New Case, Overclock failing.

JamieT · 7 Jun 2009 at 13:09

Afternoon.
Yesterday after i bought an Akasa Eclipse 62 case upgrading from a thermaltake. I switched everything over into the new case after hours of rebuilding i was done and very happy with the new case and how tidy it looked.

My first boot was fine everything at stock. When i went to overclock to get back up to 3.35 Ghz it just shuts itself off and boots back up, I've tried lowering the clock but it just won't stay on. After the overclock it'll boot into windows then shut itself off after that i'll get as far as 'Start windows normally' before it'll shut off and restart again.

This is incredibly baffling as i can't really seem to figure whats the problem, I've tried upping a few volts for abit more power but the same problem consists.

The settings i was using were fine before here they are:

FSB Fre 371
NB FSB Strap 333 Mhz
CPU Volts 1.4500
FSB Term Volt 1.40
Memory Volt 1.9
NB Volt 1.40

They never failed me before after running prime95 for 5 hours and a lot of hours of hard gaming but now it just refuses to stay on.

Does anyone have any possible suggestions as to what the problem could be? Temperatures aren't high (had enough time to load CoreTemp)

System specs are in sig.

Thanks.

JonJ678 · 7 Jun 2009 at 13:25

You've missed something during reassembly/damaged something during the move. Is it stable and well behaved at stock settings? If you don't know, that's what to check next.

My first thought was thermal issues, but apparently not. If it misbehaves at stock, strip down to a minimal system 1 stick ram, no hard drives etc and try to boot. Basically do all the standard troubleshooting things, but first check you've plugged everything in correctly

JamieT · 7 Jun 2009 at 13:28

I checked over it 3 times last night couldn't find any problems, quick once over today, it doesn't play up using stock settings it's absolutely fine, a few games, prime for alittle while (see if it would crash under pressure) and nothing, stock is perfectly fine, soon as i attempt an overclock it shuts off and boots back up.

JonJ678 · 7 Jun 2009 at 13:53

Looks like you get to overclock from scratch again then. It is strange, but hopefully you haven't actually damaged anything and all will be well

JamieT · 7 Jun 2009 at 14:01

I'll restart from stock and work my way up again then, should this problem occure again though i guess i should get it looked at?

JonJ678 · 7 Jun 2009 at 14:18

I suspect your overclock wont go as high, and along the way you'll work out which component is holding you back which wasn't previously. I still think you've damaged something in the move, overclocking is just a sound way of diagnosing where the problem lies.

JamieT · 7 Jun 2009 at 14:26

The maximum i can get to is 2.7 ghz without it shutting/restarting itself, i tried several things to avoid it but it just isn't having any of it, i never took the cpu out of the mobo so i doubt that's damaged, the ram stayed in the mobo which still seems fine, the culprit is the motherboard? I'll admit it was a struggle getting it in the case 'properly' so maybe something damaged there? i don't have another mobo to test unfortunately so i need to find the culprit before replacing.

Leeroy123 · 7 Jun 2009 at 20:01

defo sounds to me like a thermal problem.

Big.Wayne · 7 Jun 2009 at 20:23

JonJ678 said:
Is it stable and well behaved at stock settings? If you don't know, that's what to check next.

JamieT said:
it doesn't play up using stock settings it's absolutely fine, a few games, prime for alittle while (see if it would crash under pressure) and nothing, stock is perfectly fine, soon as i attempt an overclock it shuts off and boots back up.

That's really weird, hmm some photos of the innards wouldn't go amiss!

So lemme make sure we understand, the system has worked well for a while then you decided to move the kit over into a new chassis. Did you remove the CPU heatsink and CPU or just leave it as it was in the old system?

Was it deffo running perfectly while overclocked in the old chassis?

Destination · 7 Jun 2009 at 21:01

Run memtest on all sticks
Seet if you've statically discharged during the move
A module might be blown without having to be physcially moved, screw dropped at wrong time, etc.

JamieT · 7 Jun 2009 at 22:09

It ran perfectly fine before hand i was running stable at 3.35 ghz made the switch into my new case and it just wouldn't have any of it anymore. I did remove the waterblock and re-do my piping but everything seems to be in order, there seems to be no problem at stock levels, i've gamed now for about 4 hours and no hick ups at all.

Really it won't just let me push past 3.73 ghz, anything above that it just tends to conk on me now. As i say i did have it stable at 3.35 ghz, I'll run the memtest and see what happens will keep you posted.

JamieT · 8 Jun 2009 at 10:16

Ok i ran Memtest on each stick and no errors were found. I did however forget to mention i changed my NB cooler to a Zalman ZM-NWB1 as i felt it was getting far to hot, I was careful with changing this, applied a suitable amount of compound.

It's all fine at the moment on stock settings, hit 2.7 try anything above and it's dead. maybe when changing the NB cooler somewhere along the lines it got damaged? but if so would even stock work if that was the case?