Having some issues...

[CaptNKILL]

Ok, my system has been stable for about a week running my new setup, but today while I was watching a DVD I got a bluescreen. I thought maybe it was just a fluke (PC had been on for a while and I had been running some buggy games) so I rebooted and went back to the movie and it gave me another blue screen. This time it was a different error.

It seemed to me like a memory related problem because of the errors I got, so I loaded up Orthos and ran the blend test. Instantly I got an error about ready boost needing to close, then Orthos errored and then I got another blue screen with an error saying something memory related ( "memory _____ " can't remember the word).

So after fiddling around with my settings (and after clearing my CMOS because I set my memory voltage too low and the system wouldnt post) I'm back at stock clocks and stock volts and I'm having no problems. I finished the movie, and orthos seems ok.

One thing thats bugging me though, is that if it was memory related, I don't know what was causing the problem. My RAM is running at 1066Mhz right now (5:8 ratio according to CPUZ). I have all of my voltage adjustments set to defaults, and this ram supposedly needs 2.1V to run at its rated speed, rather than the default 1.8V for DDR2. I didn't realize DDR2 was at 1.8V when I started overclocking, and for some reason I needed to run it at +0.5V (2.3) to get it stable at 1080Mhz.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I don't have much experience with the new BIOS options on this board...

Is there some way I can monitor my DIMM voltage in Windows? I have Speedfan, Everest and the gigabyte easytune utility and none have memory voltage monitors.

Its really strange that I wasn't having any problems until I was watching a DVD (with media player classic). I've watched a few since I put this thing together, and I've played a lot of intense games.

Not sure where to go with this right now. I'll keep working at it, but any tips or helpful links for Core 2 overclocking (specifically on this board or at least another P35) would be awesome. I just don't want to cook anything by experimenting too much. :o

[CaptNKILL]

Hmm... this is interesting:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_8500_sli_ready_edition

That shows my ram as needing 2.3V. That would make sense, but I wonder why other sites say it only needs 2.1.

Its strange, if I change the memory speed (the divider\multiplier) at all in the BIOS, my system auto reboots a few times and resets the memory speed. The only way I can get any change in speed (higher or lower) to work is to set my DDR voltage to +0.5.

Also, I can't seem to get my timings to set right either.

[randsom]

anytime you get a auto reboot its usually power or ram related.Sometimes heat but not usually

first turn off auto reboot, google the blue screen code

see if you can move on from there.

Just because it was working fine yeaterday or whatever, doesnt mean its its fine today, ask me about the **** im going through with creative right now.

seems to me, like you might be losing a stick.


check one stick at a time,trying in different slots.


2.3 is alot voltage, maybe to much, id rma that ram, if possible.OCZ is really good about rma,s

Head over to [H] forums and look up andy ,he's under andyocz,send him a pm, see what he thinks. He'll get back to fast, or at least he has with me.

[CaptNKILL]

anytime you get a auto reboot its usually power or ram related.Sometimes heat but not usually

first turn off auto reboot, google the blue screen code

see if you can move on from there.

Just because it was working fine yeaterday or whatever, doesnt mean its its fine today, ask me about the **** im going through with creative right now.

seems to me, like you might be losing a stick.


check one stick at a time,trying in different slots.


2.3 is alot voltage, maybe to much, id rma that ram, if possible.OCZ is really good about rma,s

Head over to [H] forums and look up andy ,he's under andyocz,send him a pm, see what he thinks. He'll get back to fast, or at least he has with me.
The auto reboot I mentioned wasnt related to the blue screens. Its a feature of this motherboard. When you set overclocking options it will reset itself after saving the settings and if the settings fail it will reboot itself a few more times before post while it sets things back to defaults.

And as the OCZ site says, 2.3V is the standard for the ram.


Is it normal for SiSoft Sandra to be waaaay off with its memory readings as well?

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 2 : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM 6.0-7-7-20 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2
Bank 3 : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM 6.0-7-7-20 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR2

:eek2:

[randsom]

sorry about the reboot thing.

Then, i dont know man, sorry.

for the bios to default to thos setting is strange indeed.

Still think you have some ram that is going/went south on ya.

[mullet]

The only luck I have had is running my ram 1:1 it seems very stable at that. I tried other dividers and the errors in orthos mounted up big time. Why not run 450x8 1:1 4-4-4-12 with the ram at 1.9v or 2.0v. I know the ram would only be at 900 but it would probably more stable.

