Lost my overclock bios settings

gazz

gazz

gazz

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I can't believe i've been so stupid,

i have a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 rev 1.0 mainboard, with an i5 2500k in it,
i've been monitoring temps since putting it in a new case, and saw gigabytes 'app centre' that has a system monitor that could control the fan speeds etc,

So when it told me there were a few updates available, i downloaded them... including a bios update... this computer has never had it's bios updated since it was built around 2010.

i just didnt think.. i thought the settings would still be saved, and i could press F12 and load just the oerclock settings to the latest bios... of course i cant,

The mainboard, processor, memory and all that was bought from overclockers, one of the pre-overclocked deals,
would i be able to download that overclocked bios from somewhere?
i know this MB had dual bios... could the old bios be in the other bios chip still?? any ideas how i switch which bios chip it runs on... or transfer the bios from the ohter chip to the main one.
 
I think you'll just have to overclock it manually.
If you contact customer services they may have the settings on file somewhere for that build so you could hopefully get them and punch them back in. Although running a different bios they probably can't guarantee it will be optimal.
 
Just to add, I'm not entirely sure how the duel bios works. I'd imagine the back up bios wouldn't have been touched by Overclockers, so reverting to that will just give you a factory 'vanilla' bios but it's probably worth asking then.

I'm also not sure how the duel bios works when you update the bios, whether it over wrights both or just the main one.
 
Dang... the OC was so stable, it ran at 4.5 gig all day long... i downloaded 'easy tune' for the gigabyte board, and using that to set the OC to 4.4 gig it is unstable as hell.

looks like i'll have to enter the mysterious world of manually overclocking :)
 
It's a learning curve and takes time to dial in an overclock with lots of testing, but it's a good thing to learn.

Auto oververclocking software such as easy tune is very hit and miss and not really worth bothering with.

Try setting cpu voltage (vcore) to 1.4v and then simply set the CPU speed to 4.5ghz.. In theory that should be very stable but might be a bit warm. If that works then work on reducing the vcore to bring the temps down until it's not getting enough power and becomes unstable..then increase it a tiny bit to make it stable again.

The main concepts to understand with cpu overclocking are...

  • More speed requires more voltage
  • More voltage means more heat so you are limited to how much more voltage you can use depending how good your cooler is.
  • Too much voltage will result in crashing and/or high temperatures
  • Too little voltage for a given speed will also result in crashes..

So it's a question of finding the highest cpu speed you can run at a voltage that doesn't get things too hot.

To find that out you'll have to do some testing, I'd use HWmonitor to keep track of temps and cinebench cpu test to stress the CPU as it's a fairly quick test to run.
 
Last edited:
Oooooh, just found https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/i5-2500k-gigabyte-z68xp-ud3p-overclocking.18338090/

Only thing is it's the UD3P version of this board... and mines the UD3 version... wonder what the P is for.

I wouldnt be surprised if my brother had replied to that thread as that was the time he was building this system for me (shame i don't know his username... but he died in 2012... he'd have sorted this OC out for me in no time if he was still here)
 
I've updated my post above with more info.

Once you understand the relationship between cpu speed, cpu voltage and how higher voltages will increase temperature then you're well on your way.

I'm happy to help you out, I'd start simply by
  • Set cpu voltage to 1.4
  • Set cpu speed to the previous overclock
  • Then run HWmonitor and cinebench cpu test.

Let us know what temperature the CPU got to, or if it just crashes.
 
gazz said:
Oooooh, just found https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/i5-2500k-gigabyte-z68xp-ud3p-overclocking.18338090/

Only thing is it's the UD3P version of this board... and mines the UD3 version... wonder what the P is for.

I wouldnt be surprised if my brother had replied to that thread as that was the time he was building this system for me (shame i don't know his username... but he died in 2012... he'd have sorted this OC out for me in no time if he was still here)
Click to expand...

Have you had a look in the bios to see if they saved the overclock profile in there somewhere ? usually there is a feature to save and load your different overclock profiles, just cant remember on the old bios types.

As for backup bios, it will most likely just have an old stock bios on it, sometimes there is a switch on the board to switch between the main and backup bios, other times its automatic after so many seconds of the main bios failing.
 
Thanks for all the pointers,

The computer is out of use atm as i'm building a few chests of drawers to house the AV equipment including the computer... hence the new AV amp style case i put it into the ohter day.


I monitored the cpu temps when i re-cased the computer, it's sit at about 40*C ideling, and go upto 75*C running train simulator which was loading one core to 90% or more all the time, and one other core was running about 50 to 60% loaded, and the 2 other cores were almost doing nothing,

The max temp of the cpu is 95*C i believe according to the temp monitor i was using which listed the CPU and said what it's t-max is (i was using 'core temp monitor lite' because it can send the temps to my phone in real time... handy to see the temps as i was playing the game that this computer was built to play.

However i did notice that after one of the updates the gigabyte app centre installed, the idle temps went down to 35*C, i didnt test it running the game tho.. but i'm wondering what the real temps are now... wonder if there was an issue with the temps reporting 10 degrees too high, and the update fixed that... or was it other way round, the updates has fudged the temp readings
 
oh yeah, looked at the bios... it just lists the standard bios, then the last known good ones with different re-start numbers, totally different to how it used to be, which was standard, OCUK (i think) overclock, last known stable and so on.


I have noted that there is a beta 'UEFI' bios for this board... i've read that it's gone through quite a few updates. but aparantly UEFI bioses are easier to play with? so now that i've lost the old O/C, i may as well update to the very latest bios for this board, and see what this UEFI thing is about i think.

One last thing i' thinking of... this board has the standard i think intel SATA ports (2 x 6 gig ones, 4 x 3 gig ones), and 2 x 6 gig Marvel sata ports.
Is it true the Marvel ports are slightly faster than the intel ones?

I'm only running a "Crucial MX500 500GB SATA 2.5-inch SATA 6.0Gb/s 7mm Solid State Drive" so nothing exotic, but every little helps.... like i'm thinking of de-lidding the CPU sometime if it keeps running at 75 degrees... tho i'm air cooling so not sure that is optimal for de-lidded cpu's, but no room for a water cooler in this case i dont think.
 
2500k is a soldered CPU, it can't and doesn't need to be delidded.

I don't know about outboard Marvell SATA ports being faster but your SSD is probably not saturating that connection. As long as it's in a 6Gbps port I wouldn't worry.
 
I have nothing to contribute but sorry for your brothers loss. I imagine this setup has some sentimental value to it if your brother built it.

Can you not ask a mod to find your brothers account relative to this email address?
 
ooop... good job you told me the cpu heat spreader is soldered on... i'd have knacked it big time trying to de-lid it.

unfortunately i dont remember my brothers e-mail address, only that he was called Simon... and usually used the names 'Si' or 'Sizzle' on forums.. but searching on here brings no users that match my brother,


I'm in the middle of re-building the cabinets the pc and other AV equipment lives in right now, so the PC re-build is on hold for a short time.
 
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