Please help im baffled!

[Blackhorse]

I recently moved from 4x1gb memory to 2x2gb memory in efforts to attain a better overclock, this seems fine, the only thing it does a hissy fit and dies if i leave the SPD to auto or anything near 1000!

Im trying to overclock my system and it seems to work well and seems quite stable.

Until.. I turn the power off, it fails the overclock on when switching on, reboots, and reurns to defaults values.
However if i go back into the bios and ajust the overclock back on, its fine!
Doesnt matter how many times i restart comp the overclock holds, but the moment i turn the system off entirely it doesnt like it!

Ive done a pic of what currently going on in my bios.

Sorry im a little rubbish!

 

[JonJ678]

The bios doesn't look similar enough to Asus for me to help really, but more information would be great for those with more knowledge than I. Brand of RAM (and rated speed), whether this is a dual core or quad would be useful.

My experience is that quad core is a lot more difficult to hit high speeds with than a dual core. 4 sticks needs more northbridge (mch)voltage, and a quad core can need quite a lot of that even on two sticks. The combination is doing my nut at the moment, but I can't bring myself to put 4gb of RAM on the shelf

Sorry I can't help more, but the move to two 2gb sticks should be a winner for overclocking the cpu

 

[Blackhorse]

The bios doesn't look similar enough to Asus for me to help really, but more information would be great for those with more knowledge than I. Brand of RAM (and rated speed), whether this is a dual core or quad would be useful.

My experience is that quad core is a lot more difficult to hit high speeds with than a dual core. 4 sticks needs more northbridge (mch)voltage, and a quad core can need quite a lot of that even on two sticks. The combination is doing my nut at the moment, but I can't bring myself to put 4gb of RAM on the shelf

Sorry I can't help more, but the move to two 2gb sticks should be a winner for overclocking the cpu

Thanks, sorry really should have thought!
Memory is:
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX
DualCore processor: E6600

 

[JonJ678]

That could be it. PC2-6400C5 means its rated to run at 800mhz, 5-5-5-18 timings.
I'm not so hot on ram overclocking as my brief attempt killed one of my sticks. 800MHz ram might run at 1000, but to do so may need more voltage than they're rated at. I wouldn't go there personally, I tend to ignore the greater bandwidth with speed and run at 1:1 with fsb.
That would be 667MHz for you at the moment, I'd recommend dropping the speed to that, setting the voltage to the rated or lower, and trying for faster timings than 5-5-5

 

[Blackhorse]

That could be it. PC2-6400C5 means its rated to run at 800mhz, 5-5-5-18 timings.
I'm not so hot on ram overclocking as my brief attempt killed one of my sticks. 800MHz ram might run at 1000, but to do so may need more voltage than they're rated at. I wouldn't go there personally, I tend to ignore the greater bandwidth with speed and run at 1:1 with fsb.
That would be 667MHz for you at the moment, I'd recommend dropping the speed to that, setting the voltage to the rated or lower, and trying for faster timings than 5-5-5

I did try running the memory at 667, still overclocks fine.
Until i turn off the machine and it looses the overclock, starts up, reboots again with default settings (as though the system is trying to recover from a bad set up?)

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hey Blackhorse,

I'm not familiar with that BIOS but it looks like your system is using the 266-Strap (and the 4:5 memory divider)

CPU Host Clock Control [Enabled]

If you change that to disabled (or 333-Strap) what happens?

The problem is the Northbridge is falling over when you perform a cold bOOt, this is normally associated with incorrect Northbridge or Memory settings!

Let us know how u get on!

 

[Blackhorse]

Hey Blackhorse,

I'm not familiar with that BIOS but it looks like your system is using the 266-Strap (and the 4:5 memory divider)

CPU Host Clock Control [Enabled]

If you change that to disabled (or 333-Strap) what happens?

The problem is the Northbridge is falling over when you perform a cold bOOt, this is normally associated with incorrect Northbridge or Memory settings!

Let us know how u get on!

