Unable to OC an E8400 to 3.6ghz

[Dorkenstein]

I have the aforementioned chip and motherboard. I also have a-data vitesta DDR-800 2x2 gb.

I go to bios, turn off the cpu features that will get in the way of oc, set the FSB to 400 for a total speed of 3600, leave memory timing at auto (there is no 1:1 option that I see) and press F10 to save and quit. As soon as I do so, the pc starts and shuts off 3 times then stays on and tells me that it performed an overclock recovery and is running in safe mode. Any ideas as to what I am missing? Thank you.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Memory timings or memory divider? Leaving it on auto will automatically choose the one that works AT STOCK. If it's a divider and left on auto, OCing the chip will also increase the RAM speed. Also, what's your voltage?

 

[Tempered81]

rams probably going to ~488mhz with your auto setting. it probably cannot handle that speed at stock vdimm & timings.

edit: manually adjust the speed of your ram. 1:1 divider with a 400mhz FSB x 9.0. use 5 5 5 15, or rated timings in SPD for your memory. Use your rated vdimm or increase it from 1.8v upwards in tenths of a volt. dont exceed spec Vdimm. (if the rams rated for 1.8v or 1.9v, dont try 2.3v) you should be able to keep everything stock if you run the ram at 400mhz with a 1:1 divider.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Hmm, my next option from 'Auto' is 1:2, there is no 1:1 listed.

Also the ram is rated for 2.0 to 2.1...

 

[myocardia]

Raise your FSB first, then you should be given the choice of 1:1. If not, try raising your FSB to 340 or 350, then exiting and saving, then go back into the BIOS, and try again.

 

[Tempered81]

is the bios telling you the speed of the ram? 400mhz/1600mhz?

or 333mhz/1333mhz or something like 488mhz/1952mhz

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
rams probably going to ~488mhz with your auto setting. it probably cannot handle that speed at stock vdimm & timings.

edit: manually adjust the speed of your ram. 1:1 divider with a 400mhz FSB x 9.0. use 5 5 5 15, or rated timings in SPD for your memory. Use your rated vdimm or increase it from 1.8v upwards in tenths of a volt. dont exceed spec Vdimm. (if the rams rated for 1.8v or 1.9v, dont try 2.3v) you should be able to keep everything stock if you run the ram at 400mhz with a 1:1 divider.

+1 i tihnk jared nailed your problem.

Originally posted by: jaredpace
is the bios telling you the speed of the ram? 400mhz/1600mhz?

or 333mhz/1333mhz or something like 488mhz/1952mhz

well, to be honest, this fsb thing started coming out after the 680i

It has to do with FSB strap which goes back a long time ago if you remember. Now i think some mobo companys are also using it as another word for divider.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Jared, it was saying something like 1281 mhz on auto. I set the timings to 5-5-5-15 and 1:2.5. It boots and cpu-z says memory frequency is 500mhz FSBRAM is 4:5. Kind of confused now.

 

[Tempered81]

FSBRAM of 4:5 is the memory divider

you are using a 4:5 divider, instead of 1:1

4 to 5 = 400mhz fsb to 500mhz ram speed

1 to 1 = 400mhz fsb to 400mhz ram speed

it's a ratio, get it? your ram is pc2 6400 ddr2 (400mhz ram) with the standard timings and voltage (probably 400mhz, 5 5 5 15, 2.1Vdimm) and it is having a tough time running at 500mhz (as cpu-z told you).

Do a little more bios work! btw, sweet mobo dorkenstein

PS: thanks aigo! :_)

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah I get it, I just can't seem to achieve 1:1. The settings that worked a few minutes ago gave me a BSOD, no surprise there. Should I set the timings to 5-5-5-15 and set the voltage to 2.1 since thats the max voltage? It's at 1.8 right now.

EDIT: Although I have ddr2-800 my bios and post screen at default/stock settings says 1066. Whats up with that?

 

[Tempered81]

shit i dunno, i know your mobo has a ridiculously complex bios like a dfi lanparty p35-UT tr2 bios. I'd get others opinion on whether or not to run your memory at 2.1v, some people say they have mem die over 2.0v for long periods of time, others run it at 2.3v or 2.4v. Personally i never went over 2.1v (maybe 2.2 just to try to post at 500mhz)

1066 could either mean your set to run at fsb: 266, memory: 533, quad pumped : 1066 or that your memory is actually running at 533mhz x 2 for 1066mhz (which i doubt). Still don't understand why it would default to a 266mhz FSB when the e8400 is a 333mhz chip. Maybe foxconn has auto BSEL mod? heheh.
this is similar to seeing fsb: 333, Memory: 667, quad pumped: 1333 -or- fsb: 400, memory: 800, quad pumped: 1600. Quad pumped just means effective bus rate. (ie. 1600MHZ FSB!)

currently you had it at fsb: 400, memory: 1000 (500 x 2 with a 4:5 divider), quad pumped: 1600 (btw, this should have meant you posted at 3600mhz too)

you should be running at ^^ fsb: 400, memory: 800, quad pumped: 1600 as people have said. This will give you 400mhz fsb, 800mhz memory (400mhz x 2), 1600mhz effective FSB rate (400 quad pumped), and a 3.6ghz cpu (400mhz x 9.0 E8400).

