Help ! P4 3.0->3.6 ; P4 3.4 overclocking impossible!

[Gerard]

Hi everybody,

Instead of my P4 3.p Ghz /1mb processor ( mobo Asus p4p800se slot 478) which I could run at 3.6 Ghz I bought a P4 3.4 Ghz/1mb from a friend.

Do not ask me how , but only at the default speed the system is running stabil.

When even overclocking even just to 3.5Ghz my pc reboots after a while.
And when running 3D Mark at the end the system reboots also.

I have liquid cooling and the processor temps are around 43 degrees celsius.

The benchmark results are almost 10% better with the 3.4Ghz at default speed than the 3.0 at 3.6 Ghz.

All advises/suggestions are welcome.

 

[Scout]

Hi Gerard, welcome to the forum.

I'm wondering what you're doing with the memory speed on each setup. If the 3.6 is dropping the memory speed, that may explain the slower benchmarks versus your 3.4 at stock if the memory is running faster there.

Also, regarding the limited overclock on your 3.4 chip, that also may be a memory issue limiting your overclock. Try slowing the RAM down some to see if you can reach a higher overclock.

 

[The_Prophecy]

I suspect Scout is right, as that is my problem OC'ing my P4 630 past 3.4 without blue screening every 10 minutes. I had to lower my ram frequency in order to achieve a higher cpu clock.

 

[Gerard]

It does not help to lower the frequency.
I also changed the graphics card to be sure ; no difference.

Today I am going to a friend to try his memory and/or 3.2 cpu.

The feeling that is getting to me is that it might be the processor itself.
Imagine that it has been overheated once.

That might explain why the lopnger the pc is on the quicker those issues appear.

 

[Scout]

You really shouldn't be able to hurt these Prescott chips with overheating since they all have built in thermal throttling that will shut the chips down if they get too hot. Now if the guy ran too much voltage through the chip, then yes, he could have damaged it, particularly if he ran it over-voltage for a long time.

With over-volting you speed up a phenomena called "Electron Migration" We first saw this in the Northwood P4 chips and it was called "Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome". Some people found they suddenly could not even run their chips at standard speed without instability even though they had been running at successful overclocks for some time.

I haven't heard much about this with Prescott chips however, I think because most people tend not to add much voltage to these chips. Adding voltage to a Prescott dramatically increases heat which often puts you over the thermal throttling limit, the chip then slows itself down and your overclock is worthless.

 

[Gerard]

Today I am going to install a Northbridge cooler which connects to my liquid cooling system.

Perhaps that has something to do with it.

Normally the Northbridge coller gets some air from the CPU cooler, but with the liquid cooling system no air is blown to that direction.

I have replaced the memory with other memory and tried that and no luck.

If everything alse fails it is either the processor or the mobo. ( I think )
But up to last week the 3.0 Ghz procesor ran stabil at 20% oc on the same mobo.

 

[Dade_0182]

Its definately not your mobo. Did you ask your friend from who you got the chip if he oc'ed it? If he changed the voltage? Why was he selling the chip? Just maybe there was something wrong with it or there still might be but thats only the worst case scenario. Just find out and let us know.

 

[Gerard]

He had a system he wanted to sell completely.
That system had watercooling also.

I know him and as far as I know he never had overclocked the system.
Just used wc to make the pc as quiet as possible.

It was me who asked him to trade the processors and to give me the watercooling.

In that way he copuild sell his system less expensive and I could upgrade my system.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks.

 

[Gerard]

To make sure I did reset the Bios and put a case ventilator in front of the Northbridge.

Three times I ran 3D Mark.
First default -> no issues
Second time ->5% oc -> no issues
Third time -> 10% oc -> no issues

The cpu seems to be locked according to the mobo.
I always thought as 3.4 Prescott is a unlocked processor.

So far so good.

The mobo is capable of running overclocked at 5% , 10% , 20% and 30%.
Everything then is set automatically.

I noticed that when overclocking the pc 5% the memory is running at 400 mhz, but when being overclocked 10% the memory is automatically set back to 266 mhz ! !

Is this a normal behaviour ?

Finally I would like to have the system 20% oc so the processor would run at 4.1 ghz .
Would that be to much ?

The FSb would then run at 960Mhz.

Thanks for the help till sofar.

 

[Gerard]

Additional :

Would it be an idea to maually set the memory to 333 ?