HELP! Overclocking failed... on ASUS P5B Premium & Q6600@2.4Ghz

[AirZeee]

Spec:
Windows XP SP3 (used for home music production)
ASUS P5B Premium Mobo
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600@2.4 Ghz (I believe it was the G0 revision of this CPU)
2x2Gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC6400 800Mhz, 5-5-5-18, 1.8v ver 3.4
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS OC

Can anyone offer any advice on OCing this setup? I'm a Noob to OCing, read through loads of tutorials putting things into practice, but got nowhere. This mobo comes with AI Suite, which includes "AI NOS" (ASUS Non-delay Overclocking System) ("AI NOS will monitor CPU demands and o verclock the system automatically" - my arse does it, it just crashes the PC when stress tested) and "AI Booster" ("A utility to do overclocking" I.E. a fancy windows GUI for altering the BIOS settings)

I've spent the last 3 days trying to get this to play nice, i'm familiar with the BIOS setings (not sure about the Vcore settings i'd need though).

i'm hoping to OC this CPU up to Max 3.4Ghz, although less will be ok. If this is unrealistic, then someone please let me know! The supplied kit only OC's up to an extra 20% (2.8Ghz), well it would if it worked... :lol:

I've frequently had "overclocking failed!F1 to enter setup... F2 to load defaults" appear after crashed attempts to Boot, usually after a POST failure.

I followed through GRAYSKY's how to OC Thread on here, made sense etc, just didn't seem to work. I'm pretty sure i'm not doing something, or doing something wrong, but just don't know what. Surely leaveing the VCore on AUTO initially should be ok?

Any help would be appreciated, general abuse would probably be taken with a chuckle too!

Thanks PPL

 

[sportsfanboy]

Maybe re-read the overclocking guide, then go for a more modest overclock to say 2.8 to 3.2.

Things to remember is... A good majority of the failed overclocks are ram related. People tend to forget about the ram as they "jack up" their system. Keep the ram within spec or even slower than spec, until you reach where you want to be with the cpu/fsb.

 

[AirZeee]

I've since managed to get the CPU to stabalize at 2.66Ghz, (295*9), any more than than that results in GPU failure & lots of crashes.
3.4Ghz OC of a 2.4Ghz CPU is obviously a little enthusiastic ;-)

 

[sportsfanboy]

Gpu failure? What power supply do you have?

 

[AirZeee]

GPU is Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS OC 320Mb on PCIe x16 port on mobo
When i say failure - windows booted in 4 colour mode 640x480 (instead of 32bit 1440x900 or whatever) & i was unable to change the settings.
GPU wasn't happy... ;-)
PCIe freq is set at 100, RAM is set to the 5-5-5-18 & 1.8v as is spec'd

 

[AirZeee]

Gpu failure? What power supply do you have?

Opps - misread that. PSU is Corsair HX620w Modular Power Supply. Very easy to use, just as well really... ;-)

 

[sportsfanboy]

You got the funky stuff happening because of a bad overclock. Unplug your psu, or flick the switch on the back, wait 30 seconds, then try to boot into bios again. I would recommend running your ram under specs until you figure out the problem. Just run them on a 1:1 ratio for now.

 

[AirZeee]

You got the funky stuff happening because of a bad overclock. Unplug your psu, or flick the switch on the back, wait 30 seconds, then try to boot into bios again. I would recommend running your ram under specs until you figure out the problem. Just run them on a 1:1 ratio for now.

How'd you mean run the RAM at a 1:1 ratio? I haven't checked what happens if I leave the RAM speeds on AUTO (or rather i'll turn off the option for entering the RAM speeds).
If the RAM is spec'd at 5-5-5-18 to run at less than this i'd need to input say 6-6-6-19 (for sake of argument).