Many thanks for your help, im glad im not going bonkers!
That setting is turning my overclock on, if i disable it it drops to stock speed, rather than 333 (which is what i set)
The motherboard is a Gigabyte DS4

 

[Big.Wayne]

Can't you disable it and then dial in 333MHz-FSB or do you lose the ability to change FSB?

CPU Host Clock Control [Disabled]
CPU Host Frequency (MHz) [333]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) [???]
High Speed DRAM DLL Settings [???]

Change your memory divider to something that keeps your memory in space (for the moment at least!).

 

[JonJ678]

The problem is the Northbridge is falling over when you perform a cold bOOt, this is normally associated with incorrect Northbridge or Memory settings!

Excited to see this as it's something I don't know about
Does incorrect here mean too low a northbridge voltage/nb skews wrong or something else?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hey JonJ678,

The Intel® Northbridge and the way it effects the computer is a rather complex subject and one I supect halts a lot of overclockers in their tracks! (including me!)

Having tinkered for years (and scratched my head loads) the penny is finally beginning to drop for me!

There are so many variables its not funny (I don't know what NB skew is even!), on top of all these variables is the way they interact with each other!

If a computer won't POST once you have tinkered though it normally comes down to a clash between the way the NB has been set or an awkward interpretation of the memories SPD settings.

So there is no right or wrong way to set these things up as they are hardware dependant (different harware = different tweakage!).

Blackhorse is using an Intel® Core™2 Duo E6600 Processor (9x266) which the motherboard will set-up by default to use the 266-Strap assuming the processor is running on a 266MHz-FSB. The 266-Strap will offer two memory dividers only based on the assumption that Blackhorse is using either DDR2-666 or DDR2-800 . . . . these memory multipliers will try to take the 266MHz-FSB frequency and multiply that up to a JEDEC approved memory frequency(PC2-5400 and PC2-6400 respectively).

I recently moved from 4x1gb memory to 2x2gb memory in efforts to attain a better overclock, this seems fine, the only thing it does a hissy fit and dies if i leave the SPD to auto or anything near 1000!

What speed rating were the old sticks you took out?

At the moment I am only seeing a few things to investigate

• I think your overclocking your ram (Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX @833Mhz)
• You maybe need to adjust the FSB-Strap to 333
• High Speed DRAM DLL Settings [???]

 

[Blackhorse]

Hey JonJ678,

The Intel® Northbridge and the way it effects the computer is a rather complex subject and one I supect halts a lot of overclockers in their tracks! (including me!)

Having tinkered for years (and scratched my head loads) the penny is finally beginning to drop for me!

There are so many variables its not funny (I don't know what NB skew is even!), on top of all these variables is the way they interact with each other!

If a computer won't POST once you have tinkered though it normally comes down to a clash between the way the NB has been set or an awkward interpretation of the memories SPD settings.

So there is no right or wrong way to set these things up as they are hardware dependant (different harware = different tweakage!).

Blackhorse is using an Intel® Core™2 Duo E6600 Processor (9x266) which the motherboard will set-up by default to use the 266-Strap assuming the processor is running on a 266MHz-FSB. The 266-Strap will offer two memory dividers only based on the assumption that Blackhorse is using either DDR2-666 or DDR2-800 . . . . these memory multipliers will try to take the 266MHz-FSB frequency and multiply that up to a JEDEC approved memory frequency(PC2-5400 and PC2-6400 respectively).

What speed rating were the old sticks you took out?

At the moment I am only seeing a few things to investigate

• I think your overclocking your ram (Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX @833Mhz)
• You maybe need to adjust the FSB-Strap to 333
• High Speed DRAM DLL Settings [???]

Yup you deffo have a little bit of experience in this field!! It took me about 4 attempts at reading the post, and i think im only just starting to comprehend it!! lol
I cant disable the host control without loosing the abbility to change the cpu strap to 333.
Ive changed the memory multiplier to 2x,
Yet the problem lingers on a cold boot!
Could it be down to voltages?

