# Seems I can't overclock this 9850 at all(MAD)



## kenkickr (May 28, 2008)

I have tried from 8pm-10pm last night and since 5AM this morning with no luck.  I've pushed the cpu voltage up to 1.5875v(I pushed it up in incriments of .025v) and all the system will do, if I don't receive a BSOD, is lock up at the black screen before you see vista load   I've drop the memory back down to DDR2 800 with no avail and messed with some other jumperfree settings in this Asus board.  Man, I'm starting to miss my 6000 X2 but I can tell this Phenom just at stock seems alot more peppy than the 6000.


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## Lionheart (May 28, 2008)

Nice rig, me want one too


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## kenkickr (May 28, 2008)

Thanks Chaos, now if I could just get this Phenom to run 3Ghz.


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## kenkickr (May 28, 2008)

Here are some pics of my Jumperfree bios.  If you have any tips please post and you'll getta thanks 

















I know the memory settings are relaxed but if I set the two 6's to 5 then for some reason after reboot they are set to 3.


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## Cybrnook2002 (May 28, 2008)

What happens if you try your overclock with one stick of ram? Also, are you trying to overclock with a 1:1 ratio? I usually OC intel chips. but I always end up adjusting my NB strap and DDR SPD to get good overclocks. Like right now I have my ram set at DDR2 800 @ 4-4-3-8 2T @ 1.9v with my SPD set to 800 and my NB strap at 1066. So it underclocks my ram, but when I raise the FSB it raises the memory speed aswell. so, when i get my 2.66 - 2.7 GHZ on my chip, my ram is back to DDR2 800 speeds. Also, set your PCIE timing to manual and leave it at 100. Looks like its set to 101. usually when you overclock your FSB , it will raise your PCIE frequency with it.


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## Cybrnook2002 (May 28, 2008)

Is it the BE? I have read around and apparently its quite difficult to get good if any overclocks out of these. Also, I read that there is something realted to the TBL bug fix in the bios. Dont remember exactly, but people were saying that they got better performance with this feature turned off. Do you have the latest Bios?


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## kenkickr (May 28, 2008)

I'm just overclocking with the multiplier since it is unlocked which in turn shouldn't touch the memory.  Also I have tried 100 for the PCI-E freq to no avail.  Thanks for the suggestions however.  I haven't tried one stick but I wouldn't think that would be an issue.


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## Cybrnook2002 (May 28, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> I'm just overclocking with the multiplier since it is unlocked which in turn shouldn't touch the memory.  Also I have tried 100 for the PCI-E freq to no avail.  Thanks for the suggestions however.  I haven't tried one stick but I wouldn't think that would be an issue.



Well, even if you adjust the multiplier, its still raising the memory FSB. like if you have 200MHZ fsb x 12.5 multi thats 2500. But if you go 200 HMZ x say 13.5 or 14 , thats about 2800. So your memory speed has raised from DDR800 to perhaps DDR850 or 860. im not doing the math right now. but there are more things you need to take into account.


Your FSB and memory speed run hand in hand. Everytime you adjsut the multiplier and fsb, its also adversly effecting the memory. Just so you know.


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## CrackerJack (May 28, 2008)

Try just adjusting the multi, and try 1.375v


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## kenkickr (May 28, 2008)

Right now I have it at 2.6Ghz on default voltage and multi to x13.  By changing the multi do i just need to change the CPU voltage or do I also need to change the CPU->NB voltage and CPU->NB multi as well?  I have to get ready for work now but I'll check it later when I get home


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## yogurt_21 (May 28, 2008)

most people hitting 3GHZ are doing it on stock volts, seem like the 9850's hate voltage increases.


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## Kei (May 28, 2008)

Ken, check your PM's

K


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## CrackerJack (May 28, 2008)

I'll be getting my 9850 maybe tommorrow, so i'll doing some testing. So i'll let you know what i can get.


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## Kei (May 28, 2008)

Abot time Cracker 

K


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## CrackerJack (May 28, 2008)

Yeah i know, I've been waiting a month to get it.  I can't wait till play with it.


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

Kei said:


> Ken, check your PM's
> 
> K



Thanks for the PM, info much appreciated but what bios settings are you using and Awesome OC with such low voltage!!  Do you thank my Zalman 9500 is my problem since I see you are using that nice Xigmatek Heatsink?


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## dark2099 (May 29, 2008)

If it is the same Zalman I had, then it shouldn't be, I ran 1.5v through my 5kBE with that cooler and depending on ambient, it would only get to about 45-47c under load.  Don't know exactly how the 5kBE compares in temps to the 9850BE, but it should be ok.


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## CrackerJack (May 29, 2008)

I had problems with 9500 with 5000+ temps would always get to high. Me, i wouldn't use a 9500 with a 9850.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Agreed, the 9500 is a very nice cooler for the 5000BE but remember the 9850 has two extra cores and individual Northbridge voltage which makes a very large difference in temperatures. If I turn off 2 cores then my heat is much lower than even the 5000BE but still using double the cores adds quite a lot of heat to the mix.

If you need to see ANY of my settings just pop over to my thread I gave you the link for. I have listed all of the specs that I've used and am currently using along with how to's/why's for each one. There is a very large amount of information in that thread and it grows nearly daily.

