Member "Nastymatt" and I now have same problem

[BonzaiDuck]

Member "Nastymatt" had sent me a PM expressing frustration with his 780i board and the E8400 processor. He cannot reset his BIOS back to the stable OC settings.

NOW . . . . I . . . . have done the same with my 680i chipset and latest August 08 BIOS revision.

I reset the BIOS back to 3.0 Ghz for the E8400 to run some preliminary tests for resolving a conflict between VISTA64 screensaver and PRIME95 Blend Test. It was actually unnecessary, because the memory settings at "3.0 Ghz" would be the same as for 3.6 Ghz. Only the divider would change.

NOW, I wanted to reset to the 3.6 GHZ values.

EVERY $*&@# TIME I change the FSB/DDR Configuration from "Auto" to "Unlinked" and "Save Changes and Exit" -- it boots up as "3.0 Ghz," whereupon re-entering BIOS Setup shows "FSB/DDR Configuration" set to AUTO.

I did a CLR CMOS (carefully), hooked everything back up, entered BIOS and carefully chose the right settings again, but "NOOOOO . . . . CI-GARRRR!!"

I'm thinking that at worst, I can pull the PLCC BIOS chip, replace it with a spare, re-flash to the latest BIOS, and "go again." But first, I'll CLR CMOS and re-flash the BIOS with the current PLCC chip.

ANY SUGGESTIONS??????

[I almost wanna scream!!]

 

[BonzaiDuck]

UPDATE:

NASTYMATT!!!

1) Unplug your system with the 780i motherboard
2) CLR CMOS
3) Insert that BIOS disk update you mentioned
4) Re-flash the BIOS

To quote the crime-lord "Ray Lucca" in the '80s TV series "CRIME STORY:"

"Ah'm back; Ah'm bad; Ah'm ON TOP . . . . You wing-tip Bozos ain't got nuthin' on me!!"

YEEEEEE-HAAAAAAHHHH!! How to stop worrying and LUUUUVVV your BOMB!!!

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
1) Unplug your system with the 780i motherboard2) CLR CMOS

First thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title.

Most mobo's and PSU's need you to truly unplug the PSU from the wall in order for the clear CMOS jumper + removing the battery to actually work.

Simply switching off the power switch on the PSU is not enough in a lot of cases that get reported in these forums.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I don't recall what nastymatt did to CLR CMOS, or whatever he tried doing with his 780i mobo.

I always follow this procedure:
1) flip the switch on the rear of the Striker to cut power to everything except the blue LED lights (which are off when the board is powered to respond to the front "boot-up" power-switch.
2) flip off the PSU switch
3) unplug the AC power-cord from the PSU
4) hit the CLR CMOS button (a nice convenience on this mobo)
5) wait ten minutes
6) hit the CLR CMOS button again to its original state

then in reverse order, reverse item 3, 2, and 1. Anyway -- you're familiar with this mobo. You probably still have nightmares!!

Now that you've responded, ol' buddy, I think I'll make my "statement of a humility-epiphany" here about over-clocking. I've been rightly accused of spawning threads "like a spider" per my little crises this week on this forum, the OS forum, the Memory and Storage forum, and even the Graphics forum. I "had a good rep" here from last year's "ducting" experiments. This week, I've made myself look like -- well, after being reprimanded for three asterisks following the letter S -- an IDIOT!!

I don't care HOW FAMILIAR with a motherboard one is -- Lord Knows -- and YOU KNOW -- I'm familiar with this . . . . 2-year-old . . . . 680i . . . . what-should-I-call-it that it hasn't already been called? But familiar or not, taking shortcuts to OC a board you've known for a year -- with a different processor and different FSB objective -- is newbie-behavior.

LESSON: DON'T TAKE SHORTCUTS OR MAKE ASSUMPTIONS!!!

I hadn't reckoned that a stable 9 hour run in "small-FFTs" at a certain OC and a 2GB 2x1GB RAM configuration would result in a BSOD in "Blend-Test" and a 2x2GB (4GB) RAM configuration. I'd assumed it would just result in a stopped "worker thread" under PRIME95.

