Gigabyte k8n Pro-SLI Doesn't allow OC

[w00ten]

Hi Guys,

I recently put out a decent chunk of change on this new computer of mine and I decided that I wanted to see just how much juice it had. I'm running an Athlon64 X2 3800+ with 2gigs of DDR400 RAM and 2 Geforce 7900GT gfx cards pumping out the the processing power. I got my graphics cards OC'd real nice, they stay cool enough to not be a problem but when I went to do the CPU, I ran into some problems. Upon making the neccessary modifications to just give the CPU a nudge to see how itll respond, the compy wont start... now it is not what you're thinking. The mobo itself gives a message along the lines of "this processor has been overclocked, please restart with default settings" I sat here thinking to myself "well this is retarded I bumped it up by only about 2% at most... that shouldn't cause issues" I've done some searching online and found nothing on how to potentially solve this. I was wondering if anyone knew a workaround for that OC problem.

Thanks for any help you guys can give.

 

[GrimReaperGuy]

That's pretty strange, I'm running the same board with a 3000+ and it overclocks fine (By fine I mean, 10%). Precisely what necessary modifications did you make? What BIOS are you running?
Sometimes on a failed OC mine won't boot either, give it a little room to breathe (maybe 5-10 minutes) and then it should start up. Arcane, but it works.

 

[w00ten]

Ii simply gave the clock speed a minor nudge to see what would happen. Nothing major enough to make me need to change any other settings. I've seen reports all over the net about it but no solutions. It basically looks like the board is saying "don't do this, it could cause damage". I figure that if any place will have an answer, its here. Im at work right now, Ill give some version info and such later when I'm home. I also seem to remember my timing being loose... I never touched it though, I may be wrong, I'll post exact numbers later tonight.

 

[GrimReaperGuy]

Okay, this may or may not help:
At the main BIOS screen, hit Ctrl+F1. This will open up some more options. Notch your memory speed down to 166, this will ensure that it's not your memory keeping you back (Just in case). Also, set your HTT multiplier to 4x.
Now, go to the Tweaker page, and where it has CPU Clock Spread, set this to Disabled. If this is set to Center Spread, it will cause some system instability when you're overclocking.
Try something small like 205, and see if the system will boot into windows. Nudging the CPU voltage up to 1.550V should probably see you at the 220-240 mark.

 

[foshizzle]

Your wife is scared you'll ruin your comp huh?

 

[w00ten]

OK, Heres the latest update.

I went back into my BIOS and decided to give this another shot. I'm no further then I was. I didn't try the suggestion above about voltage... changing voltage scares me a bit *hides*

Here's the message I get after a successfull memory check and all that crap:

CPU Overclock right now!!! CPU Frequency xxx MHz
If system hang on over clocking
Please press delete key before next time over clock


No I'm not making that shit up either. Somewhere there is a translator that should be dragged into the middle of the road and shot. The xxx happens to be whatever you have overclocked it to.

This baby idles at 25 degrees celcius which is just screaming at me to overclock it. All my other systems sit between 35 and 50 on idle so I don't have any play

Also, does anyone know how the hell I turn off Cool n' Quiet? I can't find it anywhere and everything I read says to turn it off.

EDIT: Flashed BIOS to version F9 and still the same problem... Normally I'd just phone tech support and ask... but they don't have tech support... losers...

All suggestions appreciated,
Thanks

 

[GrimReaperGuy]

So you set memory speed to 166, Set the HTT multiplier to 4x, CPU Spread Spectrum to Disabled, and you still couldn't pull a 205? That's strange... I'm all out of ideas at this stage.
And come on, the Gigabyte messages are what I live for! I remember after installing some drivers, "System need reboot!! Be sure to system reboot!!!!"
So many exclamation marks...

 

[foshizzle]

Hmmmm...yea if you did what GrimReaperGuy said and you still couldn't get fsb to 205 I'd say that you have a defective motherboard. How long have you had it?

 

[foshizzle]

Ok, maybe the board isn't defective, but I've never had a board that I couldn't get to 205. Even on a board where the BIOS had almost no options except FSB.

Can you adjust the multiplier on your board? Try lowering HTT to x3, change mem to 133, loosen timings, lower the multiplier on your CPU by 1 and then try upping the FSB to 205. If it still won't boot into Windows then you just have a horrible motherboard for overclocking.

 

[GrimReaperGuy]

Your RAM shouldn't be holding you back if you lower its clock, mpilch... Just be certain to tweak your HTT multiplier, as well as your CPU Spread; I can't imagine what's holding you back if you've done what I've suggested.

 

[w00ten]

I really dont think that this is a stability issue to be 100% honest, even bumping it up by 0.5% it gives this message. I don't think there is a single person on this forum that can honestly tell me that 0.5% change in cpu speed will cause a system to be unstable. I think it's some sort of safeguard that gigabyte has put into the board... I'm at the point now where im just gonna go buy a new board... one that's NOT gigabyte. Up until now they had never steered me wrong and I had a product loyalty to them but this is just ridiculous. And with no tech support to speak of... screw that. I will certainly not be buying one of their motherboards again. I'll continue to work on the problem and keep you guys updated, if I get anywhere I'll let you know. Thanks for the help guys. Keep posting idea's. It'll be a little while before I can afford the new board.

Thanks Again!

 

[foshizzle]

Bummer I was looking at a Gigabyte board right now for a Conroe too...hopefully my board won't turn out to be OC limited like this one is.

 

[w00ten]

I was finally able to get their support website working. I've logged a support ticket with them, we'll see what lame excuse they come up with. Honestly, I wouldn't ever buy another Gigabyte. The best board I have ever had the pleasure of working on was an Abit my friend bought for 70$ CDN when his new MSI went down the tank 1 week after getting the computer cause the voltage was completely out of whack(factory settings, not his settings). It was so easy to work on. Jumpers were in nice spots and easy to grab onto(I have big hands). Other then Abit anyone else got ideas on another brand to go with(excluding asus - I hate them too)

 

[foshizzle]

I was going to say that I've had some nice results with my MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI board, but sounds like you probably don't like MSI either...lol

I've heard story after story of the DFI LanParty nForce4 board as the champ for overclocking, and a great board overall. I don't know too much about the newer nForce5 boards.

 

[GrimReaperGuy]

The message appears regardless of the overclock, to tell you what CPU frequency you're running at, it's not a warning message...
Foshiz, a good Gigabyte board for Conroe would be the DQ6, i think, that's got some serious OC potential inside. And w00ten I would suggest a DFI if you don't like the Gigabytes.

 

[w00ten]

yeah, depending on the reponse gigabyte gives me on how to bypass this I might go buy a nice DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert... only thing that bugs me is that tigerdirect says it doesn't have dual channel capabilities whereas the Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe does... is it really gonna make that much of a difference with 2x1gig sticks of DDR400?

 

[w00ten]

you've got to be freakin kidding me. So the northbridge heatsink just sucks the big one and needs to be replaced? well I'll be damned. This definitely confirms that I will never again buy a gigabyte board... I knew that heatsink looked like it was crap... I almost didn't buy it cause of that and then I was like "nah, itll be fine" btw, where do you check the northbridge temp?