Need Help, Not Stable

[J1993]

Hello, recently started overclocking my Q9550 E0 and it is now at 3.6 but not stable. Sometimes the pc boots straight away but sometimes it boots then stops, and does that continuously. Here are the settings:

424x8.5
PCI-E - 100
RAM - 2.66C 1131MHz
Vcore - 1.31875v
Cpu Termination - 1.34
MCH - 1.32v
LLC - Enabled

Everything else at default

Temps arent the problem, never near 60 at load

[Helior]

Reducing RAM:FSB ratio for a start, don't try to overclock RAM and CPU at the same time, just start with the CPU.

[J1993]

Reducing RAM:FSB ratio for a start, don't try to overclock RAM and CPU at the same time, just start with the CPU.

Ok, what should i put the ratio thing (2.66 C) at, because i dont understand ABCD what they mean

Also, is this actually the problem?

[Brad]

Your ram is way too high. Set it as low as possible so its running under 1000mhz.

[J1993]

Your ram is way too high. Set it as low as possible so its running under 1000mhz.

Why? It comes as 1066MHz, 4GB, so surely it can run at least at that. Also, will this make much difference on performance

[J1993]

I will set it at 2.4 or 2.0 or somewhere around there, what do i need, A B C or D???

[Helior]

It's just a safer bet to drop it right down, that way you always know that the RAM is not causing the crashes, it's not just the RAM that takes the strain at high speed, its the northbridge too.

What do you mean by ABC or D?

[J1993]

It's just a safer bet to drop it right down, that way you always know that the RAM is not causing the crashes, it's not just the RAM that takes the strain at high speed, its the northbridge too.

What do you mean by ABC or D?

In the Bios for the UD3R, to choose the RAM thing, i currently have it set at 2.66C, but i dont know what the c means, something to do with the fsb i think, i will restart and change that, see what happens

[J1993]

Dropped to 2.50A, which has (forgive me if im slightly wrong) a strap to MCH of an FSB of 266mhz, i have no idea if this is right, but my memory is 6mhz lover than standard and booted first time, with no hitch, so unless i have another problem, thread closed and thanks a lot

[Brad]

The idea is to keep ur ram at well under 1000mhz and just push your CPU to the max you wanna get outa it. Then check its stable. After that u then push the speed of your ram back up and again check its stable. You not going to push any further?

[J1993]

The idea is to keep ur ram at well under 1000mhz and just push your CPU to the max you wanna get outa it. Then check its stable. After that u then push the speed of your ram back up and again check its stable. You not going to push any further?

Oh ok, thanks for the advice, its my first proper computer, one before was dell, and the one before that was £1500 and had windows 98 :S, so im not the overclocking guru really :D

I probably will push further, maybe go up in 200mhz, 3.8 then the big 4.0

[Desertmonk]

May I make a suggestion, you may not like it, but it's an extremely good idea. You need to calm down a bit, go and read up about OC'ing somewhere and then start again.

You seem to want to get the most out of your system, which is completely fair enough and a great thing to do, but you seem to lack some pretty basic knowledge :( For example you didn't know that setting the RAM speed too fast can cause instability...

I'm not trying to bash or flame you at all, since we're here to help each other afterall, but if you read up a tiny bit (even just to know the basic approach to OC'ing, which I shall mention in a mo) you'd be able to get that CPU sooooo much further really easily :)

The easiest and most garunteed way to get the highest OC possible is to OC each component seperately. The reason being simple:

Prime/Orthos/OCCT/burn test is very good at detecting instability. None of them however can tell you which component is unstable. So by OC'ing each component individually you REALLY get to know your hardware AND you get the biggest OC :D

So take things a step at a time. I, and many others, find this order works well:






FSB - Find the max FSB your MOBO can cope with. This is helpful because later on it will tell you why, for example, your OC can't go past 3.8GHz when another person got 4.4GHz. You can find the max FSB by underclocking the RAM and hugely lowering the CPU multi. You then up the FSB and stress test. Rinse and repeat.

