Please Help - I need to Know if my new q9650 is broken

[ADale1984]

Hello all, I just recently (like yesterday) bought a retail q9650 and I've been having some trouble. Before this chip I was running a Q6600 B3 stepping overclocked to 3.0ghz. So I installed my new q9650 and everything seemed fine. I wanted to see how hot the chip got when it was at it's stock clock so I started prime95. Within a few seconds core 4 errors out. Every-time I try to run Prime95 this happens. Sometimes it just says there was an error, other times it says there was a rounding error. What I really want to know is this, does this sound like a bad chip. Or are the default voltage settings in the bios not right for this chip (my board is the EVGA nforce 780i SLI). Any help would be greatly appreciated. I mean I shouldn't be getting Prime95 errors at stock clock settings, with all bios settings at default, should I?!?!?!?!?

On a completely separate note, I can't seem to find out how to actually get an error log for prime95. It never creates one for me, just says 'unable to open error log".

Thanks to anyone who has the time to try and help me

 

[ulysses35]

I'm guessing you have updated the BIOS for your motherboard to ensure 100% compatibility. Also you said you had a Q6600 overclocked on the same board - you need to ensure you have reset al lthe settings to deafult values, failing to do so might be the cause of the instability of your new CPU

 

[gamerk316]

I know my mobo resets with voltages too low for my QX9650, so make sure the settings are what they should be. Also make sure your mobo fully supports 45nm quads.

 

[ADale1984]

First off, I want to thank everyone who has posted and given suggestions, I really do appreciate it.

It was a long night of testing for me. Here is what I did. I re-flashed my bios (it as already the latest bios P08) with the q9650 in the socket. After the re-flash my system would POST, then immediately restart and POST again and boot up normally.

Now there was something strange. Right after I would re-flash my bios (or clear CMOS, either one) and the system would POST and then re-start. Well if, right after the beep I kept hitting ‘delete’ I could get into the bios and prevent the system from restarting. If I then hit ‘load all defaults’ and saved and exited, my processor would suddenly be clocked at 2.0Ghz. If I then re-entered the bios, and reset all defaults it would then return the processor to 3.0Ghs default. Not sure what that means, it was just strange

As for the stability issues, I do believe it is voltage. Each time I reset the CMOS or re-flashed my bios, it would set my voltage as showing as CPU 1.11V in the bios. In windows, using the Nvidia System Monitor it would show the voltage as 1.039. In CPU-Z it would show CPU voltage as 0.9XXX (keeps changing slightly). I have now manually set the bios CPU voltage to 1.125V. In windows, Nvidia System Monitor shows 1.125V as well. And CPU-Z shows 1.056V. It is running stable now

So, basically, if I leave the board to use its defaults it seems it’s not giving the CPU enough voltage. So my concern is still the CPU. The boards for Core 2 quads with DDR 2 keep getting cheaper, and I don’t even mind if I have to up the voltage from the default for stability. What I do worry about is if it’s a case that the CPU should be stabled on the board’s default. As in did I get a CPU that needs more voltage then usual to be stable at its stock settings. This CPU wasn’t the cheapest and I do want to make sure that it is not damaged or defective in any way.

Thanks again all, any more info/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated