PC can't 'restart' from Win7 anymore - "Overclocking Failed!"

Surly73

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 19, 2007
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This started a long time ago but in general I don't "restart" a lot and I had a lot of other more pressing things to worry about.

The PC is a P8P67 Pro w/ i5-2500k running Win7 x64 Pro (which was originally installed on a P5B-E w/Q6600 and then upgraded 2.5 years ago without reinstall). Everything is at stock clocks although I have ensured that the memory is set for an XMP mode that runs it at rated timings - no more. Boot/OS is an Intel X-25M G2, data is a WD Black FAEX both on native ports. Sound is an Auzen Forte 7.1, GPU is a 560Ti. PSU is HX620, RAM is G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 1.5V. Currently everything is Truecrypt, but it was in the clear before and still had this problem.

Everything used to be just fine, but some time after I upgraded to BIOS 3602 this started happening (though I don't know if it was immediate).

When I tell Win7 to restart it will reboot, POST the GPU then shutdown. When you power it back on you get "Overclocking Failed!" and you're forced to hit F1, go into UEFI, save and restart. I *think* if you unexpectedly hit the hard reset (not something I do when I don't have to) it will do the same thing. If I'm running memtest86, or any live CD (Hirens, Gparted Magic, Clonezilla, Knoppix) I can restart from all of those OSs without a problem. Only from Win7 can I no longer restart.

I had very little luck googling. At one point I thought I read something which indicated that it might be Intel Management Engine so I followed what one person did and wiped the drivers from the system - no improvement. I have used the clear CMOS jumper - no improvement. Until I tried NV 320.49 it has been rock solid reliable (big mistake, went back to 314.07).

I don't know if the fault is the mobo, other hardware, drivers, apps, or the OS (since only Windows is affected). Everything's pretty clean and I don't reformat just for fun. I thought I read that 3602 is a BIOS you cannot downgrade from, so I didn't go there. 3602 has been the newest for quite some time.

Any ideas I should try?
 
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Do you have some kind of video card over clocking software installed in the system?
Or options in the video card settings?
Sounds like there is something trying to overclock your video card on restart.
 
Do you have some kind of video card over clocking software installed in the system?
Or options in the video card settings?
Sounds like there is something trying to overclock your video card on restart.

Hmmm. I haven't been doing any gaming in a couple of years, really, so I'm not on top of the exact state of things in that specific area. I'm not intentionally overclocking but I do have some tools like nHancer and nVidia Performance installed (mostly to tweak AA with modes which weren't available in the driver or engine settings).

You've given me a couple of ideas. When I'm back at that PC I will go over some of these settings and perhaps uninstall nVPerformance altogether for the time being. Perhaps I've forgotten about some setting I intended to apply temporarily a long time ago.

Something along these lines would explain why only my main Win7 install is affected by the issue, though I'm not sure whether it would actually act like this. Sure, messing with GPU clocks is "overclocking", but not that the motherboard would know anything about it and report a failed overclock. Although I suppose the ASUS "Overclocking Failed!" message is a generic error which they always show from an unexpected condition during POST, right?
 
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Unplug the computer from the mains. Open the chassis and find the reset CMOS jumper. Use it. Reboot.

Boot problems / CMOS corruption is sometimes a sign of a failing power supply. I had one computer which couldn't hold an overclock and gradually I had to drop the clocks to stock untill it didn't boot even with them.

The culprit was the power supply. After replacing it the machine would oc again like new.
 
Before you clear the bios, unplug the power cord from the power supply. Then press and hold the power button for about 5 seconds to drain all the left over stored power. Then proceed to clear the bios. Then plug back in the power cord and boot the pc. Go into the bios and choose load optimized settings, save and reboot.
 
B00nie / Killer_K:

I've already done the CMOS clear as part of this

I have used the clear CMOS jumper - no improvement.

I should also have been crystal clear in my original post that I have no problems booting, POSTing or anything else. All of my google attempts took me down roads to people who had cold boot problems too, or double/triple POSTing etc... Everything is perfectly fine except for restarting from win7 only, which seems really weird to me. No crashes, OC's fine (if I chose to do so), memtest's fine, Prime 95 and other synthetic loads are fine, temps are fine, heavy GPU is fine, cold is fine, warm is fine...

I may do the CMOS jumper stuff again, I guess, and be super anal about draining all caps etc....

I take it, at least, that this isn't some kind of common problem with 3602 which is good news I guess.
 
You can always go back to the other bios and see if that fixes the issue for you.
 
Welcome to the World of Asus; the most useless bump information ever: "Overclocking Failed"--even if you aren't! Mostly it means some setting has changed and gives no indication what that might be. I know the double post problem went around a couple years back on some Asus boards and they had a fix for it. Wonder if the new BIOS introduced that back into the mix again?

