Changing CPU voltage IP35-E

[Spike]

So my oc has been fine for many months but never quite passed benchmarks. This has not been a problem until I started to play Stalker Clear Sky and now I'm getting a ton of BSOD's. I assume it's a hardware problem and even though I tried backing down my oc to nothing I still crash. So I want to see if I can make the setup more stable and therefore want to bump the vcore just one notch up fromt stock which leads me to my issue... how the heck do I do that?

Initially when I overclocked the machine I wanted to bump the vcore just a tiny bit but never could in the BIOS. I have the northbridge a small bump to deal with the 8GB of ram but for some reason I can't change the cpu voltage. I'm assuming it's my inherant blindless or stupidity that is preventing this so I figured I would finally admit it and ask.

Any help?

Thanks!

 

[nerp]

IP35-E you should be able to go under voltages and switch from Auto to "user define" and then set vcore manually.

Try clearing CMOS if your machine seems to be running at the wrong voltage for your chip. I'd be concerned if the machine was BSODing. Have you ruled out RAM? Is the cpu running at the correct voltages on auto even at stock?

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: nerp
IP35-E you should be able to go under voltages and switch from Auto to "user define" and then set vcore manually.

Try clearing CMOS if your machine seems to be running at the wrong voltage for your chip. I'd be concerned if the machine was BSODing. Have you ruled out RAM? Is the cpu running at the correct voltages on auto even at stock?

To start these are only the second BSOD's I have ever had and they only occur while playing Clear Sky. The first two BSOD's (only two since Jan when I built it) where due to issues with ntune and Vista 64 right at the start.

I don't recall changing the "user defined" setting though I was able to change my northbridge voltage so I'm not sure. The CPU is running at stock volts, at least it was initially. I can't remember the exact value as I'm at work (1.2 v I believe) but when I first built it I checked and it was the correct voltage. I did memtests "back in the day" and everything checked out then. I have not done that since and plan to run some test tonight with everything at stock to see what I can find.

EDIT** So whats a good program to view the voltage of the cpu? I cannot figure out if my voltage is going up with my bumps.

 

[razor2025]

You can use multitude of programs to check your CPU voltage. Personally, I use CPU-Z.

 

[nerp]

cpuZ works. Don't run cpuz and uguru at the same time, though.

And the IP35-E has insane vdroop. Be prepared to push it more than you feel comfortable with only to watch cpuz report .05 less than what the BIOS says.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: nerp
cpuZ works. Don't run cpuz and uguru at the same time, though.

And the IP35-E has insane vdroop. Be prepared to push it more than you feel comfortable with only to watch cpuz report .05 less than what the BIOS says.

I think this was my problem initially. Now I remember being able to bump the voltage in the bios but I could never see those bumps in windows. I'm going to try uguru and see if that works...

 

[brencat]

Spike, uguru does not work with the IP35-E as the board doesn't have the uguru chip. That program only works with the IP35 Pro.

Adjust your voltages manually in bios as nerp suggested:

Go to Softmenu Setup ---> Voltages Control --> "Manual"

Now you can adjust vcore, vDIMM, vMCH and a few others.

A couple more questions:
1. How much vDIMM are you giving your RAM with 4 slots filled?

2. What bios version are you running? If you have Bios 16 or higher, I'd suggest setting the MCH 1.25v line item to "Auto".

 

[johnnycasaba]

Spike,

I recently upgraded my E2160 to an E7200 on my IP35-E. Prior to installing the E7200, I upgraded my BIOS to the latest one available (18 I think). Well I thought I was seeing some serious vdroop with the new chip, but after adjusting the vcore higher and higher and not seeing any change in Windows, I decided to clear the CMOS. Bingo, that was it. Now the Vcore changes I was making in the BIOS were showing up. Worth a shot. Good luck.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: johnnycasaba
Spike,

I recently upgraded my E2160 to an E7200 on my IP35-E. Prior to installing the E7200, I upgraded my BIOS to the latest one available (18 I think). Well I thought I was seeing some serious vdroop with the new chip, but after adjusting the vcore higher and higher and not seeing any change in Windows, I decided to clear the CMOS. Bingo, that was it. Now the Vcore changes I was making in the BIOS were showing up. Worth a shot. Good luck.

Yeah the IP35-E really likes cleared CMOS after a CPU change, bios update, etc.

 

[xavier es]

Originally posted by: nerp
.

Yeah the IP35-E really likes cleared CMOS after a CPU change, bios update, etc.

sometimes a half hour or hour doesn.t clear the CMOS on my IP35-E, i have often left the battery out over night to get the cmos reset.

 

[Spike]

After much testing I found I actually had a bad ram stick so currently I'm in the process of doing an RMA on one 2GB stick. I did an overnight of both memtest and prime with the current 6gb, 3.7ghz setup and passed with 0 errors on both. Sad to say I'm still crashing on clear sky which is quite annoying. The last two variables are my gpu or the game itself and seeing as how the game has some serious bugs I'm betting on the latter. I am going to see if my Sapphire 4870 is one of the party numbers that had issues with the power save feature and if so I'll update the bios.

Originally posted by: brencat
Spike, uguru does not work with the IP35-E as the board doesn't have the uguru chip. That program only works with the IP35 Pro.

Adjust your voltages manually in bios as nerp suggested:

Go to Softmenu Setup ---> Voltages Control --> "Manual"

Now you can adjust vcore, vDIMM, vMCH and a few others.

A couple more questions:
1. How much vDIMM are you giving your RAM with 4 slots filled?

2. What bios version are you running? If you have Bios 16 or higher, I'd suggest setting the MCH 1.25v line item to "Auto".

I'm not sure on the BIOS version I have, I believe it is 15. I did not play with the vdimm settings so those are whatever they are at default. The only two settings I changed where up one notch on the vcore and north bridge (MCH?).

Originally posted by: nerp

Originally posted by: johnnycasaba
Spike,

I recently upgraded my E2160 to an E7200 on my IP35-E. Prior to installing the E7200, I upgraded my BIOS to the latest one available (18 I think). Well I thought I was seeing some serious vdroop with the new chip, but after adjusting the vcore higher and higher and not seeing any change in Windows, I decided to clear the CMOS. Bingo, that was it. Now the Vcore changes I was making in the BIOS were showing up. Worth a shot. Good luck.

Yeah the IP35-E really likes cleared CMOS after a CPU change, bios update, etc.

This is interesting... I don't recall ever having cleared the CMOS on my board except when updating the bios and it was definitly less than a min. I may have to flash the board to BIOS 17 and give that a try.

My only concern is sorta the "if it aint broke" saying now that my setup passes the stress tests. I don't want to screw around with the settings if things are working well regardless of the Clear Sky issues since at this point it's probably not CPU or Ram. I'll use memtest again once I get the replacement 2GB stick so at that point a bios update may be needed.