I apparently need to tweak the 1.2V_HT and CPU_VTT voltages, because, from what I see going on right now on the subject machine -- I am SOOOO close to getting what I want out of this older-stepping E8400, the 4GB RAM and VISTA64.

I feel SOOOOOO STEWWWWW-PID!! Soooo STEWWWW-pid! Right, Dexter?

 

[VirtualLarry]

You think thats weird... On my Asrock Conroe865pe mobo, the cpu fsb adjust disappears when installing a storage add-on card, and the only way to get it back is to not only remove the card but reflash the bios too.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
I apparently need to tweak the 1.2V_HT and CPU_VTT voltages, because, from what I see going on right now on the subject machine -- I am SOOOO close to getting what I want out of this older-stepping E8400, the 4GB RAM and VISTA64.

Keep on keep'n on! Few overclockers go the depths and lengths you do in finessing the ole'bios to extract those last few MHz. I have about 1/10 your patience and stamina!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
I apparently need to tweak the 1.2V_HT and CPU_VTT voltages, because, from what I see going on right now on the subject machine -- I am SOOOO close to getting what I want out of this older-stepping E8400, the 4GB RAM and VISTA64.

Keep on keep'n on! Few overclockers go the depths and lengths you do in finessing the ole'bios to extract those last few MHz. I have about 1/10 your patience and stamina!

Bro!! I'm REE-TIR-ed!! I got TAH-ME!! TIME TIME TIME!! And Ah got patience!! Cuz Ah got da time!!

Here's a tidbit just in from Albuquerque -- my retired dorm-brother from college (JUST 40 years ago!! .. . ) He spends all his time scouring the web, the political and tech news. A psychiatric association has now pronounced that obsessive web-browsing and e-mail correspondence should now be classified as a PSYCH-o-LOG-ical dis-ORDER!!

So . . . . HOW can we be NUTS? . . . if we're HAVIN' FUNNN!! TELL ME!! I HAV-TA KNOWW!

On a more serious note. This ol' maligned, sunset-of-its-lifecycle Striker board may be trickier to get beyond 400 Mhz (1600 FSB), but it's definitely there. Blend-Test, 1 hour, 30 minutes and counting.

The BSODs were due to an insufficient voltage on the CPU_VTT (FSB) setting. I only had to kick it up to about 1.45V, where the sensor says that it's at 1.39V. If I can believe what the voltage sensor is saying, that's still fairly limp for this motherboard, and I could go higher if I had to.

I think I'll take the Northbridge core voltage off "Auto" -- showing 1.52V in BIOS monitor now -- and kick it up to about 1.55V.

But it amazes me how one can get a little careless. I'd only pushed this board to 400 -- the twin of this one from last year's build -- by dropping the multiplier to either 7 or 8. These new Wolfdales give the board some extra Lebensraum for the FSB. But you "think you know the board," when the situation changes with different CPU, RAM, FSB-setting, etc.

ALL the time I had been working with this board, the worst thing that ever happened -- all the way back to March, 07 and up to the present -- was "stopped" threads in PRIME95. It NEVER BSOD'd!! Not once that I remember! So a person starts "taking shortcuts," and when a BSOD happens, the panic points one all over the compass. ALL I HAD to DO was bump up the VTT voltage, and the finesse will be a few hundredths extra to the NB-Core.

Now, I've gotta get it to 405 Mhz -- that means DDR= 810 -- and if it's rock-stable there, I'll drop it back to 400 -- and the Ron PoPeil -- "set it, and fah-get it!"

 

[rgallant]

BonzaiDuck

-what about the cpu-pll v , I set it to 1.52 - 1.60v,
cpu-vtt v 1.36 - 1.38v
nb 1.50v
sb 1.50v

- cpu gtl_ref ratio could be = +30mV - not auto
- nb gtl_ref ratio could be = +30mV - not auto
-try playing with those settings , if your mobo has them.
-these have worked so far for a 420 fsb




-with my 780i , I default the bios before updating it or resetting it
-and turned the power off after the save and exit. then do what ever

 

[BonzaiDuck]

rgallant

I'll look into that. It's good to hear your remarks, since you have an nVidia mobo.

