OC gone wrong, help me find the problem?

i2avi

i2avi

i2avi

Associate
Joined
26 Apr 2011
Posts
23
[Solved] OC gone wrong, help me find the problem?

Spec: Asus p8p67 rev3 mobo, i5 2500k CPU, corsair 500w builder psu, gigabyte gtx560 ti super oc graphics, 4gb corsair xms3 ddr3 RAM, xfi titanium sound.

I bought the i5 2500k because I was looking forward to overclocking it, with all I've read of the ease with it being unlocked. I followed guides on the internet from places like bit-tech and forums which all said slight variations of the same thing. Up the multiplier, adjust the CPU voltage to 1.3v, ram voltage to match what's on the label, everything else on automatic. Worked fine, and the BIOS told me the expected Turbo for x45 was 4500MHz. Sounded good. However, my multiplier wasn't showing up in cpu-z, and the solution for this on one of the guides was to turn off EIST. As soon as I applied and reset, the computer crashed, shut itself down, and refuses to power up for more than a millisecond, once, for each time I unplug/replug.

Removing the 8 pin atx connector, which I believe powers the CPU, causes all the fans, leds, drives, gfx card and so on to spin up. Fans at 100%. This makes me think the psu is fine, as it can sustain powering everything apart from the CPU.

Removing the CPU, I see nor smell no signs of damage, though I'm not too sure what to look for. I assume perfect gold connectors and no smell of burning means it's fine. The computer shut down right away after saving the BIOS, so no way enough time to heat up? CPU reseated, re-thermal'd, re-cooler'd (gran tranquilo air cooler) but the problem remains.

The mobo displays a green led when the mains power is on. I have tried removing the battery for some time, and cannot find a cmos clear switch for this board. I am assuming the BIOS is corrupt somehow and cuts out for safety when the CPU is powered? However, without the 8 pin atx plugged in, the 6 second power button shutdown works, which indicates the BIOS is loaded and something else is damaged?

This is my first real attempt at an OC on a brand new machine, so I don't really have money for trial and error replacements. Help me figure out the problem part? I'm inclined to say the motherboard/BIOS, but need more opinions. Hours of Googling led me to one identical case, and for him it was the mobo. If you think so, do you recommended getting the same board, or another for around £120?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
I left the battery out for around an hour with the power cable removed. I have removed it again now and will go back and try your suggestion in the morning.

If it turns out to be the mobo, do you recommend another of similar price? If I need to buy a replacement part, I need to do it asap to get it tomorrow.

Thank you.
 
It was booting normally before oc and after oc. Stress tested twice with eventual bsod, so I modified settings and reset. Still booted fine. Then, to get my multiplier to show in cpu-z, disabled EIST. Dead computer.

The board has no internal speaker. Will a speaker from an old computer work?
 
Hm, if the board is junk I may return it. I haven't done anything to warrant the death of a machine, and have been quite conservative in the OC. Please suggest feasible replacements.

I will try all of these suggestions in the morning and feed back here.

Edit: just to note, when the PC was built the 8 pin power cable wasn't connected, and it acted as in the op. Everything spins up on max. However plugging it in now means a millisecond before cut-out.
 
Last edited:
It didn't shut down before, then was fully functional, now still doesn't but dies with the 8 pin. Just noted that in case it suggests the CPU is at fault, but will test these mobo suggestions.
 
Quick update, CLRTC and battery removal did not make a difference. So switching the jumper with 0 power, the board is somehow able to clear the BIOS? Not too sure how that works, but I followed the instructions here, in the manual and on other jumper guides and did it with the power cable out, with and without the battery. No joy.

Am I to assume this is a hardware issue now? Having the CPU plugged in results in instant KO, so the beep tests surely wouldn't work?
 
Replaced the mobo with a MSI P67A-GD55 (B3). The computer now powers up even with the CPU plugged in. However there is no display, HDMI or DVI. Everything spins up, LEDs light up, etc. Sometimes the computer turns itself off, then restarts. After holding the power button down for 6 seconds, the computer turns off, but will automatically turn itself on again.

I cannot boot from hard drive, CD or USB. I have tried moving the graphics card to the second PCI slot so that it is better seated.

Before putting everything in the case, I had only the CPU, cooler and RAM in, power it on, and there was no sound from the internal speaker. Would that indicate the CPU is faulty, even though it looks/smells fine?