K


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## OzzmanFloyd120 (May 29, 2008)

Ken, aslo something that was REALLY holding me back in benching my phenom was the memory controller frequency, it's 1200mhz at default, (x8 I think off hand) and I need to drop it down to x4 to get to 2.6.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Out of all of the Phenoms released the lowest Northbridge controller (memory controller) is 1800Mhz with only 1 (the 9850 we're using) being 2000MHz. The default multiplier is 10x for the 9850BE and 9x for all of the rest including the Toliman lineup. The only exception to this is the Phenom X4 9100e which is 1.8Ghz and 1600Mhz Northbridge controller with 8x multiplier stock.

K


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Ozz...what other settings are you using (PM if that works for you) that will stop you at 2.6Ghz. Perhaps I can help you go a little further than this.

K


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## OzzmanFloyd120 (May 29, 2008)

Kei said:


> Out of all of the Phenoms released the lowest Northbridge controller (memory controller) is 1800Mhz with only 1 (the 9850 we're using) being 2000MHz. The default multiplier is 10x for the 9850BE and 9x for all of the rest including the Toliman lineup. The only exception to this is the Phenom X4 9100e which is 1.8Ghz and 1600Mhz Northbridge controller with 8x multiplier stock.
> 
> K



Wouldn't that put the memory controller at 2080 then if he's only getting 2.6 at a 12.5x cpu multi?

BTW my chipset is stopping me, max volts I can only get 238 fsb and that's not very stable, so I back it off to 236.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

2.6Ghz is a 13x multiplier if he didn't raise the HT Bus speed and if he's never touched the Northbridge multiplier then the speed would not change. The Northbridge and HT Link are completely independant clocks from the Processor speed unlike the previous AM2 processors which only had seperate HT Link and processor speeds.

The HT Link and Northbridge will only change speeds if you change their respective multipliers or you change the HT Bus speed. You can run the cpu at any speed you want and neither the Northbridge nor HT Link will change speeds. Likewise with the ram itself, these speeds will only change if their multipliers or the HT Bus speed change.

K


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## OzzmanFloyd120 (May 29, 2008)

I just based my previous post on the specs in his bios pictures. (I only assumed he was ocing by raising his fsb) I didn't realize the 9850 had an unlocked multi though.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Perhaps you misread the screenshots as they show the processor at stock speeds (200*12.5=2500Mhz). The only thing touched in the shots is the PCI-E clock which was raised by 1Mhz to 101.

Either that or he changed screenshots since earlier...and yep the 9850 is the only one with the unlocked multplier (all BE/Black Editions have this which is why they get the cool name).

K


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

I can boot into windows with a multi of 13.5 @ 1.35 volts but locks up after about 10-15min.  Tried higher cpu volts upto 1.4v but to no avail.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

What are the rest of the settings besides cpu settings...

HT Bus speed (still 200Mhz?), Northbridge multiplier (still 10x), HT Link multiplier (also 10x/2.0Ghz), Memory settings (still 800Mhz 1:2 divider?), what about the other voltages for all of those settings as well as temperatures for the cpu?

K


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

Kei said:


> What are the rest of the settings besides cpu settings...
> 
> HT Bus speed (still 200Mhz?), Northbridge multiplier (still 10x), HT Link multiplier (also 10x/2.0Ghz), Memory settings (still 800Mhz 1:2 divider?), what about the other voltages for all of those settings as well as temperatures for the cpu?
> 
> K


HT Bus is 200Mhz, NB multi is Auto, Ht Link is 2Ghz, Memory is 800Mhz and everything else is @ auto now since 2.6ghz is my stable point.  Core Temp is stating 37-38 degrees Celcius.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Haha...what bios are you on right now? Please say at least 1002 bios (don't bother with the beta floating around as it's not matured enough especially with stability).

Also what windows os are you using the 32XP or the 64Vista that you list? What is the cpu voltage?


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

Well Kei, right now I am running 2.7Ghz @ 1.3625v.  I am on the 1002 bios and I'm using XP 32-bit on my Seagate 500Gb Sata and Vista Home Premium x64 on my raptor Raid0.  So far, so good!!  I'll keep you updated and much thanks Kei!


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

you're welcome 

K


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## OverclockedBoo (May 29, 2008)

I can't get much past 2.6GHz with stock cooling @ 1.4 vcore. I'll push it further when I get better cooling.


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

Shortly after I posted system locked up(maybe because it was surprised the Cubs grabbed a win out of their ass tonight).  Changed setting, reboot, lockup, after finally selecting 1.4v for cpu and 1.35 for the Nb multi(running @ 11x).  I'm done for the night but I'll let you know later tomorrow evening since I have a softball game tomorrow.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Overclocked, why is your vcore so high when you're doing 2.6Ghz. What temps are you getting at that voltage on the stock cooling...surely too high even though it's a good cooler, but with CPU Tweak enabled AND 1.40v on 4 cores your temps I'm sure are way too high right now.

And you should be able to high higher than 2.6Ghz even on less voltage than that.

