Question on motherboard that's not on list...

[wevsspot]

Johnathan,

This article is one I refer back to often. Please read it and then lets discuss the appropriate changes for eliminating the BSOD when you start pushing your clock frequencies.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...g_3.html#sect0

[jonathanm1978]

Ok, I just got the scare of a lifetime!!!

I tried rebooting, then I went to the Easy Overclock menu on the motherboard..it allows you to overclock in 5% increments.

Well, I read that my processor, the 1055T 125W can easily be overclocked somewhere around 42% without modifying much of the stock cooling...so i decided to try 15% to begin with..and I set the auto overclock to 15%. When I rebooted, I kept getting "system failed to boot, hit f2 or del to enter BIOS."

So, I entered the BIOS, and changed a few settings, left it on 15% OC -- but shifted the CPU voltage from 1.30v up to 1.3125 and the NB voltage from 1.15 up to 1.625..and restarted. Well..that was a tremendous mistake -- messing with those 2 voltages..even that minute amount. Also, I should mention that the Easy Overclock changes EVERYTHING in the bios..even the memory speed was reading DDR776 - 1433mHz...so I think that had something to do with it..but the whole system became unresponsive, and I started getting some error about "Bootmgr is corrupt"...
Then I would get no-response keyboard strokes..and del would not take me to BIOS (the WHOLE time..I couldnt get back to BIOS period..)

I finally pulled the plug, pulled the PCI-E video card, and THOUGHT i removed the CLRCMOS jumper and shorted it. Turns out I accidentally pulled the wrong jumper because the EUP_LAN jumper is RIGHT under the CLRCMOS jumper..so I jumped that, put it back and restarted to the same problem.

I finally tried again after a few resets with no luck..got a couple of screens that were black with the letter "H" all the way down ...so pulled the plug again, thinking to myself "I may have jumped the EUP_LAN instead of CLRCMOS"...so I tried again..

This time I did the right one and put it back..and just got booted back up.

But talk about my heart dropping in my chest...I thought for sure I had fried the BIOS chip somehow, but couldn't figure out how what I did would've messed up BIOS.
I do have untied overclocking on this board, so I can change JUST the CPU freq without affecting the PCI-E frequency..but I think I'm running fast enough...I don't want to mess up my system, ya know?

I read how easy it is to OC this system, but I'm guess because it's something I am not familiar with, I am very fearful of tearing up something. If I had a step-by-step saying "first, change this, then change that..then do this"..I'd try a few things, but I'm having to guess at too much to be comfortable with it.

[jonathanm1978]

I did try some programs ...and the most strenuous that I can think of right now is when I do my video converting of .avi files to play in a regular DVD player.

I use ConvertXtoDVD to do this process, except I don't burn the result, I let it save to a folder -- that way I can come back and in the ConvertXtoDVD menu, I can select "Burn an already existing project" without waiting on the conversion all over again.

So anyway, the conversion is pretty intensive on the processor..really takes the system resources to convert it from what I've seen on my old computer...so I decided to put this 6-core to the test just now (actually it's still running as I type).

I'm doing 2hrs 09mins of video (different titles on 1 dvd). It's 908mb of .avi files all together.

The conversion process screen shows me that this is my rate of converting:

202.4fps (6.79x) and video bitrate of 4000kbits/s or so, average. I think it's doing GREAT!!
This SAME process on my old P4 3.06ghz system with Hyper-Threading would normally take me over an hour for 2 hours of video.


*As a note, while I was typing this out, the system froze up and became unresponsive, causing me to force - off. I set the memory back to 2T command rate, but left the 9-9-9-24 the same..maybe that was the issue, but I'm not sure

Run memtest86 yesterday for over an hour without any errors on 9-9-9-24 at 1T and not sure why this would cause an error..I am not sure I can find out what locked it up either...if there is away of knowing...any clues on how I can see what may have happened to make the system lockdown and force a shut-off by power button?

[wevsspot]

You can check your Windows Error Logs but they likely won't tell you much about a hardware lockup, however doesn't hurt to check.

Go to Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

The ones you specifically want to look at are;
Application
System
(located under the Windows Logs drop down)

[wevsspot]

Johnathan,

Here's my advice. If you can run your memory at it's rated speed, timing and command rate without problems I would leave it alone.

If you're looking for real world performance gains you need to focus on CPU clocks. Since you have the ability to adjust cpu clocks independent of memory clocks that is the way I'd go.

As long as your memory runs at it's rated speed, timing and command rate - passes Memtest and any other stressful situation you can throw at it - I'd leave it alone.

