Klondike Gold Bundle OCing nightmare

thissmallfish

thissmallfish

thissmallfish

Associate
Joined
29 Jul 2013
Posts
19
Hi guys,

I purchased the stated bundle from OCers back in the beginning of July and I've had nothing but trouble with it since then. After first installing, I was getting BSoD errors (0x124) near constantly. The support staff at Overclockers have been absolutely magnificent in their attempts to help me get to the bottom of the issue but I've had no joy... so I'll open the floor to the general public to see if there's any suggestions.

It appeared to be the case that the supplied overclock (4.4GHz) was too much for the system to handle. I can appreciate that not all chips are equal but from what I have read, asking 4.4 is not exactly asking for the moon on a stick. To their credit, overclockers have offered to refund the cost of my overclock.

Interestingly, when I tried running Asus 4-way tweaker... it suggested that the system could handle 45/45/44/44. But as soon as I closed the program after finishing the tweaker - BOOM. Straight into BSoD errors again. This confused me because I understand that the 4-way tweaker is quite conservative in terms of voltage (soft limit of 1.25v vCore) and you would have thought that a piece of software, developed by ASUS for ASUS products would produce a stable overclock.

So... what's going on here? Have I just got a dog of a chip? Or could something more sinister be going on?

Caveat: I am not massively computer tech literate. I know some of the basics, enough to poke around in the BIOS and have a rough idea what's going on but I am not one for tweaking endlessly.

I just want to use my computer to play games on my summer holidays damnit.
 
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Have you downloaded and installed real temps? I wonder if your issues are heat based? I'm assuming you've had a go at reseating the ram sticks and naking sure they are in matching colour slots, and running the cpu at stock/factory settings and it's been fine.
Try running a stress testing program and monitor your temps that may throw some light on the problem.
 
5UB said:
Might be worth asking in the Customer Service section for the guys there to help you. :)
Click to expand...

Second this, had issues with my 670i and another system for family member, the staff in the technical support section couldn't have been any better.

You have access to a top notch support service and a great warranty on the bundle, they will fix it! :)



In terms of the problem, the BSOD code hints at cpu voltage needing adjusted (increasing it further may cause heat issues though). If you haven't already, run the system without any overclocks see how the stability is and you could even run some memtest passes overnight and benchmarks/game/folding programs to verify.

Then try incremental overclocks and voltage increases to see where the problem occurs. If unstable at stock settings then the whole process of elimination begins.
 
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5UB said:
Might be worth asking in the Customer Service section for the guys there to help you. :)
Click to expand...

Sweeney said:
Second this, had issues with my 670i and another system for family member, the staff in the technical support section couldn't have been any better.

You have access to a top notch support service and a great warranty on the bundle, they will fix it! :)

In terms of the problem, the BSOD code hints at cpu voltage needing adjusted (increasing it further may cause heat issues though). If you haven't already, run the system without any overclocks see how the stability is and you could even run some memtest passes overnight and benchmarks/game/folding programs to verify.

Then try incremental overclocks and voltage increases to see where the problem occurs. If unstable at stock settings then the whole process of elimination begins.
Click to expand...

TwsT said:
Post up in the customer service section or send in a web note.
Click to expand...

In the original post I stated that I had been in contact with customer service. Unfortunately, no resolution was forth-coming after numerous emails and overclockers.co.uk kindly offered a refund on my overclock.

Because I am stubborn and do not wish to run at 3.9GHz max (stock) I am opening the floor to group opinions. I'm hoping that the laws of greater sample sizes leads to a wider range of suggestions.
 
Yeah I did read that you had stated you had already been in touch but the support over the phone or webnote may differ from the direct support on here.

Of course running at stock is not ideal but it allows you to fault find in order to get an idea as to what's causing your issues.

I am not sure as to why you were simply offered a refund rather than getting to the nitty gritty as this differs from the solutions I received, on both occasions.
 
Hakanese said:
Have you downloaded and installed real temps? I'm assuming you've had a go at reseating the ram sticks and naking sure they are in matching colour slots, and running the cpu at stock/factory settings and it's been fine.
Try running a stress testing program and monitor your temps that may throw some light on the problem.
Click to expand...

Hi Hakanese, thanks for the response. I will answer your questions on a point basis.

Have you downloaded and installed real temps?
Click to expand...

Yes I have real temps installed.

I wonder if your issues are heat based?
Click to expand...

I wondered that as well. I tried running the intel burn test v2.54 with no overclock at standard and then high settings. I found that I was getting temps in the mid to high 60s. I then tried gradually increasing core ratio and voltage until I started losing all stability. At the time of writing, I'm able to get up to 4.2GHz at something like 1.23v vCore. But the temps now fly up to the mid to high 80s region.