K


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Ken, I do not recommend overclocking even a single thing other than your cpu right now so that we know that the instability is from the cpu only and can address this. If anything else is changed then we'll never know for sure what caused the problem...also that Northbridge voltage is very high only get 2.1Ghz (if your HT Bus speed is still stock...is it?)

I can do 2.1Ghz on the stock Northbridge voltage of 1.20v and if I have less ram in the computer (2Gigs only) then I can do that on a little over 1.15v.

K

Btw, have a great game


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## OverclockedBoo (May 29, 2008)

I had in 2GB of G.Skill 1066 RAM and the system wasn't completely stable. I raised my vcore thinking it my be my "mild" OC. After a few benches I went back to my 4GB of Corsair 800 RAM without lowering my vcore.


I've been waiting for a torrent...


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

Was the G.Skill every memtested before proceeding to overclock any part of the system? Also what about the corsair you're using now. It's best to make sure that first the components work properly at their stock speeds before trying to overclock them.

Have you since tried to overclock your processor...also you should definately lower the vcore on the stock heatsink and it might be good to disable CPU Tweak (AOD's red circle would be yellow) as it also raises heat dramatically for an only very small benefit.

I'd try again on that processor as 2.6Ghz really isn't even an 'overclock' on this processor as it's quite easy to get. Your limit will most likely be between 2.8-3.xGhz with the most likely limit being the average of 2.85Ghz that most people get. There are many of us who can achieve 3.0Ghz (and some all the way to a shade over 3.5Ghz) but this is not guaranteed of course.

K


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## OverclockedBoo (May 29, 2008)

I just restarted with stock vcore. Idle temps already 3 degrees lower.


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## Kei (May 29, 2008)

I bet that'll help you a lot as 1.40v isn't needed unless you're at a significantly higher speed.

K


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## suraswami (May 29, 2008)

Hey Ken, Let me know if this is your crucial part number - BL2KIT25664AA804.  If not your memory might not be compatible.

Always before picking up a memory module, make sure the memory manufacturer has validated the memory against the board you have.  Otherwise its a headache dealing with wierd issues.  I always choose like that so that trouble shooting memory will be out of question.

Try changing to another brand of memory if you can.  Reset everything to bios default and increase your cpu multi in .5 increments without voltage raise and see if it stabilizes.  For every increment run Orthos on all four cores for 10 minutes and restart and then make next change.

Just my 2 cents.

BTW I am working on OCing 9500 on a Abit AN-M2 board (which doesn't OC Quad that good.)  right now at default voltage 1.25V(Bios shows 1.26V, cpu-z shows 1.26V idle and load 1.28V).  Got it upto 228*11 with memory running at DDR2 758 (1.9V) (2 x 1GB DDR2 800 Crucial + 2 x 512MB DDR2 667 Centon).


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

Something interesting occured.  set the system to 2.8Ghz w/ 1.425v and Vista still has problems but XP booted fine.  Ran Prime95v25.6 for 2hrs without any issues!!  I'm thinking either the Marvell controller starts to have problems with the OC or just the stripe array has issues with the OC.


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## suraswami (May 29, 2008)

Did you check with Everest the speeds PCI,PCI-E and Sata ports are running at?


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

I have Everest installed and the only thing I can find close to PCI, PCI-E, or Sata freq is if the device supports 66Mhz Bus.


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## kenkickr (May 29, 2008)

Installed Overdrive and should I have a red circle or a green circle?  Also does 42 degrees Celcius seem about normal for an idle temp?


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## CrackerJack (May 29, 2008)

just got my 9850 a few min ago, got it in now. Haven't played with it yet. I'll let you know what I can get out of it.


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## Bytor (May 29, 2008)

Have you tried OCing in AMD Overdrive(AOD)?

I can get mine to run rock solid at 2.8 ghz in bios with no problems.

But in AOD when clocking each core alone I can reach 3.0 ghz on 1.34 vcore and its stable.
All the OC stuff in bios is set at default settings and all I change in AOD is the multiplier and vcore.


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## johnnyfiive (May 29, 2008)

CrackerJack said:


> just got my 9850 a few min ago, got it in now. Haven't played with it yet. I'll let you know what I can get out of it.



Awesome! I'm anxious to see what people are getting. I will eventually replace my 9600 with a 9x50.


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## CrackerJack (May 30, 2008)

batmang said:


> Awesome! I'm anxious to see what people are getting. I will eventually replace my 9600 with a 9x50.



well i broke 12k pretty easy, before i was getting 11,800 with a 5000+ and gpu's at 800/1100. And as you can see the video cards are not oc that much


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## WarEagleAU (May 30, 2008)

Hell yeah, Ken is a cubs fan, like me (gotta love them cubbies). Have you tried dropped your HT link by 1x (meaning going from 10x to like 9x or 8x?) I wouldnt touch voltage at all if you can help it. That should be the last thing. If you can change your HT link and up the multiplier one step, you should see some results. Of course, you could have gotten a bad chip or the ASUS and the 9850 arent getting a long.


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## BUCK NASTY (May 30, 2008)

OzzmanFloyd120 said:


> Ken, aslo something that was REALLY holding me back in benching my phenom was the memory controller frequency, it's 1200mhz at default, (x8 I think off hand) and I need to drop it down to x4 to get to 2.6.


