no longer able to run stable overclock

[athenaesword]

hey guys, my 2 month old rig used to be able to run a 3.7ghz stable overclock (tested with prime95 for 24hours). now i can't even boot at 3.2ghz.

i'm now running it default at 2.66ghz until i can identify the problem.

rig: e6750/ 2gb crucial ballistix ram 800mhz/ gigabyte p35 ds3l

i've tested the ram with memtest it seems to run fine. not sure why i can't overclock anymore. would appreciate it if you guys could chime in the possible reasons for this so i could weed out the problem. remember it used to run at 3.7ghz stable up till a week ago when it started crashing on me whenever i overclock it.

only recent addition is a mybook 500gb external HDD which is always plugged in. is too many usb connections a possible reason?

edit: i've tried loosening ram timings and uping core voltage to no avail.

[clocker]

Were you running at boosted voltages before?

[athenaesword]

Were you running at boosted voltages before?

yeah 1.45 or so. i'm using thermalright extreme 120ultra. was told that as long as i kept below 1.5 i was good.

[mr. nails]

why not run @ default settings & see if ur pc even works @ all to begin with? what's it do for u to know it's no longer stable? can't boot to windows? i think i read that right.

also, extra usb connections will not hurt u booting an oc'd cpu.

[athenaesword]

why not run @ default settings & see if ur pc even works @ all to begin with? what's it do for u to know it's no longer stable? can't boot to windows? i think i read that right.

also, extra usb connections will not hurt u booting an oc'd cpu.


didn't i state in my first post that i'm currently running it on default 2.66ghz?

well it doesn't boot to windows. if i try to boot it up with OC settings it automatically restarts without even starting to load windows.

[clocker]

I've read (here, (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=544848) I believe) of similar results with overclocked e8400's...some of them seem to "degrade" after a while and will no longer support speeds they once did. Higher voltage is usually blamed as the culprit.

Not sure if this enough evidence to claim a trend (or whether it's applicable to your series chip), but the phenomenon is not unheard of.

All these chips are really too new- and too few- to say what might be happening.

[athenaesword]

I've read (here, (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=544848) I believe) of similar results with overclocked e8400's...some of them seem to "degrade" after a while and will no longer support speeds they once did. Higher voltage is usually blamed as the culprit.

Not sure if this enough evidence to claim a trend (or whether it's applicable to your series chip), but the phenomenon is not unheard of.

All these chips are really too new- and too few- to say what might be happening.

but i was using a previous gen chip - e6750, and these have been reputed to be one of the best duocores for overclocking. okay an update: my comp just hung again on default settings.

some of the main programmes open at the time:
MPC playing a HD movie
emule
utorrent
msn msgr
AVG

when it hangs it gives a blue screen with something that says physical memory something and then it restarts immediately.




update:
okay i disconnected my Mybook 500gb and wala the cpu could boot up at 3.7ghz.
i've been running p95 for over an hour now and it hasn't crashed yet. previously i couldn't even at boot 3.2, and my 2.66 crashed after running for awhile

is there any explanation for this?

[clocker]

update:
okay i disconnected my Mybook 500gb and wala the cpu could boot up at 3.7ghz.
i've been running p95 for over an hour now and it hasn't crashed yet. previously i couldn't even at boot 3.2, and my 2.66 crashed after running for awhile

is there any explanation for this?
MyBooks suck?

What else is plugged into your USB ports?

You can disable auto restart on blue screen...Control Panel>System>Advanced>Startup and Recovery>Settings>System Failure> untick "automatically restart....".

And, it's "viola!", not "wala", BTW.

[athenaesword]

update:
okay i disconnected my Mybook 500gb and wala the cpu could boot up at 3.7ghz.
i've been running p95 for over an hour now and it hasn't crashed yet. previously i couldn't even at boot 3.2, and my 2.66 crashed after running for awhile

is there any explanation for this?
MyBooks suck?

What else is plugged into your USB ports?

You can disable auto restart on blue screen...Control Panel>System>Advanced>Startup and Recovery>Settings>System Failure> untick "automatically restart....".

And, it's "viola!", not "wala", BTW.

i've already done that. that's how i deduced the error: bad_pool_caller in the blue screen after the physical memory dump.

google shows that it can be caused by faulty usb connections/ faulty drivers or programmes.

btw, after 5 hours of stable p95 i turned it off adn started emule, utorrent, and msn. one of these must have fucked my cpu up because i got that blue screen again.

[clocker]

How big of a PITA would be for you to reinstall Windows?
Your overclock may have corrupted the OS.

[athenaesword]

How big of a PITA would be for you to reinstall Windows?
Your overclock may have corrupted the OS.

i won't reinstall OS until i'm absolutely sure that there's no other way. i'm going to try isolating emule, or running it simultaneously with utorrent again tmr to recreate the problem. it's midnight here now, and utorrent has been running fine alone on 3.7ghz coreclock.

i don't think reinstallation of OS is required at this point, and it's highly unlikely OCing would corrupt the OS.

