having some issues with an OC on a 2500k advise/help please?

[Spurst]

I have an I5 2500k that I'm having some issues overclocking. I've currently tried anything from 4000 - 4500, but I can't seem to get it stable. The system will actually post up to 4800 @ default voltage, so I'm pretty sure my chip is capable of the OC to 4500.

When all the powersave features are off it runs great @ 4500, if I reboot or do a cold restart, I get a bios POST error "The system has experienced boot failures because of overclocking or changes of voltages.
Last settings in BIOS setup may not coincide with current H/W states."

This happens randomly during reboots, and its 80% on cold boots. Its a PITA, because I have to hit F2 confirm the OC and reboot, and then the machine takes the OC and happily loads the OS. Once rebooted, the system is about 99% stable. Basically everything runs, but I get a funky random lockup in Firefox - only in firefox... I could game for 8 hours straight or run a prime95 torture test and its solid. Firefox for 20 minutes and it locks up.

I've tried different ram, diff ram settings, different voltages for the CPU (anything from 1.25-1.45), chipset, etc. Nothing seems to solve that restart issue or the Firefox lockup issue except turning all of the powersave features ON.

If I enable the powersave features and set the turboboost multiplier to 4400 and left the voltages set to auto. This seems to work and I'm not getting the bios startup errors anymore, and while I don't get firefox induced lockups anymore, it still isn't 100% stable.

It's prime95 stable for 24hrs, but I'm getting some flaky issues in certain games that previously worked fine. For example - counter strike crashes now and has some funky sound issues when people talk on mic. I had to disable Bloom/HDR and now it seems to run slightly better... AVP crashes unless I disable SLI.

I've tried a variety of things - manually setting the voltage, dropping the multiplier down. Nothing seems to be problem free. I'm using 8gigs of Corsair XMS and have XMP turned off (it had lots of stability issues with that turned on and OC'd).

The chip should be capable of at least 4500, so I'd really like to see it running @4500. If I could leave speedstep enabled, that'd be nice for the powersaving, but it isn't mandatory. It was booting and having the same problems with the system @ 4500 @1.3volts as it has @ 4500 @ 1.45 volts.

The board is a gigabyte z68x-ud3h-b3
Overclocking on the z68 platform is new to me, so I'm open to any tips or tricks.

gigabyte z68x-ud3h-b3
i5 2500k
Coolermaster 212
8 gigs corsair XMS
GeForce 460 GTX SLI
760 Watt PCP&C PSU

 

[Zap]

Plenty of people are getting 4.5GHz, but it is in no way, shape or form "guaranteed."

Leave the power saving features on.

If I enable the powersave features and set the turboboost multiplier to 4400 and left the voltages set to auto. This seems to work and I'm not getting the bios startup errors anymore, and while I don't get firefox induced lockups anymore, it still isn't 100% stable.

It's prime95 stable for 24hrs, but I'm getting some flaky issues in certain games that previously worked fine. For example - counter strike crashes now and has some funky sound issues when people talk on mic. I had to disable Bloom/HDR and now it seems to run slightly better... AVP crashes unless I disable SLI.

I've tried a variety of things - manually setting the voltage, dropping the multiplier down. Nothing seems to be problem free. I'm using 8gigs of Corsair XMS and have XMP turned off (it had lots of stability issues with that turned on and OC'd).

Doesn't sound like a CPU problem, but more like a memory or GPU problem. The RAM not running XMP makes it sound like bad RAM, or some incompatibility. Can it run the advertised settings manually? Try running Memtest.

For the SLI problem, try swapping your cards around so the secondary card is now the primary card, and see if the problem persists, goes away or gets worse.

 

[Wuzup101]

Upgrade to the latest bios (F10) if you haven't already. It's as easy as putting them on a flash drive and pressing a button in Bios to flash (I believe it's F8). Edit: make sure to note the changes that you will have to make as this will take you back to default settings (IE: you will have to set HDDs to ACHI again if you used that setting previously).

Make sure you have the most current drivers for everything. Obviously, since this is a new build, you may have already done that. That being said, if you loaded drivers from the included CDs you may be a bit behind (just asking to make sure).

Run Memtest86 from a cold boot to check for memory errors... these can manifest pretty much exactly as the "random" issues that you are having. A poster in the "Which Z68" thread has the same board with similar issues (they seem to be memory related). He was working with gigabyte to resolve them and may have some input for you. FWIW, I'm using that exact board right now (working on overclocking my brother's system). I would advocate running memtest first with all default settings and then testing the XMP profile (again with other settings still at default). The ram / board combo should work with XMP settings... otherwise you paid for something that you are not getting!

Leave all power save features on (as Zap said above).

Again, as Zap said, it could be a GPU problem. I would advocate testing with a single card for now. That way at least you know you can get the system 100% stable with a single card. After that, SLI / Xfire can induce it's own subset of problems.

 

[Spurst]

i also tend to agree it feels like a ram issue, or a motherboard issue, in regards to this ram.
when i disabled the XMP, it truly felt like stability increased.

i've tried manually setting the memory timings and voltage, and still had random locks and hangs. I'm also getting this strange reboot loop, where if i try to shut the system down from within windows - it reboots instead of shuts down. if i hold the power button for 4 sec, it does shut down correctly.

i also tried 2x 4gb crucial ballistix modules, and those also had the same problem. is there a bootable option for memtest that is on a boot cd or something? I want to rule out the OS if i can.

 

[Wuzup101]

i also tend to agree it feels like a ram issue, or a motherboard issue, in regards to this ram.
when i disabled the XMP, it truly felt like stability increased.

i've tried manually setting the memory timings and voltage, and still had random locks and hangs. I'm also getting this strange reboot loop, where if i try to shut the system down from within windows - it reboots instead of shuts down. if i hold the power button for 4 sec, it does shut down correctly.

i also tried 2x 4gb crucial ballistix modules, and those also had the same problem. is there a bootable option for memtest that is on a boot cd or something? I want to rule out the OS if i can.

http://www.memtest.org/

You should be able to do a bootable CD or USB drive from the above link. Also any linux CD should have memtest on there (so if you happen to have one laying around you can run it from there). In any case - memory testing should always be done from outside the OS.