Gigabyte X48-DS4 + Q6600 refusing to OC and being very frustrating!!!!

[Guest]

Specs:
Q6600 G0, Corsair H50 Cooler (~30ish idle, 55*c load max)
Gigabyte X48-DS4
OCZ Reaper 1066 Ram (5-5-5-15 @ 2.1v)
4850 soon to be dual (crossfire) but only one currently.
Corsair 750TX

AArgh, so I have had this combo for a while now (2 years) and I have NEVER EVER been able to get he CPU to overclock. Every time I set the FSB higher than 266 it wouldnt post.

Finally, I have gotten it to overclock. I dont really know what the problem is but after getting it stable at 333mhz fsb (3.0ghz @ 1.34v) and running prime 95 for a few hours I go to re-boot it to see if I can get any more out of it. The system reboots then just sits there. The "activity LED's" for the CPU on the mobo just stay lit and the computer does nothing until I hard shut it down. From there it will refuse to turn on no matter how many times I attempt it. What I have to do is turn off the PSU, wait a minute, touch the BIOS reset jumpers and then reset the bios.

It KEEPS DOING THIS! Every damn time I reset my computer! NO beeps, post screen, ANYTHING. And my video cards stay very cold.

Here are my bios settings:

cpu multi...9x
cpu freq 333
cia2 disable
performance enhance... standard
memory multi... SO CONFUSED running at 2.00B right now (I want at least 1066 out of this ram ideally!!!)
DRAM timing 5.5.5.15
DDR2 overvoltage... +.3(reading it as 1.888???)
cpu vcore 1.340


HDD SMART... enable
cpuid disable
no-excute memory protect... disable
cpu halt (c1e) disable
CPU thermal monitor2 (tm2) disable
EIST disable
Virtualization disable

And it will not go higher than this. It seems stable in P95 though, except for this stupid BIOS issue!!

PLEASE HELP ME OVERCLOCK MY COMP
I have a second 4850 I want to crossfire with this PC but my Q6600 @ 2.4ghz is SO SLOW!!! I dont know what to do this is SO FRUSTRATING!

 

[bilbat]

If you have not yet, flash BIOS F3b, here... If you obtained F3c, or F3d, flash 'back' to b - the higher rev has been 'withdrawn' due to instabilities...

A lot of this is 'canned' - so if you've seen parts of it before, skip ahead!


GA-X48-DS4
Intel Q6600 1066FSB x9.0mult 2.4GHz .85-1.5V Core G0 sSpec SLACR CPUID 06FBh to 3 GHz
? Gb OCZ Reaper 1066 Ram (5-5-5-15 @ 2.1v)

Gentle (but noticeable), no-risk, low-voltage Overclocking parameters are in italics...

Pull all USBs, except kbd & rodent...
Put in two DIMMs of the 1066, start with a BIOS' "Load Optimized Defaults" (if you have more than two DIMMs, post back - will take additional 'adjustments, do the OC with only two...)

Before we start ramping things up, I want to teach you a new skill involving the BIOS: Do the <DEL> at the boot to enter the BIOS;
notice, at the bottom, the <F11> "Save CMOS to BIOS" - hit this, and you should get a menu that will show a number (the count varies by BIOS) of empty 'slots', each of which will store an entire set of BIOS parameters, to be re-loaded from the corresponding <F12> "Load CMOS from BIOS"; this is a wonderful overclocker's feature. What I do with it, is to save my 'baseline' working parameters, so if I change something that 'irritates' the board, and forces a reset of all the parameters to defaults, or, even worse, get so screwed up I need to do a 'clear CMOS', I can get back to my starting point with no effort, and without having to remember 85 separate settings! Another thing it prevents is two hours' troubleshooting, having forgotten a change to a crucial parameter - like, "wait a minute - didn't I have the Trd at seven?!" It's pretty self-explanatory, and I alway urge people to start right away by taking the time to give the 'slots' names that mean something: in two hours, "Try2" and "Try3" will not be very helpful, but "450@+10MCH" and "450@+15MCH" will! Another use is for 'green' settings; overclocks, as a rule, do not 'play well' with green features, such as 'down-clocking' and 'down-volting'; with the storage slots, you can set up one profile, say "Green", with all the settings at 'stock' values, and all the 'green' features enabled; another, say "Balls2Wall" with a full overclock, and all the 'green' stuff turned off... Another neat feature of this 'slot' system is, for most BIOS, the mechanism itself will keep track of which ones have booted successfully, and how many times (up to, I believe, a max of five)!

