wandering from 4069.7 to 4082.8 with an average of 4073.3 over about 45 minutes
VCore is 1.2875V wandering from 1.272V to 1.304V average 1.289V

NB Ratio is 11.0 2419.8 - 2427.7 average of 2422.0 @ 1.3V CPUNB and Auto NB Voltage.
HT Ratio is 12.0 2639.8 - 2648.4 average of 2642.2

Ram is 1760MHz with 10, 10, 10, 30, 40 2T timings @ 1.5V

CPU Package got to a toasty 61.8°C with socket @ 79.5°C

However I have a temp sensor called Auxiliary that seems to be inverted. I believe it's my VRM distance to max temp and it hit 0.0°C so I stopped Prime95

As soon as I stopped the test the Aux temp had a vertical change of about 60°C so I guess the little fan is working.

I might get better temps if I put some heatsinks on the VRM's and another fan on the back of the mobo.

This now seems to have turned into a "how far can I push it before killing something" Maybe....

 

[Johan45]

What you need is a better cooler. The Wraith is OK but still not on par with a $30 Hyper 212

 

[Wombatunder]

What you need is a better cooler. The Wraith is OK but still not on par with a $30 Hyper 212

yeah, I would like to get a better cooler, but I also need a better board and some matched 8gb 1866 sticks would be nice too

Then I'm within spitting distance of a new Ryzen setup.

 

[mammut]

From a performance and vv. overclocking success, have you tried
out a RAM config of 2x2GB vs. 1x4GB?
You current RAM config seem be a bit challenging for maxing memory bandwidth by OC, IMO.

 

[Wombatunder]

From a performance and vv. overclocking success, have you tried
out a RAM config of 2x2GB vs. 1x4GB?
You current RAM config seem be a bit challenging for maxing memory bandwidth by OC, IMO.

I have tried with a mates properly match pair of 2x4gb HX318C10FRK2/8 memory chips but the problem remained.

I have put my RAM back in, all 4 chips and decided to have a play with the FSB to see what I could get to.

I'm now at

Spoiler

FSB 240MHz (Wanders up to 240.7Mhz)
CPU Multiplier = x17.0
NB Ratio = x10
NB Clock = 2400MHz (wanders up to about 2408Mhz)
HT Ratio = x11.0
HT Clock = 2640Mhz (wanders up to 2648Mhz)
Vcore = 1.2875V (wanders from 1.288V to 1.304V)
Memory Clock ratio = x3.33
Memory Clock = 800Mhz (x2 for 1600MHz)
Memory Voltage = 1.5V
Memory timings are
Tcas = 10T
Trcd = 10T
Trp = 10T
Tras = 30T
Trc = 40T

CPU package idle temp is around 25°C
I ran Prime95 for an hour and CPU Package peaked at 63°C with average around 58°C, socket peaked at 79°C and my Aux (distance to VRM thermal max I believe) peaked at 1°C

There wasn't any thermal throttling for the whole test.

Playing games I don't get anywhere near those numbers I don't think I've even hit CPU Package temp of 50°C while gaming.

The best thing is my weird cold boot problem seems to have vanished. Have cold booted at least a dozen times over the last 3 days with no issues.

I was planning on fiddling a little more but I think I will stick with this now that it works I am keeping my eye out for a cheap AM3+ board with a decent power delivery and hopefully a 990FX chipset, might have to settle for a 970 chipset though.

Thank you all for your help and advice as I worked through this little experiment. I will update this thread if anything changes

 

[Wombatunder]

New development.

I have just set up my Pi with a temp sensor and have it running and logging in the room with my PC's. According to both HWInfo64 and CPUID HWMonitor my CPU package temps are about 4-5 degrees below ambient..... Must be that Grizzly Kryonaught thermal grease overclocking my little wraith cooler

Is this likely to be the ****ty mobo causing bad readings? or should I be using the motherboards CPU temps?
The other machines in the room read idle temps above what the Pi says room temp is.