CPU - stick the CPU on the highest multi you can (i.e. stock) and give it the biggest vCore you are happy with. Stick the RAM on a lower-than-stock divider. Up the FSB from stock until it is no longer stable.

RAM - You know your max FSB. You know your max CPU. So making sure you never go above those two (and ideally doing this purely with dividers and a few MHz FSB increase) and then loosen the timings to what you are happy with (Intel platforms prefer MHz to tighter timings, so maybe 6-6-6-16 is a good starting point) up the voltage to what you are happy with, then just turn up the RAM and see what it can take.






The MASSIVE advantage with OC'ing individually is you KNOW WHAT SI WRONG WHEN IT CRASHES. Therefore YOU CAN FIX IT :D


Apologies if it sounded like I am trying to flame you, I'm not intentionally. I just feel some of my knowledge is valuable to you, therefore I'd like to share :)

[Brad]

Totally agree with all of the above. Now you have had a play in the bios you should go read a guide or 2 which will hopefully make more sense.

[Desertmonk]

Totally agree

Yes! Someone who has been here a while thinks something I have said is good!


LOL but in all seriousness, I spent a while at overclock.net forums which are an absolute treasure chest of information and there is no better resource on earth than that forum to "learn the trade." An insanely large forum with an insanely high percentage of users possesing other-worldly technical knowhow.

[wuyanxu]

Desertmonk said is good.

find each component's max, and then combine them. don't just rush in and expect everything to work at your guessed speeds

[magichater]

Desertmonk said is good.

find each component's max, and then combine them. don't just rush in and expect everything to work at your guessed speeds

copy that, totally agree there straight to the point

[J1993]

May I make a suggestion, you may not like it, but it's an extremely good idea. You need to calm down a bit, go and read up about OC'ing somewhere and then start again.

You seem to want to get the most out of your system, which is completely fair enough and a great thing to do, but you seem to lack some pretty basic knowledge :( For example you didn't know that setting the RAM speed too fast can cause instability...

I'm not trying to bash or flame you at all, since we're here to help each other afterall, but if you read up a tiny bit (even just to know the basic approach to OC'ing, which I shall mention in a mo) you'd be able to get that CPU sooooo much further really easily :)

The easiest and most garunteed way to get the highest OC possible is to OC each component seperately. The reason being simple:

Prime/Orthos/OCCT/burn test is very good at detecting instability. None of them however can tell you which component is unstable. So by OC'ing each component individually you REALLY get to know your hardware AND you get the biggest OC :D

So take things a step at a time. I, and many others, find this order works well:






FSB - Find the max FSB your MOBO can cope with. This is helpful because later on it will tell you why, for example, your OC can't go past 3.8GHz when another person got 4.4GHz. You can find the max FSB by underclocking the RAM and hugely lowering the CPU multi. You then up the FSB and stress test. Rinse and repeat.

CPU - stick the CPU on the highest multi you can (i.e. stock) and give it the biggest vCore you are happy with. Stick the RAM on a lower-than-stock divider. Up the FSB from stock until it is no longer stable.

RAM - You know your max FSB. You know your max CPU. So making sure you never go above those two (and ideally doing this purely with dividers and a few MHz FSB increase) and then loosen the timings to what you are happy with (Intel platforms prefer MHz to tighter timings, so maybe 6-6-6-16 is a good starting point) up the voltage to what you are happy with, then just turn up the RAM and see what it can take.






The MASSIVE advantage with OC'ing individually is you KNOW WHAT SI WRONG WHEN IT CRASHES. Therefore YOU CAN FIX IT :D


Apologies if it sounded like I am trying to flame you, I'm not intentionally. I just feel some of my knowledge is valuable to you, therefore I'd like to share :)

No thats fine, thanks for sharing that, because it will be useful. I am a bit of a noob to overclocking, but to be fair, i thought ram could go up by less than 100mhz and still be stable, but now im at 3.8ghz, with ram just over 800mhz (1066 default) and it is stable with prime95. i will try what you said, thanks :D

One question, when the pc doesnt boot up properly because it cant cope, what do i do. The motherboard has dual bios...

