Phenom II 550 shutting down during prime 95

vyeshaun

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Hi guys, I really hope you can help me out a little on this one.

I have just purchased a MA785GM-US2H Gigabyte motherboard and 550BE Phenom II.

Now I have been tinkering with the OC and unlocking for some time to try and figure out

A: If the extra 2 cores are stable when unlocked or if something is holding me back

B:What a few of my temps are in various monitoring tools.

First up, I thought that unstable cores during prime95 testing would lock the system up, however it just keeps shutting off. Which made me think it was a temperature problem? Is this so? Ive had no lock up, ive had 2 blue screens and several shut downs but no lock ups.
Also the blue screens were when the CPU was back in dual core mode and overclocked above 3.7Ghz.

Im aware the phenom 2 cpu temp monitor doest work once quad core is enabled so was working out my temps. From what I can gather using easy tune, CPUID HW & Riva tuner with everest plugins The only way is to monitor the socket temps which I believe is TMPIN2 in CPUID HW, CPU TEMP in rivatuner. Easy tune seems to report my CPU temp differently to AMD overdrive and CPUID HW when in dual core. How can I accurately tell whats what?? Any ideas? But Easy Tune CPU temp does correspond to TMPIN1 in CPUID HW. Im completely beffuzled :S

Also, two more things.

Could it be that my PSU is no where near enough on the 12v rail? I know its dodgy as hell with cheap PSU's but really cant get one yet. Its only a 450W. I noticed that in easytune its showing that im at 11.668v Whilst rivatuner is reporting a nice 12.52.

And lastly, ive heard that gigabyte boards under volt the CPU. Ive set CPU V to 1.45 but its being reported in everything as 1.40


Sorry for the long post. Any help would be awesome guys.

Thanks

 

thaisport

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In my experiences BSOD and Reboot = Overclocked too high. You are both unlocking and overclocking so what I would do first is this.

A) Set everything to default first (don't unlock cores) and check your voltage. If there's a good sized differences it probably means you need a new PSU. Regardless I'd get something better when you have the chance. If your PSU isn't producing clean power to your board, it can hamper your OC and overall stability. PSU is one of the most important parts of your setup and you should invest in a good one, especially if you plan to overclock and unlock. I personally have not had under volt issues with my Gigabyte MB but I also have a 1000w PSU.

B) Unlock the cores, leave it at the normal clock settings and run extensive stability tests first. If after these test you find your system not crashing and working fine then start over-clocking. I personally like AMD Overdrive but have no issues with others. I normally use AMD Overdrive for stability tests. It works quite well.

C) Overclocking - I'd probably OC it to 3.5Ghz first and run tests. It also sounds like 3.7Ghz may be overclocking it too much. If it runs stable after testing you can start moving towards 3.7Ghz.

If when everything is said and done and you can only OC to 3.5, 3.6 and not 3.7 then it is probably your CPU limit as well. But again, get a better PSU when you have the chance.

As for temp readings, usually trust CPUID HW and AMD overdrive. I don't get exact readings either on both my MSI and ASUS boards. It's safe to go with the higher reading.
 
Before you do any of the above you need to make sure you manually set your RAM timings/frequency and voltage as specified by the manufacturer. Then you test your CPU with prime95 at stock clocks, especially if you are using the stock cooler.

Please post ALL of your spec's so we can get a better idea of what we are working with.

 

vyeshaun

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Thanks for the speedy replys guys.

thaisport - Ive only been overclockong or unlocking, not both at the same time. I thought I might need a new PSU so will have to pick one up asap. Ive really got a feeling that this is a good unlocker and something else is holding me back.

Again at default the 12v readings stay the same, 12.50 or more in riva and 11.66 in CPU HW monitor. ALso all my temps are fine, nothing above 55 degrees.

I know this cpu is fine upto 3.5Ghz. Not ran extensive testing but left prime going for over an hour and a half.


Ive heard I need to manually set the ram timings. I know that my ram os cheap topram. Heres my full specs.

Phenom II x2 550
MA785GM-US2H Gigabyte motherboard
PNY 8800GT 512MB - this os overclocked. Would lowering this help with overclocking the CPU?
2GB PC6400 DDR2. 1.8v I will have to check the exact ram timings etc as im not at my own PC right now. I know it is pretty rubbish 5-5-5 maybe?!
Cheap 450W PSU
Im running 3 internal hard drives and a few small fans. Hopefully not drawing too much power. I did check on PCU calculator and according to that I should be fine. However my PSU is also pretty cheap. I do have another cheap 650w. I know you should never scrimp with PSU's but I just find it so hard myself parting with over £60 for one lol. Serves me right I guess.

I know the 650W is only a cheap one to, but im sure it would be better. Even if it doesnt even draw 650W surely it would be more capable that my cheap 450W?

Again help wopuld be great.

Also, just a quick point. I did run prime95 for over an hour with just the OC, I have a feeling it was stable but I went AFK for a while and it was locked up when I got back. The only time ive had prime just lock up and not shut down the system. I know already my PC has problems with waking up and forgot to switch of sleep so I think thats what it was that locked the system up. Not the actual testing.

thanks again. Will get home asap and check the ram timings. But can anybody tell me why they need to be set manually? Ive never had that before with previous builds etc.

Thanks again, I really appreciate this? :)

 
When Ocing you need to set the timings manually to provide stability - if you leave it on auto the settings may change on consecutive reboots meaning you can not be sure if the instability is caused because the system is auto changing a setting or 2 that you might not notice but by setting them manually you know exactly what is what and can find a stable setting and keep it there instead of the system changing a setting on you and suddenly you find it unstable when it was working and can not figure out why when you didn;t change anything but the system did !!
 

vyeshaun

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JDFan - that actuallky makes perfect sense. I was just being dumb I think lol. Thankyou so much man :)


Im guessing that the voltage of 1.8 for the ram is spot on? Would I need to increase/decrease depending on what timings I put the ram on? And by setting the ram up manually does that mean the timings as well as the speed?


