Asus P6T Motherboard - New BIOS 0707 - Freezing System when Idle

[JakFrost]

[H]ard|Forum > [H]ard|Ware > Overclocking & Cooling
Overclocking Air: Intel i7 920, Asus P6T, G.Skill DDR3-1600 C8, Xigmatek HDT-1284E (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1431987&highlight=jakfrost&page=2)

Update: Windows 7 Sleep Mode is the problem, NOT Asus P6T BIOS, Ignore Thread

This is a follow-up to the thread above. I just did an upgrade to the newest Asus P6T BIOS 0707 from 0603 and noticed that when I leave my computer idle and go away from it for more than an hour there is a very good chance that when I come back it will be frozen. Upon reset I get the BIOS message that "Overclocking settings have failed".

This happens even though these are the exact same overclocking settings that I used with BIOS 0603 that has been stable for months.

My computer is mildly overclocked with Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz to run at 3.6 GHz with only CPU voltage at 1.20 V setting changed. I also installed an additional 6 GB or RAM since the end of that thread but even with the new memory the computer never froze when idle for the weeks I have been using it.

All the overclocking details are in the thread linked to above so if you need a reference check the thread first before making comments or asking questions about settings.

I can't roll back to the old 0603 BIOS with the BIOS based Asus Flash 2 or with the DOS based ASUS AUFDOS.exe utilities since they both say that the BIOS is too old. I'll have to find another utility to force the update.

Anyone else experience same problems?

Any ideas on the source of the problem?

How do I fix this new problem?

Ref: [H]ard|Forum > [H]ard|Ware > Motherboards
Asus P6T Motherboard - New BIOS 0707 - Freezing System when Idle (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1034579449#post1034579449)

[Leeghoofd]

Did you up the QPI volts ? eg 1.25 or even 1.275 ? 1.21 is really low... Sorry but I ain't gonna read a 4 page thread to find out ya current settings...

Some tips : get off that even multi, improve cooling ( in one picture you got the orientation wrong of ya CPU fan in reference to ya rear case fan) and up that QPI voltage... With the new bios it could be that Asus adjusted some voltages or ram settings that needs some more tweaking... best is to post screenshots of ya current bios settings...

Also test each Ram dimm seperately, maybe one is flakey

[EaglePC]

where did u get 0707 .0504 is the lastest and 0606 been pulled ?

ya talking about the P6T Deluxe Version 2 MB ?

[highoctane]

I've been using 0707 fine with my p6t without any issues. Are you sure you got your settings back exactly where they where. I know that when I flashed it cleared all my settings and previous OC profiles.

Anyways I can definitely confirm that I'm not experiencing any issues with 0707.

EDIT: You might want to try disabling c-states if it is enabled, I have mine set to C6 without any issues but I noticed on my higher clocked p6t deluxe the deeper c states has caused lock ups but this has never been a problem with my lower clocked p6t board.

[EaglePC]

you guys must be talking about version 1 of this mb

[JakFrost]

Did you up the QPI volts ? eg 1.25 or even 1.275 ? 1.21 is really low... Sorry but I ain't gonna read a 4 page thread to find out ya current settings...

Some tips : get off that even multi, improve cooling ( in one picture you got the orientation wrong of ya CPU fan in reference to ya rear case fan) and up that QPI voltage... With the new bios it could be that Asus adjusted some voltages or ram settings that needs some more tweaking... best is to post screenshots of ya current bios settings...

Also test each Ram dimm seperately, maybe one is flakey

Multi and Clock

Yes, I read about the odd multi's being better but after I hit 3,600 at 20x180 at only CPU 1.20 V with full 2D/3D stability after hours of stress testing and gaming I was satisfied with this result. I saw that with my board trying to push it past 180 would make it flake out within a few hours at 185 so I stuck to 180 for a margin stability.

Voltage

I found that I didn't have to touch any voltage settings except for CPU Voltage and I only required 1.20 V to make it purely stable. I didn't have to change QPI or PLL or IOH at all. The DRAM voltage got bumped up to 1.60 V by using XMP Profile 1 and it was fully stable in the system.

I saw people pushing their processors and QPI to 1.35 V and higher but with this chip and my thermals that is not feasible when I hit 75-80C on load at 1.20 V. Plus, I saw that to get passed 3.6 GHz folks really had to punch up the voltage +0.1-0.2 V on the chips to get 2-300 MHz more out of their chips. This just doesn't seem that good for a performance/heat/voltage trade off.

Asus BIOS Adjustment

Well it would seem very likely that they did adjust their new 0707 bios from 0603 and changed some internal voltage settings or something because even with identical settings I started getting these freezes. Of course they won't list the real changes in their two line History file for the BIOS release because that's just too much to ask of that company who can barely release working products in the first place.