[Desertmonk]

Ah, easy! You need to clear the CMOS (whatever the CMOS actually is lol, I have no idea, I just know what it does!)

Some MOBOs have a button, others have jumpers. But by far the most garunteed way is simply to remove the battery for 3 minutes, and as if by magic all the settings in the BIOS are back at stock settings! I will warn you, clearing the CMOS (by removing the battery or any other means) will lose EVERY setting in the BIOS which can be a bit annoying if you've tweaked loads of little things. It also resets the time and date.



Ah, 3.8 huh? awesome. What vCore are you using? (if you go on overclock.net, top right there is a search box. type in "max safe vcore 9550" and that'll bring up a ton of info about the maximum SAFE voltage you can use on your CPU)

I presume you're on roughly 450 * 8.5

[dave8691]

Ah, easy! You need to clear the CMOS (whatever the CMOS actually is lol, I have no idea, I just know what it does!)
CMOS....complementary metal oxide semiconductor, the type of memory chip that stores your bios information.

It consists of Read Only Memory (ROM) which stores your bios factory defaults and Random Access Memory (RAM) which stores the changes that you make. The former requires no power to store information (called non volatile memory), the latter requires a small battery to retain the changes you make (volatile memory). This is why removing the battery for a short while restores factory defaults.

Joe's Gigabyte board has two bios chips, one read only that should transfer basic settings to the other chip should inappropriate settings be made to the bios. Removing the back up battery for a short while achieves the same result.

[cje]

I refer to clearing the CMOS after a failed overclock as:

"Clear Me Out of Sh*t". :thumbs:

[wuyanxu]

Gigabyte motherboard should automatically reboot with default setting. my friend's x38-dq6 does this.

my Abit is even better: it reboots last known working configuration. so start, blank, restart, works at last configuration :D

[Desertmonk]

if an X38 does it then it's probably more about how much you pay as opposed to whether it's gigabyte or not. My 770 UD3 doesn't.

[Brad]

Mine does if you leave it off for like 30 seconds after a failed boot.

[J1993]

Mine might do, it has sort of before, not booted for ages, then booted when i try later, but in the BIOS the same info is in there

I have read intel say not over around 1.36 vcore, im currently using 1.32, so still got a bit to go, although people have been known to be safe at 1.55 vcore.

[Iainm]

May I make a suggestion, you may not like it, but it's an extremely good idea. You need to calm down a bit, go and read up about OC'ing somewhere and then start again.

You seem to want to get the most out of your system, which is completely fair enough and a great thing to do, but you seem to lack some pretty basic knowledge :( For example you didn't know that setting the RAM speed too fast can cause instability...

I'm not trying to bash or flame you at all, since we're here to help each other afterall, but if you read up a tiny bit (even just to know the basic approach to OC'ing, which I shall mention in a mo) you'd be able to get that CPU sooooo much further really easily :)

The easiest and most garunteed way to get the highest OC possible is to OC each component seperately. The reason being simple:

Prime/Orthos/OCCT/burn test is very good at detecting instability. None of them however can tell you which component is unstable. So by OC'ing each component individually you REALLY get to know your hardware AND you get the biggest OC :D

So take things a step at a time. I, and many others, find this order works well:






FSB - Find the max FSB your MOBO can cope with. This is helpful because later on it will tell you why, for example, your OC can't go past 3.8GHz when another person got 4.4GHz. You can find the max FSB by underclocking the RAM and hugely lowering the CPU multi. You then up the FSB and stress test. Rinse and repeat.

CPU - stick the CPU on the highest multi you can (i.e. stock) and give it the biggest vCore you are happy with. Stick the RAM on a lower-than-stock divider. Up the FSB from stock until it is no longer stable.

RAM - You know your max FSB. You know your max CPU. So making sure you never go above those two (and ideally doing this purely with dividers and a few MHz FSB increase) and then loosen the timings to what you are happy with (Intel platforms prefer MHz to tighter timings, so maybe 6-6-6-16 is a good starting point) up the voltage to what you are happy with, then just turn up the RAM and see what it can take.