Yep, I had to drop mine to x5 to get my X3 8650 to crack 3GHZ @ 1.5volts. Idle temps went up 10C...


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## kenkickr (May 30, 2008)

I can get the system to boot up to 2.8Ghz but either BSOD or garbled screen then reboot.  I had to give the proc 1.525v to run Everest or AOD and AOD said the PCI bus was @ 124mhz!!  Even though I have PCI-E freq set to 100 why is the bus adjusting!!  This is really starting to PISS ME OFF!!!


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## BUCK NASTY (May 30, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> AOD said the PCI bus was @ 124mhz!!  Even though I have PCI-E freq set to 100 why is the bus adjusting!!  This is really starting to PISS ME OFF!!!


AOD may be theorizing what the "unlocked PCI" would be @ your current overclock. What does Bios show for PCI speed?


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## suraswami (May 30, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> I can get the system to boot up to 2.8Ghz but either BSOD or garbled screen then reboot.  I had to give the proc 1.525v to run Everest or AOD and AOD said the PCI bus was @ 124mhz!!  Even though I have PCI-E freq set to 100 why is the bus adjusting!!  This is really starting to PISS ME OFF!!!



Return it/Exchange it.  If you have a cheap Athlon try it to see if the board is crap, see how far FSB the board goes.


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## Kei (May 30, 2008)

*The answer to 99% of your questions *



kenkickr said:


> I can get the system to boot up to 2.8Ghz but either BSOD or garbled screen then reboot.  I had to give the proc 1.525v to run Everest or AOD and AOD said the PCI bus was @ 124mhz!!  Even though I have PCI-E freq set to 100 why is the bus adjusting!!  This is really starting to PISS ME OFF!!!



Before things get too out of hand and people start posting crazy theories I will put your minds at ease. The PCI Bus IS infact set at 124Mhz which is why AOD is recongnizing that. There is no error...the only 'problem' is that though you have set the PCI Bus for 100Mhz in the bios you did not however disable an override option that will overclock the PCI Bus and do a few other things with it...

That option is called AutoXpress which you'll notice in your bios is located just above the CPU Tweak (in AOD this will show the red circle you spoke of). The red circle is known in AMD speak as Turbo Mode and keeps the processor in a far more power hungry state to ensure maximum response and power though the benefits of this mode are EXTREMELY small and I do not recommend it be used unless you're benchmarking. This mode also brings with it higher energy use and while that is not important to some of you...the extra heat it brings with it IS extremely important to us all. The difference in temperatures when this is disabled is approximately 5-10C depending on processor speed and voltage (it can be even higher). Disabling this will help those with smaller HSF setups as well as keep everything running comfortably.

When you disable the AutoXpress feature your PCI Bus will now be locked at whatever you set it in the bios which at stock is 100Mhz. You will notice that AOD will no longer show the red PCI clock of 124Mhz. If you've disabled CPU Tweak (highly recommended) then you will also notices that the circle you spoke of in AOD is now Yellow which is the optimum mode for the processor to be in to retain maximum speed and optimum temperature.

So far all of these questions you guys are asking have been covered in detail in the thread I will again direct you to...

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=58746

The title is somewhat deceptive but read on as the thread is actually about everything that is Phenom X4 9850BE, low voltage is just a small facet of this. If you go through the pages of that thread you will save yourself and the rest of us lots of time as you won't have to ask questions that have already been answered nor will you have to wait for answers either. 

If of course you can't find the answer your looking for in that thread (I doubt that) I'm still willing to answer your questions either here or there.

K


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## merkk (May 30, 2008)

Hi 
 i was having trouble over clocking my 9850 BE to with the frist power supply i got to run my rig
with. It was a 4 12v rail power supply and it was having trouble keeping the rig stable with small
over clock . I RMA it back got a  PC POWER & COOLING 750w crossfire edition  (single rail) power supply iam running at 2.8 with 14x all other setting on auto. Trouble free now so see if you can try a diff. power supply my help it be more stable . The 9850 cpu is a 125w cpu at stock clock and go up from there.


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## kenkickr (May 30, 2008)

I will try that in the morning, tired from our horrible lose tonight in softball.    I'll give you an update in the morning and I much appreciate your patience with me and willingness to see my ignorance when it comes to oc'ing this Phenom.


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## erocker (May 30, 2008)

Are you using a 4-pin power connector in the motherboard, or did you take the black plug out and are using an 8-pin?


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## Kei (May 30, 2008)

Wow, perhaps I assume too much sometimes...I was assuming that the 8pin connector is plugged in. Then again he hasn't said it wasn't...if it wasn't then I have learned a lesson myself, or rather one that I tell myself everyday...Never assume the obvious as it's the quickest way around the long path of a circle.

