I'm new and dumb and I've got a bunch of PC parts.

[ExTechie]

Need help on building and overclocking a new PC.
My experience: used to be a computer tech, who knew what he was doing ten years ago. Now, Hah.

Parts I got:

MSI 965 Platinum MB, why you ask, recommended by Tom's
Intel E4300, liked the specs and price
Patriot Extreme Performance PC2-6400, 800 MHz, 2 x 1 GB kit, 4-4-4-12 at 2.2 volts, recommend by New Egg Memory Configurator with best reviews.

Performed initial tests with default BIOS values, everything worked fine, seemed fast, but I wanted to make it faster with conservative values. I was aiming for about 2.8 GHz with stock voltage and stock Intel Heat Sink.

I went into the BIOS and noticed that it was reporting the memory incorrectly. It showed 5-6-6-15, I changed the values to 4-4-4-12 and upped the voltage from 1.9 to 2.2.

This was the only change I made and immediately rebooted and started the MemTest program. I let it run and walked away for about ten to fifteen minutes. When I came back, I could smell hot electronics. I escaped out of MemTest and the system would not reboot. Pressed the On off switch for ten seconds, forced shut down. I did this four times which automatically loads the BIOS with the default values. That was the only time this procedure worked, from then on I had to force a BIOS reset by using the jumper on the motherboard and then manually reset the numbers. From then on default values were not loading properly.

This is what I can get to work now. I have had to do numerous resets to figure this out.

CPU: 1.8 GHz (default) or 2.16 GHz
FSB: 200 (default) or 240
CPU voltage: 1.304 (default), I up this to 1.328 when at 2.16 GHz
Memory: 5-6-6-15 (BIOS default) or 5-5-5-15
Memory voltage has to be 2.0 volts, the default of 1.9 does not work anymore.

If I change any of these values, the system will hang at start up and nothing, nada, zilch will appear on the monitor. I will then have to do another motherboard/jumper reset.
Oh, I have a 120 mm system fan, and BIOS reported temps have been between 30 and 35 centigrade.

Need help, Thanks

Tom B.

Very Large PS.

While I was writing this entry I was also running MemTest again. This session it started to report numerous errors from 00003c3f7a20 to about 00003c3f7a78


So while this could be a big “Never Mind”. I would still appreciate any advice.


Thanks again.

 

[RJ]

Need help on building and overclocking a new PC.
My experience: used to be a computer tech, who knew what he was doing ten years ago. Now, Hah.

Parts I got:

MSI 965 Platinum MB, why you ask, recommended by Tom's
Intel E4300, liked the specs and price
Patriot Extreme Performance PC2-6400, 800 MHz, 2 x 1 GB kit, 4-4-4-12 at 2.2 volts, recommend by New Egg Memory Configurator with best reviews.

Performed initial tests with default BIOS values, everything worked fine, seemed fast, but I wanted to make it faster with conservative values. I was aiming for about 2.8 GHz with stock voltage and stock Intel Heat Sink.

I went into the BIOS and noticed that it was reporting the memory incorrectly. It showed 5-6-6-15, I changed the values to 4-4-4-12 and upped the voltage from 1.9 to 2.2.

This was the only change I made and immediately rebooted and started the MemTest program. I let it run and walked away for about ten to fifteen minutes. When I came back, I could smell hot electronics. I escaped out of MemTest and the system would not reboot. Pressed the On off switch for ten seconds, forced shut down. I did this four times which automatically loads the BIOS with the default values. That was the only time this procedure worked, from then on I had to force a BIOS reset by using the jumper on the motherboard and then manually reset the numbers. From then on default values were not loading properly.

This is what I can get to work now. I have had to do numerous resets to figure this out.

CPU: 1.8 GHz (default) or 2.16 GHz
FSB: 200 (default) or 240
CPU voltage: 1.304 (default), I up this to 1.328 when at 2.16 GHz
Memory: 5-6-6-15 (BIOS default) or 5-5-5-15
Memory voltage has to be 2.0 volts, the default of 1.9 does not work anymore.

If I change any of these values, the system will hang at start up and nothing, nada, zilch will appear on the monitor. I will then have to do another motherboard/jumper reset.
Oh, I have a 120 mm system fan, and BIOS reported temps have been between 30 and 35 centigrade.

Need help, Thanks

Tom B.

Very Large PS.

While I was writing this entry I was also running MemTest again. This session it started to report numerous errors from 00003c3f7a20 to about 00003c3f7a78


So while this could be a big “Never Mind”. I would still appreciate any advice.


Thanks again.

MSI P965 mobo? POS from what I hear. That review that you talk about was many moons ago and the other boards(like mine) have made leaps and bounds with BIOS updates.

I'd say the "smell" has loads to do with your issues now. The biggest issue is discovering what fried. Set everything to stock settings and go to www.PCPitstop.com . Do a full test and see how you're scoring compared to similar setups. That may lead you to where your issue lays. You didn't touch the PCI-E mhz setting, did you? Leave that at 100 mhz, if there's even a setting for it.

I've used PC Pitstop for years to help diagnose stuff and it works pretty well.

 

[ExTechie]

I've fixed my PC, I returned the MSI motherboard and bought a Gigabyte 965P-DS3. Works Great!


Tom