SilentRawr Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 After killing *three* fresh installs of XP last night just trying some mild OC'ing of my new Opty (I think I forgot to put in a divider /doh), and deciding to format a separate system partition on the my main drive so I can just Ghost the damn thing once a week and restore when I screw it up again, I started to do some pondering. Why/how exactly does an installation of Windows (or Linux, don't know if it doesn't happen when you're not running a bloatware OS) get corrupt if you OC too hard too quickly? And why does it sometimes only corrupt one or two files, but other times seem to destroy the entire boot-sector or most of the core Windows install? Also, i've pretty much already assumed this, but is this an indication that I should slow down a bit in terms of how quickly I try to OC my CPU/FSB? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest caffeinejunkie Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 Well first off it sounds like you havent read the Definitive DFI overclocking guide. Because if you were taking the proper steps listed in the guide you shouldnt be getting data corruption. Why does too high of an overclock corrupt data? Well this will be extremely simplified but lets say your cpu is doing some advanced calculation and the answere needs to come out to 101. If your overclock is high and the cpu is unstable then it could make a mistake in the calculation and the answere could come out to 100. But instead of it being calulations this could be the cpu copying an important core file for windows. So if the cpu is unstable then it could copy the file wrong and that alone could corrupt your entire OS and the more unstable the cpu is (or really the entire system) the more errors it will make. Do you get it now? (obviously this is very simplified but just put it like this to get the point across) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kobalt Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 I have to agree. If you follow directions, and check out your RAM first, then you shouldn't really have data coruption problems. You are most likely pushing the RAM too hard, and then you blame the CPU. Timing is everything to the CPU, so if something gets skewed by .00000000001%, then you will have problems. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fulvian Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 Usually most of data corruptions are caused by unstable memory... You've got a high-end machine, but definitely it is a waste if You ignore stability Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest burningrave101 Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 Errors can be caused by the CPU or RAM. If you overclock the processor too far to where its unstable then it can cause errors. Thats whats happening when you run Prime95 and it errors out. Its normally more of a RAM issue though because with RAM you can get thousands of errors very quickly if you push it too hard. You need to load stock settings for your components and then once you get Windws reinstalled then you need to run Prime95 Large FFTs (dual iterations for dual core) and test to make sure you aren't getting any errors for at least 6-8 hours. For testing your RAM i would run Windows Memtest because its the most effective memory testing tool i've found. It needs to be left running to at least 1,000% on each iteration (you need two for over 1GB of RAM). Once everything is rock stable at default then start working your way up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GripS Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 I have been a victim of corrupt hard drive data as well. It was my own fault for not testing the ram stability before letting it boot into windows. To prevent this from happening again i have a 5 gig hard drive with only windows and stress testing app's installed. I use this hard drive to test OC stability before applying the settings with my every day hard drive plugged in. It may seem a bit unnecessary but I don't want to have to re-install all of my games all over again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest caffeinejunkie Posted June 10, 2006 Posted June 10, 2006 I have been a victim of corrupt hard drive data as well. It was my own fault for not testing the ram stability before letting it boot into windows. To prevent this from happening again i have a 5 gig hard drive with only windows and stress testing app's installed. I use this hard drive to test OC stability before applying the settings with my every day hard drive plugged in. It may seem a bit unnecessary but I don't want to have to re-install all of my games all over again. ^^^ thats a pretty good idea and im sure most people have an older smaller harddrive just begging for a use like that. Another thing you can us is Overclockix it's a live linux cd based off of knoppix w/ a pethra of stress testing tools. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spacehead Posted June 11, 2006 Posted June 11, 2006 Usually most of data corruptions are caused by unstable memory... You've got a high-end machine, but definitely it is a waste if You ignore stability Have you overclocked your Venice? Could you make an OCDB entry? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
qlr Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 also it would be a nice idea to disable disk wite caching u can do it this way Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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