i7 3770k stuck at 1.6ghz (Resolved)

[AnotherGuy]

Hi. I have a Maximus 5 formula with a i7 3770k that I am trying to get to run at least at its 3.5ghz or more but unable to. The temps are 30 C on idle and under 60C in prime 95 full load.
The system is all water cooled. CPU, Mobo, and Gpu - AMD 7950.

I am not able no matter what i do to get the cpu to pass 1.6ghz. I checked through latest Cpuz and Coretemp they all show the same 1.6ghz. Even tried clearing Cmos and loading defaults, tried disabling speedstep, C states, setting windows Power options to Maximum performance, nothing gets the cpu to pass 1.6ghz.
I dont understand what could be wrong the CPU or the Mobo? This is a previously used system and not brand new, so I understand its harder to know.
Any idea which can be the culprit ? Any suggestion?

 

[TerryMathews]

Hi. I have a Maximus 5 formula with a i7 3770k that I am trying to get to run at least at its 3.5ghz or more but unable to. The temps are 30 C on idle and under 60C in prime 95 full load.
The system is all water cooled. CPU, Mobo, and Gpu - AMD 7950.

I am not able no matter what i do to get the cpu to pass 1.6ghz. I checked through latest zpuz and coretemp they all show the same 1.6ghz. Even tried clearing Cmos and loading defaults, tried disabling speedstep, C states, setting windows Power options to Maximum performance, nothing gets the cpu to pass 1.6ghz.
I dont understand what could be wrong the CPU or the Mobo? This is a previously used system and not brand new, so I understand its harder to know.
Any idea which can be the culprit ? Any suggestion?

Check the power control panel and make sure youre not set to Max Battery. You want always on or office/desktop.

 

[AnotherGuy]

as i said i already tried setting it to maximum performance as well as balanced... this is in win 7 Pro 64 btw.

 

[sm625]

What is your super pi score?

 

[TerryMathews]

as i said i already tried setting it to maximum performance as well as balanced... this is in win 7 Pro 64 btw.

Sorry read right over that, I saw where you flipped C states.

Have to tried resetting CMOS to defaults?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Yeah I reset cmos to defaults. I havent tried the Super PI bench. I will give it a try and post.
I ran the 3dmark 11 basic tests and got a score of 6500 on the first test and tried to see what others with similar specs are getting but i couldnt find any info, coz it kept giving me results of people with 2 video cards and I only have 1.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Super-PI score 1M is 23s, which is pretty low compared to others. So do we blame the processor at this point? Maybe they overheated it when they were installing it the first time? Can it be some motherboard setting locking it?

 

[WOTMODS]

Hi. I have a Maximus 5 formula with a i7 3770k that I am trying to get to run at least at its 3.5ghz or more but unable to. The temps are 30 C on idle and under 60C in prime 95 full load.
The system is all water cooled. CPU, Mobo, and Gpu - AMD 7950.

I am not able no matter what i do to get the cpu to pass 1.6ghz. I checked through latest Cpuz and Coretemp they all show the same 1.6ghz. Even tried clearing Cmos and loading defaults, tried disabling speedstep, C states, setting windows Power options to Maximum performance, nothing gets the cpu to pass 1.6ghz.
I dont understand what could be wrong the CPU or the Mobo? This is a previously used system and not brand new, so I understand its harder to know.
Any idea which can be the culprit ? Any suggestion?

Possible oversight could be in advanced if this BIOS is similar to such mobos as a Sabertooth - under advanced there should be a cpu configuration - set the ratio to auto if it is not already

I'd enable EIST / C1E / C6 - disable or auto the rest but no fixed ratio in either base or turbo - / clock auto per core

 

[cytg111]

boot a linux distro from an usb drive .. just to eliminate the OS/install

 

[ShintaiDK]

Just to be sure, CPU-Z stays at 1.6Ghz even when you run prime95? or does it change speed?

1.6Ghz is the idle clock for it.

60C is a lot if it runs at 1.6Ghz.

 

[Ed1]

CPU-Z should give range of multiplier (16-38x) , telling you turbo goes to 38x .

Does it say 3400 mhz in bios and are you missing turbo ratio button ?

If so might need to reflash bios but try others first .