On the "Advanced BIOS Features" page:

"CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)" to "Disabled"
"CPU Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2)" to "Enabled"
"CPU EIST Function" to "Disabled"
"Full Screen LOGO Show" to "Disabled"

On the "Integrated Peripherals" page:

Your manual shows "Legacy USB storage detect", but later BIOS say "USB Storage Function" - either way, set to "Disabled"

On the "Power Management Setup" page:

"ACPI Suspend Type" to "S1(POS)" (for now...)
"HPET Support" to "Enabled"
"HPET Mode" to whichever OS type you're running - "32-bit" if an x86 version, "64-bit" if an x64 version...

On the "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page:

"Robust Graphics Booster" to "Auto"
"CPU Clock Ratio" to "9"
"Fine CPU Clock Ratio" to "0"
"CPU Frequency" - this one can't be set, it's calculated, and will change when we set the next few items...
"PCI Express Frequency (Mhz)" to "100" (not auto...)
"CPU Host Clock Control" to "Enabled"
"CPU Host Frequency (Mhz)" to "266"
"CPU Host Frequency (Mhz)" to "334"
"C.I.A.2" to "Disabled"
"Performance Enhance" to "Standard"
"System Memory Multiplier (SPD)" to "4.00A"
"System Memory Multiplier (SPD)" to "3.20B"

"Memory Frequency (Mhz)" - again, can't be set, it's calculated...
"DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD)" to "Manual" if the following aren't right - they should already be set correctly by the 'Load Optimized'...
"CAS Latency Time" to "5"
"tRCD" to "5"
"tRP" to "5"
"tRAS" to "15"
Remaining memory settings should be good as set by the "LoadOpt"...

"Load-Line Calibration" to "Disabled"
"CPU Vcore" to "1.325V" should be good...
"DRAM Voltage" to "+0.3V" or "2.1V" - whichever way it's expressed in your BIOS... (I've seen OCZ that appears to 'want' an extra tenth...)

Go to main BIOS page, and do a <CTRL F1> - screen should 'flicker' once; go to "PnP/PCI Configurations" page, and you should show a new item - something like "PCIe Timing blah blah" - can't recall exact wording - will be 'defaulted to "32", and have "64" & "128" settings available - 'bump' to "64"...

And that should do it!

I should point out that getting two reboots in a row here is perfectly normal behavior; it seems that, when you change certain settings (and we don't exactly know which ones - the only sure one I know is Trd - if you change it, I think you get the 'twin' reboot) it boots once to 'see where it's at', recalculates its remaining 'auto' settings, saves them, and then boots again. Three reboots in a row, however, usually indicates that the board was 'given indigestion' by your settings, and is going back to defaults. This sometimes goes astray, and it doesn't get back into proper operation - for example, at this point, mine will sometimes 'lock' itself into 111MHz x a six multiplier - and take a week to do a whole boot - that's time to do a CMOS reset, and use your 'stored' <F12> profile to get back to where you were...

Good luck!

Bill

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your very detailed and amazingly helpful response. Even if alot of it was canned it was still good to see on paper so I could make sure it was set correctly.
It looks like it is working properly now! But i have one more question (sorry!)
I am trying for 3.4ghz now for a little more headroom for my 4850's and I cant seem to get it to boot either. Again, its a memory setting issue.

Basically, all the settings are the same as stated in your above post with exception to:
378mhz FSB x 9 multi
3.60C Memory multiplier (Im almost certain this is wrong)
+ .35v DIMM (gives me 2.3v dimm)
CPU Voltage 1.35v (just to test)

And it will post, then go to a black screen and do nothing (no matter how many times I reboot it). It does this is on different memory multiplier settings too

EDIT:
And is there any way I can enable EIST/C1E after I OC and get it stable? I would like it to run cool and use less power when I dont really need it

 

[bilbat]

You want either the 2.4B (907) or 2.66D (1005) mults - at that high an FSB, only the multipliers on the B or D 'straps' will work - the straps are sets of multipliers and memory controller latencies, which, like the memory latencies, must be 'loosened', the higher the frequency - the 'D' strap is the 400 (1600 FSB); the 'B' strap is the 333 (1333FSB); the other two are 'A' 266 (1066FSB), and 'C' 200 (800 FSB)... You might also try 2.00B, it's nominally slower, but may make the system more responsive!

