BSOD help

[Peaks]

Hey,

I have had my CPU at 4Ghz for about 2 months now with no problems. Before that I was at 3.6 and then 3.8. The other day I was trying to see how much BCLK my mobo could take so ran some tests at 205-215. In addition to this I tried my RAM with 7-7-7-24 timings and tried running my CPU at 4.1GHz. During all of this I never went above 1.4v VCore or 1.4v VTT (these are the only two voltages I changed, VDimm was always at 1.660v).

Now I seem to get BSOD's all the time with what was my previous 4GHz settings (1.35 Vcore, 1.310 VTT 200x20) and despite stress testing my 3.8 settings last night with success, I just got a BSOD on boot.

Does anyone have any idea what I could have done? Was thinking I might have damaged the memory? I have tried reinstalling windows already because I was getting reports about Windows needing to be rolled back to an earlier version.

I can supply you with crash dumps if needed.

Thanks

 

[PreferLinux]

Were all the voltage settings set manually? If they were on auto, they could have got too high, causing problems.

 

[Peaks]

All were set to auto besides the ones mentioned above.

tbh I have just run a few more stress tests using Intel Burn Test and my 3.8Ghz setting which passed fine a few months ago and last night, has now failed the test. It even failed after increase the Vcore more.

Has anyone experienced settings that have passed a torture test one day then failed the next?

All my BSOD's seem to be caused by ntoskrnl.exe.

Is it possible I have damaged hardware?

 

[simon12]

Type ntoskrnl.exe in google theres all sorts of info.

 

[PreferLinux]

ntoskrnl.exe is the Windows kernel (ntoskrnl = NT Operating System KeRNeL).

I would probably suspect it is something like the chipset got too higher voltage when set to auto, so that would be hardware, but I don't really know all that much about it, so it could be something else.

 

[pjmelect]

Is the ambient temperature higher now than it was when it worked? When overclocking you should ensure that the computer will work with the highest ambient temperature that it is likely to encounter.

 

[henydiah]

I guess after all sources of errors in the ram, you try to use the software : memtest86+
, do that and see if the ram has errors.? settings for ram 7-7-7-24 too strict and will hamper to process boot time, loosen the ram settings such as 8-8-8-23, loosen and lower the height of the ram voltage to 1.65v limit, and for the vCore does not matter even if raised, origin maximum temperature limit is maintained

 

[Peaks]

I did type ntoskrnl.exe into google and there were a load of tips. The only thing is, my problem is with an overclock so its harder to determine if its just an unstable oc or a hardware/software fault.

Yea my ambient temps are higher but my total load temp has never gone dangerously high. I will try manually setting the PCH voltage and running memtest on each dimm. Out of interest, what is the max safe NB voltage for P55?

thanks guys, will let you know

 

[henydiah]

your problem Missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe (0x0000001a) file be caused by overclock !
if under default clock stock very easy just repair / install again OS use CD and the problem fix but your condition under overclock .. be different.

max votage NB safely : look in bios over volt still green colour (1.42v) if red colour dangerous
and safely NB 60C temperature for Dailly when full load Game
did you ever loosen the ram settings such as 8-8-8-23...?

 

[Peaks]

....exactly!

I have already tried a new install of windows. I will go with max safe NB voltage of 1.4v (but obviously try and get much lower). My RAM was at 9-9-9-24 when the oc was failing but tighter (8-8-8-24 or something) when it was stable, which is why this is all so weird.

 

[henydiah]

if a fresh re-install then you have to walk in default should not in a state oc.

I think all the ram as it is, because the ram has a maximum limit for cas ratio and latency, you oc in a state of default 9-9-9-24 (1333) will not be successful then you have to loosen timimg into 9-11-11-28 (1333/1600) overvolt bit, it will be successful in the boot.

 

[pabloottawa]

From a troubleshooting standpoint, it seems that you've caused permanent damage somewhere and possibly with multiple components. You're getting BSODs and they are becoming more and more frequent even after you've backed off the settings so this suggests that irreversible damage has been done. For your sake I hope I'm wrong.

