Biostar TH55B HD - Overclocking out of the box? Yeah - with PROBLEMS.

[SunnyD]

So I'm in the midst of putting together a HTPC/kid-PC. My parts list includes an i3-530, a Biostar TH55B HD, and some GSkill DDR3.

First power on was nice, but one thing I noticed that right out of the box the CPU was clocking in at 3.01GHz. Now color me confused, because the 530 is a 2.93GHz part. Mild overclock, fine. I purchased this chip from a good friend and know it can handle it (he had it upwards of 4GHz).

Installing windows itself was slightly odd, it did a few things I've never seen it do before (Win7, a few intermission screens and reboots which I have never seen on several builds), but in the end it worked fine. No desk in the living room yet, so I put the computer aside for the last week.

Tonight, I decide to hook up the spare monitor and finish updating everything, windows boots, logs in, then the video driver proceeds to crash, followed by Explorer, followed by a BSOD claiming MEMORY_EXCEPTION. Well that's odd.

The mobo BIOS is kind enough to have Memtest 2.11+ built in, so I reboot and let her rip. Bam, 437 errors within 10 seconds. Up to 900+ after 2 minutes. Bum ram?

Check the ram SPD settings (Biostar is nice and even lets you pull the full SPD table in the BIOS). The ram should be fine, it's 1333Mhz stuff rated 1.5v and timings look fine. As I'm poking around the BIOS, I notice that VDIMM is running a little high - 1.6v. This is also something I find odd, since the ram is indeed spec'd at 1.5v. Finding the OC settings is counter-intuitive in the bios, but I manage to find it. VDIMM voltage is set to Auto, so I look - Auto is apparently where 1.5v should be, but there's no "manual" 1.5v setting, so I took the next best thing which is 1.55v, and also set the ram frequency down to 1066Mhz.

Reboot, and running memtest now with 0 errors so far during the time it's taken to type this post. Currently at 57%. Also noticed the clock speed on the CPU is proper now too - 2.93Ghz.

Feels like a "load optimal bios settings" is a recipe for epic fail on this board apparently.

Cliffs for the literary challenged:
1. New build
2. Mobo "overclocked" CPU out of the box
3. Epic failure crash with BSOD, apparent memory issue
4. Mobo "overvolting" RAM, apparently causing memory errors
5. Manual settings save the day

 

[AkumaX]

I got this board and paired it with an i7-860. However, the 860 has Turbo mode - is the o/cing engine turned on by default?

 

[SunnyD]

I got this board and paired it with an i7-860. However, the 860 has Turbo mode - is the o/cing engine turned on by default?

Well see, to be honest, I'm not sure! It look like it's not - the BIOS setting was set to "normal", and most all the options are grayed out. Hence that has me thinking it's not on. However the OC engine setting is set to V6, despite being grayed out. Not too big a deal if you ask me, since the only options are V6, V8 and V12... there is no "off".

I just dropped the beta bios that's listed on Biostar's page on it. Same results. If I go into the settings are set up a manual overclock, it's fine, boots at stock settings.

What irritates me the most though is the VDIMM voltage setting for 1.5v just isn't there. Obviously Auto is supposed to be 1.5v... but the mobo still kicks it to 1.6v. It also looked like the memory was actually running faster than spec, though there should have been no reason for it to have been that bad.

Anyhow, after fiddling with the settings, I passed memtest 2x at 1333MHz, so I'm fairly certain it's not the ram. Good thing this build/install wasn't final.

Guess I'll be dropping Biostar an email in the morning to see if they can address the issues in their next BIOS update.

 

[Gillbot]

I would suspect that it had the "Auto Overclock" turned on by default. Did you clear CMOS and load optimals before booting for the first time?

 

[SunnyD]

I would suspect that it had the "Auto Overclock" turned on by default. Did you clear CMOS and load optimals before booting for the first time?

Feels like a "load optimal bios settings" is a recipe for epic fail on this board apparently.

:hmm:

The problem is that the "Normal" setting seems to push an overclock too despite showing stock settings. I had to turn the overclock option to full manual in order to get the clocks where they were supposed to be. Of course half the problem also was that the board refused to run the specified memory voltage.

