TRWeiss1 Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 (edited) Ok, let me start off by saying that I'm trying desperately to achieve a stable OC of 4.0GHz on air with my i7 920 and Noctua NH-U12P HS + Fan. I know other people have gotten these i7's to 4.0 and beyond on air, so I know it can be done. I've tried everything from a Vcore voltage of 1.25 to 1.40, and every multiplier/FSB in between. Regardless of what I try (even when I can get OCCT to run stable for 2 hours without any cores going beyond 70 deg C), I'm getting lockups in games (NFS:Shift, GRID, CAD WAW) randomly. Sometimes they will happen within a few minutes, sometimes not for hours...It's driving me absolutely insane. The symptoms of each lockup are exactly the same, regardless of the game. The video locks and the sound continues to play for about 5 seconds. Then, the screen goes blank and he audio begins looping. The system stays like that until it's manually rebooted, as I can't get to task manager at that point. I back the OC down and all these problems with games locking up go away (but then of course the framerates blow because I'm back down to 2.66), so it's absolutely the OC. To note, I'm running 12 GBs of G. Skill Ripjaws DDR3 (9-9-9-27), with a voltage of 1.64v. I don't have much experience with overclocking these i7's, so there very well may be something I'm missing. Of course my mobo is an ASUS P6X58D, with load line calibration enabled. I have not loosened up the memory timings, and was hoping that I wouldn't have to. Also, I haven't found anywhere to set the NB voltage, though I don't believe that's what's causing the lockup. All temps seem to be in check, so I'm really trying to figure out where this instability is coming from. Please help!! Lastly, fwiw, I'm running an ATi 5870HD (not OC'd) for video and an Antec 850w PSU. Any other questions, please just ask! Any help would be much appreciated! I just want this thing stable, since I'm sick of fighting with it!! Edit :: For whatever else it's worth, all of my other BIOS settings have been left to "Auto." Edited January 2, 2010 by TRWeiss1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARandomOWL Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 I'm assuming you've got 6 sticks of RAM. I would try increasing your QPI voltage up to around 1.3V, see if it helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRWeiss1 Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 (edited) ^ Yes sir, you are correct! I'll give that a shot and see what happens...Let me ask this though. If my PC is able to make it through 2 hours of OCCT, wouldn't you think that my OC is plenty stable?? I mean for it to crash within a few minutes of NFS : Shift seems really odd to me, but sure enough when I back the OC down it doesn't happen. However, with respect to that particular game, I haven't downloaded the 1.02 patch yet, nor have I tried backing down the shadows. It just has me suspicious of my video card since the crash in the 3 aforementioned games produces exactly the same results...And I'd like to think that stress testing in OCCT is a HELL of a lot more stressful than playing NFS or COD WAW...I believe I have the latest catalysts from ATi, but I'm going to check to make sure. I mean for me to have tried as many vcore values (and CPU frequencies) as I have, and to have it still crash the same exact way in games is leading me to believe that it's not the CPU frequency, or that part of the OC anyway. FWIW I played GRID for hours without any crashing last night after playing Shift (with crashes). I was totally unable to get the system to tank, though it happens in NFS : Shift. I'm convinced it's gotta be something with the game, or perhaps my video card drivers. Thanks for your help! :thumbs-up: Edited January 2, 2010 by TRWeiss1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperEmostastix Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 (edited) Try these: Vcore: ~1.4 qpi/uncore (VTT): 1.35 leave PLL, dimm voltage, IOH, ICH at auto... If 4Ghz isn't stable with these settings, 12GB's of RAM may be the problem. You say the video locks up and the sound continues to play then goes into a loop, when this happened to me it was either my video card overheating or an unstable gpu overclock. Have you tried increasing the fan speed on your video card or downclocking it slightly to see if the problem goes away? Edited January 2, 2010 by SuperEmostastix Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccokeman Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 Sounds like QPI voltage. Is your chip a DO stepping or CO? You can look at this in CPUz. What are the timings you are running at? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRWeiss1 Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 Try these:Vcore: ~1.4 qpi/uncore (VTT): 1.35 leave PLL, dimm voltage, IOH, ICH at auto... If 4Ghz isn't stable with these settings, 12GB's of RAM may be the problem. You say the video locks up and the sound continues to play then goes into a loop, when this happened to me it was either my video card overheating or an unstable gpu overclock. Have you tried increasing the fan speed on your video card or downclocking it slightly to see if the problem goes away? I will give that a shot, thanks. My GPU is absolutely not overheating...This thing runs cold! I actually ramp the fan speed up to 75 percent when I do any gaming, and I've never seen the GPU get over 50 degrees Celsius, if that hot. Also, i'm not running any OC on my video card...To note, I installed the NFS: Shift 1.02 patch, turned the shadows off, and no more crashing!!! I suspect it's a similar issue with COD WAW (perhaps with shadowing). I played L4D2 for hours earlier, GRID for quite some time, and NFS: Shift with no crashing. I also ran OCCT again for 2 hours, and it passed just fine...Maybe this whole time it was just an issue with the games and not my OC...one can only hope! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRWeiss1 Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 Sounds like QPI voltage. Is your chip a DO stepping or CO? You can look at this in CPUz. What are the timings you are running at? It's a DO stepping chip. As for timings, are you talking about RAM timings? They are running stock (9-9-9-27)... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRWeiss1 Posted January 6, 2010 Posted January 6, 2010 (edited) Ok, so I'm reviving this thread...Problem is still happening, even after downloading the patch...I've also tried raising my QPI voltage to 1.35, but the crash still occurs...Is it necessary to raise the PCI-E clock speed with an OC such as this? This is something I've always wondered about...Regardless, the crash is still happening...I thought it was gone, but then it happened TWICE within a few minutes of playing the games! Sometimes I can play for hours with no problems whatsoever. Where the hell is the inconsistency coming from here?? Right now my Vcore has been upped to 1.35v, but it still occurs...Mind you I have NO problems passing OCCT for a few hours...It really seems as if it's video related, though I'm running the latest video card drivers from ATi. Also, just fot kicks, I got the latest BIOS revision for my mobo, yet the problem still persists...Should I try removing 3 sticks of my memory so I'm only running 6 GBs instead? The only other suggestion I've not tried from up above is setting the DIMM voltage to auto...although the crash still occurred before with this setting. Please help! Edited January 6, 2010 by TRWeiss1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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