Q9550 OC help

[Xarick]

I got myself a q9550e (low wattage version)
stock it runs great.
3.24 at stock voltage runs great.
as soon as I try to run at 3.4 it fails the prime torture test within a couple of minutes on at least one core.
I have tried upping the voltage, but the situation never changes.
Running a p5q se mobo
DDR2 800 ram
Settings at 400 FSB
PCI freq = 100
FSB strap = 333
ram timings auto set to 801
voltage has run the gambit from 1.14 to 1.3 with no difference in fail.
at 380 fsb it runs perfectly stable at stock voltage. with roughly the same settings except the ram is lower due to it being at 333.

I am suspicious of my ram, but have no clue how to manipulate it.
What can I do? I want to push this puppy at minimum to 3.4

I as able to run my e6400 at 400 same settings but obviously higher vcore without issue.

 

[alyarb]

run the memory as slow as you can while you are finding your CPU's max freq.

 

[Xarick]

How do you do that? I can't unlock the ram from the strap. Strap is stuck at 800 with a 400fsb or higher.
I have found that I can do 390 stable which gives me 3.31ghz.

 

[Dadofamunky]

What's the mobo? Also, 3.31 GHz on that chip is still not bad at all.

 

[MagickMan]

You could try bumping up the NB, VTT, and RAM voltages by small amounts and see if it helps. Most of the time RAM can be coaxed to a higher frequency with another .1-.2 volts. It's quite safe, just try and keep it below 2.1v unless the manufacturer says otherwise. However, failing that, it sounds like you're gonna have to find a way to set your memory strap 1:1 with your FSB.

 

[Xarick]

Okay more info.
I have moved the vcore all the way to 1.36 and nothing changed. I set the ram at 1.8v.
Not much changed. Then I ran memtest. instant failure.
So I started playing with the nb volts. I have never messed with those before so they make me a bit freaked out.
My p5q se only has 4 options 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
1.1, 1.2 memtest fails pretty quick.
1.3 memtest takes a longer time to fail and prime doesn't fail soon.
1.4 I have not seen it fail yet, though I have not run it a long time.

I am leary of 1.4 on the nbridge because it only has that passive HS
I am not keen on getting into active cooling on the nb.
I don't want to kill the board and be forced to go buy a new one.

I can run small ftt without fail at stock voltage at 3.4ghz so I am pretty sure the proc isn't an issue.

Advice?

 

[zagood]

What ram?

 

[swanysto]

Most DDR2 I have seen runs at 2-2.2V. I have mine at 2.2 volts on my 4.2ghz 9550. It runs at 2.1V stock. I didn't even touch my CPU Voltage till around 3.6ghz so I am guessing it is your memory.

 

[jtisgeek]

You should have a strap setting for 400 if not your going to run in to ram speed error's not all boards support 400 fsb. If there is no strap to keep ram speeds down then you will need soem 1066 ram to get any higher on your cpu.

Side note I see you overclocked a dual before. Quad's are harder on boards and can cause stable problems also.

 

[Jen]

What ram?

this would help to know what kind of memory you have. have you tried above 400 fsb sometimes there is a problem at 400 and requires going above.

Jen

 

[Xarick]

g-skill standard 1.8v ram. Nothing special. No heat spreaders. In a 4 chip config with a 2 gig in banks 0, 2 and 1 gig in banks 1, 3. Manually set to 5-5-5-15 per spec.
Tried upping the voltage on the ram from 1.8 to 1.9. Same problem. The only thing I have found makes any diff is the 1.4 nb. Infact at a 1.4nb this q9550 runs 3.4ghz stock vtt which is amazingly 1.14 according to my voltage monitor.

 

[jtisgeek]

g-skill standard 1.8v ram. Nothing special. No heat spreaders. In a 4 chip config with a 2 gig in banks 0, 2 and 1 gig in banks 1, 3. Manually set to 5-5-5-15 per spec.
Tried upping the voltage on the ram from 1.8 to 1.9. Same problem. The only thing I have found makes any diff is the 1.4 nb. Infact at a 1.4nb this q9550 runs 3.4ghz stock vtt which is amazingly 1.14 according to my voltage monitor.

Try taking 2 of the sticks out and see if it gets better hard to test clocks with all your slots full.

