stability and OCing

[confusingcomputers]

Hello guys, I've been overclocking my winchester 3000+ the lsat couple of days...and i'm having stablitiy issues. AT 2250 and a FSB of 250, i get an error in prime95 after 6 hours. Also, my system locks up after playing BF2 for about one hour.

I had 1.65 volts running trhough it, and i know my ram is ok bc it passed memtest86 with no errors. Anyone know why i can't get my winchester stable at this speed? Seem slike most people have gotten theirs stable up to even 2.4, i can't even get mine stable at 2.2. I was just wondering what would cause an error after 6 hours, versus if an error occurs after 5 minutes running prime95. Is there really anyway to narrow down the problem?

I was running th esame set up at 1.55 volts and had the lock up in BF2, thats when i increased the voltage to 1.65 (still a cool 49C using asus probe at full load on prime95 with 1.65volts)

 

[GuitarDaddy]

First off 1.65 is way too much vcore, it's very likely that you are having overheating problems. It would help alot if you would list your full system specs, mobo, ram, power supply, ect... and a complete list of your settings including memory frequency, ram timings ect... and your idle and load temps.

I would also suggest reading through Zebos quick and dirty O/C guide stickied at the top of this forum

 

[confusingcomputers]

Hey, i updated my profile and put all my specs in my sig. I thought 1.65 was to high as well, but i was still a cool 49C according to Asus probe, so i figured it was ok. Right now i kicked it back to 245FSB which puts me at 2205 Mhz at 1.55 vcore. I'm going to run another all night test tonight to see if it stays stable.

The only thing about this setting is that my ram isn't overclocked at all, and i like the extra performance increase i had with my ram OCed to 208mhz with the 250FSB, i'm right at 200 mhz now.

I did read zebos OC guide...and i used it to an extent. I maxed out my ram to see what speed i could run it at without errors (about 208 was my max, although i didn't try 210 yet. but it had 3 errors at 216mhz), But right now, i'm sticking with my ram below 208 or below and trying to get the processor stable.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Is that 49c at idle, if so thats pretty high. Check your load temps (after Prime has been running 2-3 hours) I quess your using the stock CPU cooler?

Make sure your HTT multi (also known as LDT) is set at 3x

And for now I would use an even lower ram divider like DDR200 to eliminate ram from the picture, and see how high you can push the FSB.

With my 3200+ winnie, I could get to 289 x 9 = 2601mhz. Once you find your max CPU overclock, then you can work on getting your best ram speed to match.

 

[confusingcomputers]

no, the 49C was at full load with prime95 set to level 10 priorty. I think thats pretty good. I don' tlike running that much volts through it anyway though...that was really just more of a test. I wanted to see if uping the voltage would solve the problem. It didn't.

I am using the Thermaltake VENUS 12 80mm Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink. Great fan and heatsink.

I guess what i really was curious to know is if theres any diagnostic signifcance to getting at error after 6 hours versus getting an error after say 10 minutes. Thanks for your fast replies.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

49c is good for load temp.

Which Prime test are you running? the blended?

In my experience if your running the blended test amd prime fails after many hours, it is most often ram causing the problem. How long did you run memtest? did it go past 6 hrs?
If your running the small files or large files test, there really isn't any significance as to when it fails unless there is a heating issue which it doesn't sound like.

 

[confusingcomputers]

actually i was running the in place large FTTs test (whatever that means). I read somewhere that it was the best one. Plus, i use Memtest86 to check my memory, so i don't use the blended test.

No, i actually just let my memory pass without errors the first time. That was it. But i figured since it was corsair and it was only at 208 mhz that everything was fine Tonight, when i do my test, i'll take your recommendation and turn my ram down to DDR 200. Just to make sure its not the ram.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Yeah, that will tell you for sure. The Corsair VS is very good quality stable ram, but it doesn't like to OC

 

[confusingcomputers]

Ok, thanks for your help, i'm off to start messing with my settings again . You people on here are so dang helpful.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

No problem, good luck

 

[confusingcomputers]

Well, i just used Zebos strategy for maxing my CPU. I didn't actually get the failure in the first 5 minutes of prime, but my system frooze during windows loading when i was at 260 * 9 or 2340 mhz. So now i'm backed off to 245 *9 or 2205 mhz, i asume the system freezing is a good pint to back off to 95% jst like failing prime in the first 5 minutes? I guess my winchester doesn' t overclock as good as a lot of people i've seen.

That was with the voltage at 1.55 like zebo suggested.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Do you have Cool n' Quiet disabled in bios? Is your LDT set at 3x?

Do you know what stepping your CPU is? CBBID is the one that seems to have the most duds

 

[confusingcomputers]

no cool n quiet and LDT is 3x. Nope, i don't know what stepping my cpu is.

 

[confusingcomputers]

Man, this thing is starting to tick me off. I"m still getting freezes running at only 2205 mhz with a FSB of 245 *9. I cranked it back down to 240mhz. Anyone know why my system is so unstable?

I have the agp/pci lock and i have my hpertransport to 3x.