Fan Orientation

I had thermal issues with this system and I was trying out different orientations of the CPU cooler fan to see which one would give me the best cooling. Now the system has a 120mm front intake fan, 120mm CPU fan pushing the air through the cooler, and the 120mm exhaust fan pushing the air out of the system. Good air movement tunnel and my temps dropped 5-7 C on Load after the installation of the front 120mm fan. The picture you saw is probably one of the trial runs with the fan facing in the opposite direction. This CPU is running hot at low voltages for me and others have commented this also about this one.

BIOS Settings

I did what you said and I posted the pictures of the BIOS settings. I'll save you a lot of clicking and looking. Basically XMP Profile 1 for the memory setting DRAM 1.60 V and memory set to DDR3-1443, one step below the rating for these chips which is DDR3-1600MHz. CPU at 20 x 180 at 1.20 V. All CPU SpeedStep and C-State settings enabled. Everything else set to Auto.

When you look at the BIOS settings you'll see that this was probably the easiest overclock to implement since only the CPU voltage had to be manually set. Very easy and sweet, but now a little broken.

These settings worked great with 0603 at 3.6 GHz fully 2D/3D stressed and used for gaming and stable for days!


I've been using 0707 fine with my p6t without any issues. Are you sure you got your settings back exactly where they where. I know that when I flashed it cleared all my settings and previous OC profiles.

Anyways I can definitely confirm that I'm not experiencing any issues with 0707.

EDIT: You might want to try disabling c-states if it is enabled, I have mine set to C6 without any issues but I noticed on my higher clocked p6t deluxe the deeper c states has caused lock ups but this has never been a problem with my lower clocked p6t board.

Undervoltage? - My First Guess

It is very likely that the CPU entering the deeper C-States drops the voltage too much somewhere so the system freezes. I read that freezing without a blue screen or reboot is a sign of undervoltage. I would prefer to solve this freezing problem through the proper application of slightly increased voltage on one of the subsystems because I don't want to muck around and disable any C-State settings. I'm one of those Full Features Overclocker so I won't sacrifice features for speed.

I might bump up the CPU voltage by 0.125 or 0.225 V to see if the extra juice will fix it. If not, I might try QPI but I don't fancy having to change it from the Auto setting at all.



Asus P6T BIOS Downloads - 0707, 0603, etc. (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P6T)


http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2130/asusp6tbios1main.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/2887/asusp6tbios2storageconf.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/456/asusp6tbios3systeminfor.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5418/asusp6tbios4aitweaker1.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7828/asusp6tbios5aitweaker2.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5510/asusp6tbios6advancedcpu.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/761/asusp6tbios7advancedcpu.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3969/asusp6tbios8intelvtdcon.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/697/asusp6tbios9onboardaudi.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1853/asusp6tbios10usbconfigu.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/9498/asusp6tbios11pnpsetting.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6200/asusp6tbios12power.jpg
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/8116/asusp6tbios13apmconfigu.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3716/asusp6tbios14hardwaremo.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9504/asusp6tbios15bootdevice.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/8141/asusp6tbios16harddiskdr.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/857/asusp6tbios17bootsettin.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/6269/asusp6tbios18securityse.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1695/asusp6tbios19ocprofile.jpg
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4595/asusp6tbios20ainet2.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/193/asusp6tbios21drivexpert.jpg

[JakFrost]

I increased the CPU voltage from 1.200 V by 0.125 V to 1.2125 V and so far so good. The computer has not frozen on me while I was away today. I'll leave it over night to see if it happens since mostly it happens then. Wish me luck.

Edit: CPU Voltage increase didn't work.

[JakFrost]

Sleep Mode Is The Problem, Not Asus P6T 0707 BIOS

It would appear that the problem happens when the computer tries to go into Sleep mode. I must have enabled Balanced Power profile in Windows 7 a while back and this set the Sleep timer to 1-hour. Also my uTorrent program prevents the computer from going to sleep when there are active files and I always had files to download but since I came back from vacation I cleared all the files and my computer attempted to go to sleep. It seems like the problem must be related to a driver or device in the system preventing Sleep mode.

I just set Windows 7 to High Performance power profile to disable sleep mode and left the computer running idle. Not very energy efficient but I shut the computer down when I don't use it anyway so I don't need Sleep mode so much. Also with the Intel X25-M 80GB SSD the computer boots up quickly so it's not a problem.

Now I'll try to find out what device is the source of the Sleep problems.

I already tried disabling overclocking and setting everything to Auto it's not a overclock problem at all. I just have to juggle the drivers and devices a little to find out which one gives.