Official "Overclocking Help" Thread

[>>PyRoN<<]

Just out of interest . . i installed (yesterday) and overclocked my Intel E7400 2.8GHz from 266 to 300 (2.8GHz to 3.16GHz) and my fallout 3 kept crashing . . I tuned the CPU back to factory settings but the problem with Fallout 3 still persists . . . i have the latest patch for the game and up to date drivers for my CPU, Motherboard and GFX card . . . is it just the game being a bunghole or have i caused damage in some way with the overclock?

[Chevron]

Just out of interest . . i installed (yesterday) and overclocked my Intel E7400 2.8GHz from 266 to 300 (2.8GHz to 3.16GHz) and my fallout 3 kept crashing . . I tuned the CPU back to factory settings but the problem with Fallout 3 still persists . . . i have the latest patch for the game and up to date drivers for my CPU, Motherboard and GFX card . . . is it just the game being a bunghole or have i caused damage in some way with the overclock?

If downclocking did fix it, I doubt you caused the problem. Unless of course you forgot to adjust your memory divider and overclocked your ram to hell and back. That might leave permanent damage.

[>>PyRoN<<]

The thing is, i didn't touch the RAM or anything to do with it in the BIOS . . . but Fallout3 is now bringing blue screen errors and restarting my machine . . . and it's doing it with COD4 too aswell . . DRIVERS MAYBE???

[Wesley]

Just out of interest . . i installed (yesterday) and overclocked my Intel E7400 2.8GHz from 266 to 300 (2.8GHz to 3.16GHz) and my fallout 3 kept crashing . . I tuned the CPU back to factory settings but the problem with Fallout 3 still persists . . . i have the latest patch for the game and up to date drivers for my CPU, Motherboard and GFX card . . . is it just the game being a bunghole or have i caused damage in some way with the overclock?

The thing is, i didn't touch the RAM or anything to do with it in the BIOS . . . but Fallout3 is now bringing blue screen errors and restarting my machine . . . and it's doing it with COD4 too aswell . . DRIVERS MAYBE???

Is it only doing this while playing games in general, or only Fallout3? If its a general thing, then perhaps you need to reset your CMOS settings and check if that works, because I have a suspicion that your motherboard overclocked the PCI-Express bus and somehow didn't reset the speed when you downclocked your CPU.

Maybe, maybe not. Its a wild guess ;) But I've had this problem before, with an old AGP card that refused to run at higher bus speeds.

[>>PyRoN<<]

Is it only doing this while playing games in general, or only Fallout3?

Only Fallout 3.

because I have a suspicion that your motherboard overclocked the PCI-Express bus and somehow didn't reset the speed when you downclocked your CPU.

I tuned it back to factory settings in the BIOS . . it should have done this for me shouldn't it?

EDIT - i'll re-install Fallout3 (NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! all my playing time!!!) just to make sure . .but surely it should have picked up the new hardware and recognised it . . it's not even fancy **** . . /sob

[Chevron]

The thing is, i didn't touch the RAM or anything to do with it in the BIOS . . . but Fallout3 is now bringing blue screen errors and restarting my machine . . . and it's doing it with COD4 too aswell . . DRIVERS MAYBE???

The fact you didn't touch the ram settings is why your ram could be stuffed. Let me take a random ram ratio to illustrate my point. Let's say your ram to fsb ratio is 3:2. That means when your overclock your cpu by 60mhz, you also overclock your ram by 40mhz. So you could've pushed your ram too far.

[>>PyRoN<<]

The fact you didn't touch the ram settings is why your ram could be stuffed. Let me take a random ram ratio to illustrate my point. Let's say your ram to fsb ratio is 3:2. That means when your overclock your cpu by 60mhz, you also overclock your ram by 40mhz. So you could've pushed your ram too far.

i'm only using 1gig kingston 800 ram . . . if that means anything . . .

I ran Sandra and it didn't find errors with the RAM . . . told me to reduce the FSB or FSB/memory . . .which i did(hopefully) by resetting eveything to factory settings, and then it gave me the same message . . have i missed something??

**** . . why wasn't i just satisfied with 2.8?? WHY!!?!?
i'm only using 1gig kingston 800 ram . . .

[Wesley]

1gig kingston 800 ram

Er, well...Chev could be right about this one. I know for a fact that Kingston memory doesn't like to be overclocked much. Can you tell us what your memory divider for your RAM is now set to?

Edit: Hang on, whats this?

I ran Sandra and it didn't find errors with the RAM . . . told me to reduce the FSB or FSB/memory . . .which i did(hopefully) by resetting eveything to factory settings, and then it gave me the same message . . have i missed something??

What motherboard are you running?

[>>PyRoN<<]

Er, well...Chev could be right about this one. I know for a fact that Kingston memory doesn't like to be overclocked much.

Sh1t.

Can you tell us what your memory divider for your RAM is now set to?