As for 'downclocking'/'downvolting' - will sometimes work, but often leads to general instability at high speeds...

 

[Guest]

Ok have it running at 3.4ghz at these specs:
Basically, all the settings are the same as stated in your above post with exception to:

378mhz FSB x 9 multi
2.66D Memory multiplier
+ .35v DIMM (gives me 2.23v dimm)
CPU Voltage 1.35v (just to test)

And it fails within 30mins in p95. I slightly bumped the volts for the other stuff on the mini ( mch, fsb, pcie, just by .1v to see if it helps) and it still is unstable. What you think is causing it? I keep bumping the CPU voltage but it doesn't seem to keep it stable. It is also only causing one p95 thread to crash not the whole pc.

Gah I just want this thing stable!

 

[bilbat]

Have you looked at 'thermals'? How hot is this baby getting when 'stressed'? 'System temp is important too; should be 'in the neighborhood' of your northbridge, which is handling the high RAM voltage... Might want to back that RAM voltage down a bit, and try 'bumping up' the MCH voltage by a tenth or a tenth-and-a-half?

Bit of 'bridge cooling' never hurts either:

And, most GB boards have that beaucoup stooopid 'bling' plate on top of the cooler fins - good candidate for the junk pile!

Again, might try x2 mult - there's some 'magic' there. Deal is, when you use a multiplier, you're actually 'invoking' an integer divider network in circuitry (3.2 mult is actually 8:5 ratio; 2.66 is 4:3); when you're at any mult other than 2.0 (which is the 'magic' 1:1), many RAM operations cannot start until the two busses (memory and CPU) are 'synchronized', so at 8:5, you have to wait for the 'crossing point' of eight CPU cycles (or five RAM cycles - same amount of physical time, whichever way) before some things can 'get under way'... This means that, often, having a higher raw RAM speed can actually make the system less responsive; and only testing will tell...

 

[Guest]

There is definately sufficient cooling for everything I have spent lots of time building this system to run as cool as possible.

The H50 is intaking air right over the NB and ram, and the ram has an intake fan infront of it, my current video card, and the southbridge. I also have dual 120mm exhaust fans in the ceiling of the case exhausting all the hot air out of the case. It does get toasty when the CPU is loading at 60*C blowing over the NB but temps are still manageable. I also have AS5 on the northbridge and I scrapped the stock mounting method for some nuts bolts and washers for more clamping force. I am fairly certain the northbridge is cooled enough (well as much as possable with the crappy stock heatsink).

I even have a Thermalright HR-05/IFX but it does not fit the X48 chipset

My load temps at 3.4ghz are:
62*C for the hottest core, 42*C interior case temps, 48*c VGA

Thank you so much for your help. I am at work right now but I cant wait to get home and sit with it to get it stable. I am starting to understand the ram:fsb relationship though

Anyway, I will try out everything you said and hopefully I will be able to get my voltages set properly and have it running right

 

[bilbat]

Good luck - I'll light an incense stick at my altar to Murphy for 'ya!

 

[investinwaffles]

No dice, at both 2.00D and 2.00B Prime 95 fails in 15 mins or so

I tried a bunch of different memory settings and voltages (2.17v seems to work all right) but they ALL fail thread #2 of prime 95 within 20mins or so

The mobo keeps the cpu vcore around 1.34v, sometimes it drops to 1.31 volts according to HW Monitor

EDIT:
Also, the memory is running at mhz right now, at a 1:1 FSBram (according to cpu-z). That seems correct, yes? I would like to have it run at 533mhz (1066), but I understand that the CPU speed increase overshadows the ram speed decrease.

