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OCing Q6600....constant BSoDs!

C

CHAoS_NiNJA

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
1,578
Title says it all. I bought a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 online used but in perfect shape and started OCing my Q6600. The BIOS was set perfectly and I was already OCed to 3.2GHz without issue and never had a problem. One time, I tried to push it up to 3.4GHz...

Didn't like it, BIOS reset and I lost whatever that guy had done.

Now no matter what, I can NOT get a stable overclock....hell, its getting worse! I loaded "Fail-Safe Defaults" in the BIOS and I still got a BSoD in Prime95...and then again at boot! (The booting issue was fixed by manually relaxing RAM timings) Heat isn't the issue, I don't have the biggest heatsink but it does that job (Scythe Ninja Mini) and I have Everest running on my second monitor to watch temps, When I had it overclocked to 3.6GHz (1.5v) I was touching 65c under prime....high, but not high enough to cause the instability I see acrossed the board.

I used to run 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz on just a hair below 1.4vs (usually 1.35-1.39) but now no matter what I do, I can't get a stable OC.

Halp.
 
Try resetting the CMOS via mobo jumper, that should default everything and make you stable at 2.4ghz again.

Don't try to OC until your stable at stock settings and ALWAYS write down your previous volts etc before starting to OC. ;-)
 
Is your Ram getting enough volts? I know I got a bsod when I tightened the timings to the factory rated timings (4-4-4-12) but left the volts on auto (1.8v) instead of increasing it to the rated 2.1v.
 
Hardware reset the CMOS, everything seems stable now (been running Prime85 for a few hours), not sure what settings could have been off to cause such instability...

I wonder what magic setting I'm missing thats making all my overclocks unstable. What kind of things am I looking at for 3.6GHz (which is my end goal)? I'm guessing around 1.45-1.50 on the vcore, how much should I be boosting the Northbridge on voltage? Also, when I got the board the Multi was set down one to 8x with the Freq jacked up, how will a lower multi help with OCing? I read somewhere before that its "better" but I don't exactly know why....or is that even so with the Core 2s?

RAM is getting plenty of juice, in fact it may have been getting to much before (.30+ on 2.1 already was how it was set).
 
Many chips just won't do 3.6Ghz... and a Ninja Mini is almost certainly not enough for a Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz. Unless you really need the boost for something (and I don't just mean your own personal peace of mind) I'd get it stable back at 3.2Ghz and call it a day.
 
When first OCing it, just take it simple and slow.

Stick yourself at 400x9 FSB for 3.6ghz, ram at 800mhz with all of the standard OC settings, C1E = Off, LLC = on etc etc.

Once you do that, put the voltage higher then you'd want it, see if you can boot into windows and run prime. Tweak things from there more or less, try a little more vcore, try a little mch volt, try a little more ram volt etc etc
 
Looks like I was wrong....another BSoD after a completely CMOS reset back to stock.

This is strange. I ran Prime95 on it for a good 6 hours without a single error, then a bit later while its idling, doing absolutely nothing while I watch a movie on my main monitor...its Bluescreens again.

What the fuck is going on?
 
Try bumping the NB. Take it slow. I get BSoD @ 400x9, but strange enough mine is stable at 450x8. I would do small increments starting from 300x9, and make your way up. Took me 3 days to tweak my voltage and have it stable under prime.
 
These aren't BSoDs on an OC...these are at stock now.

Ran Vistas Memory Diagnostic Tool, came up clean.

Could I have just damaged the OS with the constant BSoDs from overclocking and hurt some hidden system file? Does that even happen in Vista?
 
You could have damaged the OS install, but it isn't likely. My first instinct is to suspect a memory issue, since you're getting BSODs at stock settings. I know you've run the Vista memory diagnostic, but try running memtest and see if it turns up any errors.
 
You shouldn't BSOD at stock.

Re-install your OS, if that doesn't fix it...start testing hardware!
 
Yet another funny thing pops up: I can no longer use Crossfire! The card in my second slot simply will-not work....is this Windows or my motherboard? I switched the cards around and had the same issue.

Dammit, this thread was supposed to be about my OC ,not my tech support, ugh. Anyone else ever getting the feeling they can fix any PC on the planet...except their own?
 
What I'm planning to do to avoid things like this in the future is set up a DVDRW bootable Linux distro with stress testing programs on it, so I can disconnect my HDD and save my data from potential corruption during crazy OC testing. I've hosed Vista 3 or 4 times this way, myself.
 
Format stopped the BSoDs I think (although I did have a crash playing Dark Messiah multiplayer, but I believe thats believed to an unrelated issue with ATis new drivers).

Alright, back to square one I suppose. I'll be trying to crank it back up here soon.
 
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