OC unstable/reducing over time

[tuffluck]

hi all, i have a 4 year old PC that has the following:

1. e6750
2. g.skill 2gb 6400 RAM
3. radeon 5770
4. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274040-29-stable-time#DS3L Mobo
5. aftermarket cooling with AS5
6. NB fan
7. 500w thermaltake PSU

i OC'd the CPU about 3 years ago to 3.4ghz (425fsb) with a 1.44375 vcore (up from 1.35 stock). it ran stable for a long time, at least a year as i checked and ran benchmarks on it that next year. i set it up running p95 for 24 hours stable and it never got too hot, so i presumed it was good to go.

recently i re-ran CPU-Z only to find it was back to stock speed at 333fsb. i tried to reset to 425mhz and then saved and rebooted, and the computer turned itself on then off immediately about 3 times in a row, then started up fine but defaulted out the OC again. ALL OTHER SETTINGS DID NOT CHANGE, VCORE STILL AT 1.44375...ONLY FSB DEFAULTED TO STOCK. i did some research and some people suggested this was a common problem with the DS3L board and you had to reset the cmos to fix it. tried this and it didn't work.

then i got the hunch to try a small OC and see if the PC would restart with even the smallest clock. well in doing this, i got the OC up to 360mhz FSB (up from 333 stock, down from 425 original OC), and this is all i could run stable at. over 365 and the PC would just turn itself off immediately. vcore is back at stock speeds, too.

so now i can't figure out why 360fsb is the maximum i can go when i was running it well over a year at 425mhz. it was suggested on another forum that my AS5 has dried up and i need to reapply. but i would think drying up AS5 would mean higher temps, which isn't occurring. what are your thoughts on why this has happened, or is it just an age thing? TIA

 

[Puppies04]

It is an age thing, over time chips require more and more voltage to remain stable while overclocked. You might still be able to get 3.4ghz out of your chip but you will have to be prepared to push the vcore higher than 1.44375 which in turn will raise your temps.

Raised temps and vcore will cause your chip to degrade even faster.

 

[tuffluck]

It is an age thing, over time chips require more and more voltage to remain stable while overclocked. You might still be able to get 3.4ghz out of your chip but you will have to be prepared to push the vcore higher than 1.44375 which in turn will raise your temps.

Raised temps and vcore will cause your chip to degrade even faster.

at 1.44375 vcore, i could only get it to go to 360mhz. ironically i could also run 360mhz fsb at the stock 1.35vcore as well. one would think i could get higher than 360 in between 1.35 and 1.44375 vcore; it seems like something else is going on here, no?

 

[Hulk]

My E6400 ran at 3.2 and 1.35Vcore for about two years, then I had to run it 3.0GHz at that Vcore for compete stability. Then I sold it for the 2500k. I would suggest keeping the voltage and lowering the frequency until it is stable again for you might kill it pretty quickly.

 

[Puppies04]

at 1.44375 vcore, i could only get it to go to 360mhz. ironically i could also run 360mhz fsb at the stock 1.35vcore as well. one would think i could get higher than 360 in between 1.35 and 1.44375 vcore; it seems like something else is going on here, no?

Yes something else does seem to be going on, most likely your chip has degraded to the point that more than 360mhz fsb just isn't attainable anymore. Perhaps you could see if there is an updated bios for your mobo that might be slightly more stable.

BTW when you say you can run 360mhz at stock voltage is that stress tested or just booting into windows?

 

[tuffluck]

Yes something else does seem to be going on, most likely your chip has degraded to the point that more than 360mhz fsb just isn't attainable anymore. Perhaps you could see if there is an updated bios for your mobo that might be slightly more stable.

BTW when you say you can run 360mhz at stock voltage is that stress tested or just booting into windows?

7 hours of stress testing so far so good. my fsb of 361mhz is not stable @ 1.44375, although it is stable 360mhz @ 1.35v...that seems really odd.

other suggestions were that my AS5 has hardened and is not doing as good of a job anymore (which makes no sense to me since temps are fine), and replacing the CMOS battery. do either of those make any sense though?

after the stress testing i may try an updated bios.

 

[MustangSVT]

replacing cmos battery doesnt make sense but I usually do a system clean up and fresh thermal paste on cpu,gpu, NB and whatever has heatsinks.

 

[Rvenger]

Yes, replacing a CMOS battery is actually a common issue why your CPU wasn't overclocking anymore. The CMOS battery didn't have enough power to retain your overclock settings thus resetting it upon reboot. I had that happen a couple of times on old Socket A boards.

 

[Puppies04]

Yes, replacing a CMOS battery is actually a common issue why your CPU wasn't overclocking anymore. The CMOS battery didn't have enough power to retain your overclock settings thus resetting it upon reboot. I had that happen a couple of times on old Socket A boards.

This doesn't really explain the OPs problem though, he can oc to a point then even going slightly further with a pretty big vcore bump results in a crash.

 

[nyker96]

I think either cpu or motherboard has degraded. I think my older e7200 was like that, started off like 3,4 or something, then degraded down to 3,3 or 3,2 after like 2 years. Also try clean out the junks stuck in your cpu/case fans, could be a temp problem as well. but my money is on degrading cpu.