Overclock fine tuning.

[azconnie]

I have overclocked my CPU, and have acheived about 99% stability. I'm hoping maybe I missed something small, and someone can help me get the other 1%.

My board is the Asus P5N-D with BIOS vesrion: 1101.
Cpu: C2Q Q9450
Ram: Crucial PC2-6400 (not the high speed or anything)
GPU: Evga GTX 260 216 SSC
PSU: Corsair TX 750

At current my CPU is running @ 3.2 Ghz with 1600 FSB. My RAM is operating at 400 Mhz 6-6-6-18 2t. vCore is 1.2v, NB & SB are @ 1.5v, the HT is on auto, and the RAM is @ 1.85 (lowest setting).

@ 5-5-5-15 I was playing Mass Effect. I exited earlyer, and the game crashed on logging out. I usually ignore when this happens, Oblivion dose it about half the time.I logged in a few minuts later, and played awhile, completing a whole mission. Then when I rounded a corner back on the ship, I got close enough to Kelly for the "you have messages" audio to play, and the computer blue screened. I logged back in and loggin into Toms to ask this question, and blue screened again. I laxed my RAM from 5-5-5-15, to 6-6-6-18 and it worked again, but I had been running 5-5-5-15 for about 3 days now.

On average I bluescreen once every other day. Usually it happens on login if I launch IE before all my background services load, or during some innocuous event during gaming, like the load of a cut scene, or an audio. I can run Intel Burn test all I want, and the machine dosen't crash (also I get 27 GFlops, which I'm proud of). My normal temp range if from 44-50 CPU, and I might hit 61 gaming. NB is about the same, minus 3-4 degrees.

Edit*

Almost forgot. My OS is Vista Home Basic SP 2. Also, I have gotten a blue screen once when closing one tab while opening another. I think that was just a random glitch though.

 

[redechelon]

So, if you set your memory timings loose, or to auto, it's stable?

 

[azconnie]

It ran on 5-5-5-15 for 3 days (~10 hours a day gaming and misc internet use). Then for some reason today it crashed mid game and then crashed twice booting windows subsiquently. It also hung once, and bluescreened once 4 days ago while at 6-6-6-18, but I upped the CPU voltage from 1.17 to 1.2 and that seemed to fix that, but there again I tightened the RAM the following day.

I run 5 passes of Intel Burn test after each adjustment though, and it always passes.

Also, the crash message is always "IRQL not less or equal" if that means anything.

Also, at 5-5-5-15 I could only get it satble at a tRC of 22, and not 20. @ the 6-6-6-18 setting my tRC is 24, wich is in specc for the factory 400 MHz JDEC. I didn't notice a major jump from 6-6-6-18 to 5-5-5-15, but my experience index went from a RAM 5.0 to a 5.3, so it makes a difference apparently.

Mostly I just want it stable now, the RAM can be factory or tight, what ever is better for the system.

 

[redechelon]

My best suggestion is to test your RAM as much as possible too... I'm not very familiar with IBT, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to get Prime95 and mix it up. I know there is a blend option for RAM and CPU... I'd assume there's some option in IBT also. I've heard of many people passing IBT with no issues (even though its generally more stressful), and failing P95 almost instantly, so it's worth a try.

Try setting your timings all to auto to rule out your memory... then test it a bunch or even leave it like that for a day or 2, its not gonna make a big difference in performance anyways. If it still crashes... it's nothing to do with your memory.

 

[azconnie]

I ran an extensive RAM test a few months ago with MEM test, and it said 100% pass on every combination I could make it do, but like I said, that was about a year ago. Probably wouldn't hurt to test it again.

I'll give Prime95 a shot too, though given the nature of my bluescreens a stability test may or may not catch it. It seems only to crash when introducing, or changing threads dynamically (IE loading multilple programs, or changing sounds abruptly).

 

[RJR]

What exact ram do you have, the PC2-6400 Crucial ram can use anywhere from 1.8v - 2.2v vdimm ?

 

[azconnie]

What exact ram do you have, the PC2-6400 Crucial ram can use anywhere from 1.8v - 2.2v vdimm ?

Pretty standard stuff:

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT2KIT12864AA800


OK, ran some passes on P95 blend and it says:

[Sun Jun 27 20:01:22 2010]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

Whatever that means.

 

[RJR]

I presume your running it at the rated timings 6-6-6 whatever.

You may want to try running Prime95 small FFT and see if that errors out.

If not loosen up the timings (7-7-7-) of the ram and test or up the vdimm and test.

 

[azconnie]

Ran a small FFT, and it passed fine. held about 69*C open case the while time though.

 

[redechelon]

Ran a small FFT, and it passed fine. held about 69*C open case the while time though.

Still sounds like the RAM, have you tried loosening your timings or setting them to auto yet?

 

[azconnie]

This is going to sound weird, but I juse dropped the OC to 3107MHz (1550 FSB and 388 [776 DDR] RAM speed). I then loaded, and reloaded Mass Effect and Oblivion. And contunually opened and closed tabs. IE crashed twice, but the machine seems rock solid. The RAM is rated @ 800 MHz, but apparently somethng won't click. Maybe its a chipset issue?

