Weird Hypertransport issue on my work computer.

ManofGod

ManofGod

[H]F Junkie
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Oct 4, 2007
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I have a FX 8320 running on a Asrock 990FX Extreme 4 motherboard. Whether I am overclocking or running on stock speeds, if I do not up the HT bus voltage from 1.180 to 1.200 volts, everything in my everything just loads noticeably slower than if I set it to 1.200v. Any idea why that would be?
 
If I remember correctly from the S754 days, I read some trivia on HTT to find out what is was and it's actually kind of a stateful bus. It has its communication protocol, uses packets, verification of data integrity... kind of like TCP.
It's possible the HTT bus drops a lot od data because of corruption. WHEA might catch this.
If it happens at stock I'd risk saying it's a motherboard problem. Like bad power.
 
IIRC the HT and NB voltage is 1.2 at stock on all my ASUS boards. Maybe try a different BIOS.
 
Could also be the power supply or maybe you have really dirty power at your work.
 
Johan45 said:
IIRC the HT and NB voltage is 1.2 at stock on all my ASUS boards. Maybe try a different BIOS.
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Is your NB or CPU NB voltage at 1.2? The default of the NB is 1.145 and the CPU NB is 1.225v on my board.

cyclone3d said:
Could also be the power supply or maybe you have really dirty power at your work.
Click to expand...

Could be the power supply since it is 7 years old. However, I have the computer hooked up to a good UPS and the power at work is pretty clean anyways. (Some of the servers are in the next room over.)
 
Were you the one assembling the system?
Something as trivial as a bump to the case from the cleaning lady could have disturbed the pin-socket contact. Especially considering how your problem only affects the HTT portion of your CPU. Tried reseating it?
 
michalrz said:
Were you the one assembling the system?
Something as trivial as a bump to the case from the cleaning lady could have disturbed the pin-socket contact. Especially considering how your problem only affects the HTT portion of your CPU. Tried reseating it?
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I should go ahead and try that first. I just swapped my cpu's about 2 months ago to test them in each system and then swapped them back. (They both worked at about the same level of overclock, which was not much.) Might be worth trying but, my mainboard is 4 years old so maybe it is time for an upgrade anyways.
 
At home, the HT Voltage is 1.210v default but the NB voltage is 1.108v. The NB CPU voltage is 1.200v though.
 
You could try dropping the HTT latch to like 3/4 or even half of the rated frequency and still get away with plenty of bandwidth, definitely worth it for diagnostics.
 
I have the same motherboard as you but with an 8350.

CPU NB 1.175
NB 1.145
HT 1.180

When you swapped processors, did the problem follow the processor? I was just wondering if it might be something on the processor.
 
ManofGod said:
At home, the HT Voltage is 1.210v default but the NB voltage is 1.108v. The NB CPU voltage is 1.200v though.
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Yeah you were right the NB voltage is 1.1 but the NB HT voltage which is how it's labeled on my board is 1.2. If the volt bump fixes things I'd be content with it for now.
 
Johan45 said:
Yeah you were right the NB voltage is 1.1 but the NB HT voltage which is how it's labeled on my board is 1.2. If the volt bump fixes things I'd be content with it for now.
Click to expand...

That is what I am going to do for now, thanks. :) (Always looking for an excuse to upgrade but, this is not one of them. :D) In fact, now my Cinebench 11.5 scores have improved as well at stock speeds with that HT voltage bump. Maybe, just maybe, since I upgraded back in February to 4 x 8GB (32GB) of ram, maybe the voltage bump was needed and I just did not realize it.

AMD ram sold by Sapphire when it was on clearance sale, 2 x 8 at 1333 and 2 x 8 at 1600 but, they all run at the 1333 speeds. I bought 4 x 8GB at 1333 speeds since that is all they had left but, they sent me the above ram anyways.
 
Yeah that's a lot of traffic, no doubt a bit of an extra bump was needed. These FX struggle with a lot of ram to begin with, at least you're not trying to run them at 2400 Ha ha
 
Oh, I tried to run them at 1866 but, no dice. Since my cpu's do not overclock well, I just decided to give up and run them at stock. However, I did try for a while, I just do not seem to hit the silicon or motherboard lottery like I would want to, oh well. :)
 
That's a bummer, one fella had the same thing with his 8350, just 2x4Gb couldn't run 1866 till he hit the CPU_NB with about 1.35v
 
I do not really have $720 to spend to upgrade to a 5820k system at the moment. (I have the money, just not the will to spend it but, I would be no where near broke if I did.) The reason I mention this is because I think my Asrock 990FX Extreme 4 board is having issues. It is 4 years old, the front usb 3 port header will randomly cause the computer to lock up if used and I have to up the HT and NB voltage to get everything to run with consistent stability.

I am considering just replacing the board itself with a MSI 990FX gaming board since the reports on it seem to be good. Then I would have a board and system that runs well until this time next year when DDR4 prices will be lower and the new enthusiast chips will be out. (Zen too.)

What do you think, just spend the money to upgrade now or replace the board before it dies?
 
Well, I bought a MSI 970 Gaming mainboard to use at work. I am going to what until Zen is released before I decide on what full upgrade I do. It is replacing my Asrock 990fx Extreme 4 board that is 4 years old and kind of flaky. (I hate replacing a board if I am not 100% sure it is going bad but, I cannot wait until it dies since I need to use my work machine all day, every day.)
 