Many thanks for your assistance

 

[Big.Wayne]

Lol that post was a bit more confusing than I intended!

Basically can you download CPU-z and post up some screenshots from Windows showing the two memory tabs please!

I'm having problems with the BIOS wording and layout (I'm an ASUS man!) but CPU-z will show me what I wanna know!

Three things I'm thinking of

• Adjust the DDR speed so its running in spec
• Adjust either the vNB or vDimm (maybe both)
• Adjust the NB-Strap upwards (fool your mobo into thinking your CPU is a 333MHz model)

 

[Blackhorse]

Lol that post was a bit more confusing than I intended!

Basically can you download CPU-z and post up some screenshots from Windows showing the two memory tabs please!

I'm having problems with the BIOS wording and layout (I'm an ASUS man!) but CPU-z will show me what I wanna know!

Three things I'm thinking of

• Adjust the DDR speed so its running in spec
• Adjust either the vNB or vDimm (maybe both)
• Adjust the NB-Strap upwards (fool your mobo into thinking your CPU is a 333MHz model)

Many thanks for all your help, its VERY much appreciated!
Let me know if you need any further info than this?
Its people like yourself is the one of the main reasons i shop at overclockers, the support and community is fantastic!

Regards
Stu

 

[ION]

i know this is silly but

I know this is silly but have u check to make sure that ur cmos reset pin ( havent actually looked at ur board setup) are in the correct place. As ur overclocking u probably have already checked. Just thought i put it down as no one else had mentioned it. Probably not that but obviously that is exactly what happens if u have the pins in the wrong place. But hey i hope u find the problem to me it sounds like its not even storing ur settings in the ROM on the mb. Does the same thing happen when u just try to change some normal settings (does it return to default after restart?). Like others have said it could be many things.

Btw do u have access to anyone with the same socket of mb so u could try with there board or something would help u figure out if its an actual physical problem with ur motherboard. Also Sadly havent done much overclocking with the core 2 duo's so cant help u there (still using a FX60 i managed to pick up on the cheap). However everything shouts to me that its a problem with the data being stored on the board. Have u actually tried to replace ur battery on the mb (i know its another silly thing). Reason why i say this again is cause of that it only happens after a cold reboot (battery is only requred to store the values entered in the bios).

Like i said u might have already tried this but its an easy thing to overlook so check ur battery could be as simple as that!.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hey Blackhorse,

I'm confused now lol!

Is that a CPU-z screenshot of the BIOS pictures above or did you adjust something? I was expecting to see something different in the [Memory] tab? . . . it looks ok in your screenie, I thought the DRAM Frequency was gonna say 416MHz!

Pardon me, like I said the BIOS is slightly different to what I'm used? Which motherboard is that btw?

 

[Blackhorse]

Sorry ive dropped the memory multiplier to 2x so its now doing 666.
The motherboard is GIGABYTE 965P-DS4
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2288

Not sure if this info will help evaluate my problem.

Before i changed to 2x2gb, i was on 4x1gb, whilst overclocking was no where easy to do nor could i even get close to 3ghz (i think about 2.7ghz was my max!), it didnt have a problem on cold boot.
Also when my computer cold boots it does remember something as it gets to just past where it says press delete to goitno bios, resets itself and reverts to default bios settings, which suguests to me its not a battery problem?

 

[princy]

Have you tried upping the northbridge voltage to + .150volts, that was the only way I could get my EP35-DS4 to overclock well with 4Gb in and yours is a very similar board.

Also the cold boot problem is a well documented phenomenon, apparently it's something to do with usb irq addressing and can be sloved by swapping ports.

 

[Big.Wayne]

ive dropped the memory multiplier to 2x so its now doing 666

Ah ok! . . . that confused me!

So have we made some progress then? Although the memory setting you have at the moment (1:1 sync - 333MHz/DDR2-666) isn't ideal it will do for the moment.

Is the system still struggling to POST with the new adjustments?

