- Jun 30, 2004
- 15,730
- 1,457
- 126
I'm looking for insights while I troubleshoot this difficulty.
Here are the specifics of the system:
E8400 CPU
680i Striker Extreme [BIOS 1603 August, 2008]
G.SKILL 4GB 2x2GB DDR2-1000
Seagate 7200.10 320GB x 2 in RAID0
BFG [nvidia] 9600 GT 512MB x 2 in SLI
Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P
Seasonic 650HT PSU
VISTA-64
First, cooling is great.
I ran up the FSB unlinked to RAM to 1600 -- almost immediately 1:1 with DDR2-800 and stock 5,5,5,15, 2T latencies. After a few iterations, I found the stable voltage for 3.6Ghz and a 9-hour test run with PRIME95 small-FFT test. I'd tested the RAM with MEMTEST86+ -- but only for the minimum recommended test-bank iterations and about 5 runs at test #5.
VCORE setting was 1.32V -- rounded up from the 5-digit set value. This, of course, was showing idle monitor readings around 1.28V, and the mobo has a 0.02V Vdroop.
Over the last few days, I've been pushing to see if I can't get up close to 4Ghz. So I'd moved up the VCORE and settings incrementally, until I finally had a 5 hour, 45 min preliminary small-FFTs run -- which I manually stopped with 0 err, 0 warns. At that point, VCORE setting was just below 1.37V showing monitor readings at idle around 1.34V and load of about 1.32V. This last setting follows the pattern set by the details above, at 3.82 Ghz. Coretemp readings, both cores, never broke 59C with room-ambient of a carefully-measured 80F degrees.
So I decided to call it quits for a while on this "OC exploration," and dropped back to 3.6Ghz -- same settings and lower VCORE as shown above.
Here, I decided I'd better submit the G.SKILLs to rigorous "Blend-Test" at the DDR2-800 setting and stock latencies.
At this point, I'd get through about 20 minutes of testing, whereupon a BSOD would pop up saying "hardware error: consult hardware vendor."
My first thoughts about this: I was stressing the memory -- it might be the memory. That's OK -- easy to RMA, and I've got plenty of spare kits. moreover, the G.SKILLs are now selling for about $90.
My WORST thoughts: some sort of damage to the graphics card, maybe the chipset. I just don't see how it would be either GFX card, though, because the PCI_E buses were fixed at stock values, and they're not OC'd. The motherboard has hardly been used more than a couple weeks total. It was a spare board I picked up last year building my other rig. The Graphics cards are as old as this system -- about 3 weeks.
I've swapped in a set of Crucial Tracer DDR2-800's for now after clearing CMOS. I'm testing at the stock defaults (3.0 Ghz) at the moment. Plan to test at the 3.6 Ghz setting.
Anyone ever had symptoms like this? OBviously I'm trying to save myself time and trouble by asking. Or perhaps you have some insights as to the source and cause of these symptoms. I'd be happy as a pig in poop if it just proves to be RAM.
I just don't see the processor going south at that voltage and the brief time it was running at that speed.
Here are the specifics of the system:
E8400 CPU
680i Striker Extreme [BIOS 1603 August, 2008]
G.SKILL 4GB 2x2GB DDR2-1000
Seagate 7200.10 320GB x 2 in RAID0
BFG [nvidia] 9600 GT 512MB x 2 in SLI
Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P
Seasonic 650HT PSU
VISTA-64
First, cooling is great.
I ran up the FSB unlinked to RAM to 1600 -- almost immediately 1:1 with DDR2-800 and stock 5,5,5,15, 2T latencies. After a few iterations, I found the stable voltage for 3.6Ghz and a 9-hour test run with PRIME95 small-FFT test. I'd tested the RAM with MEMTEST86+ -- but only for the minimum recommended test-bank iterations and about 5 runs at test #5.
VCORE setting was 1.32V -- rounded up from the 5-digit set value. This, of course, was showing idle monitor readings around 1.28V, and the mobo has a 0.02V Vdroop.
Over the last few days, I've been pushing to see if I can't get up close to 4Ghz. So I'd moved up the VCORE and settings incrementally, until I finally had a 5 hour, 45 min preliminary small-FFTs run -- which I manually stopped with 0 err, 0 warns. At that point, VCORE setting was just below 1.37V showing monitor readings at idle around 1.34V and load of about 1.32V. This last setting follows the pattern set by the details above, at 3.82 Ghz. Coretemp readings, both cores, never broke 59C with room-ambient of a carefully-measured 80F degrees.
So I decided to call it quits for a while on this "OC exploration," and dropped back to 3.6Ghz -- same settings and lower VCORE as shown above.
Here, I decided I'd better submit the G.SKILLs to rigorous "Blend-Test" at the DDR2-800 setting and stock latencies.
At this point, I'd get through about 20 minutes of testing, whereupon a BSOD would pop up saying "hardware error: consult hardware vendor."
My first thoughts about this: I was stressing the memory -- it might be the memory. That's OK -- easy to RMA, and I've got plenty of spare kits. moreover, the G.SKILLs are now selling for about $90.
My WORST thoughts: some sort of damage to the graphics card, maybe the chipset. I just don't see how it would be either GFX card, though, because the PCI_E buses were fixed at stock values, and they're not OC'd. The motherboard has hardly been used more than a couple weeks total. It was a spare board I picked up last year building my other rig. The Graphics cards are as old as this system -- about 3 weeks.
I've swapped in a set of Crucial Tracer DDR2-800's for now after clearing CMOS. I'm testing at the stock defaults (3.0 Ghz) at the moment. Plan to test at the 3.6 Ghz setting.
Anyone ever had symptoms like this? OBviously I'm trying to save myself time and trouble by asking. Or perhaps you have some insights as to the source and cause of these symptoms. I'd be happy as a pig in poop if it just proves to be RAM.
I just don't see the processor going south at that voltage and the brief time it was running at that speed.