The MASSIVE advantage with OC'ing individually is you KNOW WHAT SI WRONG WHEN IT CRASHES. Therefore YOU CAN FIX IT :D


Apologies if it sounded like I am trying to flame you, I'm not intentionally. I just feel some of my knowledge is valuable to you, therefore I'd like to share :)

Spot on , Good lot of info there :hail:

[dave8691]

Hello, recently started overclocking my Q9550 E0 and it is now at 3.6 but not stable. Sometimes the pc boots straight away but sometimes it boots then stops, and does that continuously. Here are the settings:

424x8.5
PCI-E - 100
RAM - 2.66C 1131MHz
Vcore - 1.31875v
Cpu Termination - 1.34
MCH - 1.32v
LLC - Enabled

Everything else at default

Temps arent the problem, never near 60 at load
As someone who owns the same board as you, I would just like to add a few points to the good advice you have already received:

DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance.................[Standard] This will improve stability
System Memory Multiplier (SPD).....[2.00D] Use a D strap for FSB 400mhz and above. Using this value will give you more headroom for increasing the overclock. Using 2.66C will max out your memory too early.

Try reducing your MCH Core to 1.2v. Your Current setting is above the Intel P45 ICH10R MCH Specification. If you exceed 1.21v, this is what Intel have to say:

"At conditions exceeding absolute maximum and minimum ratings, neither functionality nor long term reliability can be expected. Moreover, if a device is subjected to these conditions for any length of time its reliability will be severely degraded or not function when returned to conditions within the functional operating conditions."

Before you try and shoot the messenger, check it out for yourself in section 14.1:
http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/319970.pdf

When testing my board I easily achieved 4ghz (MCH Core 1.1v) but was limited by my cheapo DDR2-800 memory which was maxing out above 890mhz for reliable operation. I am sure with your 1066 memory you will achieve better.

I would just like to point out that I don't overclock on a daily basis, this was just a short Super Pi test to check for the difference in speed.

[J1993]

I lowered MCH to 1.16v, to keep it safe.

As you (Dave8691) have the same board, can you briefly explain tha ABC and D strap for the fsb involving the ram, because i have no idea, (2.00D atm)

[dave8691]

The MCH strapping suffixes A,B,C and D are Gigabyte's way of helping you select the correct memory divider according to the FSB you are using.

Enter M.I.T. on your bios screen and scroll down and highlight [System Memory Multiplier] (SPD)
On the right of your bios screen you will see the following MCH Strapping advice:
x.xxA -> FSB 266MHZ
x.xxB -> FSB 333MHZ
x.xxC -> FSB 200MHZ
x.xxD -> FSB 400MHZ
For 400mhz and above use a divider ending in the suffix D. [2.00D] gives you a FSB/DRAM ratio of 1:1 and is the most appropriate divider to give you maximum headroom with your memory. (so adjust SPD to [2.00D])

Your Q9550 has a multiplier of 8.5, so for an overclock to 4ghz you will need to divide this frequency by the multiplier:
3995mhz/8.5 = 470mhz (so scroll up and adjust FSB to 470)

You will notice that the memory frequency will be equal to the FSB x the memory divider (470 x 2.00 = 940mhz)
If you used say [2.66D] divider, the memory frequency would be 470 x 2.66 = 1250mhz and your PC may not boot, so it is important that you do not use an inappropriate divider and exceed the rating of your memory by too much.

If as you say your PC is stable at 3.8ghz, then it is best to increase the overclock in small stages, e.g 3.85/3.90/3.95 and so on.
With 2x 2gb of memory you may need to increase MCH core to 1.2v to achieve stability with a high overclock. This adjustment is always "suck it and see"

Towards the limit of your overclock you may need to slacken the memory timings to say 6,7,7,20. One thing at a time though, eh!

As others have said, don't be in too much of a hurry, one thing at a time!

[Lambda]

I'd say run up the MCH voltage to about 1.2v like dave said, I don't have the same board as you but with 1.2v MCH I'm stable at FSB 460MHz with RAM at ~1100MHz at 5-5-5-15