System freezes with overclock on E6600

[murdocsvan]

basically my computer has been locking up completely since ive been overclocking it.

im running an E6600 (stockspeed: 2.4Ghz) at 3.0Ghz (333Mhz x 9) on a nVidia 650SLI MB

temperatures run at around 35C reaching a peak of 45C under minimal stress (Half Life 2)

i think one of the main causes of the frequent crashes may have been me taking the case cover off and placing a small desktop fan next to it to keep it ultra cool.

when i placed the fan there, the idle temperature of the core dropped to around 20C

when a hang occurs on my computer, its like a proper oldschool crash; everything completely gives up the ghost. no processing. fan stays at same speed and im left with a screen compltely frozen like im looking at a screenshot.

this has happened about 4 times now. the first time it crashed was when i was using MSN 8.5 Beta. the second while i was installing wow. the third when attempting to install wow again and the forth on bootup just after the windows loading screen, it crashed, with me being able to move my mouse around a blank black screen

all voltages for all components are set so that the motherboard decides what the best voltage is etc and the memory FSB is left at the default of 800Mhz.

any suggestions?

 

[Nitestick]

well i have never overclocked with your particular motherboard but the memory could be the cause of this. the setting for "800MHz" is probably just the ratio that will run it at 800MHz for stock speed, if i'm wrong and you mean it is in fact running at 800MHz tell me.

i would also suspect a slight increase in vcore could help.

 

[murdocsvan]

indeed it is running at 800mhz, but i have 2 sticks of 1GB so if it was one being funky, then the other would still keep the system stable, right?

also the vcore adjusts itself to what load is put on it. default is 1.350000V but with CPU-Z i checked and it reported it being somewhere over 1.4v.

 

[advancedgeek]

well cpuz voltage is not 100% accurate and the only accurate one is the bios and maybe the software cd that came with you to check the temperature, voltage, speed etc. other than that it may not be accurate. also give your voltage a bit of a bump so it will remain stable during overclocking.

 

[Fayt19]

omg i have the SAME problem...i had it over clocked to a 3.2 8x400 and had these problems so i declocked it to a 3.0 (9x334) and still problems accure...its really ****ing me off. i dont think my memory is at 800 i think it might be 750 or something like that i couldnt keep it at 800 it was either 750 or something like that or it was 825 and i didnt want to ruin the memory so i figured being under 800 was better then over ><...if ANYone knows how to fix this i would LOVE to know...maybe its b/c i have vista...i mean most of the time my system is running over1 GB of memory at a given time...

 

[lazer_viking]

indeed it is running at 800mhz, but i have 2 sticks of 1GB so if it was one being funky, then the other would still keep the system stable, right?

Actually, it's the opposite. If you have one stick of troublesome RAM, it will bring the whole system down. That's why having four RAM sticks never overclock very well

Anyway, what are you running your computer at right now?

Also, what timings are set in your BIOS? If it's on AUTO-AUTO-AUTO-AUTO-auto T, then chances are your motherboard has set wrong values for your RAM, and it will hold back your overclock. You don't need to apply extra voltage to your CPU at this point, (well, you shouldn't have to atleast). It is almost certainly a memory issue.

 

[murdocsvan]

well the thing is...

the default voltage for the CPU was 1.450000V, and after inspecting it earlier i whammed it up to 1.5v and i havent had a single crash since... and ive been using it for about 5 hours straight now. i think it was probably a voltage problem.

in regards to the RAM, i cant actually find any timing settings anywhere, only a voltage, FSB and ratio of CPU:RAM which i have all set to auto. my rams frequency is 1066 on both cards but the motherboard has them set to 800 as default. should i change that at all?

 

[lazer_viking]

yeah you want to get the most out of your RAM, especially if its rated to run at 1066.
set the ratio to 2:3, or whatever else, to get your RAM closer to 1066. Also, you should manually set your timings. get them as tight as you can stabally.
on your mobo, i think the way to get to timings is Advanced->Chipset->Memory Timing Spectrum set it to what the SPD is (default), the tighten them from there after you're happy with your frequency. Usually you wont be able to change the first value (CAS) without a voltage bump or if your frequency is much lower than stock. the middle two (tRCD and tRPD) are a little more flexible so you should lower one/both of those two first.
the last one is somewhat of a mystery to me...

 

[murdocsvan]

hmm just tried setting the ram FSB to 900 and it didnt like it one bit. also i forgot to mention ive lowered the CPU FSB to 311 (2.8Ghz) but i dont think thats whats made it stop crashing. i think i fixed it by increasing the CPU voltage because i havent crashed once since.

 

[Nagasama]

yeah you want to get the most out of your RAM, especially if its rated to run at 1066.
set the ratio to 2:3, or whatever else, to get your RAM closer to 1066. Also, you should manually set your timings. get them as tight as you can stabally.
on your mobo, i think the way to get to timings is Advanced->Chipset->Memory Timing Spectrum set it to what the SPD is (default), the tighten them from there after you're happy with your frequency. Usually you wont be able to change the first value (CAS) without a voltage bump or if your frequency is much lower than stock. the middle two (tRCD and tRPD) are a little more flexible so you should lower one/both of those two first.
the last one is somewhat of a mystery to me...

hey i found this for ya, i dont think i could explain this any better:

Let's compare this to a library. Let's say you want a book about Florida. Let's say the librarly is putting books away, and you ask for the book on Florida. The librarian would have to get off the ladder, move the ladder to the travel section, and then get back up on the ladder. This would compare with the tRP. The tRCD would be the time the librarian is at the right shelf and right row of the bookcase. The tRAS would be the time when the librarian finds the books about Florida, and when he finds the specific book you want. The CAS latency in this case would be the time from when he takes the book off the shelf, and the time it takes him to walk back to you. If he walks fast, it might be 2; if he walks slower, the number would be larger.

hope that helps, viking.
O.P.
basically you want all four timings as low as possible. if you can keep the command rate at 1T, that helps too. but you wont get much of an overclock (on your ram) with it set that tight.