New Build Allendale 3dmark 06 crashing

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light65536

n00b
Joined
Jan 19, 2006
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I just built a new computer. I was upgrading from a 2.8 Northwood and read an article on Tom's Hardware about how well the Allendale overclocked. So, I built this new computer for about $500 with 1.8GHZ Allendale, 4GB RAM, 6800GT Alpha Dog, Gigabyte P35-DS3L, and I had a high quality Enermax power supply previous. Everywhere I read that it would do 3.0 easy and 3.2 or 3.5 would be possible.

So, I tried to overclock to 3GHZ and I can do that about 1.413. I can run Prime95 and Orthos stable for at least 15 minutes. I can also run TAT with max temperatures rising too about 55C-64C. I can play games like Crysis, as well without any problems. But, when I run 3d Mark 06 it always crashes when overclocked. So I took off the stock HSF, and I plugged in my watercooler (Bigwater) and it still wont run 3GHZ.

In fact, even with the water-cooler I can't run 3d Mark 06 at as low as 2.2GHZ at 1.35V. I wonder if something is wrong with my processor because it wasn't the most stable chip when I put it in or if something is wrong with 3dmark 06. I tried voltage up to 1.5V for 2.66MHZ and 3.0MHZ

I have a SATA hard drive. It seems to crash at times when the CPU would be cool. I tried everything stepping at 1-2 step increments and no other test showed any problems. My model is Stepping M0. I tried overclocking with stock HSF before trying the bigwater.

I'm somewhat at a loss. I think I will uninstall 3dmark and try again. I know my CPU needs new grease and can try that but its odd that I can do orthos, prime95 stable and play games but 3dmark 06 crashes and it crashes at odd times-- even after finishing the benchmark with blue screen of death "bios shadow copy" or vga.sys errors.

Any help? This might serve as a warning for those who think allendale gets instant 3ghz. I have overclocked all my previous systems without trouble. BTW, I have only overclock CPU and left RAM default at 800 or underclocked for all test. Is there anything on board I should overclock in addition to CPU? I have disabled the speedstep and other extras not needed but no difference.
 
It could be the Operation System's problem that causing the 3dmark to crash. also, do you get any kind of errors when it crash?
 
Update!

I am very frustrated. I spent 12 hours trying to overclock this with NO results. I upped the MCH and other voltages and tried to get 2.66. I also placed a fan directly on the G35 and a window fan blowing into the case for the ICH. I got no better results. I also ran the 3dmark with the compatibility mode where it doesn't scan hardware with no differences in results either.

This is the worst overclocking machine I've ever had*. I wasted ton of time trying to get it to overclock and be rock solid because I thought it was sure thing, and I have always run overclocked with great results with not much effort.

There no guarantee in overclocking. The errors I get are IRQ_NOT_EQUAL, VGA.SYS error, and something about shadow bios error. They are all BSD stop errors.

the last thoughts on this I can think is to place a fan directly on the ICH, get some better heatsink paste, and maybe try to find another program.

I had great overclocking results with 90% stability at 3GHZ with no problem. I ran Prime95 and Orthos 15 minutes without any problem and TAC too. I have never seen a system so seemingly stable then it fails on 3dmark and crash every time. I thought it was a voltage problem but I also run not OCed with high voltage and it worked.

It could be heat but most of the articles I read claim to be doing 3 GHZ on stock HSF. Overall i'm very happy with this build because it was cheap and 2x as fast as my last computer and very quite too. Plus, if both cores aren't maxed then I'll probably be able to run any games at 3GHZ by software clocking but its not what I was expecting.
 
This system is not the most stable. I set everything back to stock, and let run overnight and I find: page fault in non paged memory. I had some system instability before overclocking but thought it was just the programs fault. I have only 7 days to find the bad part. What should I do? I will check all drivers. I am thinking it is drivers, ram, or motherboard.
 
Thanks for all help. I found something should be aware of with the gigabyte. I had set my voltage and everything back to stock and let the gigabyte optimize everything. It said in the panel that my cpu voltage was 1.325. I just checked it and it was 1.525! I thought maybe I set it wrong and went back to the bios and it was set to let computer optimize at stock speed. It was reading 1.5V. I changed it to manual 1.325. It booted fine and registered fine that it was running 1.325.
 
Update!

I went and got some AS5 and cleaned the CPU and waterblock properly. I, also, smoothed down the CPU a bit and the heatsink. I put a fan on the MCH, as well. I am now able to run 3dmark at 3.0GHZ at 1.455V. I have not tried less voltage. My temperatures are running about 5-12C cooler. I was able to build this system for very cheap and quite pleased now! I am outperforming the x6800 in some benchmarks. I am getting in the mid/high 10,000's in 3dmark06.

I feel I can probably get 3.2 and maybe 3.4 out of this system but it is very solid here and not worth my effort--I would need to go to 1.5V and 1.6V. My temperatures running TAC for 10 minutes maxed around 60C. Temperatures max on orthos at 135F

Hope this helps..
 
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