Moody X58 System

[ndfr623]

Alright, so about a month ago I had my system (ASUS P6T WS Pro on latest BIOS, Xeon X5650, 12GB Kingston DDR3) running stable at 4GHz (200x20).

I watched an X58 overclocking guide and decided "why not. let's go higher". So I tried to OC higher, I'm not sure if I tried to do multiplier x22 or up the BCLK a bit more.

 

The point is, that did not work, no matter the voltages, timings or anything. I never went above anything unsafe (never above 1.3v, I believe it was).

 

So I decided "whatever, the old OC is fine". Except that I typed in the BCLK, multiplier and voltages and... no POST. "okay, maybe it's too high". 180 BCLK and nothing.

 

So now I have to stick to a 160 BCLK and an x20 multiplier because I can't lock in the x22 stably. The highest I can go on the BCLK now is 164, and going that high introduces issues with my USB audio interface. Anything higher will not post and turn on the DIAG_RAM light.

 

I don't know what to do! My old clocks don't work anymore. I tried reseating the RAM and only 8GB were detected (so I was missing a channel, it's 6x2GB). I reseated it again and at least I got my third channel back, but no dice on higher clocks.

 

Does anybody know what might be happening? Did I f*ck the memory controller or the memory itself? Shall I pull out the PC again and try reseating everything once more?

Thanks.

[wojtepanik]

did you pull out the cmos battery?

[Pasi123]

Have you tried to reset the bios settings? And maybe you could try a bit higher voltage, for example 1.325V

[Ground]

Also reseat the cpu.

[ndfr623]

Okay everybody, it's been a few days (a week) and I've tried all your suggestions.

 

I tried going back to defaults and back up from there several times, I've opened it up and reseated everything, even pulled out the battery. But no dice.

At this point there's not much I can do except live with the CPU at 3.2 GHz (which is a bummer because 4 GHz was working fine), contact ASUS support or start saving up for a new platform (which is gonna be hella expensive for the same level of performance) instead of a graphics card upgrade (I'm currently on a 750 1GB).

 

Thanks, y'all. I'll let you know how it goes.

[bimmerman]

What voltages and multipliers were you running when it was working fine?

 

What did you try when it stopped working fine?

 

What/how old/how functional is your PSU?

[Intelfreak]

A typical problem when you oc on X58 with BLCK. Is that as you increase core clock, you also increase memory and UCLK clock. I have seen severel oc attempts being unstable because memory and/or UCLK clock is not ajusted accordingly as well.

 

So basic is that you shut not run memory much above the rated spec.

For UCLK clock as the clock goes to 4000 MHz it typically becomes rather unstable and causing BSOD. You shut try keep UCLK around 3600 MHz +/- 100 MHz and at voltage around 1.35 volts ajusted in QPI/DRAM core voltage.

CPU core voltage can safely be taken to 1.4 volts, above that you go beyond what intel reccoments as maximum voltage. The cpu is even rated to operate between 0.750V-1.350V, but maximum volts is 1.4 volts for long term operation. So you have some headroom from 1.3 volts, given that your cooling can handle the higher voltage off cause.

 

This is my OC settings for 4.42 GHz and note my CPU is a I7 980X, but the volts and settings you shall ajust is the same as i have done in image. But you still need to find what voltages your CPU is stable at. You might need higher or even better lower voltage.

 

https://imgur.com/a/zOKH0u4

[asand1]

Running my last x5680 I cooked it at 4.2ghz and started getting every kind of bsod fault. It wouldn't run at any speed without eventually BSODing. Replaced the CPU and kept it at 4Ghz with no problems.

 

Pick up another $20 CPU and see if it doesn't work again. For a daily driver more than 4Ghz is unnecessary.

[ndfr623]

2 hours ago, bimmerman said:

What voltages and multipliers were you running when it was working fine?

 

What did you try when it stopped working fine?

 

What/how old/how functional is your PSU?

I was running 200x20 at around 1.22v or so. I've never been able to get x22 really working stably on this board and CPU ever.

 

I think I tried raising the multiplier to 22 and tried to bump the CPU core voltage along with it. I think I also tried a 210 BCLK, but I don't remember if it was unstable or if it just refused to boot.

 

My PSU is an Antec CP-850, so the whole system is inside an Antec P183. It's never failed me in the least.

 

The whole thing was working fine when I got it from a family friend who was moving. Due to the age of the parts and all that ( I got it with a GTX 285 inside), the system must be 9 or 10 years old. I got myself the CPU on AliExpress for about 20€, put it in and freaked out for a few months until I figured out that all I needed to do was update the BIOS. I put in the old owner's i7 950 (which I still have, I might give that a try), updated the BIOS and it ran perfectly. Over the course of a couple of weeks I bumped up the overclocks (mainly BCLK) from 160, to 180, to 190, until finally settling on 200x20. A voltage of around 1.21 or 1.22 served me fine for months.

 

2 hours ago, Intelfreak said:

A typical problem when you oc on X58 with BLCK. Is that as you increase core clock, you also increase memory and UCLK clock.

 

For UCLK clock as the clock goes to 4000 MHz it typically becomes rather unstable and causing BSOD. You shut try keep UCLK around 3600 MHz +/- 100 MHz and at voltage around 1.35 volts ajusted in QPI/DRAM core voltage.

 

Yeah, I ran that OC for months with no issues. RAM speed was around what it normally runs at (everything on default leaves the RAM speed at 1333), so that wasn't the problem. I usually have the UCLK around 3, 3.2 GHz, but I'll try raising it to around 3.6.

 

1 hour ago, asand1 said:

Running my last x5680 I cooked it at 4.2ghz and started getting every kind of bsod fault. It wouldn't run at any speed without eventually BSODing. Replaced the CPU and kept it at 4Ghz with no problems.

 

Pick up another $20 CPU and see if it doesn't work again. For a daily driver more than 4Ghz is unnecessary.

 

Still, it's rather strange that all this would occur right after a higher failed OC. I might actually have (partly) fried the CPU. I will try the old i7 950, but still...

[ndfr623]

Alright, I've put the i7 950 and it's done... Pretty much nothing.

The board still refuses to boot with BCLK higher than 160. There's a small improvement, in that now I have a max multiplier of 24, but if I decided to stick with this I'd also be losing 2 cores (and the 4 threads that go with them).

 

I'm going to run Cinebench to see if it's stable, at least for a moment.

Alright, the multiplier seems to be unwavering. I'm going to play a few games and such and see how it goes, but it's still a bummer that the board (or RAM) is misbehaving like this.

Edited December 19, 2018 by ndfr623