Blue Screen Error: CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT

Nitesdeath

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CPU: AMD FX 6300

MOBO: M5A97 LE R2.0

I overclocked my FX 6300 to 4.1 GHz this morning. It was running fine until now (6 hours later) while watching a livestream on Twitch I got a blue screen with error: CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT

I would assume it happened with something having to do with the overclock? If not is it possible that it just happened randomly and I should ignore it unless it happens again?

Please help!

Edit: Temperatures are running really cool on the CPU (45 C on heavy load).
 
Solution
You may need to tweak those settings to get things stable. I haven't overclocked an AMD CPU, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice on playing around with their northbridge stuff. I do know that sometimes you have to turn off load line calibration to get a stable overclock as it can effect your CPU voltage and can lead to stability issues. I'd say follow advice in the guide if you're still running into problems.
That bluescreen indicates a CPU problem, so I would say your overclock is not entirely stable. You'll need to scale back your overclock until you have it stable, and then start adding voltage if you want to go above the maximum stable speed you get on stock voltage.

It's usually recommended that you run a stress test for an extended period to test the stability of your overclock, eg, running Prime95 for at least several hours.
 

Nitesdeath

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Ok so as I thought I needed to up the voltage. I was running at stock voltage (1.33) so I uped it to 1.36 Lets hope all goes good. As long as I don't crash playing any of my games or doing anything of what I do its not necessary to to run a prime 95 right?
 

Nitesdeath

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Ok so as I thought I needed to up the voltage. I was running at stock voltage (1.33) so I uped it to 1.36 Lets hope all goes good. As long as I don't crash playing any of my games or doing anything of what I do its not necessary to to run a prime 95 right?
 
It's a good idea to run Prime95 to make sure your overclock is stable, otherwise you run the risk of running into errors at random when doing something. Prime95 pushes your CPU to 100%, and if your overclock can remain stable with it, then it will be stable no matter what you do. Using games to test CPU stability isn't the greatest idea as games don't typically push your CPU to 100% constantly unless you've got a severe CPU bottleneck, and the game can actually scale across all six of your cores.
 

Nitesdeath

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Ok so if I decide to run a Prime 95 Test will an hour be okay? I don't wanna waste a bunch of time like others do when stress testing. Also, if the test fails how will I know? Blue screen appears? A core fails? If a core fails after an hour of testing can that be considered good?

Download link of Prime95 would also be nice :) cant seem to find the official place to get it at.
 
If the test fails one of several things could happen, you could get a bluescreen error, you could have your system crash, or Prime95 will report a calculation error on one or more of its worker threads. None of your cores should be failing at all, if they are, that means your overclock is not stable, and you run the risk of system instability if you run the overclock at your current settings. If your cores can remain stable for an hour or two, you should be okay, but it's usually recommended to run the test longer to be certain that your overclock is stable.

You can get Prime 95 here.
 

Nitesdeath

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Thanks for the info! But as of now if I'm not getting any blue screens or anything that means all cores are working good right? No cores have had a problem? I just wanna make sure im not currently running with like one core not responding etc, if thats possible.

Edit: My pc froze. It didn't get the same blue screen so it froze. I up'ed the voltage from 1.36 to 1.41. If it crashes again the highest voltage I'm willing to go is 1.42. If not I think I'll reset the BIOS to default settings with stock speed and everything (which by default has AMD turbo technology on, it runs the PC from 3.8-4.1 GHz).

 

Nitesdeath

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Hey should I be also changing my North Bridge voltage or leaving it how it is? I have it how it is as of now. Also check my post on top I edited it.
 

Nitesdeath

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Hey should I be also changing my North Bridge voltage or leaving it how it is? I have it how it is as of now. Also check my post on top I edited it.
 
I don't think you need to touch the north bridge voltage. You should turn off AMD turbo technology when you are overclocking, otherwise it can mess up your multipliers and lead to even higher speeds that may not be stable. Were you watching your temps while running Prime95, it can make the CPU run quite hot, especially when you start increasing the voltage.
 

Nitesdeath

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I havent ran a Prime 95 test yet. And yes turbo core has been off since the beginning ;) I followed this guide. If you could watch it its only 5 mins that would be great. I did everything in that video EXCEPT touch the North Bridge voltage and load line calibration and NB load line calibration. Atm my CPU is running super cool (46C while gaming).
 
You may need to tweak those settings to get things stable. I haven't overclocked an AMD CPU, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice on playing around with their northbridge stuff. I do know that sometimes you have to turn off load line calibration to get a stable overclock as it can effect your CPU voltage and can lead to stability issues. I'd say follow advice in the guide if you're still running into problems.
 
Solution

Nitesdeath

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Hey man, really appreciate ur help but I just said f*ck it. I reset my PC, entered into the BIOS hit F5 (default) and reset the settings in the bios to default just like it was before. It's too much of a headache and not worth the testing and all that trouble just to get 4.1 stable. With the Turbo core technology setting that is on by default the pc runs between 3.8 - 4.1GHz when gaming. So not really worth the testing and all the headaches for that. :) thank you though for your dedication. Really appreciate it
 

Nitesdeath

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Jan 13, 2014
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Hey man, really appreciate ur help but I just said f*ck it. I reset my PC, entered into the BIOS hit F5 (default) and reset the settings in the bios to default just like it was before. It's too much of a headache and not worth the testing and all that trouble just to get 4.1 stable. With the Turbo core technology setting that is on by default the pc runs between 3.8 - 4.1GHz when gaming. So not really worth the testing and all the headaches for that. :) thank you though for your dedication. Really appreciate it