K


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## eidairaman1 (May 30, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> Something interesting occured.  set the system to 2.8Ghz w/ 1.425v and Vista still has problems but XP booted fine.  Ran Prime95v25.6 for 2hrs without any issues!!  I'm thinking either the Marvell controller starts to have problems with the OC or just the stripe array has issues with the OC.



could the COntroller, is this marvell controller apart of the NB/SB or is it a separate chip on the board?



kenkickr said:


> I have tried from 8pm-10pm last night and since 5AM this morning with no luck.  I've pushed the cpu voltage up to 1.5875v(I pushed it up in incriments of .025v) and all the system will do, if I don't receive a BSOD, is lock up at the black screen before you see vista load   I've drop the memory back down to DDR2 800 with no avail and messed with some other jumperfree settings in this Asus board.  Man, I'm starting to miss my 6000 X2 but I can tell this Phenom just at stock seems alot more peppy than the 6000.



Who makes the Nspire Powersupply?


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## merkk (May 30, 2008)

Hi i was using the 8 pin plug also on the DFI M2RS there are 2 4 pin floopy plug to add more 
power to the board to help make the board more stable and i had power going to them also.
and the 750w 4 rail power supply was still having trouble running the 9850BE over clock and 
keep it stable . I think the CPU was drawing so much power when it was over clock it through
the blance on the power supply off with the 4 rails and couldnt keep up . The single rail power
supply i have now has one 60A rail power all comes for the same place lets it keep it blance 
better well at lest that what happen on my rig .


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## Kei (May 30, 2008)

What were the settings that you had during that overclock that was unstable...cpu multiplier,ht bus speed, and voltage?

K


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## kenkickr (May 30, 2008)

erocker said:


> Are you using a 4-pin power connector in the motherboard, or did you take the black plug out and are using an 8-pin?


I am using the 8-pin with an 8-pin connection.  I'm not sure who makes Nspire but I've been happy with it for about 2 years now but when checking temps in the bios I saw the 12v drop down to 11.49.  Is that acceptable or should I look for a different PSU?  Also I did disable the CPU Tweak and Auto Xpress and tried multi 13, FSB 200, NB mult 10 and everything else auto.  Booted into Vista just fine but after 1-2 I'm welcomed by a garbled screen and then a BSOD about the secondary cpu.  I tried multi all the way up to 1.4v that resulted in the same issue.


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## suraswami (May 30, 2008)

"Hey Ken, Let me know if this is your crucial part number - BL2KIT25664AA804. If not your memory might not be compatible." - you haven't answered my question. 

Its memory problem.  Try swapping memory.  don't pass too much voltage thru the cpu without knowing what's the cause of no OC.


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## kenkickr (May 30, 2008)

Sorry suraswami, I'll let you know when I get home from work.  My friend here at work is going to let me borrow his 4Gb set of OCZ Reaper but I'll give you that info when I get home about my Crucial.


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## kenkickr (May 30, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> could the COntroller, is this marvell controller apart of the NB/SB or is it a separate chip on the board?



the Marvell controller is a seperate PCI-E SATA/Raid controller chip.


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## suraswami (May 30, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> the Marvell controller is a seperate PCI-E SATA/Raid controller chip.



May be its unlocked and the freq increases when overclocked.  Try putting your HDD on the native ATI controller.  Go back one bios version and see if you see the same issue.


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## kenkickr (May 30, 2008)

This morning after turning off Auto Xpress I was able to boot into Vista @ 2.8Ghz w/ only 1.35v but screen garbled and BSOD about secondary processor.  I think with Auto Xpress on 124mhz for the PCI bus is to much for the controller causing the Black screen, nothing more nothing less.


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## merkk (May 30, 2008)

Hi
with my old power supply i try over clocking all kinds of way but it only run stable up to 2.7 it boot to 2.8 run it for a litte bit than crash and couldnt  boot to 2.9 or any thing highter no mater how much volts i added. Now with the new power supply i ran it 2.9 1.45 volts for hours 
doing some 3Dmark-06 runs and some strest test in AOD . If your 
power supply is droping down to 11.49 under load i think the max alloweded is 5 % your right on the line of a bad power supply . Mine 
under load never drops below 11.9 . What would be nice if you got a friend that you can borrow a power supply from and give it a try to 
check how it works


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## kenkickr (May 31, 2008)

suraswami said:


> "Hey Ken, Let me know if this is your crucial part number - BL2KIT25664AA804. If not your memory might not be compatible." - you haven't answered my question.
> 
> Its memory problem.  Try swapping memory.  don't pass too much voltage thru the cpu without knowing what's the cause of no OC.



I have the OCZ Reaper in and same problem, garbled screen then BSOD about secondary processor, after a couple min.  The part number on my Crucial Ballistix is BL12864AA804 on all 4 sticks.


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## kenkickr (May 31, 2008)

Alright!!  Finaly Prime95 stable for 1hr at 2.7Ghz in Vista!!!   Tomorrow I'll keep on truckin and since I have to go to bed(girlfriend says so) I'll update you tomorrow and Sunday on my OC results.  Thanks all for your help, especially Kei!


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## kenkickr (May 31, 2008)

This morning I woke up to the system screeching like a Banshee so I don't think memory is my issue since that was with the OCZ Reaper in there.  Either I just have a crap 9850 or my PSU is just junk for my system now.  One thing to note I was having random shutdown issues when I had my 6000 x2 but just thought it was the crappy old power setup in this apartment, building use to be a gym for a school.  The shutdowns would occur when I was playing a game or just browsing the internet.  I've since been looking at the 750 Quad PC Power and Cooling and a Corsair 750, both single rail since I hear thats all the rave nowadays.  I really want to OC this cpu since basically that is what the extra 20 bucks was spent on over the 9750!!


