Strange goings on

ynwa2006 · 12 Jul 2007 at 18:47

Strange goings on with DS3

Hi all

I'm a newbie when it comes to overclocking and have just built my first pc.

I folllowed the advice given in the motherboard thread and at the moment my E6420 has been overclocked to 2.9GHz and I can run orthos in 'Small FFT' mode for over 7 1/2 hours and seemed stable, no error's so thought all was ok.

However, have tried running another Orthos test, this time the 'Large, in-place FFTs' test and it always seems to fail, and not always at the same stage.

I ran one test and it lasted 31m 59s before I got a rounding error, and after resetting and trying again it only lasted 5m 45 with the same error. The temps are fine, speedfan reports 31oc idle and 50oc under load, while the Intel TAT shows 30-32oc idle and 48oc under load

Just wondering if anyone can throw some light on what I should be looking for?

Also another thing I noticed is that my RAM timings have changed after running Orthos... is this normal?

I am using the Geil PC2-6400 800MHz low latency RAM, and have changed the timings manually to 5-5-5-18 and this is what shows in cpu-z when windows loads.... however after the Orthos test it was showing as 9-5-7-0 in cpu-z!!!

If it helps I have the following equipment:

Gigabyte 965p DS3
C2D E6420
Geil 2 x 1 800MHz Ram
Artic Freezer Pro 7 cooler

CPU settings are 365.0 FSB x 8 = 2.92GHz

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

Chris

Pipe & Slippers · 12 Jul 2007 at 19:22

doesn't small FFTs stress you cpu while large ones are for memory? Given that you are running the ram below stock.....have you upped the ram voltage to the rated amount (is it the 1.9v - 2.3v stuff)? I believe that stock ram voltage on the mobo is 1.8v Try upping it and if it doesn't help, try memtest to discount your ram as an issue

ynwa2006 · 12 Jul 2007 at 22:52

Pipe & Slippers said:
doesn't small FFTs stress you cpu while large ones are for memory? Given that you are running the ram below stock.....have you upped the ram voltage to the rated amount (is it the 1.9v - 2.3v stuff)? I believe that stock ram voltage on the mobo is 1.8v Try upping it and if it doesn't help, try memtest to discount your ram as an issue

Thanks for your reply.

Will try memtest, can I boot it from CD as I do not have a floppy drive?

Also I did add extra voltage, add +0.3... is there a way to test it's actually getting that amount of volts?

Pipe & Slippers · 13 Jul 2007 at 13:08

yeah you can run it from a bootable cd.....there's an iso image on the memtest86 website - just set your boot device to cd

Since you have already upped the ram voltage, I suggest you try the large fft with only one memory stick at a time - that should enable you to see if only one of your sticks is giving the problem

ynwa2006 · 18 Jul 2007 at 09:57

Strange problem with DS3

Pipe & Slippers said:
yeah you can run it from a bootable cd.....there's an iso image on the memtest86 website - just set your boot device to cd

Since you have already upped the ram voltage, I suggest you try the large fft with only one memory stick at a time - that should enable you to see if only one of your sticks is giving the problem

Hi again

Has taken a while but finally got around to running memtest last night, left it on for a few hours and my ram passed the test 4 times, so seems like ram is ok.

As I have done memtest, is it still worthwhile trying large fft on one stick at a time, and if so how long would you recommend I test each stick for... assuming it doesn't fail straight away??

Cheers again

Pipe & Slippers · 18 Jul 2007 at 12:42

I'm tempted to say don't bother, 'cos memtest should have picked up any issues, but given that, your options are limited to determine what else is wrong. Test them separately for peace of mind....as for how long, lots of folks will say 24hrs, but I never use my pc for more than about 4 hours so that seems a bit pointless to me - I generally leave overnight 'cos its convenient, say 8 hours or so

If you still have trouble, try different multipliers ie 9 x 325 = 2925 - that'll stress your ram a little less, and see if it makes any difference - actually, try this first before taking out sticks (umm.....see you have a 6420 so don't know what the available multipliers are)