I've become quite good at rebooting the BIOS... :lol:

Cheers for your help

 

[sportsfanboy]

Go manual with the dram Settings, then what ever your fsb is, set the ram to double that. So if your FSB is 295, you will set the ram up as ddr2 590 for 1:1

 

[AirZeee]

Go manual with the dram Settings, then what ever your fsb is, set the ram to double that. So if your FSB is 295, you will set the ram up as ddr2 590 for 1:1

Aaha! Got it trying that now, looking like it's working so far too *fingers crossed*

 

[AirZeee]

Go manual with the dram Settings, then what ever your fsb is, set the ram to double that. So if your FSB is 295, you will set the ram up as ddr2 590 for 1:1

Thanks loads fella! that worked nicely at 300Mhz (for 2.7Ghz) now i'll slowly work up the scale to see how fast I can take it before it starts falling over again.

I'd been leaving the RAM frequency at it's start point of 800Mhz, so increasing the FSB Frequency adds a little to the RAM freq each time. quickly putting it out of designed range. must have missed that bit in the walk through. That means the (theoritical) limit for OCing this CPU is 400Mhz, at 1:1 ratio.

Well done mate, sorted me out a treat

 

[AirZeee]

Well by slowly upping the gain, ok so i didn't bother, after 300 was stable, i went in with FSB 400Mhz so RAM now at it's designed 800Mhz, so now i have a stable windows xp idling at 2.4Ghz (400*6) which boosts itself to 3.6Ghz!!! (400*9) Sweeeeet! With it sitting at 1:1 ratio, the RAM running at it's designed speed, so it shouldn't have much trouble. apart from over heating etc, but i have sufficient cooling i reckon
Thanks again

 

[sportsfanboy]

Hey congrats but what are you temps and votages at, lol

You don't want to cook your parts, are you voltages on auto?

 

[AirZeee]

Hey congrats but what are you temps and votages at, lol

You don't want to cook your parts, are you voltages on auto?

The CPU went up to about 70degrees, Vcore was about 1.5v, the voltages are on Auto. Running solid just rebooted to save the OC profile, and to turn the speed down a little for a less agressive profile.

Is it worth checking out the VCore on CPU-Z & entering it in BIOS, or is Auto ok?

 

[sportsfanboy]

Try to learn how to set all your voltages manually. You will save power and more importantly, the parts your overclocking. 1.5 is the max rated for that chip. So at idle in CPU-z you should stay under that value. As for the other voltages, I would do some reading on it. And try to do what the last poster said and test for stability, or you will quickly have a corrupt copy of XP installed.

 

[AirZeee]

1.5v?? It wont last long at that. I'd shoot for 3.2 and be happy. Just because its running doesn't mean its stable. Have you tested it with prime95??

Mine will only go 3.15 at 1.35v. 350x9. I've tried 10x and 8x multiplier and more voltage but she just blue screens at 3.2. Prime95 stable at 3.15 and crash free for 2 months now.

My max temps are 62c in a 84f room at 100% load using prime.
The VID (voltage ID) is whats important. If you have a low VID your processor will likely overclock better than mine. Mine has 1.325 VID, I've seen the same GO's with as low as 1.24 VID.

I know I'm not motherboard or ram limited because I previously had my 1.86 dual core at 3.45 with the same setup. I just have a high VID.

Testing with Prime95 right now, full load at 3.6Ghz the Max Vcore is 1.46v at the moment, max core temp is curently 95degrees Celius. Ah well, winter is coming, i can at least use the PC as a room heater :lol:

 

[sportsfanboy]

95c LOL

You need to do a reverse overclock,lol

Back it off until the core temps under prime are at 70 or below

Seriously, start manually setting voltages for aggressive overclocking, or set it to 3.0 and call it a day.

 

[AirZeee]

Try to learn how to set all your voltages manually. You will save power and more importantly, the parts your overclocking. 1.5 is the max rated for that chip. So at idle in CPU-z you should stay under that value. As for the other voltages, I would do some reading on it. And try to do what the last poster said and test for stability, or you will quickly have a corrupt copy of XP installed.

Sound advice, Chief. Prime95 is doing a full Torture Test at the moment, The CPU hasn't gone above 1.47v on HWMonitor (1.464v - 1.472v on CPU-Z).

I don't expect i shall run the machine at full OC speed very often, I'd guess that it would age the CPU etc pretty quickly (the candle that burns twice as bright burns halfs as long...), and i currently can't afford to replace it. at 3.6Ghz it's running at 150%...

