E6420 Overclocking, Need help.

[SilentAssassin]

So my E6420 was running stable for 12 hours in Orthos at 8x400. Then I went to install programs and play some games ect. Out of nowhere when I'm browsing the web I get a blue screen and the pc restarts. Before windows can even load up again I get another blue screen. Suddenly after over 12 hours of stress testing the cpu isn't stable anymore. So I upped the vcore a bit and it seems stable again. I was getting 49c at load but now that I upped the vcore I'm sitting at 52-54c while running Orthos. Is this still ok and any ideas why the cpu suddenly needed more volts after 12 hours of runnig fine? Is it gonna need more volts again in another day or should it be good now you think? I don't really like the temps though. Maybe I should drop down a bit to 3ghz instead of 3.2 and see if that can run stable at default vcore?

 

[f4phantom2500]

it crashed because it wasn't really stable. you can run stability tests all day and night, but it's not the final say on whether a cpu is stable. yours obviously wasn't, if you just upped the voltage from stock then you should be ok. if it crashes again maybe put more volts into it (if you're not already pushing it), or yeah back down the oc a bit.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Could also be a RAM issue. S&M is a decent program for quick testing of CPU and RAM. Run at 100% load. I normally run Orthos for 1 hour. If stable, then I focus my attention on RAM.

 

[SilentAssassin]

Alright I'll give S&M a try after Orthos runs stable for a while. Like I said though, the CPU was at stock vcore still and when I upped it I could boot into windows without a bsod again so seems like it's just the cpu.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

You'll probably need about 1.365Vcore to run @ 3.2GHz. S&M is generally faster in spotting problem with your overclocking.

 

[SilentAssassin]

Ya I'm at an actual 1.33vcore while the cpu is 100% under load and it seems stable so far. What settings do I want to run for S&M? I used the wizard and had everything checked with 100% load and the quick test option. That passes with no problems, should I run the long test now?

 

[lopri]

Dunno.. I haven't really had much success with S&M. Same for OCCT. I had compatibility issues more often than not so I stick to Orthos (Prime) LargeFFT and Memtest.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Use the AVERAGE option. S&M's heat mode consumes more current (hotter CPU temp by about 4C) during testing. Due to Vdroop, your 1.33 under load is probably 1.37 in BIOS.

S&M doesn't like Vista. Orthos Large and Memtest are very good, but it can take longer to flag the error.

 

[SilentAssassin]

This is very interesting. It appears you might have been right at first serpent. After shutting down the pc for a bit and turning it back on I wasn't stable anymore and windows couldn't load. So I went back into the bios and changed my memory ratio to 1:1. So now I'm at 400x8 with the memory running at 800 instead of 1000 which I had origianly. Now the system is stable again. So I went into the bios again and set the cpu back to default vcore. Now I'm also still stable at 400x8 1:1 ratio with default vcore again. So weird. Does this mean the ram wasn't stable then? Maybe I needed 2.3v on the ram instead of 2.2?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Your actual RAM speed at 800 is only 400MHz. You were running your memory at 500MHz with the previous setting. Not sure about the model number of your RAM. Most 1.8V DDR2 800 sticks are good up to about 450MHz with 2.0V. You normally don't want to add more than 0.2V over the RAM's spec.

 

[SilentAssassin]

It's Mushkin ram rated at 5-5-4-12 @ 533mhz:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146677

I just tried 2.3v and it's still no good at the 1.25 ratio. Not sure what to do really.

Also does the core 2 duo run faster at a 1:1 ratio with the ram? It seems like my 3dmark score is a little better even though the ram is running at a slower speed now. I think I'll just keep it like this since this seems to be very stable now.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: SilentAssassin
It's Mushkin ram rated at 5-5-4-12 @ 533mhz:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146677

I just tried 2.3v and it's still no good at the 1.25 ratio. Not sure what to do really.

Also does the core 2 duo run faster at a 1:1 ratio with the ram? It seems like my 3dmark score is a little better even though the ram is running at a slower speed now. I think I'll just keep it like this since this seems to be very stable now.

well that's possible, but i think it's probably because it wasn't stable before. i would keep it at 1:1, just to eliminate the possibility that it's the ram (or at least it would let you oc higher before your ram causes you problems).

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Overclocking RAMs. I really don't trust those numbers because you must push the RAMs to the bleeding edge to hit specs. As the sticks heat up, it may fail. 1:1.25 will add a little more speed with some benchies, but only if the modules are stable. The advantage of 450MHz vs 500MHz is minimal. I would try 1:1.20 divider. If you still have stability issue, then use 1:1 and lower voltage to 2.1 or 2.2.

 

[SilentAssassin]

Passes S&M and ran Orthos for 12 hours with no problems. Then I shut the pc down for a bit and everything still seems to be perfectly stable. Was playing WoW and Counter-Strike Sourse with no problems. This cpu is sooo much faster than my athlon xp. Now that it's finally looking stable though I was reading up on some windows xp optimizations for dual cores. I came across a dual core hotfix here and was wondering if I should install this? Windows XP already shows both cores in the task manager and they went to 100% during orthos so is this hotfix something that I should install?