DS3 "boot bug" or overclocking feature?

[AbRASiON]

Hi guys,

I'll try and keep it short and sweet.


Got a DS3P 3.3, it has the F4 bios.
I have Kingston Valueram and an E4300.

I am letting the board handle the voltages in the menu option.

When I set the FSB too high, sometimes the board will re-boot, spin the drives, then turn off.
Then it turns on, then off, then on a few times - it's like the auto voltage thing is trying to find the right voltage range to overclock for me (or so the feature seemed to imply in the bios)

Question is:,... is this the "re-boot" bug / post bug people talk about and it shouldn't do it?
OR is it awesome in that,.. it's trying to overclock for me, can't figure out the best option so it goes back to defaults (which it does?)

Just curious - what do I do, where should I go from here.

For reference, I'm having a hell of a crappy time overclocking the E4300 - only stable at 290mhz x9 which seems tragically low (even if it is the stock cooler)
P.S Yes, the ram is running at 667 mhz or lower, I'm not letting the multiplier go out of wack and running the ram @ 1000

Would appreciate peoples thoughts - thanks all.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Dunno whether it is a bug or feature, but that's what happens if your overclock becomes unstable.

 

[AbRASiON]

So it's a standard gigabyte feature for that model?

 

[Wino]

That's odd, my 3.3 came with F10. But anyway yes that's what happens when I increase something to the point it becomes unstable. I believe it's trying to reboot a couple times to check stability then gives up and puts the settings back to default.

 

[Cheex]

Its a fail-safe feature. It helps to a degree, in that you probably won't damage your hardware by overclocking it too far.

 

[StopSign]

I have that problem too with the F8/F9 bioses. With F7 I don't get that with my current overclock (456x7).

 

[AbRASiON]

Originally posted by: Wino
That's odd, my 3.3 came with F10. But anyway yes that's what happens when I increase something to the point it becomes unstable. I believe it's trying to reboot a couple times to check stability then gives up and puts the settings back to default.

DS3 is F10, DS3P is F4

 

[MiranoPoncho]

Ahh yes, the on off on off. Either by depressing the power button until the computer turns off finally and then waiting for about ten seconds, or swapping out a memory module for a compatible one, it should fix the problem.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Cheex
Its a fail-safe feature. It helps to a degree, in that you probably won't damage your hardware by overclocking it too far.

Interesting. How does it determine the stability?

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: Cheex
Its a fail-safe feature. It helps to a degree, in that you probably won't damage your hardware by overclocking it too far.

Interesting. How does it determine the stability?

Simple...If the computer can't boot with the settings you used, then its unstable.

 

[AbRASiON]

Guys dumb question but I have to know.


So I've got this DS3P, E4300 and 667ram.

You know the control f1 menu, for memory controls.
Well to _my knowledge_ I shouldn't have a need to go in there when I'm running the ram at only 667mhz, right?
There's no other functionality in the control f1 advanced menu which I'm missing in there?

I've been chosing the following in the "basic" menu

6x,7x,8x,9x multiplier
280 / 290 / 300 / 310 / 320 / 333mhz
PCI-e forced to 100mhz
Ram ratio so that it stays at 667 or as close as possible
(to ensure it's CPU holding me back, not ram?)
Ummm
Voltage I tried auto and manual settings
1.25 1.325 1.35 1.375 1.4 1.425 and 1.45 (cpu)
Finally I turned that "turbo" mode thing to disabled? it's near the PCI-e speeds?

So to summarize again, anything else I could've missed in the CTRL-F1 menu or is it ALL just memory speeds and not relevant?

 

[AbRASiON]

Never mind, I spent the night fiddling, I'm _convinced_ the CPU sucks!

I do have the stepping for those interested.


It's an E4300, SL9TB from Malaysia
It's a Q644A312 batch CPU and frankly, it's junk - I can't think of a better word for it, it's the polar opposite of the ones people have been reviewing at 3.2

I have extreme difficulty getting it to post on the DS3P 3.3 at more than 2.8ghz, real real difficulty - it's really only stable around 2.5.......

Just a warning - so if anyone else is having problems - might wanna cross reference that batch number

I've spent my final night fiddling with it tonight in an attempt to get decent speeds out of it, I've tried _EVERYTHING_ this thing simply has no balls.
POS.

- Hope it manages to help someone.

 

[StopSign]

So much for jumping on the E4300 bandwagon...

It's not junk, it just doesn't overclock as well as people expected. With the 9x multiplier people were expecting around 3.4-3.6 GHz. And for most people it's obviously not reaching that high despite how well Anand's chip overclocked. You gotta remember where these things came from: low quality Conroe cores.

 

[AbRASiON]

of course I didn't expect 3.4 or 3.6
I would've been happy with 3.0 exctatic with 3.2

It crashed a few minutes ago at 2.5