[CaptNKILL]

The only luck I have had is running my ram 1:1 it seems very stable at that. I tried other dividers and the errors in orthos mounted up big time. Why not run 450x8 1:1 4-4-4-12 with the ram at 1.9v or 2.0v. I know the ram would only be at 900 but it would probably more stable.
I'll have to do some more testing but I may end up going that route. With these chips, 1:1 is actually 2:1 (or 2.00 in my bios). Thats how I had it before and it didn't seem like a problem until this morning. Very strange.

I wish I could actually set my memory timings though. All I have are standard\turbo\extreme in my bios and none seem to effect the memory readings in programs like Sandra and CPUZ.

[mullet]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3r_6.html

Memory timings on Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R can only be adjusted when you access the hidden settings by pressing Ctrl+F1.

The Q-Flash utility seems to be the only feature making the work with Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R mainboard easier. Other innovations introduced in the BIOS Setup are quite arguable, in my opinion. One of the most frustrating one is the fact that some important memory controller configuration settings are “hidden” in the BIOS Setup. You can see these settings and get access to them only by pressing a “secret combination” of keys in the main menu of BIOS Setup. The combination is Ctrl+F1, but unfortunately, there is no mention of it anywhere, even in the mainboard user’s manual.

[CaptNKILL]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3r_6.html
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Usually manuals mention things like this if they exist. I looked in the book and didn't see it so I just assumed it didn't have hidden options.

Kick ass... time to fry some ram... :p

[mullet]

God speed.

Edit: I know I have posted this to many times but just as a refresher.

401 x 8 1:1 @ 1604 FSB / Mem was @ 802Mhz Vcore 1.375 @ 3.2 - Idle-34c Load-54 (orthos)
SiSoftware - MEM = 6761/6769
SiSoftware - CPU = 29463/20523
PCmark05 - 7380

400 x 8 1:1 @ 1600 FSB / Mem was @ 800Mhz Vcore 1.375 @ 3.2 - Idle-34c Load-54 (orthos)
SiSoftware - MEM = 7259/7285
SiSoftware - CPU = 29380/20477
PCmark05 - 7421

425 x 8 1:1 @ 1700 FSB / Mem was @ 850Mhz Vcore 1.425 @ 3.4 - Idle-36c Load-58 (orthos)
SiSoftware - MEM = 7172/7196
SiSoftware - CPU = 31203/21777
PCmark05 - 7595

450 x 8 1:1 @ 1800 FSB / Mem was @ 900Mhz Vcore 1.55 @ 3.6 - Idle-40c Load-71 (orthos)
SiSoftware - MEM = 7365/7385
SiSoftware - CPU = 33188/22560
PCmark05 - 7893

475 x 7 1:1 @ 1900 FSB / Mem was @ 950Mhz Vcore 1.425 @ 3.3 - Idle-36c Load-58 (orthos)
SiSoftware - MEM = 7814/7828
SiSoftware - CPU = 30532/21296
PCmark05 - 8528

500 x 7 1:1 @ 2000 FSB / Mem was @ (2.1v) 1000Mhz Vcore 1.5 @ 3.5 - Idle-35c Load-56 (orthos)
SiSoftware - MEM = 7980/8000
SiSoftware - CPU = 32148/22259
PCmark05 - 8893

[CaptNKILL]

Running at 450x8 again. With the ram set to 900. Latencies and voltage set to what OCZ recommends (5-5-5-15 and 2.3V). CPUZ still shows the latencies to be off a bit (5-6-6-17) but its not a big deal.

CPU vcore is set to 1.506 in the bios. Under load it's sitting around 1.44.

Been running Orthos blend for a half hour now. CPU temp is fluctuating between 55C and 59C. Not bad considering it's really damn hot in my room.

When I have more time I might try flipping my fans around a bit to get some fresh outside air straight into my CPU heatsink. Not sure what it'll do, but it wouldn't be too hard to try.

[mullet]

With those timings man the ram should run 1.95 to 2.0v with ease. WOW 2.3v.

[nV`andrew]

Running at 450x8 again. With the ram set to 900. Latencies and voltage set to what OCZ recommends (5-5-5-15 and 2.3V). CPUZ still shows the latencies to be off a bit (5-6-6-17) but its not a big deal.