If it isn't then you have two ways to proceed:

• Slowly keep bumping up the FSB from 333MHz to 400MHz, this will take your CPU from 3.0GHz to 3.6GHz (if it can handle that, bOOst vCore!)
• Keep the 333MHz-FSB and fiddle with the Memory dividers trying to get your RAM running at 400MHz/DDR2-800

 

[Blackhorse]

Ah ok! . . . that confused me!

So have we made some progress then? Although the memory setting you have at the moment (1:1 sync - 333MHz/DDR2-666) isn't ideal it will do for the moment.

Is the system still struggling to POST with the new adjustments?

If it isn't then you have two ways to proceed:

• Slowly keep bumping up the FSB from 333MHz to 400MHz, this will take your CPU from 3.0GHz to 3.6GHz (if it can handle that, bOOst vCore!)
• Keep the 333MHz-FSB and fiddle with the Memory dividers trying to get your RAM running at 400MHz/DDR2-800

Ive bumped the CPU upto 3.3ghz (running at 366x9) with a little tweaking of the voltage.
The memory divider is still 2x (Memory is 722)
For the first time in a long time its got pas the cold boot.
Not sure i 100% understand why?!
Presumable if i found my computer unstable in anyway running at 3.3ghz
I can ajust the divider to 8x and ajust the memory back to the 800 for more stability?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Ive bumped the CPU upto 3.3ghz (running at 366x9) with a little tweaking of the voltage.
The memory divider is still 2x (Memory is 722)

Ok that sounds good, I presume you mean the memory is running 333MHz/DDR2-732

In theory and assuming all other things are equal you should be able to go from 3.3GHz(9x366) to 3.6GHz (9x400) without overclocking your memory (as it's synced with the FSB 1:1). You may find other obstacles block your trot up to 3.6GHz . . . maybe your CPU can't run that frequency or that FSB or perhaps your Northbridge will need more voltage, deffo worth a try though although I think it will be better if you first do some *isolated* memory testing by setting your CPU back to 3.0GHz (9x333) and using a memory divider to set your memory running faster . . . 333MHz-FSB while the Memory is running at 400MHz/DDR2-800

Assuming you have no problem working out how to change the DDR2 speed you can then test your sticks at the faster speed, once they pass you can just slowly raise the FSB which in turn will begin to overclock your RAM. 400MHz/DDR-800 should be all good but if you can run them faster it may prove useful, more on this later . . .

For the first time in a long time its got pass the cold boot

Give it a right proper testing (switch off, power unplugged etc etc) before we breath a sigh of relief!

Not sure i 100% understand why?

I'm not 100% whats going on with your machine just yet but I am feeling your original problem was caused by either a Memory problem (running too fast!) or perhaps a Northbridge problem.

If you keep overclocking and posting your results in this thread things should become a lot clearly!

I can ajust the divider to 8x and ajust the memory back to the 800 for more stability?

Good thinking batman (I missed that in my previous suggestions).

However if I may suggest that at this early stage of your testing it will make things a lot easier if you don't change the CPU's default x9 multiplier as that will introduce another set of variables which may or may not hamper your basic clocking or confuse you!

The stage to drop the CPU multi isn't quite here yet, first get some *isolated* memory overclocking done (as mentioned above), once you know how fast your RAM can run you can put the sticks back to 1:1 sync and begin doing some *isolated* CPu overclocking . . . . and once that is done your ready to start tinkering with the Northbridge and adjusting the CPU's multiplier downwards!

Plenty for you to do, make sure you give enough stability testing time to each bit, patience is a good virtue here as a lot of folk seem to really rush their testing and end up in a confused heap when it all goes wrong!

Can you also download MemSet v:4.0 please and include it in any future screenshots you do. DOn't worry if you don't understand how it works at first but it displays a lot of useful information (which may change as you tinker!).

Also download IntelBurnTest v1.9 as thats a great tool for testing and heats up your overclocked system a treat!