Stable undervolt but issues booting

[Wings With Horns]

I recently upgraded from a 12600k to a 13600k. As with all intel chips I immediately went to work with some undervolting, and maybe even over locking if the chip will allow it. Only minor amounts to save on heat and electricity.

 

Importantly, I run stability tests to make sure it's all good. A full hour of occt runs without issues, cinebench r20 and r23 can go for 30 minutes each. Y cruncher has no issues finishing, and aida64 causes no crashes either. It's under a 280mm too and temps never get above 75 degrees. I'll put my specific overclock/undervolt settings at the end if that can help.

 

My issue though, is my pc fails to cold boot. I can restart it just fine, but if left off for a while, pressing the power button just makes the fans spin loudly without any post or boot. I have to hold the power button to force it off, the boot again a few times. Eventually it pulls to a screen that says my overclock failed and to press f1 to edit settings. From there I either increase the overclock offset by 100mhz or decrease it, save and reboot, and finally I am in Windows again, where the overclock/undervolt is completely stable.

 

Relevant info:

MSI z690-A DDR4 board running the latest BIOS 7D25v1l1(beta version) though it was still having the issue on 7D25v1H, and the beta BIOS was a troubleshooting step.

 

32gb 2x16 Kingston fury DDR4 running the xmp profile at 3600mhz CL 16-20-20-39

 

And the settings.... In the BIOS I have voltage offset mode with -0.090 volts, short term power limit of 205W and long term power limit of 180W. Load line calibration is on mode 3, Intel power mode is on mode 5, and a 100mhz offset increase on both the p and e cores. 200mhz boost to p cores when I have to change a setting to get the PC to boot.

 

I also have Windows fastboot disabled, and fastboot in the BIOS disabled.

 

What could be causing this? Are my settings too extreme? I don't understand how it can survive every stability test but not be stable enough to boot. I've tried googling everything I can but can't seem to find an answer. Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me think of an answer.

 

 

[PDifolco]

9 minutes ago, Wings With Horns said:

I recently upgraded from a 12600k to a 13600k. As with all intel chips I immediately went to work with some undervolting, and maybe even over locking if the chip will allow it. Only minor amounts to save on heat and electricity.

 

Importantly, I run stability tests to make sure it's all good. A full hour of occt runs without issues, cinebench r20 and r23 can go for 30 minutes each. Y cruncher has no issues finishing, and aida64 causes no crashes either. It's under a 280mm too and temps never get above 75 degrees. I'll put my specific overclock/undervolt settings at the end if that can help.

 

My issue though, is my pc fails to cold boot. I can restart it just fine, but if left off for a while, pressing the power button just makes the fans spin loudly without any post or boot. I have to hold the power button to force it off, the boot again a few times. Eventually it pulls to a screen that says my overclock failed and to press f1 to edit settings. From there I either increase the overclock offset by 100mhz or decrease it, save and reboot, and finally I am in Windows again, where the overclock/undervolt is completely stable.

 

Relevant info:

MSI z690-A DDR4 board running the latest BIOS 7D25v1l1(beta version) though it was still having the issue on 7D25v1H, and the beta BIOS was a troubleshooting step.

 

32gb 2x16 Kingston fury DDR4 running the xmp profile at 3600mhz CL 16-20-20-39

 

And the settings.... In the BIOS I have voltage offset mode with -0.090 volts, short term power limit of 205W and long term power limit of 180W. Load line calibration is on mode 3, Intel power mode is on mode 5, and a 100mhz offset increase on both the p and e cores. 200mhz boost to p cores when I have to change a setting to get the PC to boot.

 

I also have Windows fastboot disabled, and fastboot in the BIOS disabled.

 

What could be causing this? Are my settings too extreme? I don't understand how it can survive every stability test but not be stable enough to boot. I've tried googling everything I can but can't seem to find an answer. Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me think of an answer.

 

 

Does the PC boot normally at stock settings?

[Wings With Horns]

26 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Does the PC boot normally at stock settings?

Good point. Testing it right now....

 

Yes, it does cold boot with just xmp enabled, and the BIOS fastboot enabled by default. (I just loaded optimized defaults) So the undervolt is the culprit.

[PDifolco]

3 minutes ago, Wings With Horns said:

Good point. Testing it right now....

 

Yes, it does cold boot with just xmp enabled, and the BIOS fastboot enabled by default. (I just loaded optimized defaults) So the undervolt is the culprit.

Yeah undervolt is sometimes weird, will be stable in stress tests for hours then BSOD out of the blue on desktop, or refuses to boot...

[Wings With Horns]

13 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Yeah undervolt is sometimes weird, will be stable in stress tests for hours then BSOD out of the blue on desktop, or refuses to boot...

So even if I'm stable in numerous stress tests, booting is tougher on the CPU? I still don't get how that works, but I guess I'll keep tuning the settings and bring the voltage up some more.

[PDifolco]

22 minutes ago, Wings With Horns said:

So even if I'm stable in numerous stress tests, booting is tougher on the CPU? I still don't get how that works, but I guess I'll keep tuning the settings and bring the voltage up some more.

I've observed that loads shifting from low to high to low to high etc have more issues with undervolt than just high loads indeed, has to do with how cores ramp up or such I suppose

[unclewebb]

@Wings With Horns

Consider using ThrottleStop to manage your undervolt. Set the BIOS to use default voltage. Your undervolt will only be applied after you log in and after ThrottleStop starts.

 

Another useful ThrottleStop feature is the Sleep Defaults Voltage setting in the FIVR window. When this box is checked, just before your computer goes to sleep, it will reset the undervolt to zero. The undervolt will not be reapplied until after you resume. 

 

 

 

If you use Windows Defender, check the Windows Defender Boost box in the ThrottleStop Options window. Most people get more consistent bench scores after checking that. 

[Wings With Horns]

4 hours ago, unclewebb said:

@Wings With Horns

Consider using ThrottleStop to manage your undervolt. Set the BIOS to use default voltage. Your undervolt will only be applied after you log in and after ThrottleStop starts.

 

Another useful ThrottleStop feature is the Sleep Defaults Voltage setting in the FIVR window. When this box is checked, just before your computer goes to sleep, it will reset the undervolt to zero. The undervolt will not be reapplied until after you resume. 

 

 

 

If you use Windows Defender, check the Windows Defender Boost box in the ThrottleStop Options window. Most people get more consistent bench scores after checking that. 

Well, I'm normally more opposed to having extra applications on my PC when the BIOS works just fine. But I tried once again with much more conservative settings once home from work, and it failed to boot up once again. 

 

It seems if I want to tame the heat and poor power settings of Intel's latest processors, I'll be installing either Throttle stop or Intel XTU. Thank you for the suggestion. 

[Wings With Horns]

Thank you for the replies. PDifolco helped me see that it really was my settings and there isn't another problem, and unclewebb has given me a good workaround. I'll be marking this as closed now.