***Official***Z68X/P67A-UD7 Club/Discussion/Info**

[kbk_75]

Thanks for that Dinos.

Dunno wth just happened, but I connected a 2TB hard drive from my old PC to the new rig so I could copy over all my old data, rebooted, and...DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER!

Both the C300s and my optical drives don't get detected by the "IDE search" before POST, but they are detected by the RAID utility and the array is fine. The pre-POST (!) search only detects my other two SATA drives connected to the SATA 2 port.

I've checked in the BIOS that XHD is on, RAID 0 is on, boot device priority is correct, just looks as though my OS has got fried somehow. Any ideas?

[Lsdmeasap]

When you add/remove drives you always need to go into Advanced BIOS page and then into the first section "Hard Disk Boot Priority" and be sure you move your OS drive to the top of that list.

Same applies with clearing CMOS, loading Optimized, or flashing the BIOS.

[kbk_75]

Yeah I already did all that. Just reconnected my 3TB drive that I disconnected to connect my old PC's drive and windows booted just fine. Seems somehow that Windows has made my 3TB drive the active partition! How did that happen?!

[Lsdmeasap]

Did you install windows again? If so whatever disk is set first will be the disk with windows boot files placed on it.

If you are just moving disks around windows wont set anything active without you manually doing it.

[kbk_75]

No, I didn't. But it has definitely set a 100MB NTFS partition as active on my (as yet) unformatted 3TB drive. Attaching a screen shot.

I suppose I just need to make my RAID 0 array the active partition now, do a start-up repair and things should be good?

[Lsdmeasap]

That 100MB partition is only created during windows 7 install, if you do not create/manage your own partitions during the install.

I've never seen it move, or be moved, are you sure you did not just install windows 7? Or install windows 7 with the disk in question set as the first disk in the BIOS boot Priority, that's the only way it would be there.

I think you are confusing "Active" partition with "System" partition. What you need to do is first be sure your intended OS / C drive is set to the top of the BIOS Hard Disk Boot Priority, then you need to delete the hidden partition from your array. Yes that will cause windows to not boot, then run startup repair and it will put the boot files onto the C Drive not in a partition, you can manually rebuild the BCDStore as well (That's what startup repair will do)

[kbk_75]

Thanks LSD. Yeah, I am pretty sure I had my SSD array as first boot device when I installed Win 7. It was 3 a.m. though, maybe I changed it later!

Right, that might also explain my less than stellar Windows start-up times. I was wondering why it was taking as long as it was. Gonna do a startup repair and brb.

You guys are awesome!

Edit: Urg...I'm now stuck in some sort of endless 57 Windows updates loop every time I start up and shut down the system. :-/ I think it's running outta space on that 100MB partition or something and not applying the updates and then retrying every time I start up / shut down! *roll eyes*

[Lsdmeasap]

Haha, ya pretty sure isn't too convincing

I think you probably changed it later and just didn't realize it until now.

Here is how to manually rebuild the BCDStore in case you want to do it that way, second method
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927391

[kbk_75]

Right, so system is back on it's feet and now, back to where I began here...

Is F7e the best BIOS to update to, for the moment? I am planning on overclocking my system quite substantially, but I've heard stories of new Sandy chips dying with more than 1.4V, so I'll probably be limiting myself to 1.35 - 1.40V vCore. This new machine is gonna have to last me a while, sure can't afford upgrades like this too often!

[Falkentyne]

Ok, VERY dumb question here:

Ok, what is the benefit of increasing the TDP and TDC (watts and currents) in the Turbo Boost section of the BIOS, even if you have Turbo boost disabled (and thus the independent core multipliers and watts and amps are all greened out?)

Like, what benefit would setting them to something like 150 amps and 250 watts do?

Default is 93 and 95 or around there....

I tried setting it to 40 amps and 50 watts (I had to temporarily enable turbo boost to do this) and then re-disabled it, so the fields were greened out again, but the 40 and 50 still showed. I was wondering if it would even take effect if turbo boost were completely disabled.

Result: HELLO CLEAR CMOS (computer kept freezing at the CPU string display in POST, either freezing completely, or turning itself off after 15 seconds while on that string and turning on again....not even the overclock failed feature would kick in...it kept showing 100x34 so it tried to reset the settings, but I guess my amp/tdp limits stopped the cpu from working?)

Pressed the clear cmos button, loaded my saved profile, and I was back to normal. But what happened anyway?

Does raising the Amps to 150 and watts to 250 cause any boost in performance when overclocking (example: 5 ghz and 1.4vcore?), if all poewr saving options are set to disabled?