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## Kei (May 31, 2008)

Yea, I'm really beginning to think your PSU is craptacular after hearing you had issues prior to the 9850. When you open cpu-z and look at your cpu voltage does the number fluctuate or remain stable? Also is the 12V rail still sitting as low as it was before?

K


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## kenkickr (May 31, 2008)

The funny thing is when I have AOD open like last night it showed 12.10 w/ prime95 running but when I go into the bios to adjust settings and venture over to Hardware Monitor it says the 12v is 11.491v!!  I have sent Nspire an RMA request but honestly, do you think getting another Nspire is going to be any better!?  I don't see any big fluctuations with cpu-z running or monitoring through AOD.


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## eidairaman1 (May 31, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> the Marvell controller is a seperate PCI-E SATA/Raid controller chip.



well if you know the position of the chip, put a sink on it.

Also i think i called out your PSU being unreliable.


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## Kei (May 31, 2008)

I really think that it may be time for a new power supply as we'll never know the real problem with your clocks until we know you have reliable equipment behind it. Considering you were already having issues with your X2 6400 I'd say right now your problems lie elsewhere and it's not the cpu.

K


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## kenkickr (Jun 1, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> well if you know the position of the chip, put a sink on it.
> 
> Also i think i called out your PSU being unreliable.



None of us no for sure if that is the case but I guess we will when I get my hands on a nice PSU.  Don't know when since my daughters b-day is in June and then my girlfriends b-day is in July, but I'll let you all know when I do.


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## kenkickr (Jun 1, 2008)

Kei, I did notice some fluctuation on the Vcore last night when I was just browsing.  I had it @ 2.6Ghz on everything else stock except CPU-NB multi @ 10 and HT @ 1.8Ghz.  I saw it go from 1.30v down to 1.28 about every 20sec or so and then when I brought up the video of Soriano's homerun in the Cubs 6th straight win the system locked up.


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## Kei (Jun 1, 2008)

Very weird that it fluctuates at a low voltage like that even on stock-ish settings. I can't wait til you get a new/better psu in that system and we can see what you can really do. I'm not the only person that can achieve good clocks on low voltages (I'm using 2.9Ghz at 1.25v right now after a 9.5hr stress test). The lowest I can go is 1.8Ghz on 0.976v in dual core mode. Perhaps you should try that out just to see if you can even do it. The settings would be 200*9 and set the voltage at .9875 which will give you .976v upon booting. Let me know if you can do it stable...if you can the best I've seen (don't know if I can do it yet) is 1.8Ghz at 0.928v.

K


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Kei said:


> Very weird that it fluctuates at a low voltage like that even on stock-ish settings. I can't wait til you get a new/better psu in that system and we can see what you can really do. I'm not the only person that can achieve good clocks on low voltages (I'm using 2.9Ghz at 1.25v right now after a 9.5hr stress test). The lowest I can go is 1.8Ghz on 0.976v in dual core mode. Perhaps you should try that out just to see if you can even do it. The settings would be 200*9 and set the voltage at .9875 which will give you .976v upon booting. Let me know if you can do it stable...if you can the best I've seen (don't know if I can do it yet) is 1.8Ghz at 0.928v.
> 
> K



I tried it @ .9875 but locked up after about 5sec on the desktop.  Bumped it up to 1v and ran the AOD stability test for ~30min.


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## Kei (Jun 2, 2008)

Interesting, it seems you can in fact do low volt overclocking just maybe not as low as I can go. Try another for me at 2.9Ghz but with 1.25v still in Dual Core mode and then I'll tell you what I can do at the same clock. I just want to see if you can get it or not which would help me help you I think.

K


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Kei said:


> Interesting, it seems you can in fact do low volt overclocking just maybe not as low as I can go. Try another for me at 2.9Ghz but with 1.25v still in Dual Core mode and then I'll tell you what I can do at the same clock. I just want to see if you can get it or not which would help me help you I think.
> 
> K


Tried 2.9Ghz as Dual Core and couldn't boot into Vista(would get past the load screen but BSOD right when it brings up welcome) or XP(locked up 5-10sec once on the desktop) all the way up to 1.4v!!  Now I can't even really get into Vista.  I can get to the desktop but about 2-3sec the system will just restart.  Reset everything back to stock and Phenom back to Quad but still same issue so thank god I have a dual boot system cause XP is working fine!!


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## Kei (Jun 2, 2008)

Interesting, that's 2 ouf of 3 Crucial Ballistics users that can't clock up to 2.9Ghz. The only one that can is using water so his cooling is far superior anyway. Have you tried clocking with only 2Gigs of ram in the system...also I've never done a dual booting system so I won't be able to help with it if that's the issue.