 

[bilbat]

The mobo keeps the cpu vcore around 1.34v, sometimes it drops to 1.31 volts according to HW Monitor

This may be helped by enabling "Load-Line Calibration"; this exists pretty much for this problem, which is usually referred to a Vdroop (Google will return a million or so hits!); I usually keep it disabled, as I've never found it particularly helpful to stability, but YMMV!

I would like to have it run at 533mhz (1066), but I understand that the CPU speed increase overshadows the ram speed decrease

That is exactly correct. You are unlikely to ever 'see', subjectively, any difference due to RAM speed (explained under How CPU cache, ISR's, and the 'thread manager' combine to make memory speed (mostly) irrelevant:, here... The whole reason for the very existence of 1066 RAM is to accomodate FSBs higher than 1600! The lowest memory mult is 2.0, which means, at a 1600 FSB (400 base clock), 800 memory is 'maxed out'; you might 'squeek it up' a little, but it's not going to cope with, say, a 450 Bclk...

Here is a little table, showing the process of 'walking up' the Bclk, while decreasing multipliers to stay 'in range' of the memory:

There are a couple more concepts you might benefit from in the 'realm' of OCing - the 'voltage knee', the 'sweet spot', and the FSB 'wall'...

The voltage knee: increasing the voltage to a processor, vs OCing results, is seldom 'linear'; what will happen is, at 'stock' voltage, you'll likely be able to 'bump up' the Bclk some amount, and then you will have to start adding volts. When you first start this, small increments in voltage will give you major increases in 'OCability'; however, at some point (known as 'the knee in the curve'), the situation will 'reverse' - it will start taking large increments of voltage, to achieve ever smaller increments in frequency. That spot, where the curve 'changes direction', and its immediate 'environs', are usually referred to as the 'sweet spot' - where your CPU 'wants to be' - and this varies, not only by processor type, stepping, and 'feature size' (i.e., say, 45nm vs 32nm), but varies for each individual CPU! - and can only be found by 'fiddling' while keeping tidy records of your experiments...

The FSB 'wall', however, is more a function of your MOBO and chipset. The issue is that you can only increase the host clock (Bclk) to a certain level, and then it just 'runs out of steam'! This can easily be found by increasing the Bclk, while decreasing the CPU multiplier, to keep the actual processor frequency below its 'factory' rating - my X48-DS5 'hits the wall' at around a 475 host clock (1900 FSB), so I stay considerably 'inside' that, at all times...

 

[investinwaffles]

Aargh it keeps getting better.

So the power went out last night while I was sleeping. Booted the PC up this morning to the usual one reboot, then blank screen.
I tried to reset the bios but it is not working. I tried resetting the CMOS 5 or 6 times to no avail

I am jumpering the lead, trying to power the PC on then flipping the power switch on the PSU to off. I wait 4 or 5 mins, come back and it does the exact same thing
And I have tried 3 or 4 different ways of resetting the cmos (even pulling the battery out for several minutes), swapping and removing ram, and moving the video card to the 2nd slot and nothing works

How do I know if this board is done?

 

[bilbat]

PSU fan coming on when you plug 'er in & switch 'er on? Most likely fatality from an incoming power problem is the power supply - always possible a 'spike' took out something else, but first thing to check... Last section in the 'sticky' shows you how to perform, at least, a 'cursory' check. If you don't have, or can't borrow, a multimeter, they're available from any WalMart for seventeen bucks (...it's a 'RadioShark' picture in the sticky, but - my opinion, theirs are a bit pricey for what you get...), and the one in the automotive dept. is a better choice that the one in the actual electrical/hardware dept.

 

[investinwaffles]

PSU seems to be operational. Everything (hdd, optical drives, PSU and other fans spin up but is there any way I can test without a multimeter?

Or how would I test with a multimeter? I am fairly certain it is a mobo problem

 

[bilbat]

If everything's 'spinning up', odds are the PSU 'survived' - have you tried the reset procedure in the 'sticky', under ...to break a 'boot-loop'?

 

[investinwaffles]

Pffewh, I was doing it exactly like the sticky describes. After probably 30 attempts I finally got it to reset.

I have no idea what the hell was going on. I am 100% sure I was grounding out the cmos battery correctly (and I even removed it several times for 5+mins),

But it is booting again now and stable under stock settings.

I am going to try to get it stable again tonight.