Well . . it's my first time at this so i'm not quite sure . . but in the bios it says something about 'DRAM' being set to AUTO? And the only other obvious info about the RAM s that there is 1024MB of it and that there is only one RAM stick . . . or is it something else that i should be looking for?

Edit: Hang on, whats this?

SANDRA?? Oh, it's basically a system diagnostic application.
It's pretty good, i think . . .
http://www.sisoftware.net/

What motherboard are you running?

ASUS P5KPL-CM G31

[Wesley]

1GB of RAM? Gee, that sucks major. Games wont really like that little to work with, but fair enough. I cant actually comment myself, because I'm running on 512MB :P

With regards to your motherboard, its easy to pinpoint that your RAM is the problem. The P5KPL allows for up to DDR2-1066 RAM in dual-channel mode, so your motherboard kept on clocking up the RAM as the FSB crept higher. Your FSB is quad-pumped, so I assume your processor is now running at 1066mhz FSB? If so, it would mean that your memory is now running at 266mhz (800mhz) with a 3/4 divider.

Do me a favour. Re-boot, set your memory settings to Manual, and set your RAM to 667, if you get the option to do so. If not, change your memory divider to 3/5 (if you can) and change your FSB on your CPU to 1333. Re-boot and see if this works for you. Your CPU should boot up with a healthy 3.33Ghz, and your RAM should be running at 800mhz full speed. Then run Fallout3 again and tell me if you have the same problem. If you do, then I'd highly recommend you consider buying 2gigs of RAM.

[>>PyRoN<<]

Do me a favour. Re-boot, set your memory settings to Manual, and set your RAM to 667, if you get the option to do so. If not, change your memory divider to 3/5 (if you can) and change your FSB on your CPU to 1333. Re-boot and see if this works for you. Your CPU should boot up with a healthy 3.33Ghz, and your RAM should be running at 800mhz full speed.

is this right??

http://img18.picoodle.com/img/img18/...Sm_2fb33d2.png

If so, more RAM it is . . .

EDIT - should i re-install windows or is this unlikely to fix anything?

[Wesley]

is this right??

http://img18.picoodle.com/img/img18/...Sm_2fb33d2.png

If so, more RAM it is . . .

EDIT - should i re-install windows or is this unlikely to fix anything?

Yup, thats it. Give it a try and see what happens when you increase the CPU frequency to 333mhz. And uninstalling Windows will solve nothing, its clearly a hardware problem.

[>>PyRoN<<]

Ok, i set it to what it is in the picture and the error occurred again . . wrong values maybe?

[Wesley]

Ok, i set it to what it is in the picture and the error occurred again . . wrong values maybe?

No, its a hardware problem. So far, we can only assume that your RAM is the faulty. Can you find a floppy or something, and run Memtest86? Either that, or find a utility that stress-tests your RAM. If it still happens, then your memory is definitely faulty. If it runs cleanly, and only ever crashes in Fallout3, then I can only assume that your copy is a buggy one.

[>>PyRoN<<]

Crap . . alright thanks for all the help Wes. I appreciate it man. I guess the main problem is the RAM cos it does the same thing for Battlefield 2 aswell . . \checks corsair RAM pricing

[Chevron]

Crap . . alright thanks for all the help Wes. I appreciate it man. I guess the main problem is the RAM cos it does the same thing for Battlefield 2 aswell . . \checks corsair RAM pricing

You can get a 4gig set for R700. That's the dominator set as well. 2gig kit for R500, but that's the xms2 set.

[Ch@pS]

Take RAM out.
Switch PC on with RAM out.
Switch PC off and put RAM back in.
Find CMOS clear jumper(refer to your manual)
Reset Cmos with jumper.
Switch PC on but dont go to bios, just go straight to windows.
If memory problems persist, send the RAMs to me and I'll try what i know to fix them.

Or, if you really want to be epic, stick them in a freezer for a few hours, take them out, WAIT FOR THEM TO DRY, then try in your PC again. No, I'm not kidding.

[Wesley]

Take RAM out.
Switch PC on with RAM out.
Switch PC off and put RAM back in.
Find CMOS clear jumper(refer to your manual)
Reset Cmos with jumper.
Switch PC on but dont go to bios, just go straight to windows.
If memory problems persist, send the RAMs to me and I'll try what i know to fix them.

Or, if you really want to be epic, stick them in a freezer for a few hours, take them out, WAIT FOR THEM TO DRY, then try in your PC again. No, I'm not kidding.

You've got to be joking 0_0 How does the freezer thing solve the problem?

[Chevron]

You've got to be joking 0_0 How does the freezer thing solve the problem?

Supposedly works with hard drives too sometimes. Don't ask me why though.

[Ch@pS]

I'm not joking. The expansion and contraction of the sillicon allows the ram to "reset" itself. Its got something like a 60% success rate on damaged overclocking RAM.