For some reason, even with the multiplier set to manual (in BIOS) (which removes the inteligent multiplier option- drops to *6 when idle, *9 when loaded), the machine still operates as if it was switched on. Should I aim at Max power voltage?

I think Prime95 might have just found a victim... :lol:

 

[AirZeee]

95c LOL

You need to do a reverse overclock,lol

Back it off until the core temps under prime are at 70 or below

Seriously, start manually setting voltages for aggressive overclocking, or set it to 3.0 and call it a day.

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan, 3Ghz is a good middleground, think it just overheated the CPU... :lol:

it's getting nice n warm in here....

 

[AirZeee]

I'll read up on manual voltages later, i'd like to know how to do it right, just because really, but i'm gonna test at 3.0 on auto for now. Xbox360 while i wait ;-)

 

[sportsfanboy]

Cool... it's not hard to do, just takes a little free time. Lower this, raise that, not brain surgery.

 

[AirZeee]

Again, thanks so much for your help & advice! I really appreciate it

 

[sportsfanboy]

Your welcome, good luck with it

 

[Adroid]

Wow 95c ouchie

Do at .333 CPU multiplier, and manually set your CPU voltage to 1.275 (give or take a little depending on what you are stable at. You should stay at the lowest possible voltage). Manually set your Ram to 5-5-5-18 at factory recommended voltage settings with a 5:6 multiplier and that will give you 800 mhz speed.

Your voltages and timings should ALWAYS be set manually when you overclock. And disable all the processor speedstep junk (which im sure you already read).

That is a really comfortable overclock for your setup - it shouldn't be pushing your system too hard at all. When you do prime95 for 24 hours your temps should be well below 65°C.

I have the exact timings and voltages I listed above, and I saw 61°C after 24hour prime 95 on one core only... over 65-70 is too hot by most people's standards, even the enthusiast.

At this point your graphics card is bottlenecking you at 3ghz anyway - I wouldn't try to throttle your system any more untill you are about ready to upgrade or you put a better graphics card in to utilize the cpu speed.

 

[AirZeee]

Wow 95c ouchie

Do at .333 CPU multiplier, and manually set your CPU voltage to 1.275 (give or take a little depending on what you are stable at. You should stay at the lowest possible voltage). Manually set your Ram to 5-5-5-18 at factory recommended voltage settings with a 5:6 multiplier and that will give you 800 mhz speed.

Your voltages and timings should ALWAYS be set manually when you overclock. And disable all the processor speedstep junk (which im sure you already read).

That is a really comfortable overclock for your setup - it shouldn't be pushing your system too hard at all. When you do prime95 for 24 hours your temps should be well below 65°C.

I have the exact timings and voltages I listed above, and I saw 61°C after 24hour prime 95 on one core only... over 65-70 is too hot by most people's standards, even the enthusiast.

At this point your graphics card is bottlenecking you at 3ghz anyway - I wouldn't try to throttle your system any more untill you are about ready to upgrade or you put a better graphics card in to utilize the cpu speed.

Wow! Thanks Adroid! 95degrees C, yep, ouchie, I think the thermal trip tripped... I let it cool down, cold rebooted & reset to 333, it's Prime95 stable so far. To be fair i can't see me EVER running it at max full load constantly, but beter to be safe than sorry. 3.6GHz is 2.4 running at 150%, probably beyond it's design without liquid nitrogen cooling
I'll try out your suggested settings & run Prime95 again once it's done this set of torture tests (good to have a control or comparison set), but i really need to know what i'm doing so i'll read up on manual tuning. Thanks to you guys I have a fuller knowledge of whats going on, what i should expect to achieve (without flames shooting out of the rear).
The speed step is disabled, but for some reason is still active, i checked earlier as i'd noticed this. i think it might have something to do with the AI Suite overriding the BIOS.
Now though, i'm heading to bed & letting this run overnight. 2 hours into Torture Test, the temperaures are 70-72degrees C max, with my case fans all at the lowest speed.

Thanks for your help