CPU vcore is set to 1.506 in the bios. Under load it's sitting around 1.44.

Been running Orthos blend for a half hour now. CPU temp is fluctuating between 55C and 59C. Not bad considering it's really damn hot in my room.

When I have more time I might try flipping my fans around a bit to get some fresh outside air straight into my CPU heatsink. Not sure what it'll do, but it wouldn't be too hard to try.


Heh, somehow my HSF came loose apparently and when i booted a few minutes ago my motherboard was at 65C and the e6750 was at 87C in the bios :headexplode:
remounted and temps of the motherboard are now at 35C and the proc is in the 40's. That was pretty fricken scary :p

I think my CPU is getting some decent cooling (still on stock HSF, will switch it this weekend). I have the TriCool sucking in air at the front, and instead of putting the Thermaltake PCI slot cooler by the GPU, i put it on the side of the hard drive cage, so it moves the air thats getting pulled in, to the CPU and GPU area. I like the layout of this mobo, you dont have to have fans spread out all over the place.

[CaptNKILL]

Heh, somehow my HSF came loose apparently and when i booted a few minutes ago my motherboard was at 65C and the e6750 was at 87C in the bios :headexplode:
remounted and temps of the motherboard are now at 35C and the proc is in the 40's. That was pretty fricken scary :p

I think my CPU is getting some decent cooling (still on stock HSF, will switch it this weekend). I have the TriCool sucking in air at the front, and instead of putting the Thermaltake PCI slot cooler by the GPU, i put it on the side of the hard drive cage, so it moves the air thats getting pulled in, to the CPU and GPU area. I like the layout of this mobo, you dont have to have fans spread out all over the place.
The layout actually gave me a few headaches because my case has a bottom mounted PSU. That little 4pin power connector is pretty damned far away from the bottom of my case. :p

I managed though.

[CaptNKILL]

Dammit. Had another blue screen. :(

I set everything back to stock for now and I'm going to memtest the hell out of this thing. I just emailed OCZ to get the correct stock voltages and timings.

If its error free at "auto" voltage settings at 1066Mhz, then I'll know that it isn't dead. It'll just be a matter of setting it properly myself so I can actually overclock the damn thing.

This gigabyte BIOS is proving to be kind of annoying for overclocking. It doesn't give enough information about its settings, and it gives no information at all when you set things to automatically adjust.

[DRen72]

So do you think this is primarily a motherboard or RAM issue?

[CaptNKILL]

So do you think this is primarily a motherboard or RAM issue?
Seems like a problem with the RAM, but it seems to be caused by quirky BIOS settings rather than something being defective.

I just ran memtest 86+ for almost 5 hours (pure dos boot) with zero errors. Ran 2 instances of the old memtest windows program for about a half hour too. Also no errors.

All at stock settings, with the motherboard controlling all voltages and automatically setting the ram to 1066.

The main problem seems to be that in this BIOS, when you switch to user controlled settings (to overclock), it defaults to settings that don't work, rather than defaulting to the settings that it is already using (which work).

Its extremely irritating. You'd think by now we'd have BIOS programs that at least told us what the "auto" settings were, rather than just having "auto" and then leaving you hanging as to which setting to use.

I'm not overclocking my ram. In fact, I'll be underclocking it if I run 1:1 (900Mhz). There isn't any reason it should take a ton of voltage to run slower than default settings.

Has anyone had to change any other BIOS or voltage settings at all when overclocking on a P35 board? This is just blowing my mind...

[HaVoK19]

yeah man, i know what your saying. Ive been fiddling around with my p5k, and i would really love to know what things are set at when set on auto.

On a side note. Either CPUZ reads my mem timings at 33-6-6-9. But in the bios,(after setting it to manual so i could see what they were running at), it says 5-5-5-9. Any idea why it would be so far off??

[Vik1dk]

If you use the F4 bios CaptNKILL, i would try the beta bios as the F4 has performance issues.
I flashed my DS4 with F5g and did a quick 3dm01 and went from 549xx to 568xx same settings, worth a try ;)

Edit: They must have changed the mem auto settings, everest latency test down from 68.4 ns to 57.7 ns same 5-5-5-15 and the rest auto setting

[jcossin]

Hey CaptnKill,

I've been an overclocker forever and have been admiring your overclock and new rig stories.