 

[AnotherGuy]

Yes cpuZ stays at 1.6ghz while on prime95. The system is watercooled and the water temp is -2 to -4C on idle, and cpu is at 28C on idle, while under prime95 its at around 50C.
CPUZ says ratio 16-35 but it always stays at 16, never kicks in while running prime or games... its like stuck and never changes neither in bios or wndows.

 

[ZGR]

You could try ThrottleStop to manually raise your clock.

Also, in the power management settings in Windows 7, you can set your max and min clockspeeds as percentages.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Did you try to boot Linux yet from USB/optical? Or reinstall?

There was a similar thread not long ago, tho a laptop. And it was due to an application.

 

[Ed1]

You mention bios in above post , Does bios show at 3500 ??
CPU ratio should be auto and your turbo ratio should be auto (make sure there not missing as Asus has a bios bug where the multipliers get stuck/corrupted , only fix is reflash but this generally only happens if you were changing settings a lot in bios .

 

[sm625]

23 seconds on super pi 1M means the cpu is definitely stuck at 1.6GHz even at full load on one core. If I couldnt find a setting in the bios to fix this then I would replace the motherboard.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I already reflashed to the same latest bios that I had and still the same. Booted from a linux disk and still same.
I am getting a new cpu replacement from intel with 1 day shipping and I will let u know how that goes.
I am an IT guy and have built a few systems but I have never seen anything like this.

 

[unclewebb]

ThrottleStop 6.00
http://www.thedigitalhq.com/downloads/

Many motherboards use a feature called bi-directional processor hot (BD PROCHOT). This is a signal path on the board which goes directly to the CPU. This lets other components on your board, usually the voltage regulator, send signals to your CPU to force it to throttle down to the minimum speed which is 1600 MHz. It basically tricks the CPU into thinking it is too hot so the CPU responds by running at its lowest speed to cool itself down.

It's possible that your CPU really is too hot but I think you would have noticed this in your testing. My guess is that a sensor on your board is borked and is causing this problem. You can use ThrottleStop which lets you disable the BD PROCHOT signal path. As soon as you do this, your CPU will probably rise up to its rated speed and then some.

Disabling BD PROCHOT will NOT prevent your CPU from thermal throttling if it ever gets too hot. No software can disable this built in safety feature. Disabling BD PROCHOT simply prevents other items on your board from throttling your CPU. Good luck.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Well ThrottleStop is the shit.
So i run Throttlestop and now the cpu is going up to 3.9Ghz which is the Turbo max of the cpu. So what does this tell me then? The issue is the mobo or the cpu?

 

[unclewebb]

Your CPU is obviously working as Intel intended. My guess is a sensor on the motherboard has gone bad.

At the moment if you want to use ThrottleStop to overclock your CPU, you have to use a little add on written by my good friend Dufus on the Notebook Review forum.

MaxMulti
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...31329-throttlestop-guide-176.html#post9410230

After running MaxMulti you should be able to click on the ThrottleStop - TRL button and increase your Turbo Ratio Limits.

Edit: On a side note, here's an interesting post about what XTU and CPU-Z don't tell you about your CPU compared to ThrottleStop.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1438732/...or-reporting-thermal-throttling#post_21104733

 

[sm625]

If you use throttlestop to run your cpu up to max turbo, will it still return to 1.6GHz at idle or will it be stuck at 3.9 GHz 24/7?

 

[AnotherGuy]

It still returns to 1.6ghz if its not being used.
Uncleweb thanks a lot for all the info. So i guess the mobo would not have a setting in bios to disable this sensor?

 

[TerryMathews]

It still returns to 1.6ghz if its not being used.
Uncleweb thanks a lot for all the info. So i guess the mobo would not have a setting in bios to disable this sensor?

Its possible. I've had boards where you could disable sensors in whatever page the volts and temps were displayed. You cursored through the ones displayed and could select one and switch it to disabled.

What that actually did varied from board to board.

 

[AnotherGuy]

What about cpu Backplate touching some pins on the mobo, could that cause this behavior? I had to install the backplate for the waterblock to mount on.

 

[TerryMathews]

What about cpu Backplate touching some pins on the mobo, could that cause this behavior? I had to install the backplate for the waterblock to mount on.

Its certainly possible. The backplates I have used have an insulating cover of some sort to prevent this.

It would be an amazing coincidence for that to be the only problem caused though.