You've already proven that your memory can run at 500mhz (the hard part) and im sure that foxconn mars is capable of 500mhz fsb (which you really dont need at this point).

 

[SimMike2]

You set your Target CPU core speed to 1600, which you already did.

Next set "CPU Clock vs Memory speed" to anything which nets you a System Memory Speed of 800. Setting to "auto" probably gives you 500MHz, which is too fast. Hopefully you have bios like my Gigabyte, where when I toggle through the choices, the System Memory Speed setting updates as I toggle, so I get 800.

You might also need to tweak the voltage. Get CPU-z, and run your computer without overclocking. See how much the core voltage is listed at. Many boards have vdroop problems, which means you need to set the core voltage higher in the BIOS than it will actually be when running. My 8400 will run at 3.6 with stock voltage, but it will crash within minutes of doing Prime95 or anything else. I needed to bump the voltage. CPU-z says my core voltage is 1.216, but I think I had to set the BIOS to 1.25 something to get this voltage.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Well I tried fiddling with everything I could, I cannot get it set to a 1:1 ratio. So are you saying I need a 1:2 ratio, since that is the only way I can get fsb:400 and memory:800?

 

[Tempered81]

no def not 1:2.

1:1
400mhz fsb to 400mhz ram speed

(the reason i say 800mhz is because ddr2 pc26400 is called 800mhz ram. your memory is 400 x 2 = 800mhz. however, its actually running at 400mhz)

can someone else please help explain this simply as i am being confusing. (sorry) You might need a little bump in Vcore too, as simmike said.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Yeah I get it, I just can't seem to achieve 1:1. The settings that worked a few minutes ago gave me a BSOD, no surprise there. Should I set the timings to 5-5-5-15 and set the voltage to 2.1 since thats the max voltage? It's at 1.8 right now.

EDIT: Although I have ddr2-800 my bios and post screen at default/stock settings says 1066. Whats up with that?

wait that doesnt make sense.

it BSOD at 1:1 but works at 2:1?

ive never heard ram crapping out because you underclocked them while holding voltage same.


Run MEMTEST for at least 2 passes on both sticks. Make sure you ram isnt messed up.

 

[dv8silencer]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Well I tried fiddling with everything I could, I cannot get it set to a 1:1 ratio. So are you saying I need a 1:2 ratio, since that is the only way I can get fsb:400 and memory:800?

Dorkenstein:
If you had FSB at 400 mhz for example, running a divider of 1:1 would result in your memory running effectively at 800 mhz (its really running at 400 mhz as 1:1 would say, but this is DDR2 memory).

If you used 1:2 ratio with FSB at 400, then you would be running DDR2-1600 (hmmm).

 

[Dorkenstein]

All I know is that when I set it to 1:2 the cpu clock is 400 and the memory says 800 in gladiator bios. I thought I had things working, but I just had another bsod so I am going to bring it back to stock until I know more. I'll run memtest next.

 

[Drsignguy]

So, What is your motherboard again? I kind of missed that in this thread? Just an fyI, In the gigabyte motherboards that I have in my sig, in the bios, to set your mem devider to 1:1, go into system memory multiplier (spd) and you set it to 2.00 in the bios. Also, if you mention your MB, someone may have the same and I bet they're willing to give you the information needed. Just some kind advice.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Foxconn Mars, bios is very different.

 

[Drsignguy]

Ok, well I am not familier with that board so I hope someone will be able to help give you this info. Also, if all else fails, go back to jaredpace's posts and follow his advice.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah I followed jared's advice and got to 400/801 but I had to set the ratio to 1:2. I still got a BSOD after a while. I am going to see if there's a newer bios or something.

 

[SimMike2]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Yeah I followed jared's advice and got to 400/801 but I had to set the ratio to 1:2. I still got a BSOD after a while. I am going to see if there's a newer bios or something.

You might need to up the core voltage. This might have nothing to do with the memory. Also, you need to download and run CPU-z, which will tell you what your system is running at.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Well that could be troublesome. I was hoping to not have to mess with voltage. I will look at what cpu-z says and post later.

 

[Dorkenstein]

In cpu-z at stock the voltage fluctuates between 1.14 and 1.2 v

 

[Diogenes2]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Well that could be troublesome. I was hoping to not have to mess with voltage. I will look at what cpu-z says and post later.

Why is it troublesome?

I don't think you will find many E8400's that will do 3.6 without a bump of vcore ...