Remember at this point you just want to go back to a stable running system so don't make things worst by guessing. Recommend you Google some sites that explain overclocking specifically for your setup.

Good luck

 

[Peaks]

This is what I have been thinking. tbh it will be very annoying if i have cause damage to a component, but it will also be a relief to find out as i am very confused atm. I have completed a number of memtest runs on my DIMMS, at stock, with no errors, so I think I can rule that out.

Any advice on a good way to locate the damaged hardware? Im guessing its either the CPU of maybe my VRMs or something?

Just for the record, I dont get any blue screens when at stock, only when I try to overclock.

 

[henydiah]

if running in default does not matter, other hardware of course is not damaged

 

[ShadowDog]

Hmm. What was your temps under load at 4.1GHz?

I dont think your hardware will have been damaged. Im pretty sure ive had a problem similar to this before
Try reset your bios settings then put your overclocked settings back in.

 

[Peaks]

temps were getting a little toasty at 4.1Ghz, around the 80+ degrees mark. Temps for other, previously successful overclocks were:

3.6GHz = ~65 degress
3.8Ghz = ~70 degrees
4.0Ghz = ~ 75 - 77 degrees

Give or take a little and obviously these are maximum temps not delta t's. The ambient temperature varied somewhat between these tests. My cooler is ok, certainly got a decent write up on this site, but my case is pretty low airflow.

Do you think maybe I need to reset my CMOS? I have already set my BIOS back to default settings a number of times. Interestingly I ran 10 runs of intel burn test and a prime test for 3 hours @ 3.6Ghz with the timings henydiah recommended (9-11-11-28) last night and all was fine, I bet it will crash when I get home tonight though

My latest BSOD was caused by atikmdag.sys which I have had problems with before. I tried a fix which I found on google so I have done that again, hopefully this will help.

 

[ShadowDog]

I had a BSOD a while ago caused by atikmdag.sys, I just uninstalled ati catalyst. After you've done that, make sure your screen resolution is screwed up, or catalyst didnt uninstall properly.

 

[Peaks]

I had a BSOD a while ago caused by atikmdag.sys, I just uninstalled ati catalyst. After you've done that, make sure your screen resolution is screwed up, or catalyst didnt uninstall properly.

Unless Windows 7 uses some of the many default drivers it has. I used this to try to rectify the ATI problem:

http://www.computertipsfree.com/fix-43029-atikmdag-sys-blue-screen-bsod-in-windows-7/

 

[Peaks]

Ok so I just successfully finished a 10 hour Prime95 test with the following settings:

BCLK = 180
Multi = 20
Vcore = 1.289v
VTT = 1.203v
VDimm = 1.66v
Mem freq = 1522 Mhz
Timings = 8-8-8-20

Then played COD for 5 mins and got another BSOD. Problem caused by ntoskrnl.exe

I have just realised that my mem timings were set to auto so might have been a little tight. So I have changed them to 9-10-10-25

Help pls!!!

 

[ShadowDog]

Yep. The same thing was happening to me. Try uninstall catalyst like i said before. When you install new drivers.
Might also be a good idea not to get the latest ones. Right after i uninstalled my catalyst, I installed Catalyst 10.11 and ive had no problems with that version so far.

 

[Peaks]

I seem to be stable @ 3.8Ghz again which is good but I had to knock the mem frequency down to its lowest and keep the VTT at 1.205v (actually 1.12v on load, didn't know there was vdroop with VTT).

@ShadowDog: Thanks for the advice. I am currently working on a fresh windows install. I have had no end of trouble with the latest catalyst drivers when I started to overclock. I think the quick fix I linked above has worked as the latest BSOD's I have been getting have been to do with ntoskrnl.exe which I think is usually related to mem problems.

 

[Peaks]

Stable @ 4Ghz again...happy days