Whats wrong here, please help if you can

superfly · 29 Aug 2006 at 14:55

My Spec:-

Hardware
X2 4600
Mushkin xp4000 black sticks dual channel(2gig)
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express (latest bios)
Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
powercolor x1800xt with new zalman flower
36gig raptor
320gig drive

Software
Fresh install
Winxp pro
Cat 6.8
latest nforce drivers
latest sound drivers

I can't seem to make this stable in games when overclocked. Power will just suddenly die, no artifacts, no crash, just powers off.

I have looked through the DFI thread, its soo bloated, and i cant see anyone with my exact spec in there.

Now i dont consider this a high overclock for this spec, and my system is well cooled, even tried with a massive desk fan blowing straight into the case with all sides off, so i dont think temp is a problem.

Temps:-
CPU 35-58(LOAD)
Memory, warm to touch, with a fan right over it.
GPU upto 65 (under load)
northbirdge upto 60(although ive ordered a new cooler)
Hard drives, no more than 45 under full load

Overclock settings:-
FSB: 230 (ram ratio 1:1)
CPU: ~2.78

CPU Volts: tried between 1.375 - 1.5(over 1.5 windows crashes)
Chipset volts: tried between 1.5 - 1.6
LDT volts: 1.3 (htt running at ~980) should be ok?
Mem volts: tried 2.6-2.8 (also tried 2.9, but seems excessive as the mem is underclocked at present)

Memtest runs all tests fine even with minimal cooling over night

Prime95 runs for 5 hours with no errors

Also tried setting memory to 2T command just incase, but it still wasnt happy.

Im thinking that i should have gone for a bigger PSU, but i dont want to have to pay for a bigger one if i can get away with it, ive read reviews and it should support this system and even with more devices and also SLI on x1900s. I know these things could be 1 of hundreds of factors, but i purchased this system specifically to get a good overclock, and i want it to do 2.8 stable in games!

Joe42 · 29 Aug 2006 at 15:40

Sounds very much like a psu issue, try running prime95 and running the rthdribl graphics stress tester at the same time.
Inspect the psu and see if its showing signs of being under heavy load such as high fan speed and lots of heat produced.

Ideally you want to swap a different higher power psu in and see if that makes a difference. Are you using the 24pin connector and are all auxillary power plugs on the board populated?

Rab · 29 Aug 2006 at 15:43

u psu deffo would say, states on manaul, min req for psu is 480. dfi's require more power than most other m/b.

superfly · 29 Aug 2006 at 15:48

Joe42 said:
Sounds very much like a psu issue, try running prime95 and running the rthdribl graphics stress tester at the same time.
Inspect the psu and see if its showing signs of being under heavy load such as high fan speed and lots of heat produced.

Ideally you want to swap a different higher power psu in and see if that makes a difference. Are you using the 24pin connector and are all auxillary power plugs on the board populated?

i have all the power connectors in, is there any tests i can use to determine if the power is dropping to levels that would indicate that the issue lyes with the psu?

Its not running hot and the fans arnt going fast.

Also, normally in the past (with other systems) when they have crashed, they have just rebooted, rather than just turned off.

what psu would be reccomended, a 600w?

mysticsniper · 29 Aug 2006 at 15:49

What BIOS are you running with on your mobo?

I beleive the latest Cat's are 6.8 and you have put down 3.8 is that a typo or are you running them that far behind

superfly · 29 Aug 2006 at 15:53

mysticsniper said:
What BIOS are you running with on your mobo?

I beleive the latest Cat's are 6.8 and you have put down 3.8 is that a typo or are you running them that far behind

lol yeah going back a few years there, yes 6.8, gunna edit the above, cheers

also i am running the latest bios.

superfly · 29 Aug 2006 at 16:06

one other thing i havnt installed the amd driver of amd optimizer patch, as games run real smooth (until the system dies)

does it matter not having these fixes installed?

Joe42 · 29 Aug 2006 at 16:36

superfly said:
i have all the power connectors in, is there any tests i can use to determine if the power is dropping to levels that would indicate that the issue lyes with the psu?

You can check the voltage levels using somethign like speedfan or pc wizard but thats not a very reliable indication as the measurement on most boards is shoddy at best. Check and see if the voltages, particularly the 12v drop when you're running those two stress tests i recomended.

Also, normally in the past (with other systems) when they have crashed, they have just rebooted, rather than just turned off.

If its not rebooting thats another sign suggesting its a psu problem. You usually have to turn the psu off at the wall to reset the internal protection circuitry. Are you having to do this or does just pressing the power button switch it back on again?

mercyless · 29 Aug 2006 at 16:39

superfly said:
one other thing i havnt installed the amd driver of amd optimizer patch, as games run real smooth (until the system dies)

does it matter not having these fixes installed?

would'nt hurt to try, but try amd driver first, i'd say.

superfly · 29 Aug 2006 at 16:55

Joe42 said:
If its not rebooting thats another sign suggesting its a psu problem. You usually have to turn the psu off at the wall to reset the internal protection circuitry. Are you having to do this or does just pressing the power button switch it back on again?

i can just press the power button and it boots back up. no blue screen or mem dump, just like it being switched off at the wall.

i might buy a bigger psu from ocuk, and test that, if that fixes it, then i guess i ill flog the other on that aution site. if that dosnt fix it then i should be able to return the bigger psu and get a refund if ive only plugged it in to test shouldnt i? i dont know anyone with a big psu.

unless anyone lives in nottingham and is feeling very kind and wants to give me theirs to test?

Joe42 · 29 Aug 2006 at 17:52

superfly said:
just like it being switched off at the wall.

Thats the key, got to be the psu cut out circuit.
Try a new one and if that doesn't fix it send it back under distance selling.
I recommend the seasonic S12 500.

superfly · 29 Aug 2006 at 18:23

just testing the draw with speedfan, at stock (which it dosnt crash at) the results are aas follows:-

+3.3 = 3.25
+5 = 5
+12 = 11.84 (sometimes dropping to 11.70)
-12 = -9.32
-5 = -0.58
+5 = 5.05

i dont know how these messure up or if speedfan is that accurate, but i guess it is showing evidence of not enough "umpfh"

Joe42 · 30 Aug 2006 at 00:33

Those readings are fairly worthless as the voltage measurement on most boards is rubbish.
What you need to do is see if it changes between idle and overclocked running a cpu and graphics stress test, basically stressing the psu as much as possible. The readings often fluctuate anyway, so keep an eye on it at idle, you say at idle its between 11.70 and 11.84, see if it changes at all under heavy load.

As i said, see if you can use that graphics stress test i mentioned in combination with prime to get it to crash without running a game.

InQ · 30 Aug 2006 at 01:10

Its a nailed on certainty its your PSU. Trust me i've been there just the other week!

DFI NF4 PSU requirements:-

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854

I was sceptical about the 480W+ rating and buying a make the DFI people above recommend after running my DFI Ultra-D with Opteron for 6+ months with no problems in my Antec Sonata II case/PSU combo (450W PSU, pucka 24 pin etc)...all of a sudden when i was readying it for selling it started to play up. :mad:

It just gradually got worse and worse until it wouldnt power up at all (i got no LED lit next to the RAM slots but the main power LED was lit). Everything was dead BUT the PSU would jump start fine.
I ended up buying an Enermax FMA series EG565AX-VE(W) 535W PSU (cheapest i could find on the list!) which is in the list they recommend buying from and hey presto the PC was faultless from then on.