need alot of help with non stable system.

[Vinny77]

My system is as follwows.

P4 2.4C GHz (@ 3.4 GHZ) Stock Intel Heatsink AS 5
Asus P4C800 E- DELUXE
OCZ PC-4200 1GB 2.5-4-4-8
Liteon SOHW-832S
Antec TruePower 550watt
ATI Radeon 9600XT
----WD RAPTOR 2X36.6 (RAID-0)
----WD 5400rpm 2x40gb (RAID 1)
Mistubishi 930SB 19"



I have been noticing stability problems in the past few week. My integrated network card has gone to hell and i always loose my internet connection. Even when my brothers pc on the same router and with same cables does not.

I have been haveing stability problems which really started to occur when i got my new memory. I upgraded from ocz pc4200 2x256mb to pc4200 platinum ocz 2x512mb. Now I get random restarts and my system just forgets information. Such as the bgios just resets or it will forget saved data. resolutions change by themselves back to default. really wired stuff. At first I thought it was my Memeory. But the memeory ran fine with a 34 hr memtest86 3.2 v test. The memeory was at 2.5 3 3 8 and 266MHz. what it is rated at and it was fine.


I ran 50 loops of 35mark05 and the Video card was fine. I ran WD diagnostic tests and all HSS were fine.

My PSU rails are near perfect also.


I recently purchased an ATI x850Xt and the card made my 2D enviorment slower. It went and took 13 seconds to open firefox. But when you cleared the drivers and installed my 9600Xt, it was back to normal. I had 2 x850Xt and both had the same problem. i dont ahve them anymore.



I ran prime 95 and it always fails when running Large FFt's, though small FFt's never fail. i run 2 instances of prime 95 and one always has a hardware failure.


I dont know which usint is going out on me. if it is the Motherboard or the processor.
Edit/Delete Message

 

[rise]

hows your psu rails?

memtest stable and windows stable are two different things. maybe try bumping the vdimm up a notch?

 

[Vinny77]

vdimm is at 2.85 like it always is and will be at.

psu rails are as close as perfect as a an antec psu is going to get.

 

[blodhi74]

dont overclock and post results

 

[Vinny77]

Originally posted by: blodhi74
dont overclock and post results

that defeats the purpose.

 

[Navid]

No reason to run two instances of prime. Reduce FSB a little bit and run prime again. Keep reducing it until it does not fail.
What is VCore at?
Have you run prime with a memory divider? This would help figure out the bottleneck. If it fails with the divider, you will know that your CPU for sure is having problems. But, if it passes with the divider, you will know that the memory is the bottleneck.

 

[Vinny77]

yeah I use HT, do if I only run 1 instance. It will only use 50% max of my CPU. i need to run 2 to go to 100%.

I dont want to recude it becasue, the memeory runs fine. i can run memtest at a 290fsb with no errors. But prime 95 fails.

can you tell me how to do the memeory divider thing. I have no idea about that/

 

[Navid]

In the Bios, under Advanced settings, you see a DDR parameter. You can set it to 400, 320, 266 or Auto. When you set it to 400, the DDR frequency is equal to the FSB you select multiplied by 2. So, you run at 1:1.

If you set it to 320, when you set FSB to 200, the DDR will be 320 (instead of 400). So, your memory runs at a divider ratio.

If you set DDR to 320, you remove the memory from the equation. Then, if you fail prime, you can be sure that it is the CPU that causes the instability.

 

[Navid]

So, are you saying that your FSB is set to 283?

 

[Vinny77]

no it is set to 270 now.


so I set it to 320 and then run prime 95 with or without it overclocked,

then what

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Vinny77
no it is set to 270 now.


so I set it to 320 and then run prime 95 with or without it overclocked,

then what

You set DDR in the Bios to 320. Run prime95. If it passes, increase FSB a little bit and run prime again. Do this until you find the maximum FSB that you can achieve. You can run it overnight the last time. Since the memory is out of the picture (DDR set to 320 or even 266), the maximum FSB is the limit of your CPU.

Then, set DDR back to 400 and run prime again. If it fails, you know that it is the memory that is causing the failure. If it still passes, you know that you are limited by your CPU.

You can increase VCore a little bit to increase the CPU limit if you haven't done that already. Mind you 270 is a pretty good overclock.
If it turns out that it is the memory that is the bottleneck, you can increase VDIM a little bit or you can relax the timings.

Always make changes in small steps. Always make one change at a time and benchmark.

 

[Vinny77]

Thank you navid. I will report back.

you have been alot of help.

 

[Navid]

You are welcome.

I'm sure you know that overclocking can damage your hardware. You are responsible for it if that happens! :thumbsup:

 

[Navid]

How can you get FSB=270 with stock sink? That is amazing.

 

[Vinny77]

I have gotten 305 before. It doeant go over 48C at max.

Its been going a a 260 fsb at a 3:2 divide fo about 45 min.

Im going in he increments.

 

[Vinny77]

267 fsb is my chips max from what I have learned so far.

when i move to 270 i get this error in prime 95.

http://img275.imageshack.us/img275/8051/046093754hi.jpg



Now is it possible that my chip, just lost power and cant do what it used to do. or is there a chance that my Motherboard may be goinga nd it is casuing the cpu's limit,

 

[Navid]

You never said what your VCore was set to.

 

[Vinny77]

vcore is set to 1.675V

pretty much what I have always used.

 

[Navid]

There is an optimum VCore. The higher isn't always necessarily better!

You should change VCore by the smallest possible notch and run prime again and find the maximum stable FSB. Keep changing VCore and find the maximum stable FSB by running prime. You will find a VCore that gives you the highest FSB.

When you get to that point, all that is left is to improve the CPU cooling.

Of course you should do all of this with the RAM on a divider.

Edit:
1.675V may be too high.

 

[Vinny77]

My whole idea of this post was to find the weakness in my pc. The weakness so it can be fixed, wether I need a new motherboard or a new processor or need to RMA memeory that I just bought.

I know somthing is wrong i just dont know what.