Overclock Stability Problem

[geoffry]

So I have an e4500 at 11 x 292 running at 3217 mhz, i had 2 GB OCZ ram (I know its crap and needs alot of voltage even at stock, I gave it .2 V extra even at this low speed of 584 mhz. Was stable for 12 hours orthos.

I then added another 2 GB of ram, left the settings the same due to the very low ram speed (running the dimms at 4-4-4-12). And it was orthos stable for 12 hours.

Then I noticed that I was getting a few bsod a week when playing games. I thought that it was somehow stressing the ram more than orthos blend (possible even?) so i kicked up the voltage to 2.2V, gave an extra .1 to the FSB and MCH (running a GA-P35-DS3R), that didn't help so I relaxed the timings to 5-5-5-15 and that still didn't help.

Then I realized something interesting. The games I played and it crashed were C&C 3 kanes wrath and assassin's creed today. However, I played crysis in windows mode and then assassin's creed in windowed mode and I was perfectly fine. (I am self employed and have quite a few programs going on in the background and use windowed mode when I'm sort of taking a break).

Is it possible that this is a graphics card (driver?) thing that the games work fine in windowed mode (same resolution) but crash frequently in full screen? I have an 8800 GTS that I overclocked awhile ago with rivatuner and it goes to 621 / whatever the shader is at, its linked to core / 972 mhz on the memory.....no artifacts or anything like that.

Or would you guys still recommend I tinker with the ram settings in the BIOS?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[geoffry]

Well today it crashed in windowed mode. So I'm back at 2.2 V and an extra .1 to the MCH. Tonight I'll try memtest all night long and see if it gives me any errors.

Any other ideas? Its strange that DDR2-800 is having this much trouble at 584, I don't really want to loosen the timings much more but if I have to I guess I have to.

 

[geoffry]

Its still crashing, even with +.3 V to the MCH (I'm a tad worried thats too much), 2.2V to the ram.

The FSB voltage is still at stock cause the FSB is so low, do you think kicking that up a bit would help?

I also just lowered my overclock to 290 X 11, maybe that will help.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

What motherboard are you using?

At this point, I'm inclined to think it could be your graphics card's over-clock. I have an 8800 GTS -- probably didn't OC it to the max, because I understand the memory clock can go as high as 1,000. But I have it at 580/900.

I also think your MCH setting is too high.

Frankly, if you can get the E4500 up to 292 Mhz, those modules should run at 584 (DDR-speed) at tighter than stock latencies.

Have you run MEMTEST86 or ____ +v.170 against those modules?

Let's see what your answers to these questions are. And maybe some others will have some insights if I can't offer much more.

 

[imported_Scoop]

Orthos Blend doesn't stress the CPU enough. I'd say you need to increase core voltage and it'll solve the problem.

 

[superstition]

Be careful about overvolting RAM. I've read that it can be ruined much more easily by overvolting than a CPU.

 

[geoffry]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll try some small FFT's tonight with the slightly lower CPU overclock.

And OCZ gives a liftetime warranty on my ram up to 2.2V plus or minus 5% so perhaps 2.3V is even covered as well, depending how true the DS3R voltage readout is.

 

[angry hampster]

If you want a really strong CPU stress test, give OCCT a shot:
http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/

 

[geoffry]

I think you guys might be right about it being the CPU and it somehow snuck past orthos and several months of I guess non demanding games (although I'm amazed that Assassin's Creed brought it down over and over but Crysis didn't even make my system hiccup once).

At the slightly lower overclock of 3.19 ghz I gave it 4 hrs of OCCT CPU today, it was stable (many people were saying that just an hour or 2 is enough), however I got a bsod today in assassins creed, but much, much later than previous times. I lowered it by another 20 mhz and I think this might do the trick. (lets hope! )

Thanks a bunch guys.