F@H stability issues...

[The_Lanbone]

Just a quick question to get a few more suggestions from the team:

Rig Specs are as follows:

MSI Z68A-GD55 (B3)

i7-2600k 4.5ghz @ 1.31v

8Gb G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR

Corsair AX850

EVGA GTX465 (unlocked w/448 cuda's)

(Some type of cheap air cooler that does a decent job for now)

VelociRaptor 300Gb main drive

I started playing around with memory timings and speeds a little bit ago on my rig which went...less than ideal. Long story short I couldn't get the board to boot at anything other than 1600Mhz and either 9-9-9-24 or something close (I did run 8-9-8-24 successfully for a bit). CPU clocks have been played with as well from 4.5Ghz at 1.305v up to 5Ghz (just for a play and to join the 5Ghz club...that I may have just created in my head). I dropped it back down to 4.5Ghz @ 1.310v and returned all RAM settings to factory, then enabled the XMP profile. The system booted stable, passed MemTest (7 runs, overnight), runs Prime95 for 1.5hrs stable, passes IntelBurnTest on 'standard' and 'very high' settings, runs 3DMark11, OCCT, Heaven, and Cinebench all without BSOD or any issues. Even managed to keep the temps below 70c using my cheap air cooler and some NF-F12's (highest core did hit 71, but stayed around 64-67).

The really odd thing is this: I get a BSOD every single time within 20 minutes of starting to fold the SMP client using F@H v7. I cannot figure out what could be causing this or why the system would be all but rock stable for everything else (gaming included btw) but just seems to hate folding now. Before I messed with any memory settings and unlocked the GPU I was able to fold 24/7 without issues. I have left the system folding on the GPU alone for just over 6hrs and when I came back it was still folding away (by the way 17,000ppd on a GTX465 seems a bit crazy, anyone confirm that's high?) So what else could be causing me issues? I've uninstalled and reinstalled the v7 client, tried disabling the XMP profile and running all 'Auto' settings for memory, but just cannot find folding stability again. Help Redline!

P.S. I'm at work right now but any suggestions/questions please feel free, I'll check or verify anything as soon as I get home. Thanks everybody!

 

[kilobravo]

Could be VCCSA that need a little tweak.Up to 1.050v should be safe enough.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

I remember breaking my Pragma in Lubuntu and had to do a complete reinstall - everything was busted, even if it was only by a small margin. That was down to an unstable clock but simply returning to stock didn't solve the problem, the system was falling apart and only a full reinstall stabilised F@H.

If you get any nasty errors, let us know.

And don't ever mess with latencies again - they'll lose you more PPD knocking them about than they'll gain you in the extremely unlikely event of a stable latency overclock.

 

[Pickster]

Personally I would load defaults in the BIOS and make sure that when running defaults folding is stable. Once that is confirmed try and make as few changes as possible in the BIOS and work your way upto your full overclock. Testing folding as you go.

Don't load a saved BIOS profile as that may have an error/mistake in it. Do it all manualy, then when it's overclocked and stable, save a new one.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Personally I would load defaults in the BIOS and make sure that when running defaults folding is stable. Once that is confirmed try and make as few changes as possible in the BIOS and work your way upto your full overclock. Testing folding as you go.

Don't load a saved BIOS profile as that may have an error/mistake in it. Do it all manualy, then when it's overclocked and stable, save a new one.

As I said, even stock will not be stable once the core OS is busted.

 

[The_Lanbone]

Just a quick update guys. I went home last night and reset the BIOS to all factory and basically started over.... 4.5Ghz @ 1.320v, low vdroop, and XMP profile enabled. Everything else was basically stock. Booted up, passed all the stability tests and had reasonable temps so I tried folding on it. BSOD 101 within 5 minutes. I went back and disabled the XMP profile, so all memory settings were 100% stock and tried folding again, to my surprise it didn't BSOD. It's been folding for around 12-15hrs at this point and still going strong. Does this sound normal/right to you guys? What would cause me not being able to run the memory at the XMP profile settings? Is it really that useful or should I just shut up and be happy I'm back folding for Redline? hahaha

 

[Pickster]

I'd guess something isn't being set right when the XMP profile is being enabled. Are you overclocking the Bus or just the multi?

If it's working fine now, I'd try not to worry about it. You could 'waste' time trying to figure out whats going on and you may or may not find an answer... but that won't be much help to you other than piece of mind as you still won't be able to use the XMP profile.

Atleast you're back up and folding

 

[The_Lanbone]

My thoughts exactly Pickster! The only thing I messed with was the multi. I had played around with the bus but when I reset the bios I just went 45x100 and upped the core voltage to match. Oh well, I guess I'll take stable and folding over unstable and XMP enabled! Plus I woke up to a lovely 32,000ppd on the 2600k this morning so that was a nice surprise seeing as how I had only been averaging mid to high 20's before. I need to put my system under water so I can keep folding on the unlocked GTX465 and enjoy the nice 42-47k ppd it gives! I'm addicted all over again!

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Just a quick update guys. I went home last night and reset the BIOS to all factory and basically started over.... 4.5Ghz @ 1.320v, low vdroop, and XMP profile enabled. Everything else was basically stock. Booted up, passed all the stability tests and had reasonable temps so I tried folding on it. BSOD 101 within 5 minutes. I went back and disabled the XMP profile, so all memory settings were 100% stock and tried folding again, to my surprise it didn't BSOD. It's been folding for around 12-15hrs at this point and still going strong. Does this sound normal/right to you guys? What would cause me not being able to run the memory at the XMP profile settings? Is it really that useful or should I just shut up and be happy I'm back folding for Redline? hahaha

48 hours solid folding then you can start to call it stable. I've had unstable clocks keep panting on for about 36 hours before they've finally kicked the bucket and BSOD'd.

Sometimes it is just a bad memory profile - but that's memory for you