I'm trying different stress-test software. I need to find out if the only latest version of OCCT that I've found and downloaded offers reliable stress-testing under a 64-bit OS.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck

rgallant

I'll look into that. It's good to hear your remarks, since you have an nVidia mobo.

I'm trying different stress-test software. I need to find out if the only latest version of OCCT that I've found and downloaded offers reliable stress-testing under a 64-bit OS.

-your right , there are not too many people using the 780i-790i chip sets ,but if you want to run two nivida cards you have no choice , 780i's are not breaking any fsb records they are maxed out at 500 fsb, that's why I picked up the E8600 with the 10x.
-they seem fast , except the booting with raid.

-lots of people seem to use OCCT , I started to use it ,but for me a couple of hours using orthos blend and now a 1 hour of shot of OCCT , gives me the comfort factor to say the whole system is stable and temps are under control , then I lower the clocks a bit.
- 8-10 hrs at 100% is a good test but unlikely to happen in real life , even playing crysis.

-one thing I did notice with the E8600 is that my memory temps went up 5c from norm. while testing , [have sensors between the pairs] so I added a 80mm with the 60mm that was cooling them. , 30-38c now , I guess the faster cpu loads them up , so you might want some active cooling if you don't have it.

 

[taltamir]

my mobo has an LED light... it takes about 15 seconds with the battery out and the computer unplugged from the wall before the LED goes out. Only when it goes out does the CMOS clear.
They say to unplug it for at least a minute on most machines, because without an LED on it, it would take longer for the capacitors to empty out.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm not completely sure about the full implications of this. The Striker Extreme 680i has a switch on the I/O panel that toggles between a set of green/yellow and red LEDs lighting up the onboard pushbutton "PWR_ON," "RESET" and CLR_CMOS, and a set of twinky-dinky blue-LEDs. Supposedly when switched to the latter, you're supposed to be able to unsocket, replace or remove components -- it's supposed to be safe.

If, for instance, you switch the PSU itself off, the blue LEDs continue to burn -- as you say -- for maybe 15 seconds until the remaining charges in the mobo have been drained.

But I always go through the routine of switching on the blues, switching off the PSU and unplugging the power cord before -- really -- doing anything.

For rgallant's observation about RAM cooling -- yeah -- I once had a tape-on sensor on the RAMs -- on the heatspreader. On the heatspreader, I figure two things: It's probably safe to put the thermal tape there, or removing it as necessary wouldn't damage them; but at the same time, I wouldn't be sure what the difference might be in temperatures on the black parts and the heatspreader. But if you register a 5C increase in temperature, that's . . . a good indicator of . . . . something. . . . I suppose one could slip a sensor in amidst the black parts under the heatspreader, but no certainty it would stay there as desired.

I try to minimize the number of fans, but I think I have one too many intake units. There is no CPU-fan at the moment to speak of -- just the rear exhaust fan pulling air through the cooler. If I duct the motherboard so that air is sucked over these Corsair DHX heatspreaders and into the barrel-fan exhaust, I'm thinking it should be as good as a fan blowing on the RAMs.

Incidentally, I don't have voltage settings easily identifiable as the one's you've cited for your Striker Formula, other than the VTT, NB and SB. Instead, there's a 1.2V_HT voltage adjustment and RAM reference voltage adjustments. So the new generation of Strikers has some features missing on the old 680i model.

But the beauty of this, despite the lackluster comparison OC benchies that have been cited, is the Wolfdale compatibility. Except for upgrading to a Yorkfield (which I can't do), I can hold onto these for a while until they "come up for review" in a sequence of single-component upgrades. That is -- except for switching to a board that uses DDR3 . . .