BTW I was doing this on a UD5. UD7 should be the same, anyway...(so I posted here)

[sin0822]

I answered your PM. 40 amps and 50 watts lol that is just not going to work man, even at 1600mhz. You could never load the CPU past 50% lol.

I have adjusted turbo mode many times and increase those values to 300 each, only to find it benefits those with UD4s and UD3s. I believe that GB automatically set the reported tdp and tdc ont eh UD7 and maybe UD54 to somthing very low like on P55 boards, so that you do not need to set these values yourself.

[C-N]

Ok, what is the benefit of increasing the TDP and TDC (watts and currents) in the Turbo Boost section of the BIOS.

Like, what benefit would setting them to something like 150 amps and 250 watts do?

Does raising the Amps to 150 and watts to 250 cause any boost in performance when overclocking (example: 5 ghz and 1.4vcore?), if all poewr saving options are set to disabled?

BTW I was doing this on a UD5. UD7 should be the same, anyway...(so I posted here)

Makes no difference on my UD5 even if you set 1000/500. I need 150/150 give or take a few to run 5G @ 1.4v otherwise the CPU throttles the multi back through lack of juice.

[nossy23]

Anybody else have USB3 problems with this board? I got a Sharkoon Quickport Duo USB3 dockingstation for sata HD's. And most of the time it does not get a connection with the computer. And when it does work, it's not stable. It disconnects from time to time.
If I plug it into USB2 I do not have the problem, but that's of course much slower.
It also works fine with via the USB3 ports on my GA-X58A-UD7 ver1 mobo.

[Eldonko]

Dinos is it possible to get skew parameters opened up in a bios rev?

[sin0822]

The skew parameters that the M4E has for the BLCK? They are obviously optimized but It would be nice to have that though, maybe to see if I can push higher than 107.5. Either way blck is CPU dependent.

[Eldonko]

Basically yes. I want to try and tweak skews to try and stabilize certain bclk and multi combos more than for extra bclk. For example my 54x multi is really sketchy with most bclk and I need it for max mem speed.

[cowie]

well I went to mc to get another chip but it dont work still?
i knew it,i a week i kill the mb unless its a classy or dfi lol
on ne live chat now to make sure get replacement mb

*well looks like i'm crap out of luck ne said no replacements only refund

[sin0822]

refund ain't bad spend the money else where you have 3 months to buy again. Personally id save the money. BTW i have never killed a piece of comptuer hardware just for no reason. I have physically damaged, voltage damaged, current damaged probably, corrupted, and just plain old DOA, but never killed a piece of HW with shock. I always use anti-static mat, gloves, and wrist band. I killed an X1150 and it really pissed me off. Its like people think static shock doesn't exist, it sure as hell does, everytime i sit down i touch a computer case and zap, every day every time i go to sit on my computer chair.

[cowie]

i never shocked one to death i have gloves i use when i build.
i may have put one or two componets in shock thuo......
was me all the way on this no dought.

i'll join you guys/gals again soon.

[nijel]

Guys, would you do a little easy test?
If your are using DVID for your 24/7 4C/8T stable clock, please run 1 thread LinX AVX for 10-15 min and see if you have stability problems (BSOD).
Can't stabilize low loads.

[sin0822]

dvid? use svid.

[nijel]

How? Auto?
Works for high loads, but for low 10-20% loads Vcore for 4.7GHz = Vcore for 3.4GHz and that's where a got BSODs. Doesn't scale properly for x47 for all cores. It'll work probably for something like 41-43-45-47 for the cores.
default 3.4GHz > 10-20% load=1.262V > 100% load=1.296V
clocked 4.7GHz> 10-20% load=1.262V (BSOD) > 100% load=1.368V

Tried all LLC levels. Fixed Vcore with LLC L2 is the best option for now, but the idle Vcore is high.
clocked 4.7GHz> idle 1.344 > 10-20% load=1.356V (BSOD) > 100% load=1.368V

[sin0822]

turn EIST and C1E on with auto voltage.

[nijel]

All is ON. I never run them OFF. It just doesn't scale. That's why I asked for more LLC levels earlier. Might help for better tuning Vcore for the entire load range. I can't believe no one else has this problem. I'm on my third chip now and the problem is worst with chips needing more Vcore for the same clock which is perfectly logical - wider Vcore range scales worst. I guess people don't spend much time at low loads yet.

[sin0822]

idk mine scales just fine, maybe you are using it too much? you can't really expect 4.8ghz on auto vcore lol. It kinda hits a limit at 4.5ghz-4.8ghz for me. One of my chips does it fine at 4.8ghz the other wont at 4.5ghz. Of course you can just change the vcore but then the voltage doesn't scale.