K


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Actually the 2 previous tries are with a 2x2Gb(4Gb) set of OCZ Reaper so I really don't feel it is the memory.  I'm thinking either a crap CPU, crap motherboard, or crap PSU.  I have a Sempron 3400 sitting here.  Should I try and overclocking that beast LOL


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## Kei (Jun 2, 2008)

Why not...right now I still think that something you had before the Phenom is on it's last legs as you had problems before getting it. We've just got to figure out what it is...

Oh yea, no jokes but also 2 of the 3 that haven't hit it are also on Zalman 9000 series coolers and run hotter than the rest of us. My temps are way under what you guys have been getting and I'm talking my 100% load temps being lower than idle temps for the guy with the 9700 cooler...and I was using higher volts too.

He's got a bigger cooler than you so I know it's gotta be toasty over there. 
K


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Also you should know I came from a ECS KA3-MVP Extreme(my ass!!) motherboard that was doing the shutdown thing with my 6000+ just like this one has done.  I did take the PSU to the shop thinking it was the issue but when I plugged the Antec PSU tester onto this Nspire and turned it on, the PSU tester had all green lights across the board.  Now thinking, since I have tired different memory, motherboard, and cpu; the only hardware from my previous setup that I'm using is the PSU.


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Kei said:


> Why not...right now I still think that something you had before the Phenom is on it's last legs as you had problems before getting it. We've just got to figure out what it is...
> 
> Oh yea, no jokes but also 2 of the 3 that haven't hit it are also on Zalman 9000 series coolers and run hotter than the rest of us. My temps are way under what you guys have been getting and I'm talking my 100% load temps being lower than idle temps for the guy with the 9700 cooler...and I was using higher volts too.
> 
> ...



Yeah!!  Idle right now is 38.5-39 and I don't think you want to know what load is....


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## Kei (Jun 2, 2008)

Sweet lord...at what speed and setup are you running those temps?


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## onry (Jun 2, 2008)

bring your rig over to my place and we will swap psu's to see if that makes a difference since we have the same psu mines just a lil newer i'm pretty sure .


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## Kei (Jun 2, 2008)

I'd take him up on that offer


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## onry (Jun 2, 2008)

good thing we only live a few blocks from each other LOL


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

I'd have to do it Tuesday but yeah if that's cool with you.  Right now saving some files from Vista cus its corrupted.


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Kei said:


> Sweet lord...at what speed and setup are you running those temps?



That is stock everything.  It's mainly cause I do not run the A/C in my place til it gets between 90-100 degree F or either my daughter or girlfriend ask for it on.


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## kenkickr (Jun 2, 2008)

Here is the email I received from Nspire:

Joshua,



Some voltage fluctuation is normal and we have never seen this type of issue before. While the power supply could be an issue, you are supposed to first contact the NSpire reseller for support or warranty. There is two year warranty from the date the reseller purchased from us.



From: Joshua Warren 
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 4:11 AM
To: rma@nspiregear.com
Subject: possible RMA



Hello, my name is Joshua Warren.  I have the 750W X-extreme Series power supply and have been noticing random issues with it in the past month.  Every now and then I'll be playing a game and the system will just shutdown.  I checked temperatures on the board, cpu, and tried other processors but the issue would/could happen within 30-60min up to a week later.  Also through my board hardware monitor I notice I have droops on the 12v from 12.10 down to 11.491.  To me this seems likely the issue.


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## suraswami (Jun 2, 2008)

Hey, sorry I got lost in my own world.  Couldn't anwer your post on the memory part number.

Is the OCZ on the validated list of memory modules?  Try only one module.  I would just use a single validated module, put it to auto and see if it helps.

.02V fluctuation is normal.

I too had similar issues with Windows XP with my Abit AN-M2 board.  I tried using a SATA DVDRW drive.  It locks up.  No matter which SATA port I try.  But HDD works fine.  Apparently this is a known issue with most Abit boards.  So check if you have SATA DVDRW drives.  May be you HDD is also creating problems.  Go with all IDE and see if that goes away.

Next thing was because of OC and random shutdowns and freeze, XP was corrupted.  Re-installing cured most of the issues.  So try re-installing your OS.


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## kenkickr (Jun 4, 2008)

I installed the Sempron and since Kei is into the low voltage stuff I thought I would see what my best OC @ stock voltage would be.  2.38Ghz from 1.8Ghz to me isn't bad.  I did have to set the voltage to 1.3625 because if I set it to auto it would automatically go to 1.44v.  Idle temp is 33 Celcius and load would set between 42-44 Celcius.


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## Kei (Jun 4, 2008)

Nice, were you able to lower the voltage manually any further than that or is that a limit for that chip?

K


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## kenkickr (Jun 4, 2008)

I was just trying it at stock to see how high I can go and it may go higher but I was in a rush this morning, for no reason, and basically set the almost 600mhz limit which I was still impressed with.  Tonight I'm heading over to Onry's house to try his PSU in my system with the Phenom so wish me luck!


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## onry (Jun 5, 2008)

we just looked @ kenkickr's psu voltages . 11.491 on the 12 volt rail
mine is 11.964 on the 12 volt rail 
both are bios readings not software based although i did see his fluctuate in cpuid when running prime95 from 1.30 to 1.28 and back randomly while mine stayed a steady 1.42.
so i would say that the psu is suspect
onry


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## kenkickr (Jun 5, 2008)

Thanks onry for letting me bring it down and so I guess I'll try and email Nspire for the third fukin time now!!


