Overclocking leads to freeze and screech of death

[lun4tic]

I don't think the screech of death is relevant, but it happens.

Anyways, when I overclock my computer it will eventually crash when under load. Everything from 3.6Ghz and up will eventually lead to a crash. The odd part is that I had this problem a while ago, and what appeared to be the solution was increasing the voltage. One day, completely out of nowhere, the issue resurfaced.

To be clear, when under load, the CPU locks up. If there's something playing sound it turns into a screech. This occurs during games like SC2, WoW, and FFXIV. It also occurs during Prime95, which I use for testing. I'm hoping to clear a few things up, which might help me figure this out.

I'm completely unsure of why my CPU's voltage will fluctuate when under load, but I believe this is where the issue is. I believe I've disabled every single setting that will alter the voltage automatically, and I've tried changing every voltage setting to something other than Auto. Even when I do this, it still fluctuates. How many settings are there that will allow it to change like that?

Should I alter other voltage settings, other than the Vcore? I'm unsure of what they do so, up until now, I haven't considered changing them.

All help is much appreciated!

 

[UrbanNomad]

Hehe I just started another thread about what sounds like the same issue. I'm a newbie to overclocking, but I'm pretty sure some variation in the vcore is normal. I'm not saying that you don't need to adjust it--that I don't know. Just saying that I don't think you need to panic as long as it's not jumping around too much (mine frequently varies by about 0.03-0.04v)

 

[ginnai]

Just so I understand... the screech is from the speakers? If your comp locks up, that almost always results in a speaker squeal... nothing spectacular there, just ignore that. The same for the fluctuations in voltage, if you are watching a realtime monitor, ie: hardware monitor, some variance is totally normal. How much are you seeing?

How much of an OC are you doing to get to 3.6? My first response is to throttle it down to 3.5 or lower, if the problem disappears then that is your new limit. If you can't run Prime95 for at least an hour without freezing/crashing/etc... it is just unstable. Increasing the voltage can help stabilize an OC, but messing with voltage settings is very complicated. Depending on the board, you may have more or less options for voltage modification... Northbridge, RAM voltage, etc. If that is something you are committed to, then a guide like this http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/overclock-phenom-pentium,review-31634-6.html could help you. If you are committed to doing this, then please list your system specs (I only have experience with AMD cpus, but someone will certainly be able to help).

Before you do anything like that though, the games you mentioned should be fine at a slightly slower clock speed. Its worth a try!