help..cant hit 200mgz anymore

[fleflikr]

ive been running my winchester at 2.5 ghz for 12 months now with a 1:1 ratio (200mgz).
recently my board started crashing to blue screen. thought i wacked out my system for sure.
played with settings and finaly got stabilized.
can still run at 2.5 ghz but only if i drop ram frequency to 166 or below.
question: why can i no longer run at 200mgz. not even factory settings.
could it be worn mem controller in cpu or bad mboard?
pass mem test at 200mgz just fine
all at 1t...ht 3x....core v @ l.425 plus 10% ...high temp under load = 55c

msi k8n neo2 platinum (1.8bios)
winchester 3200
corsair xms 4400 (2 x 512)
antec 550w tp2
thermalright xp90
bfg 6800gt
nec dvd

 

[EightySix Four]

Hmm, first thought was PSU, and I see you have an Antec, there's been reports going around they've been inherently instable voltage wise recently. Run a monitor and watch your voltages under load etc and see if they change alot.

Generally nothing just goes "bad"... So a PSU would be my first suspect.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I think your confused about memory speeds. If your running 2.5ghz which I assume is 250x10 with a 1:1 ratio, your ram is running 250mhz not 200mhz.

My guess is that the additional stress on the CPU's memory controller is causing heat issues, and as your HSF collected dust over time it lost the ability to cool the CPU enough to be stable. Try blowing the dust out of your case and HSF and see if that helps

 

[fleflikr]

sorry i must admit this is still a little confusing to me.
in bios under dram configuration my selected options are 200 mgz 2.5 4 4 8 1T
200 is no longer attainable at anycpu fsb frequency (not even default 10 x 200)
166...133...and 100 work fine ht 3x-4x
and correct ... i was running at 10 x 250 at spd ram rating 2.5 4 4 8
i keep hsf very clean ...dont think heats an issue honestly as i am still running at 2.5 gtz with same temps hi and lo
voltages under no load are: 3.31-3.36 5.0-5.03 12.40-12.59
all stay the same under load......is 12v line a little high?

bought psu new 3 months ago new

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Your voltages look fine. Not sure about the sudden change in stability? Any thing else change? new programs? more intense usage.

I also have had a 3200+ winchester since last november, now in my sons machine. Mine never would do 250x10, it would boot but was never stable. The tops on it with the 10x multi was about 246 but with the 9x mullti it will do 289x9=2605mhz

 

[fleflikr]

im sure.....10 x 250......actually im there right now stable ....just cant hit it at 1:1
in fact cant hit anything at 200mgz only 166 and down
no new software or change in habits
any attempt at 200 mgz at any cpu frequency crashes to blue screen

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Thats definately a ram problem, try each stick individually and see if it will boot with the 200mhz setting with either stick. See if you have one stick going bad

 

[fleflikr]

ok i ran it through a mem test at 200mgz and it ran all nite fine

ill pull each one at a time to be sure as you say

gonna take a bit with this board and hsf....

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I'm confused? How did you run memtest all night at 200mhz when it won't post at 200mhz regardless of FSB speed?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I'm starting to think maybe this isn't a hardware problem at all, maybe a corrupted device driver. When you get the blue screen does it stop on the BS or instantly reboot? If it reboots look for an option in bios to disable "reboot on error" so when it BSOD's it will stop and you can note the error


You might try doing a repair install of the OS, and reloading the latest drivers for CPU,chipset,GPU and any other hardware that requires drivers

 

[fleflikr]

sorry it crashes just after post or while windows is starting
ocassionaly it will make it to desktop but wont last long
reformatted and reinstalled xp but same scenario (clean install)

sorry blue screen stops

 

[fleflikr]

also prime95 runs fine on 1st and 3rd test...but fails instantly on 2nd test at 200mgz

below 200mgz works fine on all 3 prime tests

 

[fleflikr]

well you hit it on the nose

one bad module cant thank you enough!

rma already started

my hats off to you guitar daddy.........