Overclocked my system, instability since :(

sHAYM4N · 12 Aug 2016 at 17:59

Hi all, I've got a Desktop system I built a few months back with this kit https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18692676

A couple of days ago, I finally got around to following the guide and overclocking it to 4.5. Everything went fine, checked all the settings - ran for the day perfectly.

Following morning on startup, I had a BIOS Safe mode error, screen went black on F1 so restarted, went back into the BIOS and saw my memory (Corsair Vengeance 3200 DDR4) and been knocked back to 2133Mhz, none of the settings had changed so reset to standard, rebooted and still at 2133Mhz.

Did a clear cmos, another reset and enabled XMP profile 1, success back up to 3200. Could live with the CPU being at 4.2, so that didnt bother me.

Since then though every morning I've had the same issue, Safe Mode on BIOS as well as two random reboots. Also just checked CPU-Z and the core speed is ramping up and down by the second. (Currently 800Mhz at lowest).

All those settings are at stock with XMP so not sure why it has suddenly become so unstable?

Temps are generally fine, idleing at about 25c..

Any advice greatly appreciated!

danlightbulb · 12 Aug 2016 at 18:34

Sounds similar to my issue. I'll link the post in a bit as I'm on mobile atm. But cut a long story short I'd guess ram voltages need increasing manually. Vccsa and vccio.

Ps it's normal for cpu frequency to go down to 800mhz at idle, that's the windows power saving features at work.

Here is my thread. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18740469

sHAYM4N · 12 Aug 2016 at 19:33

danlightbulb said:
Sounds similar to my issue. I'll link the post in a bit as I'm on mobile atm. But cut a long story short I'd guess ram voltages need increasing manually. Vccsa and vccio.

Ps it's normal for cpu frequency to go down to 800mhz at idle, that's the windows power saving features at work.

Here is my thread. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18740469

Cheers thanks, will have a read through! Only other thing I had done was flash the BIOS to 1902 (previous to the OC) strange one it's only happening now. May try and reseat the modules.

PapaLazaru · 12 Aug 2016 at 21:01

sHAYM4N said:
Cheers thanks, will have a read through! Only other thing I had done was flash the BIOS to 1902 (previous to the OC) strange one it's only happening now. May try and reseat the modules.

That is probably why. Why did you flash it to the previous?

Panos · 12 Aug 2016 at 21:55

I cannot understand why you fiddle with the machine. It was already set I believe. You only had to overclock it more

sHAYM4N · 12 Aug 2016 at 22:04

PapaLazaru said:
That is probably why. Why did you flash it to the previous?

Sorry no I mean I flashed the BIOS to 1902 (the latest) before attempting the over clock. Also cleared CMOS as recommended

sHAYM4N · 12 Aug 2016 at 22:07

Panos said:
I cannot understand why you fiddle with the machine. It was already set I believe. You only had to overclock it more

It was at stock with XMP on, so at 4.2 GHz like it is again now. It's since I tried to get 4.5Ghz out of it as per the guide that the random restarts and memory problems started. I never normally do over clock, but figured since I've paid extra for the OC gear I might as well get the most out of it?

cereal3 · 17 Aug 2016 at 19:16

Also just checked CPU-Z and the core speed is ramping up and down by the second. (Currently 800Mhz at lowest).

Am I being dumb or is this not due to the speedstep setting in the BIOS (if it's even called speedstep nowadays)?

new boy · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:42

Do ram and cpu separately.

If it's crashing after you OC the cpu, then lower the clock or up the vcore.

If it's crashing after overclocking the ram, then lower clocks / loosen timings or increase dram voltage / IMC voltage.

Edit - reading it again, it sounds like enabling the xmp profile and running the ram at 3200mhz is causing the issues? If so, then I imagine it was probably running at 2133mhz all the time you were using it before you messed with it and you just never noticed it was running that slow, and now you try and run it at 3200mhz and it crashes?

sHAYM4N · 21 Aug 2016 at 08:37

new boy said:
Do ram and cpu separately.

If it's crashing after you OC the cpu, then lower the clock or up the vcore.

If it's crashing after overclocking the ram, then lower clocks / loosen timings or increase dram voltage / IMC voltage.

Edit - reading it again, it sounds like enabling the xmp profile and running the ram at 3200mhz is causing the issues? If so, then I imagine it was probably running at 2133mhz all the time you were using it before you messed with it and you just never noticed it was running that slow, and now you try and run it at 3200mhz and it crashes?

I'm pretty sure I enabled XMP shortly after the initial build and I was satisfied everything was ok. It may have been possible it had crashed on reboot or without me noticing at one point, and the frequencies had been lowered previously. Stability was fine though until I attempted the OC.

This week the crashes have become more constant (not just on startup - but during gaming and photoshop work), get a short audio reverb then a restart.

Think it also crashed last night on shutdown as this morning as after shutdown the power was still on, but no output to the monitor, my frequencies have gone back to 2133Mhz with XMP still enabled

Will try reseating the ram sticks now, reset again and enable XMP see if it lasts the day out. Then will perform a memtest.

I'm not too fussed about OC'ing the build now tbh, just want it stable (preferably at least with XMP enabled).

sHAYM4N · 21 Aug 2016 at 09:20

Ok, I've taken out the RAM, given the contacts a slight air clean, and swapped them over. Cleared CMOS, rebooted with defaults, then applied XMP profile 1 again (everything else at stock). Now back at 3200Mhz (for now)...

No QCodes only operating at "A0"

sHAYM4N · 23 Aug 2016 at 17:38

So far it's managed to stick at the 1600Mhz but not sure if totally stable. May have had one random reboot (or a power cut) came back from dinner and was logged out (not lock screen as everything loaded back up).

Only other issues I've noticed today is that at one point my cursor lagged dramatically for a few seconds and guessed it was about to crash. Only other time I have noticed this was when rendering in Blender on CPU (so high cpu usage) yet there was next to nothing pushing it at that time.

Is this an issue with Skylake maybe?

I ran memtest for a couple of hours but no errors, so will try again and leave it overnight

sHAYM4N · 6 Sep 2016 at 08:19

Ok so was stable for a couple of weeks on XMP (new record!) then a boot failure and back to 2133Mhz on the RAM

Bit frustrated atm as I've bought the gear to OC but can't even get it stable with just stock & XMP!

Have noticed there have been another couple of BIOS updates from ASUS since I last flashed, would this be worth a shot? Out of interest, read somewhere that a reformat and OS reinstall should be done whenever a BIOS is flashed (which I did last time - but was needed anyway as I was having problems with the 1607 build of Windows 10) presume that is just overkill?

MuddyPaws · 7 Sep 2016 at 00:20

if you are over clocking your ram make sure you set the right voltages, try a manual overclock with the timing written on the ram.

sHAYM4N · 8 Sep 2016 at 08:07

MuddyPaws said:
if you are over clocking your ram make sure you set the right voltages, try a manual overclock with the timing written on the ram.

Thanks, looks like the RAM isn't supported at 3200 going by the manual (only lists 4x4GB as supported), really hoping the guide could be updated https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=29985283#post29985283 as the guaranteed overclock isn't stable on the later kit that was sold

Guide shows applying XMP but that automatically dials it up to 3200 at 1.35 which seems to be the problem.