[clocker]

... it's highly unlikely OCing would corrupt the OS.
I would disagree but good luck anyway.

[Detale]

I have found that Ocing F*cks up the OS alot, I re-install prob 2x a month or so depending on my mood.

[Cabalo]

... it's highly unlikely OCing would corrupt the OS.
I would disagree but good luck anyway.
i strongly disagree on that. one tip: strongly avoid using the SATA0 and SATA1 slots to plug your main OS harddisk.

[athenaesword]

I have found that Ocing F*cks up the OS alot, I re-install prob 2x a month or so depending on my mood.

why does OCing fuck up the OS if it's been tested to be stable?




I would disagree but good luck anyway.
i strongly disagree on that. one tip: strongly avoid using the SATA0 and SATA1 slots to plug your main OS harddisk.

when you say you disagree do you mean the OS should not be affected or should be affected by OCing.


okay utorrent has been running for about 10hours straight. so it might be emule.

[Cabalo]

i say i agree that it severely messes up OS' based on BUS speed, and that issue can be mostly solved by not using any of your HDD at SATA0 and SATA1. Data corruption occurs.

[athenaesword]

i say i agree that it severely messes up OS' based on BUS speed, and that issue can be mostly solved by not using any of your HDD at SATA0 and SATA1. Data corruption occurs.

would partitioning the hdd to have a separate say 25gb just for OS solve that problem?

[Cabalo]

it's not a partition problem. it's the clock of the sata controller can also increase with the FSB if it has no lock, thus causing data corruption. data corruption is what leads to the blue screens, and can have many origins, since volts, bad ram timmings, etc etc.

[athenaesword]

it's not a partition problem. it's the clock of the sata controller can also increase with the FSB if it has no lock, thus causing data corruption. data corruption is what leads to the blue screens, and can have many origins, since volts, bad ram timmings, etc etc.

so if i've already put them in the sata0 or sata1 slots it'll be fine if i just switch to another slot?

[Cabalo]

yes, no problem at all, nothing has to be changed on windows either. eventually at some BIOS u could have to change the boot sequence, in case u have several harddisks, but that's all there is to change.

[athenaesword]

yes, no problem at all, nothing has to be changed on windows either. eventually at some BIOS u could have to change the boot sequence, in case u have several harddisks, but that's all there is to change.

okay apart from that. i've used windows debugger to check in the minidump what might be causing the problem.

the most recent ones that might be causing problems is ntoskrnl.exe or vsdatant.sys (zonealarm)

however, i don't know how else to proceed from here. this is starting to go beyond my area of computer knowledge. ntoskrnl.exe is a critical process in the bootup cycle, so i can't remove it. i've removed zonealarm, but i don't even turn it on normally i don't get why it would be causing problems.

thing is the bsod only occurs when i run both emule and utorrent together, and i don't think either vsdatant.sys or ntoskrnl.exe has anythign to do with them

[clocker]

Run a repair install.

[athenaesword]

Run a repair install.


will that remove any of my current programmes?

[clocker]

No, it just overwrites the Windows core components (like ntoskrnl...).

You haven't mentioned what OS you're running, so I'm just going to assume XP.
Boot to the XP install disc, just like you were performing a fresh install.
Do NOT choose the first "repair" option...the one that enters the Recovery Console ("Here be Dragons"...), just hit ENTER to install Windows.

Eventually, the screen will look for previous versions of Windows and ask whether you want to repair or overwrite.
This time choose the repair option.
It will look just like a full install but won't ask to format the drive.

All your data and programs will be left intact.

[athenaesword]

No, it just overwrites the Windows core components (like ntoskrnl...).

You haven't mentioned what OS you're running, so I'm just going to assume XP.
Boot to the XP install disc, just like you were performing a fresh install.
Do NOT choose the first "repair" option...the one that enters the Recovery Console ("Here be Dragons"...), just hit ENTER to install Windows.

Eventually, the screen will look for previous versions of Windows and ask whether you want to repair or overwrite.
This time choose the repair option.
It will look just like a full install but won't ask to format the drive.

All your data and programs will be left intact.

yes i'm using xp home. will i be asked to authenticate windows again?

also, in normal cases, issit likely that a problem with ntoskrnl would cause the situation that i have now? (bsod only when emule and utorrent are open together.)

thanks for the info clocker.

[clocker]

I'm not sure there is such a thing as "normal cases" when it comes to Windows.
Basically, by reloading the Windows core files we're just trying to eliminate options.

[DasFox]

... it's highly unlikely OCing would corrupt the OS.
I would disagree but good luck anyway.

OCing can corrupt data... :whistling

I use to be such a geek for Overclocking, what a pain in the arse it can be, and I just got sick of messing with it, because if you want to do it good and right man it takes some time involved do8ing it. I finally gave up the art, oh what a pain it can be...