Quite a scare, but it is behind a surge protector (belkin, claimed "1400 joule" resistance) and nothing else in the house was out of whack (except the clocks).

So what would you do? i have the ram at 2.12v now, 2.00D multiplier and ill see if I can get it stable

 

[bilbat]

Even with the battery out, the capacitance in the circuitry will 'hold' for a while (and I couldn't even guess how long - small CMOS circuits require so little power that the life of a button cell is, in essence, the 'shelf life' of the battery itself!), the 'trick', I believe, is that holding the 'power on' FP switch, in theory, discharges the board capacitors. That 'thirty times' thing would freak me, too - I pretty much rely on that technique when I go 'brain dead', forget, and reboot my system with a 'NOGO' USB stick in it (OCZ Deisel - screws the CMOS into the ground, every time!) - if it even took me twice, I'd be getting extremely nervous!

Definitely do the <F11> thing, both with a 'fresh' 'Load Optimized' in it, and the parameter set - hopefully, make it easier to recover - might not be a bad idea to save 'em off-system, as well, in case you wind up needing to do a 'blind flash'...

 

[investinwaffles]

Yeah, I have a basic "fail safe" profile that I load every time i have to reset my cmos. I have no idea why it wasnt working, I always hold the power button (to get the last bit of juice in the system to dissipate).

Anyway, It is still not stable. After 2 hours now it failed (seems a bit more stable than before??).
I guess Ill just keep trying different voltages till I figure out WTF is causing this (i am damn sure I have enough CPU voltage).

With loadline calibration enabled, the CPU idles at 1.38v and loads at 1.34v. That is the opposite of what I want! But at least it is staying at 1.34v (drops to 1.33v lowest according to HW Monitor). I am going to bump the CPU voltage to 1.35 and see if anything changes

 

[bilbat]

Well, Vidmax is 1.5V for those things, and people run 'em over that! May just have a somewhat 'sluggish' chip - happens...

 

[investinwaffles]

Yeah, I have always undervolted my PC's (especially my laptops) so overvolting is against my nature

Also what should I do once I finally do get it stable?
Add in a touch of voltage to be safe and then just leave everything else (all my other voltages)? I have FSB, PCI-E, and MCH all bumped by .1v and I feel like it is pretty "safe".

 

[bilbat]

Add in a touch of voltage to be safe and then just leave everything else (all my other voltages)? I have FSB, PCI-E, and MCH all bumped by .1v and I feel like it is pretty "safe".

Sounds like a plan!

I, too, am leeary of 'cranking stuff up'; I try to hit that sweet spot, & live with it - and I'm under water! Way I figure is, why should I crank ridiculous voltages into my CPU, just to pump more heat downstairs to my radiator?

 

[investinwaffles]

Aaahhh god damn it, it is refusing to boot again. It failed another prime95 torture test so I decided to shut it down for a minute to let it cool off and sunrise surprise, it keeps going into the same boot loop. I am almost at my wits end with this board
I unfortunately can't afford the $100 to get a new board though, and I do really like the layout of this board. Bilbat, YGPM

 

[Guest]

If you have not yet, flash BIOS F3b, here...




Go to main BIOS page, and do a <CTRL F1> - screen should 'flicker' once; go to "PnP/PCI Configurations" page, and you should show a new item - something like "PCIe Timing blah blah" - can't recall exact wording - will be 'defaulted to "32", and have "64" & "128" settings available - 'bump' to "64"...

And that should do it!



Bill

Why do you think the pci latancy timer is better to be set at 64 ?

 

[Labontesbuc]

I'm having a similar problem, but I think I've figured it out so I'm posting answers on all these old threads that keep popping up because I still have this mobo or similar.

I tried everything. One minor change like changing the clock speed +1 from 266 to 267 wouldn't even keep. Just simply enabling cpu host clock wouldn't keep.

I unplugged all unnecessary USB devices leaving only the mouse and keyboard, and for some reason any change I make (so long as its a functional change) now saves in the bios and it boots overclocked properly.

I plug the USB Harddrives back in and my overclock settings get defaulted every time. Tested 4-5 times now. Everytime it fails. So I just leave them unplugged until I get to windows. I'm running windows 10.

Q6600 GA-EA-X38DS4.