New Build - vcore drops & possible psu problem?

Chilljf · Mar 9, 2008, 08:34 PM

Hello all, glad to be back. Its been 3 years + since my last nf7-s build which broke me into the ocing world. I just built a IP35-E with e2180 & 2g of ballistixs this weekend & blown away by the speed/gaming increases Im seeing, but still not content

, I now begin the journey to find my ocing limits. Im currently running 300x10 fsb, 3:5 divider, 1.405vcore, 2.2v ram & have been orthos + memtest stable & gamed on WoW for 6 hours+ no problems. After feeling comfortable with stabality, I try increasing the fsb 320x10 & lower my divider to ddr960. I post but crash b4 loading windows, so I up my vcore to 1.425. I now can load into windows but shortly crash upon running several apps. So I go back & bump vcore up to 1.445 now. Everything seems stable to attempt orthos now but I realize that cpu-z is reporting 1.384 vcore & speedfan is reporting 1.38 with a max of 1.39. I decide to give orthos a go & crash within 3 mins of running it. I am now stuck with a few questions b4 I continure my journey. Is cpu-z, speedfan & abit EQ incorrectly reporting my vcore in windows? Or is something else capping my vcore @ 1.384. I have C1E & speedstep disabled in bios, thermal control enabled, but was going to try disabling it (Im reading that most leave it enabled with oc) so I dont think that is the problem. It felt like when I was increasing the vcore @ 320x10 from 1.405-.445 in the bios it was doing something cause windows went from not loading, to somewhat stable b4 loading othros. I stopped my journey for now & was doing some google searching for solutions but couldnt find any. I read about vdroop but dont think that is my problem since Ive never seen cpu-z, speedfan, abit EQ report any higher vcore than 1.385 idle or load.

Only thing I can possible think of is maybe my psu is rails are too weak with running a 8800GT. Here is link to my psu http://www.ultraproducts.com/product...roductID=3 87. I got it Free AR like 6 months back & have had no problems with it. Im aware its on the border line of a cheaper psu, but I figure it would do until I got some more cash.

I did some more stabality testing with the system running 300x10, 1.405vcore which ran for 10 hours + yesterday & had no problems. After an hour of running Orthos small FFT & monitoring volts thru speedfan & cpu-z. Speedfan is locked at 1.38, while cpu-z keeps going between 1.376 & 1.384. I than goto load firefox in a window & happend to have my eye on cpu-z at the time & notice my vcore dropped for a sec to .040 & bam, computer shutsdown. I have cpu shutdown when fan fails in bios, but I did not hear the fan stop & dont think its related to that. It seemed like the power supply cutoff vcore juice for a second or was a major spike in power flow & computer shutdown because of it. After this I got kinda scared & dropped my oc settings back to default to check what vcore is being reported by speedfan & cpu-z & its 1.32 (bios is set to 1.325) so its accurate. Im running Orthos small fft & rthdribl now at the same time & notice vcore is 1.296 when stressing the video card. I will try & test what vcore drops too when running 300x10 1.405 & stressing the vcard.

I believe I might have causeed some damage to the psu yesterday when pushing the core with 1.445 & 2.2v ram. I was skeptical of the psu from the start since I got it Free AR & reviews werent all too high on it. I had no problems when running 300x10 1.405v yesterday for 10+ hours of stability testing & gaming. Today within an hour of orthos after last nights 320x10 attempt & problems, I have the drop in vcore & comp shutsdown. Even tho I think its the psu, I could easly be wrong but thats why Im here to ask the experts for help

Chilljf · Mar 10, 2008, 02:39 PM

Ok Ive done some more testing & determined that it has nothing to do with speedfan & cpu-z. I was monitoring vcore in bios while raising it & bios never reports it above 1.38. Interesting thing, I decided to try out out the different vcore settings to see what bios is reporting. Vcore 1.325, 1.345 are dead on according to bios, cpu-z & speedfan. Vcore 1.365 is being reported as 1.38v in bios (1st setting that isnt accurate, its actually overvolting, not undervolt) Vcore 1.385 & anything above (max I tried was 1.465v) report 1.38v in bios, cpu-z,speedfan.

I am running bios 15 which the board came flashed with. I was gonna try a new bios out to rule out a possible bad bios flash from factory, but dont wanna risk cause new problems. Has anyone ever heard of this vcore issue or should I contact abit to RMA the board as my issue is something more serious than I can fix. I purchased it last week from newegg.
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PangingJr · Mar 10, 2008, 03:59 PM

some motherboards undervolts the CPU's core voltage or undervolts/overvolts DIMM voltage by quite a bit,
the BIOS-set value is far different from the actual value, or the BIOS-set value is quite different from the value reported by software sensor monitor in Windows. and there is also a volt drop of some volts when the CPU in full load.

as far as i can recall, i used to read somewhere before that abit P35s boards undervolts the CPU's core voltage quite a bit.
if i can find what i read, i will post the info.

kmonica · Mar 23, 2008, 03:11 PM