 

[SunnyD]

Biostar's response:

Did you "load optimal bios settings" in the bios?

 

[Gillbot]

Lol, i've not been a fan of Biostar since the overhyped Tpower i45.

 

[SunnyD]

After explaining - again - what I was seeing on this board, Biostar finally sent me a bios version that fixed about half of the issues. Default settings now properly set the CPU clock and RAM clock. However the GPU clock is still set incorrectly, and vDimm still does not automatically set properly as well, nor does it provide the correct manual voltage setting.

Things feel a bit more stable at this point however. I'll continue to pound on them till they get it right.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Glad to hear you're not taking pre-set replies for an answer Sunny. Give 'em hell.

 

[SunnyD]

Glad to hear you're not taking pre-set replies for an answer Sunny. Give 'em hell.

Actually, quite the contrary. I have to admit, Biostar is actually doing a good job of getting back to me with fixes. I just fired off another email with the latest round of issues (again, more default settings not being correct). I'm fairly certain I will likely have a new beta BIOS to try out within two days. They seem to have a fast turn-around time, and honestly seem genuinely interested in maintaining their products. I certainly can't complain.

Anyhow, thanks to a thread I posted in the memory forum, it seems like the actual stability issues I'm having are indeed because of the RAM. I guess it's a known issue with GSkill memory. Comforting at least. I'll be swapping out memory tonight. Thankfully I do happen to have spare memory to tide me over for the RMA.

 

[mannheimer]

Hi Sunny

I also have this combo i3-530 & Biostar TH55B HD. I'm using 2x 2GB Patriot RAM PC3-10666 which seems to be ok (memtest checked).

However, once in a while my Windows 7 just crashes out of the blue! Not even a blue screen sometimes. Very strange.

After reading your post I thought it might be the BIOS. Would you mind sharing your BIOS (Biostar doesn't seem to update the BIOS on their website).

Thanks so much.
Steve

 

[AkumaX]

on a different note, has anyone been able to use the hdmi output? vga out works fine, i can't get hdmi working...

 

[TheCycoONE]

I'm having problems with the HDMI output too. Post back if you find a solution (soon because I'm going to give up on this mobo if I can't figure it out in the next couple days - 7 day return policy)

 

[HumblePie]

LOL Biostar sucks. It's the worst mobo maker out there.

I have one right now only because I got it a long time ago as part of a combo deal through Frys with a CPU. I had it in a HTPC/backup system and rarely used. That being said, it has overclocking options but they didn't work. Anytime I tried overclocking the FSB on the board, random integrated peripherals would turn off such as the LAN or USB ports. They just stopped showing up in the BIOS and the Device Manager for windows until I dropped the FSB back down. I also know it wasn't my particular board because I returned the stupid thing to Fry's 3 times before I got fed up with it and realized that all the boards were like this. It was just a design flaw on the current board I have.

So I have no doubt they have plenty of design flaws in other boards like yours. When you get a chance, buy a board from a real maker.

 

[SunnyD]

Well while I wasn't paying attention, this thread seems to have come back to life.

Problem has been solved - it was faulty RAM. GSkill replaced the set and the machine has been running happily since without issue.

Hi Sunny

I also have this combo i3-530 & Biostar TH55B HD. I'm using 2x 2GB Patriot RAM PC3-10666 which seems to be ok (memtest checked).

However, once in a while my Windows 7 just crashes out of the blue! Not even a blue screen sometimes. Very strange.

After reading your post I thought it might be the BIOS. Would you mind sharing your BIOS (Biostar doesn't seem to update the BIOS on their website).

Thanks so much.
Steve

PM me your email address and I'll send you the bios they sent me.

on a different note, has anyone been able to use the hdmi output? vga out works fine, i can't get hdmi working...

HDMI works fine on my board.

LOL Biostar sucks. It's the worst mobo maker out there.

Erm, no. ECS would get the blanket "worst" award. Biostar is actually pretty good, when it comes to AMD boards. Their Intel boards aren't as good though.