Q6600 + P5K SE = not booting when OC'ed and cold.

[Skyllz]

I followed the following guide to the letter, very well explained for the P5K users.

C2D Overclocking Guide For Beginners P5K Add-On - Clunk's Forums.

I bring the FSB to 333 to run 3.0ghz.

However I get a weird problem.

If I set it up when the computer is "hot" it'll run fine and will run all benchs, tests, SuperPi, OCCT without failure for hours.

Once I shut down, restart the computer then next day, I get a "Overclocking error, failure" message from the Bios, I lower the FSB to 300(2.8ghz) instead of 333 and I go happily with my business, it'll boot properly, I can set it back to 333 once booted and it'll run fine.

Anyone got a clue?

Thanks.

Edit.

P5K SE, 1008 bios
Q6600 with Arctic Cooling
2gig Kingston HyperX http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX8000D2K2_2G.pdf

[cwestwell]

You could try running 378 X 8 = 3.02 ....the board should handle that FSB so this may tell you if your CPU likes the higher FSB with lower Mulitplier more then lower FSB with high multiplier.

[Skyllz]

I'll give that a try tonight, I was also suggested to raise my Vcore a little to compensate for vdrop on startup.

[encorp]

Check your FSB voltage as well, not JUST the cpu voltage. Sometimes just nudging it up a notch to like 1.25v will help.

[Skyllz]

Seems stable so far, did the 378X8, shut down, cool down for an hour and it booted right away.

We'll see how the night will go.

[Dadi_oh]

Originally Posted by Skyllz

Seems stable so far, did the 378X8, shut down, cool down for an hour and it booted right away.

We'll see how the night will go.

I have a couple of P5K SE boards and used to have an E1200 in one of them. I had a similar circumstance where I could OC to a nice stable Prime95/Orthos level but if I ever had to do a restart on the computer (say, after a Windows update) it would not restart. I would need to go into BIOS, not change anything, and then save it, and everything would be fine ???

I think that there is a quick check that the board runs through upon restarting and sometimes the OC would trip it up. I think that you do need to adjust settings to get it stable not only in the OS but also to pass the BIOS POST test.

All that being said, I did notice that the Vdroop on this board is horrible compared to my P5K-E board. Are you measuring the voltages on the core, NB, and SB under load to make sure they are good levels? The Q6600 is a trickier OC than my E8xxx CPU's. They produce a LOT of heat (especially B3 stepping. Do you have B3 or G0 stepping? ) when overclocked so watch the temps under load. I am watercooled and hitting low 50's under Prime95.

You will also discover a steep wall at some point in the OC. I can hit 440X8=3520 on 1.39V (load) but to get FSB to 450X8=3600 I need to add a ton more volts. About 1.48V to get it stable and temps climb into the 60's. So I am happy to keep it at 3520, sacrifice 80MHz and run nice and cool at safe volts.

Not sure if this really helps you but good luck with the OC. If you are G0 stepping and half decent cooling you should be able to get up past 3.2GHz I would think. The Freezer 7 is a capable heatsink but I got huge improvements by lapping it (when I had one). Also watch your memory divider to keep your ram at stable frequencies.

[Skyllz]

400X8 stable 3.2ghz with temps never going above 50c. I think the new P-supply has something to do with it too. see my thread in PS...)

I'm happy!