Computer used to OC fine... now won't OC at all.

[Shawn]

I used to have my C2D E6300 overclocked from 1.83GHz to 2.8GHz by changing the FSB to 400 and it was stable (though it would fail prime95). Upping the northbridge by .01v was enough to get it to pass prime95. I had it overclocked like this for a while but then went back to stock for the past year or so.

Now when I try to overclock with the exact same settings windows refuses to boot. When I try to boot into safe mode the computer always restarts when it gets to classpnp.sys.

I'm not sure why it won't boot. I took out everything that wasn't essential but still no go. The CPU temps are under 40C and I manually changed the ram and PCIe speeds so that the ram and GPU aren't OCed at all.

Motherboard is a Gigabyte 965p-ds3. Memtest-86 isn't finding any errors.

 

[kalrith]

I recommending reading the first post of this thread and following the instructions there to find your best overclocking setting.

Overclocking ability degrades over time, so I'm not surprised that you're experiencing different results now than you did in the past. I had a Q6600 at 3.22 GHz for 4 years, and then it started crashing all of a sudden. I ran Prime95, and it failed within 10 minutes. It was 24-hour prime stable when I first overclocked it. I backed it off to 3 GHz, and it was prime stable for 24 hours again.

Also, IMO it wasn't stable if it failed prime95. I recommend going step by step through the linked guide and finding the best OC settings that are prime stable for at least 12 hours. You don't have to run it for 12 hours every time, but once you think you're at your final overclock, run it for 12+ hours on all cores to be sure.

 

[Shawn]

The problem is it won't allow any overclock at all. I just tried booting off the Windows 7 CD and it booted up fine at 2.8ghz but refuses to even get to safe mode when booting off the hard drive. I've had unstable OCs before but usually they crash randomly not at the same spot everytime. Not sure what's going on.

 

[Avalon]

Welcome to my world. I think the board is just a POS. I have the P35 DS3, very similar, and every couple of months it randomly locks me out of any overclock. My settings will still be set to overclocked, but the system will boot stock. I can reset the BIOS or pull the battery all I want, but it won't boot overclocked until the board randomly decides to allow it again.

I've also got a P55 DS3 and P67 DS3 that are horridly picky with memory that won't boot unless it has exactly what it wants in it.

 

[tweakboy]

Best way is play a game, see how you like it... See if you can play 2 hours straight with a big engine game like BF3 or another new game... gl

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

the P35 chipset is horrible for overclocking so i'm not surprised..

 

[VirtualLarry]

the P35 chipset is horrible for overclocking so i'm not surprised..

It's not that bad. The IP35-E boards would do 500Mhz FSB for some 45nm dual-cores. My Gigabyte P35-DS3R v1.0 will do 400FSB easy on a 45nm quad.

Edit: I never had a 965 motherboard, so I cannot say how they overclock.

Edit: Check this link out.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169366

http://www.overclock.net/t/145468/intel-overclocking-redefined-interesting-p965-975x-secrets

 

[Shawn]

what about the P965?

 

[Shawn]

Well don't know what happened, but now Windows won't boot even at stock settings. Loading off a bartpe cd now and going to rename the offending file and see if windows starts.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That might be a sign... that it's time to upgrade.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2221639

 

[Shawn]

Heh, I got it working. Had to reset the CMOS for whatever reason. Still won't OC though.

 

[Shawn]

Upon further digging i found the BSOD to be a STOP: 0x000000A5 with the message "The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPU compliant.

 

[LagunaX]

Google "The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPU compliant":
Disable APM in bios.
Disable Legacy USB Support in bios.
select PC type: ACPI Multiprocessor PC.

Those 965p-ds3's all had horrible overheating issues with the NB with the NB voltage bump required for higher FSB's. I remember I had to put a mini fan over mine back in the day.

i3-2100: $125
Gigabyte H61 mobo: $55
8gb DDR3 ram: $30-50

No overclocking but a world of difference for a little over $200.
Add a 60-90gb SSD and it'll take you to warp 8 for ~$300 upgrade...

 

[kalrith]

If overheating is an issue, make sure you have plenty of airflow in your case and blow out all the dust with canned air. Also, see how much you can overclock on stock voltage.

A good way to make certain the problem is the mobo and not cpu is to set your cpu multiplier to 5x. You already said that your ram and gpu are set to not be overclocked, but make sure you didn't change the settings back and then forget

 

[tweakboy]

the P35 chipset is horrible for overclocking so i'm not surprised..

Really ? So how you figure I went from 2400Mhz stock to 3760Mhz ,, that's not big enough OC,, its 57 percent CPU OC and 77 OC of the FSB.

wat talkin about now ? !!!

 

[Shawn]

APM cannot be disabled in the bios. This must be a Windows issue because it gives this message if I try underclocking too. No heat issues at all.

I changed the multiplier from 7x to 6x and left everything else stock so that it's running at 1.6GHz and it still crashes on boot.

 

[kalrith]

I did some digging about your board and this error, and it looks to be a memory problem:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/248676-30-strange-compounding-bsod-crashes

http://www.thewinforums.com/threads/7529-Resolved-Acpi-4-Gig-ram-problem

Some say that the board doesn't like Crucial. Some say it doesn't like 4 sticks of RAM. Some say it doesn't like any RAM faster than DDR2 800. Do you buy any chance fall into those 3 categories? Some people said they passed memtest with no errors but still got the bsod.

The second link was solved by enabling onboard video in the bios even though he has a dedicated gpu. You could try that.

I'd also recommend trying different RAM (if possible) or at least trying just one stick of RAM in the different slots.

 

[Shawn]

Hmm, that could be it. My ram is both Crucal and I am using 4 sticks (8GB total). I think the last time I overclocked I only had 4GB of ram (2 sticks total).

 

[Shawn]

Nevermind... my ram is corsair. I tried removing all but one of the sticks but I still have the same problem.

 

[Shawn]

Fixed it! Just remembered I had an unofficial BIOS. Reflashed the BIOS with the latest BIOS from Gigabyte and it is working at 2.8GHz now!

 

[LagunaX]

 

[kalrith]

That's great! I'm glad you got it fixed.