Noob overclocker broke something

M

mSoap

n00b
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
6
OK let me start our by saying im an idiot. Now that its out of the way, I have been reading Hardocp for years now. Never really had much to contribute due to my lack of funds but Iv'e always been intered.

I recently build a new computer and decided to try my hand at overclocking. Lets just say things ended poorly. I used stress testes and assumed my system was stable


After loading up lord of the rings online to see how everything ran my video card crashed about 30 min into play. I attempted to restarted my computer and relized something was wrong. I over clocked both my CPU and my GPU.

My computer posts without a problem but when it lags like crazy when loading windows, if it doesent freeze. Windows load time went from a few mins to 20 min. Windows in unable to shut down correctly. If I do get into windows everything runs nice for a little bit but when I try to launch things it goes a long perioed where it says its processing, but nothing is happening.

I am assuming its not the video card because I can get to load test(just takes forever) and everything runs fine once it finally loads up. I also ran the windows memory check and everything was ok. Every time I run the harddrive check it takes hours and lots of issues are found and fixed.

I ran Western Digital Data Lifeguard and the quick checked showed everything to be ok. I am running the more detailed check now which should be done in 2 hours.





Here is my specs.

Coolermaster HAF932 Case
Intel i7 930
Coolermaster V6 Heatsink
Gigbyte GA-x58A-UD3R
Corsair tx850w power supply
Patriot G-Series 3x2GB pc3-12800 1600MHZ
Western Digital 1TB - WD1002FAEX
EVGA Gefore 240 ddr5 512MB

Here is the overclocking settings I was useing
Advanced CPU Features:
CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [19 ]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech ................. [Disable]
CPU Cores Enabled .......................... [All]
CPU Multi Threading ..........................[Enable]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ................. [Disable]
C3/C6/C7 State Support ................... [Disable]
CPU Thermal Monitor ........................ [Enable]
CPU EIST Function ............................ [Disable]
Virtualization Technology ................. [Disable]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT .................... [Enable]

Uncore & QPI Features:
QPI Link Speed ..............................[x36] 7.2GHz
Uncore Frequency ..........................[x17] 3400MHz
Isonchronous Frequency ...............[Enable]

Standard Clock Control:
Base Clock (BCLK) Control .................. [Enable]
BCLK Frequency (MHz) .........................[200]
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) ............. [100]
C.I.A.2........................................... ....... [-]

Advanced Clock Control:
CPU Clock Drive ..............................[800]
PCI Express Clock Drive ................ [900]
CPU Clock Skew ............................ [0]
IOH Clock Skew ............................. [0]

Advanced DRAM Features:
Performance Enhance .......................... [Standard]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) ........... [Disable]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........... [ 8]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) ............. [Quick]

Channel A + B + C

Channel A Timing Settings:
##Channel A Standard Timing Control##
CAS Latency Time ..................[8]
tRCD ......................................[8]
tRP ........................................[8]
tRAS ......................................[24]
CR..........................................[2]
B2B........................................[-]


Advanced Voltage Control:
CPU Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping
Load Line Calibration .................... [Standard]
CPU Vcore ......................................[1.275]
QPI/VTT Voltage 1.150v .................[1.295]
CPU PLL 1.800v ..............................[1.80]
PCIE 1.500v ...................................[AUTO]
QPI PLL 1.100v ..............................[AUTO]
IOH Core 1.100v ............................[AUTO]
ICH I/O 1.500v ...............................[AUTO]
ICH Core 1.1v ................................[AUTO]

DRAM
DRAM Voltage 1.500v .............. [1.64]
DRAM Termination 0.750v.......... [AUTO]
Ch-A Data VRef. 0.750v ...........[AUTO]
Ch-B Data VRef. 0.750v ...........[AUTO]
Ch-C Data VRef. 0.750v ...........[AUTO]
Ch-A Address VRef. 0.750v ........[AUTO]
Ch-B Address VRef. 0.750v ........[AUTO]
Ch-C Address VRef. 0.750v ........[AUTO]
 
Lets start with the GPU. I assume you're overclocking it with something like EVGA precision? If so it's not loading until post windows start up, so there's no issue there. At a guess, you've simply got a bad overclock.

Start resetting the bios to default and see if you still have the problems. They will most likely go away. Also take off the GPU overclock after you've done that.

Then when you go back to overclock stuff again, go slower and check for stability using something like intel burn test as you go.

You probably just need more voltage to make those clocks stable, but that's a different thread.
 
Back off your overclock and see if everything runs smoothly.

If that works then I would recommend more voltage on the ICH core and ICH I/O.

In my experience slow boot times when overclock is the result of data corruption in various areas of the system. If your ICH is overworked for the voltage it has then you could risk corrupting your system files. Now that I've said that, after you down clock I'd try running a chkdsk just in cause you got some NTFS index corruption.
 