If you do figure this out I'd love to hear the solution. The best I can theorize is a handwavey 'some chip is failing' with the lower voltage. If you do find a solution do please post it.
 
Hopefully it is the board. Just to put it out there when I'm benching and only so so stable. The USB is the first to show problems typically related to memory or IMC settings/voltage. Not saying it isn't a bad chip on the board , I'm just putting it out there.
 
Johan45 said:
Hopefully it is the board. Just to put it out there when I'm benching and only so so stable. The USB is the first to show problems typically related to memory or IMC settings/voltage. Not saying it isn't a bad chip on the board , I'm just putting it out there.
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Thanks. I am going to box up the Asrock board and set it aside just as a temporary backup in case the MSI one has issues. The thing is, things should run with good stability at default settings without the need to up any voltage. We will see though but sometime mid next week.

I hate spending money when something breaks. ;) I much prefer to spend when I want to, not when I need to but, that is what a budget is all about.
 
I realize things should run at stock but 32Gb of ram is a hard pill to swallow for these FX and not tested by any mobo manufacturer AFIK. I'm sure it needs some tinkering to get it just right.
 
Well, I cannot wait until I get that new board and install it. (Probably won't receive it until next Tuesday or so.) I decided to do a clean install since I had reset the bios and forgot to change it back to AHCI which meant it ran as IDE and I could not switch it back.

Well, the machine runs faster but, programs will randomly crash. (Not really often but, for instance, Outlook 2013 crashed when I accessed the junk folder.) Oh well, I guess after running a Phenom II 945 at 3.645 GHz, a Phenom II 1090T at 3.8 GHz, an FX 8120 at about 4GHz, an FX 8350 at 4.5 GHz for 4 months and then the present FX 8320 at about 4.3GHz at 24/7 for the last 2 years, I guess it should not be a surprise.

Nothing lasts forever and this is not the highest end board available either. (Asrock 990FX Extreme 4.) That and the front usb3 ports sometimes lock up the machine if used for the past 3 years, it is time anyways. May have to tweak the board that I am getting but we will see. :D
 
It appears that the mainboard replacement has taken care of the problem. At the very least, it runs cooler than the old Extreme 4. :)
 
Good to hear MOG and yes the new board would be a bit beefier than the EXT4
 
Johan45 said:
Good to hear MOG and yes the new board would be a bit beefier than the EXT4
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The thing that stinks to me is that mainboard skimped on the AMD boards but not on the Intel boards. :( If the boards had been like this at the start, I think AMD would have been better off than they are now. However, the 970 boards before this were nothing to write home about and would not always work with even an FX 8350.

Onward to Zen! :D
 
Too bad I didn't notice this thread continued. Before you retired the Asrock I had a few experiments in mind to nag you about because I just couldn't believe how selective this gremlin was and it was a chance to see HyperTransport's fault tolerance in action.
I've skimmed some Piledriver on 990 guides so I kind of flashbacked to Clawhammer and Venice :D
May I ask if it's still possible:
- what was the HT link frequency versus the Northbridge frequency? 1:1 or did you place a latch and it was something like 4:5?
'Back in the day' you had to watch your HTT speed. Increases yielded little benefit and it would be vulnerable to high clock issues. Also I would have had recommended getting it to 1:1 NB:HTT
- same question as above but for voltage. HT link voltage versus NB voltage.
You said you only bumped the NB volts and it worked better IIRC.
Here I'd avoid having them equal, like 1.2 and 1.2 instead giving a little extra to the HTT bus. Maybe the HTT was simply overclocked by the BIOS and/or undervoltaged with respect to the NB?
 
Unfortunately, it is too late now, I do not have a processor to throw in that board and test it with. Now that I have my work machine all good to go, I do not want to disassemble that one. Sorry about that.
 
No problems, still a very neat failure. I'd have tons of fun.
 
ManofGod said:
The thing that stinks to me is that mainboard skimped on the AMD boards but not on the Intel boards. :( If the boards had been like this at the start, I think AMD would have been better off than they are now. However, the 970 boards before this were nothing to write home about and would not always work with even an FX 8350.

Onward to Zen! :D
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Now that all they're making is Intel boards they're starting to skimp out on those too. Just my observations of course but you can get some nice chintzy plastic pieces to make up for the other issues.
 
Johan45 said:
Now that all they're making is Intel boards they're starting to skimp out on those too. Just my observations of course but you can get some nice chintzy plastic pieces to make up for the other issues.
Click to expand...

I am not going to buy another MSI 970 gaming board but, I do like it more than my Asrock 990FX Extreme 9 board I have at home. Looks better and runs cooler at the same ambient temp as far as I can tell.
 
I don't know, too many people are still afraid of the MSI blowing up. I doubt they'll sell many in AMD land.
 
Johan45 said:
I don't know, too many people are still afraid of the MSI blowing up. I doubt they'll sell many in AMD land.
Click to expand...

You are probably right but, I think it is more because it is AM3+ than anything else. Two years ago, this board would have sold extremely well considering most others in this price range are very poor boards. I am just happy that the problems on my computer are gone and I already tossed the old board into the recycle bin.
 
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