Here is a quote from the Asus rep on another forum about the fix. Might be worth a try. That problem turned out to be a power setting or something pretty much unrelated to any overclocking. Also, are you using AI Tuner or any of that stuff? Might uninstall if you are. Also check power settings in Windows and see if the BIOS upgrade changed any of them.
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Quote:

Some of you may have been experiencing a double POST on your P8P67 series motherboard whereupon after powering on the system from a cold boot, the board will power on and then immediately reset itself before it actually POSTs and shows any display on the screen. I’ll explain the fix below and give some information about why this happens.
First, I would like to stress the importance of flashing the BIOS to the latest BIOS revision as listed on our support website, http://support.asus.com/download. You can access the ASUS EZ Flash tool from within the UEFI (advanced options, tools) to flash the BIOS from any removable device such as a USB flash drive.

From time to time we needed to implement full resets in order to maintain stability due to the architecture of the Sandy Bridge platform. For instance, the system may require one full reset when the PCH power has been cut during S5 power state. To fix the most common additional reset (double POST when powering on from off state), enter UEFI BIOS -> go to ‘Advanced’ tab -> go down to ‘APM’, press Enter -> enable the “Power on by PCIe.” function. Then press F10 to save & exit. After save & exit, let the system boot into Windows or other OS, then perform a proper shutdown: Start button -> Shut down. You will no longer have the double POST.
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If that doesn't help you could PM RAJA@Asus Support who is on these forums. Maybe he could shed some light on the problem. http://hardforum.com/member.php?u=230910
 
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Welcome to the World of Asus; the most useless bump information ever: "Overclocking Failed"--even if you aren't! Mostly it means some setting has changed and gives no indication what that might be. I know the double post problem went around a couple years back on some Asus boards and they had a fix for it. Wonder if the new BIOS introduced that back into the mix again?

Here is a quote from the Asus rep on another forum about the fix. Might be worth a try. That problem turned out to be a power setting or something pretty much unrelated to any overclocking. Also, are you using AI Tuner or any of that stuff? Might uninstall if you are. Also check power settings in Windows and see if the BIOS upgrade changed any of them.

If that doesn't help you could PM RAJA@Asus Support who is on these forums. Maybe he could shed some light on the problem. http://hardforum.com/member.php?u=230910

Yeah - I know the "Overclocking Failed!" message is pretty generic, misleading, and can't be taken at face value.

I saw the "wake on PCIe" thing in a thread about cold boot issues. I tried it and that's not the fix.

I have also completely removed nHancer, nVidia performance, nVidia system monitor - no improvement. I've done "load optimized values" to remove my XMP explicit memory timing and any other little non-OC tweaks I may have made in settings - same. OK, not quite the same. I wasn't seeing "Overclocking Failed!" anymore, but it still shuts down on restart.

I will have to pull the PC out of it's cabinet and try the CMOS reset jumper process again. It's just a bit of a PITA to get the case out and open because of the manner in which I have it installed in my home office.

I should also update that in my most recent tests I am NOT seeing a GPU POST before it shuts off. I issue a restart, the OS shuts down, I see it reset the GPU, the fans go to max, then instead of POSTing it shuts down requiring me to hit the power button to turn it back on. Classic "double POST" happens without touching the power button. All cold boots and "shutdowns" work fine. Again, other OSes restart fine.
 
Yeah, I'm on my third or fouth Asus MB so I've gotten quite familiar with their unhelpful "Overclocking Failed" routine.

Beginning to sound more and more like a borked Windows installation since everything else seems to boot and run OK. Good idea to try the serious CMOS reset and see if that helps. Have you run the old sfc /scannow command to see if it finds any bad files? Tried a system repair? Or, Heaven forbid, maybe it's time to reinstall Windows. As you, I'd try every possible avenue before going to that extreme.
Curious to hear how this turns out.

To open another can of worms, is that the MB that had the problem with SATA ports dying after a time? I know there were several revisions and not sure which one you have. Since the live CDs run OK wonder if the SATA port is problematic? Have you tried plugging the Windows HD/SSD into other ports or anything? Just happened to read about that issue while researching. No idea if it applies in your case.

Back to corrupt files, when I put this current system together I got nothing but repeated "Overclocking Failed...yada, yada" and nothing was O/C. Warnning lights on the MB and unable to set any usable parameters in the BIOS. Everything was new with a fresh Windows install; I considered every awful possiblility--bad RAM, bad MB, bad SSD, bad build. Messed with it until I thought about running the scan command--believe it or not it said it found and corrected corrupt files. Everything worked great after that and has for the better part of two years--unless I really do something it doesn't like. Would not have imagined corrupt Windows files could cause so much havoc and that they would be there right after a fresh install. Guess Windows and all the parts and pieces didn't play well together from the get-go and all that was needed was for the OS to find and correct the foul play. Hoping your problem is something just as simple. I still run that scan from time to time just to make sure everything is in order.
 
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So I did the big jumper-based CMOS clear and threw everything back together. I saw at least one normal restart (it could have been two) following that process but again today the system can't restart. I think all I did was set XMP timings (to rated, not overclocked) and then put it back to "auto" when restart began to fail again.

Interesting...

This is the chipset which had degrading SATA, but it is B3 stepping so it's supposed to be fixed.

EDIT: sfc /scannow reports no problems.
 
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