You did not break your PC by overclocking it - you are not an idiot.
You did not break your PC by overclocking it - you are not an idiot.
You did not break your PC by overclocking it - you are not an idiot.

The settings you posted are much too conservative to harm anything. Take a deep breath, reset your CMOS, start from the beginning, and follow the steps in http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1349426 to figure out which piece of hardware is causing the problem.
 
Backed everything back to default and still haveing the problem. I ran the Western Digital diagnostic tool and it found some errors it cant fix. Is it possable a bad overclock killed my hard drive? I was monitoring temps pretty regularly and never saw anything over 63 - 65c.
 
ahh good to hear. I will try to RMA and see if that fixes the issue. Thanks for the help
 
mSoap said:
Is it possable a bad overclock killed my hard drive?
Click to expand...

Not on an i7 really, now if you had a 775 or AMD board from Nvidia then I'd say it was a possibility. But data corruption from OC'ing an Intel or AMD chipset are very rare.
 
QPI link speed looks to be too high in the original post, unless I'm reading it wrong.
 
Its highly likely all that is wrong is that your windows installation is corrupted. Reload/repair your operating system and your game.

Do not let this discourage you,

one issue is the math based stablilty test a lot of people use do not excercise the 3d graphics/video card. So when you fire up a game the extra heat in the case from the card (most of it gets exhausted but still, it doe cause case temps to rise some) and now you got a lot of PCI-e activity going on etc. stuff happens that does not show up running linpack etc.

It happens. Also it is my experience that some utilitys to help you OC the GPU are a little too agressive and will show the GPU stable but when you run your game(s) due to the much more complex video card activity you will find your GPU cannot game at the OC the utility says you can.

A+ for a good try, relax and figure out whats wrong, it is very very unlikely anything is damaged and give it another shot just back off a bit.
 
Last edited:
mSoap said:
ahh good to hear. I will try to RMA and see if that fixes the issue. Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

Just do what the above poster says and reinstall windows. I recently built my first PC and had a number of different issues, but all were solved with patience and troubleshooting. Each time I had the urge to blame my hardware and RMA, but that would have been a waste of time and money.
 
Bootleg Usher said:
Just do what the above poster says and reinstall windows. I recently built my first PC and had a number of different issues, but all were solved with patience and troubleshooting. Each time I had the urge to blame my hardware and RMA, but that would have been a waste of time and money.
Click to expand...

If the WD tools found some errors it can't fix, it is most likely not the windows installation.

It could be a poorly seated or faulty SATA cable though.

It could also be a poorly seated power cable.
 
Relax man, everybody has been through something of the sort of what you are describing, that doesn't make you an idiot! Just make sure you don't do what you did again and you can mark it up as a lesson learned!
 
Thanks again for all the great advise. I went ahead and tried reinstilling windows. Unfortunatly there was an error while trying to instill windows so now I have 2 operating systems. One is called Windows Setup that always ends up in a blue screen crash and the other is windows 7 which is still haveing the issues described eirler.

I went ahead and did the advanced RMA process through WD. They sent our my new drive already and I will send them the old one once I get the new one so I have a few days to see if I can get it fixed before the new one arrives.

I think I am going to figure our how to format the disk so i can start from scratch. Never ahd to do it before but I cant imagine its that hard to figure out.

Again, Thanks for all the help.
 
Western Digital should have a utility on its web site to "factory format" the drive. It will go through and reset the drive to "from the factory" condition and should identify and lock out any bad sectors. Then during install of windows (or from within windows administrative tools/ disk management) you can partition and and do a normal format for installing programs etc.
 
mSoap said:
I used stress testes and assumed my system was stable
Click to expand...

I think that pretty much sums up your issue right there :D

But seriously, you want to format the drive and do a clean OS install at this point as others suggested.
 
try lower your qpi to 1.225 (or somewhere near this)
1.225v for cpu is already to much for a 3.8ghz (usually this is already enough juice for a 4.2ghz)

i have a 930 D0 highest so far i can manage on a V10 cooler http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1375953

if you get a bsod (if error code is 101) normally higher/lower juice for the cpu
123 (higher/lower volts for the mems)

i dont need to touch the nb/ioh volts when its just under 4ghz. (or your link/unlink is under 4ghz)

that's just for the cpu/mem/nb OC.

for your vc OC, (try to get the highest OC first) stock cpu then OC your vc. I use evga precision (dnt need to use msi coz i am not that good with volt modding my gtx295)

after you get your highest stable 2D OC (mem, cpu, nb) then pair that with your VC oc you can use 3dmark vantage/gaming to it ;)
 
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