Keep in mind that you are 1 full Ghz above rated speed on your CPU. The fact that you are coming back to stock speed and having no problems tells me that maybe you're a little aggressive on what you are asking to get out of your e6750. Try coming down for awhile to 3 Ghz. If you're having no problems for a week or so at that speed, inch yourself upward.

From my experience, Overclocking is definitely more of an art than a science....

[SH0DAN]

CaptNKILL....

I had that board,try upping the north bridge voltage a small notch.At stock vram voltage I doubt the mobo is giving it enough voltage.You need to make sure the chipset is getting enough voltage.When I had it at defaults,it bluescreened on me at random times for no 'good' reason,even though with memtest 86,it ran for 8 to 12 hours straight with ZERO errors.

Now,your PS,were you using it before with the 4200 X2 ? Also are you expiriencing these blue screens under Vista AND XP ?

.......or just Vista ? With that mobo,I was getting similar problems oc'ing
under Vista Ultimate X86,with zero probs under XP SP2.

[CaptNKILL]

Hey CaptnKill,

I've been an overclocker forever and have been admiring your overclock and new rig stories.

Keep in mind that you are 1 full Ghz above rated speed on your CPU. The fact that you are coming back to stock speed and having no problems tells me that maybe you're a little aggressive on what you are asking to get out of your e6750. Try coming down for awhile to 3 Ghz. If you're having no problems for a week or so at that speed, inch yourself upward.

From my experience, Overclocking is definitely more of an art than a science....
I know I'm pushing it pretty far, but I get the weird instability problems if I adjust the memory speed (higher or lower) without increasing the voltage even with the CPU at stock speed.

I just got a reply back from OCZ about my ram, and it appears that 2.1V and 5-5-5-15 are the proper settings. I have no idea why I can't get it to work when I manually set it to +0.3v. It works fine when the motherboard automatically sets the voltage.

I can't find a single program that will show me the dimm voltage for this motherboard. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll keep cracking at this.

[CaptNKILL]

Ok, these pics aren't of my BIOS settings (I found them in this review (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/06/01/gigabyte_ga-p35-ds3r/3) of my motherboard) but they show lots of settings that I'm not sure what to do with. I'm just using them to point out the options I'm unsure of.

I put red boxes around the things that I'm not sure what to do with:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=27175&stc=1&d=1187067266
I'm not sure what the "Fail" thing means. I've seen it on mine too. I'm guessing it just means that the ram isn't running at 1.8v, so if you are overvolting, that test will "fail". But still... I don't know for sure.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=27176&stc=1&d=1187067266
These settings I have no idea what to do with. I disabled the C1E and TM2 settings, but I don't know if thats 100% necessary when overclocking, or if thats just something that people do so they have more control. I personally wouldn't mind it if my system throttled itself back when it wasn't under much load. I just don't want it interfering with anything else.

EDIT: Also, I just realized my BIOS has a "CPU EIST" setting right below the TM2 setting too. I have that disabled as well. I'm pretty sure that's SpeedStep.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=27177&stc=1&d=1187067266
Not sure what the (G)MCH setting is for. And this is what my voltage adjustment options look like. Notice how this guy has his voltage at +0.4v.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=27178&stc=1&d=1187067266
These settings are bit obscure too. I don't know what they do. I haven't noticed much difference between "Option 1" and "Option 2", but BIOS text looked a little glitchy when I changed the performance enhance setting from standard or turbo to extreme. So I don't mess with that setting any more. I'm not sure what it does though... it doesn't seem to effect my timings.

Any input is welcome. I wish gigabyte had a good community forum like DFI had\has.

[mullet]

Looks like your running the system hard.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3r_6.html
I was reading this again and noticed you have different settings in your BIOS. The C.I.A.2 you have full throttle while theres is Disabled.

In other words, you can hit pretty good overclocking results on Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R by simply changing the bus frequency and raising the Vcore and Vmem. This way we managed to reach 505MHz bus frequency.

And this is what the BIOS Setup settings looked like to ensure that the mainboard would run stably at this speed:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=27179&stc=1&d=1187068735

[CaptNKILL]

No those pictures I posted were from bit-tech. They aren't from my BIOS.

I just didn't have time to take all the pictures myself.

Maybe I should. :p

Believe me, I wouldn't do that to my poor system. Their temps are terrible and they have things set really weird.

I have CIA2 disable in my BIOS as well. Its an auto overclocking feature. I'd never touch that crap. :o