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## Kei (Jun 5, 2008)

Thanks onry very much, now we have a very clear idea that the psu is indeed suspect.

K


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## kenkickr (Jun 5, 2008)

Thank you Kei as well.  Your help has been very much appreciated!


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## Kei (Jun 5, 2008)

No problems at all, glad I could help and can't wait til we can get yours going properly. 

K


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## merkk (Jun 6, 2008)

Hi all 
 hope you can RMA that power supply and can get one that work better. Also my frist crossfire 
rig i use a ECS KA3MVP Extreme mother i had zero trouble with it doing ramdon crashing why
running 3d app. (games). I use a 5000be (3.0 gzh.) a pair of 3850s HIS ,4 gigs (2x2gigs) a-data
DDR-800 . OS was XP-64 my best 3dmark-06 12090 for that rig. Once again good luck on the RMA


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 6, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> Thanks onry for letting me bring it down and so I guess I'll try and email Nspire for the third fukin time now!!



Dude dont deal with Nspire, Grab a PSU from a Reputable company, such as Corsair, Mushkin, Antec.


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## kenkickr (Jun 6, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> Dude dont deal with Nspire, Grab a PSU from a Reputable company, such as Corsair, Mushkin, Antec.



Yesterday at work we just received the new PSU's we will be selling....PC Power & Cooling baby!!  I haven't decided if I want the 750 Quad or go all out for a 1KW.  The price of the 750 looks nice but I guess it would be nice to go all out and not need it for my next upgrade.


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## kenkickr (Jun 8, 2008)

I haven't RMA'd the PSU and now not sure if I need to.  I pulled the multimeter out and for S&G tested the 12v and 5v on the PSU.  Surprised at my results I thought I share with y'all and c what you guys think cause this is really starting to get annoying!!

!2v






5v





Note: These are with Prime95 running and I didn't notice much fluctuation besides .01 up and down from the posted volts.


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## onry (Jun 9, 2008)

ok so i got kenkickers 9850 in my m2n32 sli deluxe and have it runnin at 2.73 on a X13 multi
@210 fsb w/1.375 voltage. i even played warmonger without issue. but i get a bsod telling me that a timing interrupt didnt come in time. but we are making some headway finally  
onry


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## Kei (Jun 9, 2008)

Hey onry, have you guys tried using the multiplier only to overclock yet if so what did you get?

K


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## onry (Jun 9, 2008)

yep i tried 13.5 without raising voltage or anything but i got the secondary processor timing bsod


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## panchoman (Jun 9, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> I haven't RMA'd the PSU and now not sure if I need to.  I pulled the multimeter out and for S&G tested the 12v and 5v on the PSU.  Surprised at my results I thought I share with y'all and c what you guys think cause this is really starting to get annoying!!
> 
> !2v
> 
> ...



those voltages are perfect... if you rma'd your psu because you thought it couldn't pull your hardware.. then it might've been a bad decision


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## onry (Jun 9, 2008)

nope he hasn't rma'ed  it yet and i don't believe he is going to now


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 9, 2008)

panchoman said:


> those voltages are perfect... if you rma'd your psu because you thought it couldn't pull your hardware.. then it might've been a bad decision



, its a matter of voltage drops, when the system draws power, if the load causes a voltage drop, the system crashes.


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## kenkickr (Jun 9, 2008)

Thanks onry for testing my Phenom out while i slaughter this sempron for the time being, I miss my 9850 already .  Anyways, I thought I would share some Sempy OC results with you to see if this could help in anyway since I am using the same PSU, motherboard, memory, and basically everything in my system specs except the Phenom.   

I've tried past 300 but system will not boot so I think I need to play with some more settings to get over the 300 hump.


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## kenkickr (Jun 12, 2008)

Just a little update.  I have raped this Sempron all the way up to 3.1Ghz, not stable, but can boot to Windows desktop.  One thing I have had is starting from 2.8Ghz @ 1.5V the system is prime95 stable(lasted yesterday for 13 hours, 21 min) but almost everytime I would play a game the system would just shutdown either 5min or 50 min into the game or it will work just fine.  I have downclocked the system all the way to 2.5 Ghz @ 1.4v and notice the same issue but still prime95 stable. I honestly think I am down to a PSU issue but if anyone has seen this hard shutdown issue(I have to either hit the switch on the PSU to kill any current or unplug the power cord to get the system to turn back on) let me know what it was that fixed yours.  

Onry's still playing with my Phenom.


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## Kei (Jun 12, 2008)

Something in your system is the devil...I think we all know what it is 

How are things going over at onry's place with the Phenom? 

K


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## onry (Jun 12, 2008)

Kei i havent been able to get the phenom over 2.73 and even that not stable 
im doing some searchin to see what might be the cause besides a non OC'n chip LOL
onry


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 12, 2008)

onry said:


> Kei i havent been able to get the phenom over 2.73 and even that not stable
> im doing some searchin to see what might be the cause besides a non OC'n chip LOL
> onry



its probably the motherboard, didyou know motherboards overclocking potential is also limited.


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