If 3200 just won't work, I'll just lock it at 3100, and drop my vCore back to 1.17 and call it good. Unless ofcourse someone can suggest something, or I crash in the next few days.

As far as I'm concerned the threads still open for now.

 

[redechelon]

That doesn't sound weird at all. If you bring your CPU down, it brings the memory down too, which would allow you to run more stable. It at least doesn't rule it out.

So, try putting it back at 1600, and just put all of your memory timings to 0 or Auto. Just to see, for my sanity =P.

 

[azconnie]

OK, uhh first, dosen't a RAM setting of "0" defy some law of electro-phisics? Wouldn't that be like having you RAM sync with your L2? Anyway, I read alot of articles on RAM the other day, and while I don't understand it absolutly, I know some of the rules.

Sorry, shouldn't knit-pick the people helping me.

Anyway, I reset to 1600 FSB, and set the RAM to auto, and it defaulted to 6-6-6-31 2t with a tRC of 24. So other than the tRAS going up by 13 cycles its the same.

When I logged in I launched CPUz, Core temp, Yahoo Messenger and IE, along with some other random multimedia programs, and played with may tabs (opened and closed Toms, youtube, and my e-mail) all before my background services loaded. As of yesterday (1600 FSB 6-6-6-18 2t) that almost guarenteed a crash, and today it worked.

Now here is the weird part. Under these settings I ran a blend test on P95. 100% pass. Then I shut down the computer at 10 this morning to go to work. At 1900 thisafternoon, I (with the RAM still set to auto all) tried to boot up. The computer blue screened 3 times in a row either on the login screen, or just after. I went in and reset the RAM to 6-6-6-18-2t and, well I'm typing this...

 

[redechelon]

OK, uhh first, dosen't a RAM setting of "0" defy some law of electro-phisics? Wouldn't that be like having you RAM sync with your L2? Anyway, I read alot of articles on RAM the other day, and while I don't understand it absolutly, I know some of the rules.

Sorry, shouldn't knit-pick the people helping me.

Anyway, I reset to 1600 FSB, and set the RAM to auto, and it defaulted to 6-6-6-31 2t with a tRC of 24. So other than the tRAS going up by 13 cycles its the same.

When I logged in I launched CPUz, Core temp, Yahoo Messenger and IE, along with some other random multimedia programs, and played with may tabs (opened and closed Toms, youtube, and my e-mail) all before my background services loaded. As of yesterday (1600 FSB 6-6-6-18 2t) that almost guarenteed a crash, and today it worked.

Now here is the weird part. Under these settings I ran a blend test on P95. 100% pass. Then I shut down the computer at 10 this morning to go to work. At 1900 thisafternoon, I (with the RAM still set to auto all) tried to boot up. The computer blue screened 3 times in a row either on the login screen, or just after. I went in and reset the RAM to 6-6-6-18-2t and, well I'm typing this...

Setting the timings to 0 IS Auto. If you type in 0 and hit enter, it will replace the 0 with [Auto]

You're posting a lot of different timings settings... let me get this straight:

With everything at Auto, it passed, but when you started it later, it bluescreened on the SAME settings? or had you changed them by then?
If you want to find out your stability issues, just leave your RAM at Auto... ALWAYS... until it's resolved. Otherwise that's always going to be a possible factor, you have to rule it out.

 

[azconnie]

So you meant "0" as tell it to default. OK, I thought you meant make it access data in 0 cycles. Sorry about that.

And yes, you got it right. It bluescreened on the same settings (Nearest I can tell. I can't verify what setting the auto chose without CPUz, which obviously I can't use if the machine crashes on login).

So, where dose that leave us? I mean, the auto worked perfectly this morning, but failed epicly this afternoon, and now my semi-unstable settings from yesterday work.

This thing is starting to remind me of a carburetor.

 

[redechelon]

So you meant "0" as tell it to default. OK, I thought you meant make it access data in 0 cycles. Sorry about that.

And yes, you got it right. It bluescreened on the same settings (Nearest I can tell. I can't verify what setting the auto chose without CPUz, which obviously I can't use if the machine crashes on login).

So, where dose that leave us? I mean, the auto worked perfectly this morning, but failed epicly this afternoon, and now my semi-unstable settings from yesterday work.

This thing is starting to remind me of a carburetor.

Haha, yeah carburetor's are a b****.

If you get the same issues with your memory at auto, I think we can safely say you've ruled your RAM out. (Unless they're faulty modules)
It's just weird because all of your tests point to your memory.
-You passed IBT but not Prime95 on blend.
-You passed a small FFT test which doesn't test much memory.

Unless someone else comes along with some suggestions, I guess all I can say is lower your clock back to where it's stable. =/
Or try more vCore?

Good luck man.

 

[azconnie]

I think for now I'll just ride on the factory perscribed RAM timings, anf if/when it crashes I'll set the tRAS to 31 and hope the auto setting just wigged out on that last boot. Dunno what'll happen, but atleast I'm trying.