I have the supplied Alpenföhn cooling system installed. In addition, I have 4 chassis fans installed (two induction at the front, 1 rear exhaust and one top exhaust)

I'm assuming you've had a go at reseating the ram sticks and naking sure they are in matching colour slots
Click to expand...

Yes sir. They are both in the gold slots. (I have no idea what the correct terminology is). In any case, they're the slots the RAM came in from overclockers.

running the cpu at stock/factory settings and it's been fine
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Yep. I've yet to blue screen at factory settings (default optimised). Which leads to the suggestion that it's a limp chip.
 
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Sweeney said:
Yeah I did read that you had stated you had already been in touch but the support over the phone or webnote may differ from the direct support on here.

Of course running at stock is not ideal but it allows you to fault find in order to get an idea as to what's causing your issues.

I am not sure as to why you were simply offered a refund rather than getting to the nitty gritty as this differs from the solutions I received, on both occasions.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they were really good in trying to help though. I think it just got to the point where the guys felt I just had a dog of a chip. I don't doubt that's the issue. But maybe... maybe there's something that might be worth looking at or get mentioned that could make the difference!
 
It may well be that the chip isn't up to par for above 4.2GHz overclocks.

Of course of course, often it's the case a wee setting or two cures all.

All I was trying to say was your situation seems similar to my experience and yes it was a pain and hassle going through everything but for the end result of having mine collected and left with the gentleman I dealt with who had it for a couple days to get to the bottom of (of which it could only have been part of the bundle components as I made sure I had checked everything I could*).

*ended up being the chip itself which had to be swapped.

In terms of fault finding, you now know the level at which it becomes too hot/unstable. You can now start to swap around the ram, run the system with minimal/no components connected and rule out anything you can which may be causing it .

What PSU are you using? Are you able to try a different one?
 
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Sweeney said:
It may well be that the chip isn't up to par for above 4.2GHz overclocks.

Of course of course, often it's the case a wee setting or two cures all.

All I was trying to say was your situation seems similar to my experience and yes it was a pain and hassle going through everything but for the end result of having mine collected and left with the gentleman I dealt with who had it for a couple days to get to the bottom of (of which it could only have been part of the bundle components as I made sure I had checked everything I could*).

*ended up being the chip itself which had to be swapped.
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Hmm. I had not considered asking them to take a look at it. What did it cost you to get it picked up and looked at?
 
Sweeney said:
In terms of fault finding, you now know the level at which it becomes too hot/unstable. You can now start to swap around the ram, run the system with minimal/no components connected and rule out anything you can which may be causing it .

What PSU are you using? Are you able to try a different one?
Click to expand...

PSU replaced on the recommendation of overclockers. Gone from a 550w to a 1050w XFX.

I have tried running mobo gpu rather than my 5850. I can have a play with the RAM sticks I guess but memcheck86+ didn't find any issues when I ran that...
 
You have 24 months of warranty :) so absolutely no cost to myself, it was arranged by the same gent I was dealing with in the forum. As was the different issue with the system for my family member which was sent back and fixed/altered.

I have never had a company be so accommodating and efficient at the same time.

Like you, I wanted to rule everything out that I possibly could so I wasn't wasting anyone's time or miss something resulting in a 'no fault found' cost scenario.
 
Sweeney said:
You have 24 months of warranty :) so absolutely no cost to myself, it was arranged by the same gent I was dealing with in the forum. As was the different issue with the system for my family member which was sent back and fixed/altered.

I have never had a company be so accommodating and efficient at the same time.

Like you, I wanted to rule everything out that I possibly could so I wasn't wasting anyone's time or miss something resulting in a 'no fault found' cost scenario.
Click to expand...

That's exactly my thing mate. Plus, I always make the assumption that I must have screwed something up ;). The thing is though, if there is no faults per-se but the chip is indeed a bit weak... does that constitute a 'no fault found' error or not? Technically, the chip is operating to intel's factory standards... but according to the product description at overclockers.co.uk the product is faulty... hmm.
 
It's an easy assumption to make as it's highly likely but all you can do is go through everything you can think of :). I ended up resorting to using different wall sockets and surge protectors, obviously wasn't them but had nothing left to check.

You buy the bundle and it's overclock and so long as you don't do anything to bring on the problem (i.e. updating BIOS, as stated in all bundle page terms) you are guaranteed the overclock for the 24 month warranty period.
 
I believe you use the same process as updating (you didn't update the bios on whilst on Windows did you?),

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87PRO/#support_Download_36

At the bottom of that page click downloads/bios and I'm assuming you need the 'first release' bios.

Scratch that, can you check what motherboard you have? As the bundle page states two, one the Z87 Pro the other the Z87 K

If it is the K version (Sata ports facing out touwards you, as pictured on bundle picture), http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87K/#support_Download_36 > Bios > First release
 
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