One scare is more than enough

You know, in reality I've played with tons of memory kits through the years, mainstream, high performance, tight timings, loose timings, low clocks high clocks, ddr, ddr2 and ddr3. You name it I've probably tried it.

Once you get out of the realm of synthetic benchmarks and put your PC to use, there is neglible noticeable difference between RAM running at DDR3 1333 or DDR3 2000. We buy the high speed stuff because we can, or because we want to. But I can guarantee I'd be just as happy running DDR3 1333 or DDR3 1600 ram as I am running DDR3 2000 ram.

In fact, I have a kit of the G.Skill DDR3 2000 (8Gb total) running in my main rig. And I actually downclock it to 1750Mhz with tighter timings to keep my voltages and cpu temps in check.

[jonathanm1978]

I'd like to get the same results from my ddr3_1333 with lower speed and tighter timings..so that I know it would be a stable ram setup rather than a rated-ram speed setup.

Where do I start with that? I've read that a lower speed like running my kit at 1066 instead of 1333 would give me better results and the same results in the end...

So if I lower the speed of the ram, where do I set the timings? Say I set the ram for under 1333, what would I start by setting the ram to time at?

[mrcmtl]

If you have time and patience you can individually test each parameter. Otherwise, just test for stability and performance at 7-7-7 and 8-8-8.

[jonathanm1978]

Well, tell ya what....while I was waiting on you to respond, I rebooted (it seems that with my setup I need to press a key before the keyboard will "operate"..otherwise it'll skip over the del option to enter bios. I have to hit a key before that, but in between the scanning of the HDD's. If I hit the key too early, it won't recognize the keyboard until windows is loaded....not sure why and I just noticed that..(when I see the letters in the bottom right-hand corner start changing -- and the drives start responding, I can hit the "up" arrow key, then the number-lock light will come on, and I can then hit delete. Otherwise, I'll miss the del option if I wait for the light to come on..it doesn't come on by itself or I don't believe it does. Joys of USB keyboarding....instead of PS/2.


I tried knocking it down to ddr533, then I set it to 7-7-7-15 at 1T...no luck.
Set it to ddr533 and 7-7-7-15 at 2T, no luck.
Went back to 1333 and 9-9-9-20 at 1T...I'm there and think I'll just leave it alone...I get frustrated and irritable once I tinker so much..i'll just wait for another day to try it and see if I can't get my ConvertXtoDVD to work without locking me up now.

[jonathanm1978]

I might've done something ..somewhat right. I'm back to settings as i said in above post (9-9-9-20 at 1T, voltage locked at 1.48 instead of Auto), started up ConvertXtoDVD and doing the same video that caused the lock-down a few minutes ago (I think 9-9-9-18 instead of 9-9-9-20 is what caused it, but i'm not 100% sure)and I've made it further with this conversion than I did a few minutes ago.

If it does lock again, I"m going to set it back to 9-9-9-24 at 1T instead of having the 20 on my timing. I was doing ok before I played with the last number.

[jonathanm1978]

Oh, I did make the video conversion all they way thru...

I must really have some air generating inside too, because the WHOLE time it was converting, my temps never got above 34C. That's unreal to me that my processor under THAT much of a strain didn't even hit 95F must less nearing 100F...I figured it would go over toward the 110F range..but nope. Now OCtuner said it was around 48C, but as we've discussed, that's what you said was aggregate readings..so I don't pay that any attention since I'm running that CoreTemp now. I guess my fan structure and placement will be the best I can get the way it is right now...I don't think I could ask for better airflow than what I already have with my set-up and placements.

[wevsspot]

See post #50

Tell you one thing, this has been one of the most entertaining help threads I've been into in while.

Glad the memory is running at it's rated speed and timings. Now lock that sucker down before you break something

[jonathanm1978]

Yep...Before I built this current rig, my last venture in the PC building hobby was 4 years ago, when I used an Asrock 775i65G and a P4 3.06ghz HT to build a system..and that system is still running to this day. But that was a totally different animal too, didn't have the things that these new systems possess.

After the problems yesterday I quit after I got back to 9-9-9-20 and 1T...
But I got up this morning and had a full page video I was watching, while running CoreTemp in the sys tray, and noticed my fans went up in level while watching the vid...

Then I found another culprit...CoreTemp does use some resources to monitor temps..so I closed it and temps (and fan speeds) went back to normal after a couple of minutes.

And I also rebooted and went back to my old 9-9-9-24 at 1T with the memory, since I know that was my last stable speed with memtest...I'll just keep it on that and deal with it, I am getting plenty of speed and responsiveness.