- Joined
- Sep 5, 2014
Greeting: Hello to you fellow PC users. I am known as HK-47. A first time poster on this site. I am programmed to understand over 17,000 forms of communication and am able to engage in, personal combat.
I assume this is the right section for this to go under as it mostly has to do with the MB rather than CPU.
Okay. I've searched for solutions to my problem, but nothing matches or works. I am considering posting on MSI's forum and the forum on Tomshardware to get extra input from multiple sources. As of this post I haven't done so.
So I made the apparent mistake of getting the MSI 970. I was in a bit of a need for a new MB. Here's what happened in short:
My previous MB was the MSI 870-G45 (full current specs are in signature). My CPU is the beloved Phenom II x2 560 Callisto BE. It successfully unlocked to the x4 b60 and overclocked perfectly. It ran that way for four years with no problems ever. Until it happened. I hooked up two 80mm fans into a modular port on my PSU that had never been used. PC didn't boot. After several tries of different ports and making sure things were hooked up right, I found out my PSU murdered my GPU. It also killed the LAN port on the MB. Thus ended a good computer . Well... sort of. Thankfully my second computer had the exact same GPU. I needed a new MB soon so as to not risk the old one killing my HDD (when you have internet that is only 1.5Mb, it's a pain to download some games). Being on a budget and needing a MB soon, I bought the 970 since I had such great success with my 870, ignorant of MSI's current reputation.
After putting everything together, under the supervision of a friend who has taught me a lot about computer hardware, and booting up, I find Windows is too dumb to start up so I can change the MB drivers. After reinstalling Windows (backed up old files and reinstalled), I proceed to overclock and unlock. Set the ratio to 17.5 and the Voltage to +0.11 and enabled core unlock. It failed almost each time, but never indicated such. We didn't realize the default FSB was 220 instead of 200 as it should have been adjusted to. After fixing that, things worked. Sort of.
This brings me to my issue: My CPU sometimes unlocks all the way, and other times it won't.
I boot up the computer, it's unlocked. I restart the PC, after loading into Windows, and it will either sit there with blank screens and do nothing (not even get to BIOS) for an unknown maximum length of time (let it go 5 min); sit with blank screens then boot up with the two default cores; or tell me "The previous overclocking has failed." (which rarely happens). I'll even start it up, go into BIOS, it shows all four cores, I save and exit, it boots to Windows showing only two cores. It's being inconsistent. It hasn't mattered if the Ratio is 16 or 18 nor if the voltage is +0.10 or +0.12. I even used OC Genie and had the same problem. A couple of times I managed to reset the computer, and it kept it unlocked. But after the second reset, it reverted back to a dual core. It usually boots as a dual core. It also shuts off completely when I adjust the ratio. But even that does not happen every single time.
I also changed out the battery for the one in my old board in the off chance the one in the new board is bad. Not likely but figured it was a long shot.
Most of this took place when I was alone. Specifically changing the FSB from 220 to 200. I know for a fact that the Overclocking isn't failing because for a bit I was setting the ratio to 7.5 instead of 17.5 (D'OH!). I could tell a huge difference when I bumped it up to 17.5.
So my queries are as follows: What suggestions do any of you have that I can try? Did I mess things up already? Who's going to be the first to give the usual list of "Did you try....?"? When adjusting the Ratio, is the PC supposed to shut off completely for a few seconds after saving and exiting BIOS?
Before you ask, yes my computer is plugged in. Yes I reset the computer. Yes I unplugged it, waited 10 seconds then plugged it back in. Yes I am aware that the display screen is NOT the computer. Yes I reset my modem and router. Yes I am sure it's my computer and not that of someone else. Yes my router is hooked up correctly. *presses 1 for English* 1
Additional Info: I did get a "Computer was reset because CPU wasn't getting enough power." message when using my old board, but that happened once. I have attributed that to something wrong with the MB.
Additional Info: I also ran Prime95 (small FFTs) when I managed to get my PC to boot into Windows with all four cores, and had no trouble. I let it loop twice. CPUZ is also falsely registering my Core VID. It's stuck at 1.300V. HWMonitor however changes as I change the Voltage.
Cautionary: I also would like to avoid doing anything that could "brick" the MB. I want to be able to get a refund if I absolutely have to.
For the record, I am not a noob nor am I a veteran. I am new to doing this kind of thing myself on my own. I do learn quickly and usually understand anything said. I am however afraid of messing things up. So if I ask questions that seem "stupid" or repeated, I'm just afraid of doing it wrong and messing up big time. As I said before I am on a budget of sorts. I don't have a job per se, but I do earn funds during the spring/summer/fall doing yard work. I am not averse to getting a MB that is $150+. It's just not cool when it gets to Winter, my income drops to $0, and I have to wait all Winter.
I do have a secondary computer (built from parts given to me for free and Ebay) that I can use if I must RMA/request a refund. I am well within the 30 day refund time period.