Thanks again.
 
Don't overclock anything until you set your RAM properly. Leaving your memory values on auto will result in an auto BsOD/freeze/shutdown etc..

Set them according to the sticker on the side of the spreader or box :

Example my RAM is set to 6-6-6-18-24-1T :

003-1.jpg


002-2.jpg


001-3.jpg
 

vyeshaun

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vyeshaun

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Sorry, just realised you meant that the ram should be set as per its actual specs. Trouble is I bought it ages ago via ebay and have no idea what it should be set at :(
 

vyeshaun

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Thanks so much OvrClkr

I took a look at what CPUID had to say about my ram timings etc. On the SPD tab it showed the following

JEDEC #1
Frequency 200Mhz
CAS# Latency 3
RAS# to CAS# 3
RAS# Precharge 3
tRAS 9
tRC 12
Voltage 1.8v

JEDEC #2
Frequency 266Mhz
CAS# Latency 4
RAS# to CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
tRAS 12
tRC 16
Voltage 1.8v

JEDEC #3
Frequency 400Mhz
CAS# Latency 5
RAS# to CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
tRAS 18
tRC 23
Voltage 1.8v

Command rate on all of them is blank.

Now I tried configuring the settings in the Bios manually. However there are far more options and extra settings in there with similiar names. And by default it appears the command rate for my RAM is T2. This is very poor ram I take it? Any ideas on what the extra settings are? I will what they are if you need them? I know there is another precharge in there for sure. However I set all of the ones I knew from CPUID to 400MHZ timings. and the other few were set to 3. I changed them to 5 as well as 5 seems to be the timings for most with this ram.

I just ran prime95 for 25 minutes using these settings and no shut downs or anything. I know 25 minutes doesnt mean anything substantial and isnt really long enough to be sure. But wanted some more feedback before trying it out for hours and hours lol.

Thanks again

 

vyeshaun

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Ok, now Ive really fudged it all up lol. Was running so well too. I had prime going for over an hour with new ram timings and quad enabled.

I was sure it was the 12v rail or heat issues that may have been holding me back. So trying to be clever (As I really cant afford a better PSU right now) I sat a secondary PSU on top of my case, and fed some molex connectors into a PCI expansion slot in the back and wired up some old big 12v fans I had lying around to it.

I also wanted to hook my graphics card (8800GT 512MB) to it so that my 12v rails would be more stable as they drop as low as 11.71v when stress testing.

Heres the thing. Once all done I fired it all up, only to have a really really loud whining sound. Now Ive had this before on my old setup and found just pulling the G.card out and putting back in again solved it. However. No such luck. And im not exagerating, its immensly loud. Ive heard it most likely the capacitors whilst drawing power. Which makes sense. However everything works just fine, fan speed still good etc. Even ran 3D Mark Vantage ok.

Whats really really odd, is on the first test loading screen the sound fluctuates alot, then completely stops about 30 seconds in on average.


I really dont want to fire up Vantage averytime I want to use my PC without going deaf :(
There has to be a way to fix this. Ive cleared the CMOS already without avail.
 


You want to use JEDEC # 3

Use my Bios screens above just to get an idea of what goes where.

make sure you give the RAM the correct voltage (as specified by the manufacturer), forget about the command rate for now.

use prime95 "Blend test" for at least an hour (I recommend at least 4, especially if you game/encode/bench for hours at a time.

After you are certain that your RAM is good to go you can start playing with the CPU multiplier and frequency's.




 


That noise is most likely the GPU sound it makes when you do not plug in the 6-pin power plug on the card - check to make sure the plug is seated properly - also if using a second PSU did you short the proper pins to get it to run ( most PSUs need to have the 24 PIN MOBO connector connected to a MOBO in order to run and if you are not using it then you need to short the PS_on pin that detects if the plug is attached to a MOBO. (if you did not do that then the PSU will not run and thus you will not have power to that GPU 6-pin connector also !!)

2psfig7small.jpg
 

kingdingaling14

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Sorry, it wont let me log in using me vyeshaun account at all. Not even to use view the forums. Ive changed my password and everything. So ive created another account (If this is against the rules admins please let me know?) Ive tried everything.


JDFan, you are right. It is. ive had the issue before even when the 6pin power cable is plugged in. But not to worry, ive fixed it ow. It seems that with my tampering I must have blown the buzzer on my 8800GT, by the sounds of it so have a few people around. But a simple fix is the 2 pin jumper located near it, just short that and all is good again. Temps great :)

But thanks for the input :)


OvrClkr

Ive sorted my timings out now. All as they should be and everything perfectly stable at default 3.1Ghz. So upped the multiplyer to x17 and has given me a nice 3.4Ghz. All stable. Never more than 55 degrees. I will probably fall back to default clocks tomorow and try the 2 core unlocking again.

Thanks for the help all. Will post back and let you know how I get on.
 

kingdingaling14

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All stable now at 3.6Ghz dual core. Gave me my highest 3Dmark score yet of 7222
CPU score - 26347
GPU Score - 5815


Now that I have read up more about using prime95 Im guessing that it was either my ram or my NB that was holding me back with quad enabled. So later tonight I will go back to default clocks and try again.

Can anybody tell me which Voltage I should increase. Its NB VID to increase the NB voltage?

Anywhoo, thanks again for everybodys help. Im hoping I will get a stable 4 core unlock. But if not I know I can push this dual core past the 3.6Ghz mark easy now.