Overclocking H81 / G3258 on Win10 1607? Biostar H81MHV3 SOLVED!

[VirtualLarry]

What do I need to know?

I'm using a Biostar H81MHV3 Flex-ATX mobo (2 slots), and a G3258, and Win10 1607 64-bit Home, 2x8GB DDR3-1600, probably running at 1333. No video card (yet - GTX950 2GB planned.)

Anyways, I flashed the older 123 BIOS, that allows G3258 overclocking, and I set the CPU Ratio to 40, booted the Win10 installer, BIOS POST said the CPU was running at 4.0Ghz.

When Win10 finished installing, I installed Waterfox and CPU-Z, and now CPU-Z is telling me that the max it goes up to is CPU Ratio 32, although it gives a range of 8-40. But it never seems to hit above 32.

I know that Win10 has some microcode updates for Intel, and that the first released version of Win10 would actually BSOD if you were overclocked on a G3258 and non-Z97 board.

I thought newer versions of Win10 fixed that, and indeed, I didn't error or BSOD, but now it seems that the CPU is limited to a 32 CPU ratio.

Does anyone know how to get around this limitation in Win10 1607 64-bit?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hello,



I held off on Windows 10 until everyone seemed happy with it, only to discover the microcode issue (via reboot loop) with the G3258 yesterday. I'm using build 10240, as downloaded a few days ago (November 20th, IIRC). I used the "fix" described above and neutralized the "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll" but I did take a shortcut for the sake of experimentation. YMMV at Your Risk.



0) Downloaded Windows 10 and wrote the ISO to a USB.

1) Updated the BIOS on my ASUS H97I-PLUS to 2701. (This version does not break the overclock, but does reset to factory defaults)

2) Applied the Windows 10 ISO to my Windows 7 OS.

3) Was able to reboot naturally during the OS upgrade using BOTH cores at 3.2GHz.

4) Finished the upgrade successfully and tested stability for 12 hours or so. (movies, internet, ReInstalled my XBox360 Controller driver, nothing stressful)

5) Shutdown Fully using "shutdown /s /t 0" at a command prompt. (regular shutdown leaves the hibernation file intact in this version)

6) Boot into my favourite Linux variety's Live CD. (I used Ubuntu 14.04 x64 Desktop)

7) Mount the OS drive (in my case /dev/sdc3)

8) Browse to the troubled "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll" and rename it "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.bak"

9) UnMount the OS drive and Reboot without the Live CD.

10) Successfully overclocked to 4.5GHz (on water) without issue. (same overclock settings as before)



Note: Linux does not care about Windows permissions, hence the lack of need to fiddle with permissions hacks.





Since Linux and Windows 7 didn't care about the overclock and the only thing that changed is Windows 10 being applied I see the bulk of the responsibility on Microsoft, without only a small amount being on motherboard manufacturers and Intel. The vendors can cooperate and get it identified, but unless the DLL file in the image is fixed by Microsoft the issue will recur.





Best of Luck.

Looks like this is what I have to do?

Edit: Didn't work. I renamed the mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll file, in BOTH "System32" as well as "WinSxS", and it didn't help.

CPU-Z reports 8-40 CPU ratio range, but actual CPU speed never exceeds 3.2Ghz. What gives? Is this a BIOS issue? I flashed the BIOS that allows OCing, and POST reports 4.0Ghz.

Edit: Booted into BIOS, didn't see a setting for "CPU Turbo mode On/Off". (G3258 doesn't support Turbo anyways. Changed the CPU Ratio to 42.

Now CPU-Z reports the CPU Ratio range of 8-42. But still, Core Speed is 3.2Ghz.

Tried changing "Power Plan" to "High Performance", still 3.2Ghz.

How is Win10 doing this, if I disabled the MC update?

Edit: Do I need to disable SpeedStep? The BIOS doesn't seem to allow that in the CPU OC options page.

I downloaded the newest OCCT, and ran it, and even under CPU:Linpack (64-bit), the CPU is locked at 3.2Ghz.

 

[VirtualLarry]

SOLVED!

I had set "CPU Ratio mode" in the BIOS to "All Cores"... which evidently, was setting the CPU Turbo Multi setting instead. I changed it to "Fixed", and CPU Ratio 42, and now when I boot into Win10 1607 64-bit, and run CPU-Z, it reports 4.2Ghz (actually, slightly less).

WHEE! I'm OVERCLOCKED in Win10!

Edit: Setting "Power Options" back to "Balanced", and the CPU-Z reading is still fixed at 4.2Ghz. Guess I can't do power-saving while overclocked this way. Oh well... at least the iGPU still works, which is more than I can say for "SKY OC" mode on my Skylake system.

Edit: I did an OCCT:Linpack test, about 14 minutes in, max temp was 84C, and CPU vcore was around 1.25-1.26v. When I opened Waterfox, to browse this forum, it spontaneously rebooted though.

So I went into the BIOS and changed the CPU vcore from "Auto" to "1300mV". Now re-testing with OCCT. BIOS shutdown temp is set for 90C, OCCT shutoff temp is above 89C, so far it has hit 89C on Core #0.

Edit: So I finally disabled the CPU Overtemp setting in BIOS, figured that, if it throttles, then it throttles.

Installed an MSI GTX950 2GB GDDR5 OC card, installed NV drivers that I downloaded, after waiting 10 minutes for Windows 10 to automagically load drivers, which it apparently did NOT, because I was still stuck on 1024x768 res, with no option to change in in Advanced Display Properties.

It seems all good now though, after I got the NV drivers installed.

Edit: Also found this build guide:
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/geforce-gtx-950-micro-atx-pc-build-guide

Which is essentially what I just did. Going to try to sell it, maybe.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just built a second (twin) rig, with a G3258 and a Biostar H81MHV3 mobo. I flashed the original release firmware, and set CPU Ratio type to "Fixed", and CPU Ratio to 40.

Installed Win10 1607, installed CPU-Z, and voila, it showed 4Ghz.

So, I guess you don't have to rename the mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll after all, nor change your power plan.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Thank you for posting this, if only for the benefit of other G3258 users looking to move on to Win10.