TL;DR: L2R. If anything needs clearing up, just say so, and I'll try my best.
I assume this is the right section for this to go under as it mostly has to do with the MB rather than CPU.
Okay. I've searched for solutions to my problem, but nothing matches or works. I am considering posting on MSI's forum and the forum on Tomshardware to get extra input from multiple sources. As of this post I haven't done so.
So I made the apparent mistake of getting the MSI 970. I was in a bit of a need for a new MB. Here's what happened in short:
My previous MB was the MSI 870-G45 (full current specs are in signature). My CPU is the beloved Phenom II x2 560 Callisto BE. It successfully unlocked to the x4 b60 and overclocked perfectly. It ran that way for four years with no problems ever. Until it happened. I hooked up two 80mm fans into a modular port on my PSU that had never been used. PC didn't boot. After several tries of different ports and making sure things were hooked up right, I found out my PSU murdered my GPU. It also killed the LAN port on the MB. Thus ended a good computer . Well... sort of. Thankfully my second computer had the exact same GPU. I needed a new MB soon so as to not risk the old one killing my HDD (when you have internet that is only 1.5Mb, it's a pain to download some games). Being on a budget and needing a MB soon, I bought the 970 since I had such great success with my 870, ignorant of MSI's current reputation.
After putting everything together, under the supervision of a friend who has taught me a lot about computer hardware, and booting up, I find Windows is too dumb to start up so I can change the MB drivers. After reinstalling Windows (backed up old files and reinstalled), I proceed to overclock and unlock. Set the ratio to 17.5 and the Voltage to +0.11 and enabled core unlock. It failed almost each time, but never indicated such. We didn't realize the default FSB was 220 instead of 200 as it should have been adjusted to. After fixing that, things worked. Sort of.
This brings me to my issue: My CPU sometimes unlocks all the way, and other times it won't.
I boot up the computer, it's unlocked. I restart the PC, after loading into Windows, and it will either sit there with blank screens and do nothing (not even get to BIOS) for an unknown maximum length of time (let it go 5 min); sit with blank screens then boot up with the two default cores; or tell me "The previous overclocking has failed." (which rarely happens). I'll even start it up, go into BIOS, it shows all four cores, I save and exit, it boots to Windows showing only two cores. It's being inconsistent. It hasn't mattered if the Ratio is 16 or 18 nor if the voltage is +0.10 or +0.12. I even used OC Genie and had the same problem. A couple of times I managed to reset the computer, and it kept it unlocked. But after the second reset, it reverted back to a dual core. It usually boots as a dual core. It also shuts off completely when I adjust the ratio. But even that does not happen every single time.
I also changed out the battery for the one in my old board in the off chance the one in the new board is bad. Not likely but figured it was a long shot.
Most of this took place when I was alone. Specifically changing the FSB from 220 to 200. I know for a fact that the Overclocking isn't failing because for a bit I was setting the ratio to 7.5 instead of 17.5 (D'OH!). I could tell a huge difference when I bumped it up to 17.5.
So my queries are as follows: What suggestions do any of you have that I can try? Did I mess things up already? Who's going to be the first to give the usual list of "Did you try....?"? When adjusting the Ratio, is the PC supposed to shut off completely for a few seconds after saving and exiting BIOS?
Before you ask, yes my computer is plugged in. Yes I reset the computer. Yes I unplugged it, waited 10 seconds then plugged it back in. Yes I am aware that the display screen is NOT the computer. Yes I reset my modem and router. Yes I am sure it's my computer and not that of someone else. Yes my router is hooked up correctly. *presses 1 for English* 1
Additional Info: I did get a "Computer was reset because CPU wasn't getting enough power." message when using my old board, but that happened once. I have attributed that to something wrong with the MB.
Additional Info: I also ran Prime95 (small FFTs) when I managed to get my PC to boot into Windows with all four cores, and had no trouble. I let it loop twice. CPUZ is also falsely registering my Core VID. It's stuck at 1.300V. HWMonitor however changes as I change the Voltage.
Cautionary: I also would like to avoid doing anything that could "brick" the MB. I want to be able to get a refund if I absolutely have to.
For the record, I am not a noob nor am I a veteran. I am new to doing this kind of thing myself on my own. I do learn quickly and usually understand anything said. I am however afraid of messing things up. So if I ask questions that seem "stupid" or repeated, I'm just afraid of doing it wrong and messing up big time. As I said before I am on a budget of sorts. I don't have a job per se, but I do earn funds during the spring/summer/fall doing yard work. I am not averse to getting a MB that is $150+. It's just not cool when it gets to Winter, my income drops to $0, and I have to wait all Winter.
I do have a secondary computer (built from parts given to me for free and Ebay) that I can use if I must RMA/request a refund. I am well within the 30 day refund time period.
TL;DR: L2R. If anything needs clearing up, just say so, and I'll try my best.