Well this is annoying... Main rig overclock blew up.

[Sparky]

Back on Black Friday I bought some new memory for my PC - G.Skill 2x4GB DDR3-1600 Ripjaws for $30. I finally got around to installing it today... and now I'm sitting with my old RAM kit and at stock CPU settings! :mad:

I didn't go nuts with my 955BE when I overclocked it. I tried at first, failed miserably, so I just bumped the multi to get 3.6GHz and called it a day after fighting to get the NB and HT links faster and all that stuff. I just couldn't get a handle on all that. So I pull my 2x2GB DDR3-1333 kit out, install the 2x4 kit, change the memory speed and timings to match the new stuff... and it fails to fully POST. OK, fine, I recall reading something about how AMD CPUs don't always get along with DDR3-1600 memory right off the bat. Look up that, change it... still nothing. Fine, forget it, I'll just set it to 1333 which is safe and it'll be fine. I mostly wanted the extra 4GB RAM anyway. Nope, it doesn't like that either? Weird... Mess around some more, get frustrated, then decide that maybe I'm missing something stupid so I'll just throw my old memory back in, put back the original settings I had, and come back to it later (or just save the memory for my next build I hope to do soon). But no, now it BSODs on boot if I try! What? Cleared CMOS for the umpteenth time, manually put in all my settings instead of using the saved settings in the BIOS, and BSOD, BSOD, BSOD! :mad:

So now, here I am, typing this with absolutely EVERYTHING at stock because now my PC is being retarded and won't boot with anything but that right now, even though up until now it has been fine at 3.6GHz for at least 2 years. Totally makes no flippin' sense. And I don't have BOINC running since it BSODed several times, so now I want to prime95 the thing to make sure it isn't going to BSOD even at stock. That's how little I trust it right now. At least it has been running prime for about 5 min instead of BSODing 5 seconds in :rolleyes:

I'm just a little bit irritated.

/rant

Maybe I need to update the BIOS of this board. I'm running a pretty old version, but I had left it since everything "was" working. So much for that.

By the way, for SB the Z68 chipset is the one to use, isn't it? What board is recommended? Now that my OC is shot I'm half tempted to buy a SB rig. I think Microcenter is running their CPU + board combo deal again.

[6thsurvivor]

I've had something similar, and I found out that phenommsrtweaker hated cfg changes and BSOD'ed me. Did you try another channel or putt all your memory at once? (worked for me one time on a asrock mobo!).

[Sparky]

I never have used software to OC my CPU, just direct BIOS settings only. There is nothing in Windows that attempts to do anything with my CPU settings.

I did try 1 stick, both sticks, didn't change the channel because I was putting everything back exactly the way it was. Still hated me though :wth:

At least it seems that at stock speeds it is happy enough. BOINC is running again and thankfully it didn't blow up any units.

[WFO]

I'd definitely flash to the latest bios since you've been having problems. They usually improve memory compatibility. I'd also make sure the main power connector and the 8 pin cpu connectors were fully plugged into the mobo. The last time I had an issue like that, when I pushed on the 24 pin connector it went "click." End of problem. ;)

[Moo]

Hard drive going south or maybe the power supply?

[xVeinx]

What about memtest? Is that showing errors? Could be IMC issues perhaps?

EDIT: actually, flashing the bios may solve things if the bios got tweaked a bit. I've had that happen on some boards...

[Sparky]

No errors at stock settings, I'll mess with it more later (BIOS flash and all that jazz). It wouldn't even get past POST with the ripjaws in there, even at bone stock settings. Screwy.

[6thsurvivor]

That is some Xtreme degradation here! Maybe you drooled over the ram banks?:rofl:

[Bun-Bun]

I would tear everything apart. Clean all the connections and blow everything out. Reassemble and try again.

[Panther_Seraphi]

Yeah i would try a reassembly as i had something like this before and reseating the CPU fixed it :S

[Sparky]

I looked up my BSODs I had, then looked in the AMD section at a thread about common BSODs when overclocking and typically their cause, and the one for mine was too low CPU voltage. Maybe I didn't get that set right again.

[STEvil]

Try each memory stick 1 at a time, might have a bad one.

[Sparky]

Heh.

Amazing what a BIOS update can do.

First off, I was out of date by 14 versions on my BIOS :yawn: The notes on a few of the versions specifically mentioned memory compatibility updates, lol. So I just updated it, put in the new memory, and boom, it started right up first try. D'oh :hitself:

Next is to OC it again. I recall in the big thread about this board that a few updates make the OC's go better, so I might be able to actually hit my original 3.8GHz target now perhaps. Well, I may have been able to previously, except I honestly never put that much effort into trying...

I'll leave the speed alone for now. This weekend after I fix my truck I'll play with the CPU and see if I can't get 3.8+ out of it.

[shoota]

That still doesnt really explain why the original ram wouldn't boot..

[Sparky]

Original ram would boot, but the system OC wasn't stable anymore. I dug into the BSOD errors I was getting a bit more and they were pointing not to RAM issues but CPU stability issues - I suspect that I didn't get the voltage set right, which wouldn't surprise me. This board has a million and one options for voltage settings. Makes sense too, because before I had messed with anything the RAM was at stock settings. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it couldn't possibly RAM issues with my OC and had to be something else, especially since once I put the CPU to stock everything was OK. That's when I dug into it and found the stuff on the CPU related BSOD.

[shoota]

Yeah that makes total sense. Glad you got it sorted out