 

[deanx0r]

I am pretty sure you are running the 1066MHz FSB strap. Try to go over 400MHz FSB (e.g. 401MHz) to kick in the 1333MHz strap. The northbridge latencies should loosen up for better stability.

 

[Schmide]

I think you should set your strap as high as you can. (800 or 667?)

The way I understand it.

For a 333-399

strap / ratio / mem speed
333 2:1 1333
400 5:3 1111
533 5:4 833
667 1:1 667

For 400+

strap / ratio / mem speed
400 2:1 1600
533 3:2 1200
667 6:5 960
800 1:1 800

I could be wrong.

 

[Xarick]

Strap is set to 333 which gives me 800 on the ram which is what it is rated for. That makes it run 1:1
I am finding that my issue is a combo of NB voltage and vtt.
So is higher vtt and lower nb better or higher nb and lower vtt?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Your ram is probably wasted.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

O wait, try Memtest HCI

 

[Xarick]

Running memtest now. That is how I determined it not to be a proc issue.
Okay so more info. I have to have at least 1.3 on the nb to run this thing at 3.4
at 1.3 I need to set the vcore over 1.2. Right now at 1.25, but will try bringing it down.
At 1.4 on the nb I can run the vcore way lower. Like 1.16 to 1.18.
So I am unsure which is the better methodology.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

When I had my Q9550 and a UD3R board, the only thing I set was the fsb to 400 & the divider to 2.00B. The rest of the settings were on auto and the mb adjusted the vcore to 1.28v

I then booted into windows, used CPUZ and seen a JEDEC spec of 5.5.5.15 @ 1.8v for 400 or 800Mhz I input those numbers and everything was fine.

 

[Schmide]

Strap is set to 333 which gives me 800 on the ram which is what it is rated for. That makes it run 1:1
I am finding that my issue is a combo of NB voltage and vtt.
So is higher vtt and lower nb better or higher nb and lower vtt?

Are you talking ddr2 800 at 333 fsb or 800 at 400fsb? I might be misunderstanding the strap is. I though was like the bsel to northbridge that many motherboards have.

If you select the strap of 333 can you select a dram timing of 667? That would be a 1:1 ratio. A 333 strap to 800 dram would be 6:5 ratio and put your ram at 400fsb to ddr2 960.

Basically forget about running your dram at rated speed and try to select the settings that run it at the lowest speed possible relative to your FSB.

 

[Spikesoldier]

on my second rig i once ran a q9550 @ 3.7 and did 434 fsb on a MSI p35 neo2fr (p35 platinum) and 8gb ocz 1066 ddr2 low voltage edition.

i discovered that it took high voltage (1.425 - 1.525) on the NB to get my p35 board stable with 8gb @ 5-5-5-15 using 5:6 divider (1042 ddr)

i also suggest to try the 2x 1GB config for now and just run two sticks whether it be 2gb or 4gb for the time being. this will be less of a burden on the NB.

naked memory wont let you get too high of an OC if you need to overvolt. i would try to get some new sticks to unleash the potential of the q9550. if my i3 wasnt so much fun i could easily have some buyers remorse right now about letting the q9550 go.

by chance are you using the latest BIOS version?

 

[Xarick]

Okay I tried pulling two chips, but to no avail. Maybe I got a bum board, but this nb is not happy unless I have it set to 1.4 even with just two chips. Yeah I have the latest bios.
Seems odd because I didn't need it on my dual core, but then again I did feel it ran sluggish. So I could have been pushing that nb too high then also. I didn't test it too terribly much.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Quad overclocking is a different ballpark on a mobo.

How many ram sticks did you say you have?

 

[Xarick]

4, full set, all slots full. But I pulled two so I only had two and it still needed more NB

 

[Xarick]

Okay, just update for anyone interested and to give those of you who aren't something to read when you are bored.
I have tried all kinds of combos and am stuck at 1.4 on the nb to get this to run.
Right now I am at:

400fsb
333 strap
100pci
ram 5-5-5-15
ram volt 1.8
vcore 1.14375
nb 1.4
and I am stable at 3.4ghz

I did find a little 30mm fan that was on an old celeron slot 1 cooler. So I put some velcro on the bottom of it and on the top of the NB HS and now have a little fan blowing down on it. I am wondering.. is that going to help or make it worse? Thoughts?