When it stays on, I really can't tell why there is no display. I've tried the RAM in every slot. Unplugged the hard drive. Everything.

Please advise my next move.
 
Apart from the LEDs for the board power/reset/OC buttons (OC being off for now), there are 6 blue LEDs across the top of the board. They are simply labelled LED1-6 and there is no reference to them in the manual. However, all those LEDs are on and blue. EDIT: I lied, these LEDs apparently indicate which power phase the CPU is in. All 6 lights are on, so apparently the CPU is in Phase 6 power mode.

The system turns on for a few seconds, turns off, then on again and stays on. Still no display, beeps or other indication of POST. If the CPU was faulty, would the computer stay on continuously after the reboot?

There is also no way to turn the computer off permanently without removing power. The 6 second power-off turns the computer off, but it automatically turns on again.

There is no reset switch on my case, so it is not connected, nor shorting.

This PC is giving me no indication at all what is wrong. Changing the motherboard allows it to now stay powered on with the CPU plugged in. But it doesn't POST.

Any other ideas?
 
Last edited:
The motherboard is on risers. All risers have screws in them.

I will have to obtain another power supply. It does manage to turn everything on and keep it on after the initial reboot though. I can see/hear everything spinning up. Could it still be faulty?

If the CPU shows no signs of damage, could it somehow be faulty?
 
The pins are fine. You mean for the speaker, right? I also checked that the polarity was correct, but I'm hearing nothing from the computer. Not a single beep to tell me what's wrong.
 
The CPU fan is connected fine, and spins. Everything that can spin, spins.

What I don't understand is a) why does the computer reboot after a few seconds every time, then stay on with no display/POST... and b) more stuff about no POST.
 
If you want to keep an i5 at stock, I don't really see the point in buying the K edition. At least, that was my thinking.

Google tells me that the power supply might be blown because the fact that it powers the fans/drives etc doesn't mean it's able to put out all the types of power for the other components.

The LAN port lights up when the machine is powered on, but none of the USB ports work or seem to be powered. I find this odd. Does this suggest PSU failing to anyone?
 
If anyone is wondering, the motherboard was found faulty, so my spidey sense was correct.

That's balanced out by the idiocy of trying to install my old 1.65v RAM into the new mobo, which supports 1.5v RAM. Didn't realise until I had a mess around inside the case and saw it written on every DIMM slot.

D'oh.
 
Speed said:
Glad you got to the bottom of it, however the 1.5v is just guidance, most modules are 1.65v and work fine with SB. Infact many of the SB "tuned" memory is 1.65v. There is zero evidence that running 1.65v is going to do anything bad to the system.
Click to expand...

Hm, you may be right and I may have just blown the module in the OC fail (though I don't see why... power surge may have taken it out when I turned EIST off?)

Either way, replacing 1 stick of XMS3 1.65v with 2 sticks of Vengeance 1.5v worked. I had to reinstall windows because it insta-BSOD'd every time Windows started up. Maybe something to do with old ASUS motherboard drivers clashing with MSI components? Either way, this MSI board is better, and the one click OC has got me up to 4.2GHz on the 2500K in a split second. If I'm feeling brave, I may push it again. But if you read up you can understand why I might just leave it at that.

Also, it really does boot up in about 3 seconds. So many times I wanted to get into the BIOS and was like "WHAT, Windows login screen!?".
 
Last edited:
GaryH-21 said:
Could have been AHCI settings, if windows was installed with it turned on and the new motherboard was set to off, but hey, a fresh install never does any harm :D That's great about the boot times too :)

I've never overclocked, but I want to give it a try - but these horror stories put me off, as I only work part time (money shortage!) and couldn't live without my computer for any length of time (yes, I'm the kind of saddo you see on holiday paying 50p for 15 minutes computer usage in hotels :D)
Click to expand...

D'oh. Should have asked here first. Ah well, not too much data was lost. Also, don't be put off. This is a problem with the new motherboards, so the title is a bit misleading but it just happened to fail during the overclocking process. I, like you, felt pained by my PC being taken away from me, even with my custom built gaming desktop replacement notebook right by my side. But I overclocked my 2500K to 4.2GHz on return, the minimum I intended, and it's stable.

Tl;dr: if you want to oc, do it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom