Stable at Load; Video freezes surfing web

I'm having a strange issue with the rig in my sig. I've been doing some testing, and for whatever reason, I can't OC the 2600k past stock settings without it freezing the video.

I've run 10+ passes of IBT at 4Ghz and 4.2Ghz without it blue screening or locking up. However, I'll be surfing the web at 1.6Ghz on speedstep and it will freeze the video (video card) or display a multi colored flashing screen (IGP) both which require a power cycle to recover. If I leave the CPU at stock 3.4Ghz speeds, it will not give me any issues and will run fine. Memtest86+ has been run for 12 hours and doesn't show any errors on the memory.

I'm a little confused because normally I'll get blue screens if I'm trying for a max OC, but this time I'm getting video freezes. Plus it only freezes at minimal speeds when doing minimal tasks.

It doesn't sound like you've ran any GPU stress tests, you could be crashing the IGP and not the CPU cores.

Well, I've run a Valley Benchmark loop and it doesn't crash the GTX760. It will lock up when surfing the web though. I haven't tried completely disabling the IGP in bios and seeing if it will work. Let me try that quick.

PSU for reference is a Corsair TX750.

Well, I completely disabled IGP and am using my GTX760 to power both monitors. Still having issues. I tried a modest .02V voltage offset to see if that helps. Still locks up at 4.2Ghz. Seeing about 4Ghz now.

what voltage are you using under load and under surfing the web?. what method to modify the voltage are you using to overclock? fixed voltage? offset voltage? (positive or negative?). during normal loads even at 1600mhz he voltage frequency will vary too much, so you may need to use LLC, generally its in automatic or regular (0%) in asus boards, MSI and others use other kind of names for LLC Like level 1,2,3,4,5.. just set it at 25% and try again the load line will be way more stable under standard and heavy loads bringing it more stability...

are you touching the BCLK frequency?..

in the other hand.. 10 IBT runs are just not enough... you need at least 25+ passes with maximum stress of IBT, run P95 in Small FFT for 3+ hours, or Aida64 for 2+Hours, and even those can be insufficient for stability compared with the use in games, I personally prefer to use Real world usage than any other synthetic tool, you want to real test stability? Play Far cry 3 for 1+ hour and crysis 3 for 1+ hour.. any kind of instability will be for sure present in those games.. with my last 2600K i was able to pass 24hours of P95, 50passes of IBT, 24 hours of Aida64, then crash at the first 20min of gameplay with far cry 3..

I have set LLC to the one that gives the most stable voltage (Lvl 1 IIRC). I haven't touched the BCLK. Initially I was testing with stock voltage, but I have tried Offset voltage at +.02V. Still freezes at 4.2Ghz. Maybe I just have a bad chip.

Its just strange that instead of a blue screen I'm getting video freezes. Normally when I've experienced crashes due to voltage or too high clockspeed, it will blue screen instead of freeze.

What browser are you using? Also what video drivers are currently installed?

try with fixed voltage for awhile.. if no issue then try with negative offset.. i've used to have mine 2600k at 4.2ghz with -0.060 offset and medium load Line Calibration (25%).. no more was necessary to be 100% stable. it was at 1.242V under P95 or aida64 FPU Stress Test. I was able to utilize fixed voltage of 1.208 and Regular (0%) LLC but i prefer to keep the negative offset which help with idle voltage (Drop to 0.904) and medium loads(gaming for example) it was at much better voltages than the fixed 1.208.. but its a thing of test and error.. because yes all kind of things can happen due to instability BSOD, CTD, Freeze Machine, Freeze Games, etc etc.. also depending on browser as example google chrome, hardware acceleration features tend to be crappy in some machines.. (specially in non betas version)..

It actually just froze while I was posting this (4Ghz).

I'm using the Chrome browser, but it will freeze under pretty much any conditions.

Idle voltage (CPU-Z) is anywhere from .98 to 1.00V. Load voltage is 1.2V to 1.22V (stock). I actually have a different 2600k lying around, so I might pop that one in and give it a try to see if its a chip issue or if its a setting/motherboard issue.

FWIW...I just kept bumping up multiplier running a 10 pass IBT to check and it will run 4.5Ghz no problems at my current voltage setting, so I can't imagine its a max clockspeed/voltage issue. Right now I'm trying bumping the CPUPLL voltage up one notch. I was reading on a ASRock OC thread that that might help. We'll see what happens.

Alright...just tried a different 2600k and it freezes in the same spot and doing the same things. Has to be a setting in the motherboard.

well.. thats a different story, I guess you will need first to, reset Bios to default settings, save changes, restart and just only change the CPU multiplier to desired speed 40 or 42 with auto-voltage and let it run a couple of bench/test.. take note of the voltages with CPU-Z if you see voltages extremely high(as tend to happen with Asrock boards) then you can start to undervolt it manually or with negative offset.. if you crash due to low voltages then start to increase it manually or with positive offset.. if you will use manual voltage do not use LLC or set it to 0% (it will require much more voltage than what it really need) unless you have serious voltage drops.. if not then just use LLC if you are using Offset voltage..

(Pics of the Bios can also help)...

Can you check what it does with another videocard? I had that problem once and changing the videocard was the only method in my case.

I ended up swapping out the motherboard for another one I had on hand and am going to use the ASRock board with a non-OC environment. No worries.