P35-DS3R Stable overclock, then it fails days later?

jra716

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I know there are already similar posts about these boards not saving the OC settings, but this is a little different. I had the same problem before, but I ended up having to reflash the BIOS and doing an immediate CMOS reset. That fixed the issue and I was able to overclock fine.

So everything is going well and it seems the best I can get my E2200 with Corsair DDR2-6400 2x2GB XMS2 RAM is at 333x9 @ ~3GHz with 1.45vcore. Memory multiplier is set to 2.4. Ran Orthos for hours and is stable. No issues.

So after days of stable use, it has issues booting up. Then after it finally does, any change in FSB doesn't stick, CPU-z shows it running at stock FSB of 200 regardless of multiplier. I have to reset the CMOS every time this happens and reset all the settings again.

Was the 10+ hours of Orthos not enough to make sure these settings are stable? I'm not sure why it would work for days then randomly have boot-up problems. Does this warrant a RMA with Giga-byte?
 

Evilonigiri

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I suspect your ram. It's probably not stable so tweak it around a bit. First set the system memory multiplier to 2 and lax timings to 5-5-5-15. Then OC to whatever speed you want. Finally run blend settings for Orthos for 8hours.
 

jra716

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So you think I should just settle with running it below 800MHz? The timings are at 5-5-5-18 @ 800Mhz (stock settings). 5:6 ratio though. I'm confused. Not sure what the problem is.
 

jra716

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ok thanks, i'll have to try that. .. so I can change the multiplier to 2 (1:1) ratio and have it run at DDR2-667 for now until I see if it ever fails to boot.

Do you think I might need some sort of patch to run it on Vista Ultimate 64? Saw this on a review on newegg:
"I'm running Windows Vista 64 bit, and had some issues. If your computer keeps BSOD'ing with both sticks in, read this: Boot your computer up with just one stick in. Then download KB929777 from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=240AC3F3-2B60-4B70-B709-06B2BC5B1336&displaylang=en) This update fixed the problem for me." That might be worth a shot.

Maybe I should run memtest or something. Never done that yet.
 

jra716

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Also, when overclocking, are the BSOD's only associated to the RAM? Does this mean I can probably OC further if my RAM wasn't holding me back? Have to wait until after work to test the stability of the RAM since i've never tried. I usually run Orthos with blend settings though.

I have the CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX.
 

Evilonigiri

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BSOD could be due to to a number of things, such as not enough voltage for ram or defective video card. You probably can OC further with better ram, but it all depends.

Corsair isn't a very good OCing ram btw.
 

dsb1829

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I am still fairly new to the whole overclocking business myself, but I can tell you that what applies to antivirus and spyware also applies to overclocking. Use multiple test suites to add confidence to your "stability".

I use Prime95 (2 calcs, small fft) overnight, SuperPi v1.5mod (2 instances, 32M's), and a couple of runs of 3Dmark06 before I call it stable. Then there is voltage and memory tweaking on top of it all. Honestly the whole process is rather time consuming, but provided you take your time it is free.
 

jra716

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tried running my ram at DDR-667 instead of DDR-800 below stock, and I still encountered the same issue. On some random day, it acts up and starts going throguh a failed boot loop, then after I turn on and off a few times.. it will only run at stock FSB. Someone please help. :( i dont like having to always open the case and reset the CMOS just to get it to run at overclock speed.
 

jra716

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Ok, so i've read a little around about this motherboard. Apparently many have had this cold boot issue. Right now i'm trying everything they've recommended but it seems most of them ended up RMA'ing the board. This what I did:

-changed RAM slots
-changed multiplier to 2.5 and currently running @ 11X272=~3GHz with RAM running at DDR-680 (someone said running at 2.5 or 4 multiplier fixed it for them, not sure if it will work)
-will start disconnecting my external usb hdd when I shut down.
[EDIT] - Also set PCI frequency to 102.. (someone said setting it to 102-105 fixes it?)
I can't remember everything, but I hope something good comes out of this :)
 

bildo123

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Try running memtest86+ for 12 hours. If it throws up even one error you've got a problem. I got an error in my case(just one) and relaxed my timings and voltage 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8V and it went >12 hours no errors.
 

jra716

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ok.. so i'm running @ 9x333 @ ~3Ghz, 1.475vcore. Multiplier is set to 2.5 with RAM running overclocked at DDR2-832.5. Ran memtest for 12 hours, stable with no errors. Ran Orthos on blend settings for 7 hours with no errors. Everything seems stable. Hoping everything will run ok and I get the cold boot again.
 

Evilonigiri

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RMA the board. That motherboard could get picky on ram. It has serious issues.
 

jra716

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So, after trying everything, the problem seems to be having a USB HDD device plugged in during boot. I'm pretty sure this is what fixed it. :)
 

bildo123

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Hmm, I always wondered if my WD 320 mybook caused some of the unexplainable problems I get sometimes... I once unplugged it because I didn't want to keep having it to startup and shutdown when I was doing some OC testing...but not sure if that solved any of the problem, either way what a pain it must be though to have to keep unplugged it, I'll keep this in the back of my mind too, thanks.
 

bildo123

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HO HO! Wait a minute, this IS the root of my random failed boot, and sometimes wake from sleep mode problem where my OC would reset. It fact it reset itself during a wake, so I decided to wrestle with it and see if there was a certain setting that would help me get past the memory check (IT would lock and restart at that point no matter what) I tried changing FSB/Voltages of NB/SB, Memory speeds timings voltages, and nothing got it to go, that is until I unplugged my MyBook, then like magic it started right up....now how who what where when why does that have any effect on me booting? I could understand if it was on a 12V connection that's shared with the same rail as the cpu and there wasn't enough 'start up' power, but it's USB 5V...Strange I cant explain it, but I hope the new BIOS for the DS3L fixes that issue, I think it's up to F8.