Boot problems (non)related to overclock?

[imported_envy]

Hi, I have a problem that's been bothering me for the past week or so. 2 weeks ago I built a new machine:

Sempron 2800+ (AM2)
MSI K9N Neo-F
2x512MB DDR2 667Mhz
HIS X800GTO 128MB
1x ATA HDD, 1x DVDRW
400W PSU (came with the case)

I am on a tight budget and quite satisfied with the setup I got for the money. I was buying the computer for overclocking and I got what I wanted - I oced the processor from stock 1,6Ghz to 2,4 and StressPrime says everything's fine. The graphics card has worse mem modules so no oc there, but the GPU went up 35% and maybe could've gone even higher, if it wasn't limited by the stock cooling. So far so good, but I have some stability issues and I'm not sure whether or not they are caused by overclock.
Sometimes the system reboots even without any significant load and then it restarts again 4-5x during the next boot. It's not about temperatures, they're well under 50C. I thought it's caused by the overclock, but it happens even when I put everything back to stock frequencies.
Windows log files say something about the graphics drivers malfunctioning - ok, that would be the first restart from the OS, but what about those other 4-5 reboots that immediately follow?
And I repeat again - this happens when the system's almost idle. Sometimes I play HL2, Far Cry for 3-4 hours and everything works just fine, so what the **** is happening??
Could it be my PSU? I can't think of anything else. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance, I really need help.

 

[5t3v0]

PSU or memory. Almost certainly PSU. Test with each memory module individually. If it still happens, PSU definately.

 

[5t3v0]

The reason I suggsted it is PSU is because memory errors usually give a BSOD where as power failures result in restarts. I had a Q-Tec 400W psu in the past on an Athlon XP 2500+ system which would regularly restart at stock speeds. After I changed it to a Hiper 350W, it never happened again and I was able to overclock it to a 3200+ no bother.

However, if you have your system set to automatically restart after a system failure, you may be masking memory errors and misinterpreting them as PSU. To turn this off, follow these steps (apologies if you know this bit already).
1. right-click on "My Computer"
2. click"Properties"
3. click the "Advanced" tab
4. in "Startup and Recovery" click "Settings"
6. in "System failure" uncheck "Automatically restart".

If you get a BSOD after this, it was memory. The swapping out ram sticks will tell you which one, then RMA it.

Good luck.

 

[imported_envy]

One more question - I'm new to overclocking 64bit AMDs and all the guides I've read so far say a lot about mem and HTT settings. But BIOS on my MSI board doesn't have any settings like those - I can set memory frequencies and some latencies and HTT to 400Mhz or 800. I also didn't find PCI locks etc. So when I overclock proc I up the FSB and clock mem down to 200Mhz (x2), but this is all I change. Could it be that bad MEM, FSB ratio or whatever causes the problem? Cause I don't have any way to set those with this board. Or are there any hidden options in MSI mobo's BIOSes?

 

[5t3v0]

I think you may have possibly picked the worst board possible for overclocking. I've had a look through MSI's downloadable PDF manual and there's virtually nothing in the "Cell Menu" menu option which is where you'd normally expect to find many of the OC settings on an MSI board. Under "Advanced Chipset Features" you have some options for Hypertransport and Memory settings, but these look limited. I dont know if MSI are still hiding menus in the BIOS. I remember when I had an MSI board for my Athlon XP system, you had to press some combination of buttons to get up a hidden menu with memory OC options - I think it was CTRL-F1. Getting a budget board for overclocking is never going to pay off I'm afraid. Always pays to do your homework before you buy.

 

[imported_envy]

About the board - it's not that I hadn't done any searching before buying the mobo. I read a few reviews (well, one ) and they said they were able to clock on it very well. And so am I, in fact - there are not many options, but it works pretty well - from 1,6 to 2,4 and StressPrime for 6 hours with no errors (but the BIOS options are very spartan for sure...).
Anyway, I've already found the problem - the mem settings are okay, but one of the modules is faulty - Memtest returned about hundreds of errors in the first 20 seconds of testing. I'm gonna do some stress testing on the other module, which seems to be okay and see whether or not my problems disappear. And tommorow I'm gonna visit my local retailer.... bad, bad Alfacomp...

I was also thinking about a budget Gigabyte board before buying the MSI one, but it was MicroATX with integrated VGA and I thought it would be more difficult to keep chipset temps low on this mobo (although the reviews were also quite positive). Well, I probably made a mistake, but I cannot afford anything more pricey than budget board. At least the MSI has large heatsinks on chipset and no noisy fan. And with a new BIOS, maybe...

 

[5t3v0]

If you can get up to 2.4 on it and its stable then its not doing you too badly at all. I think it was the right choice compared to the other one you mentioned. Glad you got to the bottom of the rebooting issue.

 

[imported_envy]

Yeah, with the bad mem module removed, everything works like a charm. Thanks a lot for the suggestions, I RMAed the faulty stick today. I decided to replace the PSU anyway, it cannot hurt to have a branded one at least.

What's interesting, the wrong mem calculations were slowing the machine down terribly. In 3D Mark 05 it did only 2200p with 1Gig (bad mem). Now that I removed it, the Mark does 3800p with 512MB 4400 after OC.

Thanks again.

 

[imported_envy]

Ahh, I came home with a new module just to realize that structure of the chips on this stick is completely different from my second module Great - no dual channel and no overclock. I guess I'll have to wait for Monday to get it replaced once more...

 

[5t3v0]

That sucks. What PSU are you ordering?

 

[imported_envy]

It's Seasonic S12 430W. Everyone's recommending it, so I hope it's a good choice. The wattage should be high enough for my setup.