Why can't I leave good enough alone?

R

Rabid Badger

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 9, 2006
Messages
2,093
So here I was, my machine running smooth as silk, a nice overclock, my RAM running at DDR450 with tight 2.5-3-2-5 timings. Then I think, "Hey, this memory is supposed to be the same as OCZ Platinum, I bet it can go faster." Yeah.... :(

So I loosened up the timings and turned up the speed. It booted up fine at the 216:200 divider, passed a few rounds of Memtest. Cool, lets try 233:200. No go. Loosen the timings a bit, up the voltage a tad, still no go. Alright, so 216:200 is the best it can do, it's still faster than it was.

So I put it back to that, and now it won't boot at that, either. I check all my settings, and they're exactly like they were when I tested it before. I tried clearing the CMOS and re-entering the settings and it still wouldn't work. I thought maybe I just got lucky on the testing before, so I put it back the way I had it originally, on the 200:200 divider and....no go. WTF?! I try the 183:200 divider and it gets into Windows, then BSOD's.

I thought maybe I corrupted Windows, so I did a repair install, but that didn't help. Turns out the only way the system will run now is at all stock settings, or, if I OC my processor, I have to run the memory on the 166:200 divider.

I tried reflashing my bios but it didn't help. What did I do to my system? I'm going to try running Memtest with everything at stock setting and see what happens. Anyone have any ideas?
 
"Why can't I leave good enough alone?"

LOL, that says it all brother. The only thing I can think of is perhaps your mobo is changing a divider/multiplier some where that is causing your issues. Have you gone thru your bios with a fine-tooth comb?

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
 
Here's what I suggest doing. Flash your CMOS one more time. When you see the POST, go into your bios. You want to load optimized defaults. Then slowly change anything you need to get the system to run. Leave the multiplier settings at default if possible. Boot up again and see if that fixes the problems.

Also, can you let us know some more details on the BSOD? Are there any patterns or any other symptoms? Good luck.
 
Yeah, when this happens to me I start from scratch...

But look on the bright side, at least you didn't *destroy* anything... Every time I get my computer the way I like, I open it up and move a cable/add a fan or something, and end up frying one of the various (expensive) components on the inside ;)
 
yeah , i hate starting from scratch ,

thats why i love the ability to save all bios settings on the DFI ultra-d ,

i think when you went back to your old settings you could have missed 1 option which made the overclock unstable , like the cpu or ram voltage , or could be any single setting
 
The BSOD tells me there has been a critical error and that Windows has been shut down to protect my system, followed by the usual gibberish, then it performs a memory dump.

I've got my system running right now with my full 2.7ghz cpu overclock (225 FSB) and my RAM running 1:1 at 2.5-3-3-6 timings, so I'm getting closer to where I was.

Just when I start trusting this mobo, it does some weird shit like this to keep me on my toes. I had it running with the 5x HT multiplier for a couple months, then one day it decided it didn't like that any more and I had to switch it to 4x, took me forever to track that down. Now, a couple months later, after I'm feeling comfortable enough again to tinker a little bit, it does this. *sigh*
 
Yeah, that's how I got it running again the first time. I was running it on the 166 divider. I've just been speeding the RAM up a little bit, letting it run for a while, then bringing it up a little bit more. It's not BSODing anymore, I think it just really didn't like the overclock I was trying to push it to.
 
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