Desperately need help, unstable pc after failed overclock at base clock

[FunkyBeats]

Desperate need of help with new build, won't boot with the slightest overclock after a few failed overclock attempts, system not stable at base clock

I don't know if I managed to fuck my hardware on day 1 or if I'm being a dumbass about overclocking but here it goes:

My build is as follows

Windows 10 Pro 64bit

MSI M7 Gaming Motherboard (Bios has the most recent update)

Intel i5 6600k CPU

2x8 gb HyperX Fury DDR4 (2400mhz)

MSI Nvidia GTX 970 GPU

Kingston HyperX Savage 250gb SSD

2 tb Seagate Barracuda

Seasonic G 550W PSU

Corsair H115i

Nzxt Noctis 450

CLC and case have stock fans.

Ok so here's what happened: first install, I downloaded and installed most of the msi utilities to use with the motherboard, including cpu-z,vas well as aida64, cinebench r15, corsair link for the CLC fan control and msi afterburner.

I went a little wild on my first OC and tried a 4.8ghz clock via the BIOS (this msi board has an inbuilt easy OC knob with a max rating of 4.7ghz on the 6600k hence my first OC being so high and yes i know I'm supposed to start small then clock higher but i wanted to trust the hardware) with XMP enabled at 1.42v. I stressed it on aida64 for a bit with no problem so that I could set up my fan curves and then took it to cinebench.

It immediately BSOD. I turned it back down to stock and tried 4.7ghz. It ran cinebench 2 times without fail (and not to mention temps in the 50° range so temp wasnt an issue) and BSOD near the end of the third run.

From this point onwards, anything over a 4.1ghz clock was a guaranteed BSOD and failure to boot. I cleared CMOS too many times, I reinstalled windows with less apps (only cpu-z and cinebench) and i still am unable to go past that clock speed.

I attemped to OC it higher than 4.1 anyways with varying levels of vcore and now i can only run it at base clock without BSOD after a while.

I ran a windows memory diagnostic, no errors found. Cinebench only produces 1 or 2 successful runs before BSOD as well.

BSOD codes change, but here are the most common:

Critical Process Died; Driver Overran Stack Buffer; System Thread Exception Not Handled; Bad System Config Info; System PTE Misuse; System Service Exception.

I don't know if I lost the silicon lottery or if I fucked my ram sticks with the OC or if I got a bad CPU honestly I'm a mix of tired, scared and angry because of the money I invested in this system, which I most likely just screwed up.

Please help me.

Edited November 28, 2016 by FunkyBeats
Title Edit - Whoever edited my previous title made it so that it did NOT reflect my issue. I need help figuring out why my system isn't stable at base clocks, not overclocking it.

[FunkyBeats]

Anyone?...

[aquilaray]

14 hours ago, FunkyBeats said:

with XMP enabled at 1.42v

Do u mean DRAM voltage 1.42v or CPU core voltage at 1.42?

[FunkyBeats]

4 minutes ago, aquilaray said:

Do u mean DRAM voltage 1.42v or CPU core voltage at 1.42?

Vcore. not that any of it matters now, since the pc won't even boot besides in safe mode and I cant do a system reset because apparently the memory is unreadable. so i have a bricked pc with either bugged drivers or bad ram and no way out.

[aquilaray]

1 minute ago, FunkyBeats said:

Vcore. not that any of it matters now, since the pc won't even boot besides in safe mode and I cant do a system reset because apparently the memory is unreadable. so i have a bricked pc with either bugged drivers or bad ram and no way out.

1.42v is high but still safe for a skylake so your chip didn't take any damage I think. 

Try running your RAM at 1600Mhz and your Uncore/Ring bus/Cache frequency at stock (manually) which is 3.5Ghz.

With these running 100% stable at this settings u could try an OC for your cpu again and tell me if it worked.

XMP profiles are considered overclocking and not every RAM module is able to run stable with it turned on so turn that off aswell.

After this you isolated all the variables and you will be able to see what is causing unstability.

[aquilaray]

Update?

[FunkyBeats]

3 hours ago, aquilaray said:

Update?

This helped in getting to the recovery menu without BSOD but I still cannot reset it, when I attempt I get a "There was a problem while resetting your pc". the system is bricked at this point.

[Juggern0ttt]

Pull your cmos 

[Brads900]

Sounds like ram to me, due to different error at different times

[FunkyBeats]

5 minutes ago, Juggern0ttt said:

Pull your cmos 

I have a dedicated button for that. That's the one single thing I've done repeatedly throughout this mess

[FunkyBeats]

6 minutes ago, Brads900 said:

Sounds like ram to me, due to different error at different times

right now I'm making another windows 10 media usb and hopefully reset it but my biggest fear is that I blew out the ram sticks, how would I RMA them in that case?

[aquilaray]

3 minutes ago, FunkyBeats said:

right now I'm making another windows 10 media usb and hopefully reset it but my biggest fear is that I blew out the ram sticks, how would I RMA them in that case?

Not, overclocking is voiding the warranty, be happy it is not your cpu. Next Time you try overclocking do one variable at a Time and try to isolate by setting the others to Stock or even Lower, this way you can write everything down and know what is going on and what might cause errors if they occur.

[smokefest]

2 minutes ago, aquilaray said:

Not, overclocking is voiding the warranty, be happy it is not your cpu. Next Time you try overclocking do one variable at a Time and try to isolate by setting the others to Stock or even Lower, this way you can write everything down and know what is going on and what might cause errors if they occur.

exactly. Can't RMA after you blew up something

 

Anyway, probably just the XMP ram profile that keep BSOD. When you click on XMP, it ask for a automation of the cores and you can either click on " yes " or " no ". I suggest click no here and set manually the cores ratio / voltage.

I suggest :

1. set bios to default

 

2. don't enable XMP yet.

 

3. Set cpu core ratios to : Sync all cores : 44X or 45X

 

4. Set vcore to 1.35

 

Test from here with benchmarks, stress test, etc.. I suggest : Realbench , aida 64 and cinebench. AVOID prime95

 

 

Note : uninstalling - reinstalling windows will not change anything. no need to do that

[FunkyBeats]

Small update: Doing a completely fresh install of windows via bootable usb solved my issue of not being able to boot into windows at all. I followed the above steps and manually clocked my cpu at 3.5ghz and dram at 1600 MHz like aquilaray suggested, for stability. I have not yet conducted any sort of stress test, just installed the basic drivers, video and peripheral, so far no hiccups.

 

Tomorrow I'll install my corsair fan controller software to make sure cooling is optimised and I'll conduct some stress tests at current clocks, auto (base) clocks, and attempt a mild OC again at 44x like user suggested above. It turned out to be just corrupted drivers or a bad windows reinstall it seems. I'll update the post tomorrow with results. Thank you for those who posted suggestions!