"Overclocking failed" error, what's causing this?

[ender330]

So I just built my first computer two days ago and it seems to be running fine for the most part. However, sometimes when I start it up (and only after it's been a while since turning the computer on) the fans, LEDs. etc come on for a few seconds and then the computer shuts off, only to restart itself and occasionally display the message "Overclocking failed". I go into BIOS and launch into windows normally.

I know this is a problem but after doing some reading this error message doesn't seem to point to any specific problem so I figured I'd make my own thread and ask. I have done no overclocking to my knowledge but I'd expect either a problem with memory timings/frequency or a CPU voltage problem, but I have no idea.

I appreciate any help on the matter. Motherboard is an ASUS P8P67 Deluxe, Core-i5 2500k CPU, 8GB Corsair vengeance memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233146 (I bought a triple channel kit stupidly, running two modules of the 3), and an EVGA GTX 570.

In BIOS current CPU voltage is 1.192V, DRAM voltage is 1.490V (Both set to Auto). "Target DRAM speed" is 1333MHz and Memory freqeuncy is set to auto. Is this a problem considering my RAM is DDR3 1600?

 

[kiezz]

im not 100% sure but i had the same problem with an asus motherboard and a phenomII x6 cpu it used to happen if i switched between ubuntu and windows 7 on start up i reset all bios to default and it has not giving me any trouble since

 

[tsnor]

Aside: I'd use the extra 4GB to go the 12GB rather than let 4GB sit in a drawer. (I wouldn't buy 4GB to go from 8 to 12, but you have the memory and have the slot...). The hardware slows by about 1.5% on an i7-920 for a mix of workloads when you fall out of triple channel mode. It could be worse for i5-2500 to fall out of dual channel mode, but I doubt it. There's a ton of cache on the chip and the memory controller is integrated and the memory speed is higher than that used by the i7-920 memory controller so if anything the penalty should be less. Windows software may gain more than the 1.5% lost by taking fewer page faults, caching more data, etc., but the real value you may see is much shorter application loads times. Windows will use that extra memory to pre-load the applications you typically run.

ref: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Core-i7-Nehalem,2057-13.html

On your actual problem, there were like 800K hits in google. It seems like this is ASUS's generic boot failed message. Some people reported success with 'reset to defaults' and 'save' in the bios, others reported results when they flashed the bios even to the same level they already had. Others said nothing helped.

There was one common thread about running the asus overclocking program. If you are running that, then make sure it's not doing anything unexpected. Some people also reported they had success by moving from 'auto' to setting a specific voltage value even one that was not higher than spec. good luck.

edit: missed this the first time I read your post <<"Target DRAM speed" is 1333MHz and Memory freqeuncy is set to auto. Is this a problem considering my RAM is DDR3 1600? >> I don't' know, but it sure seems like it could be a problem. Maybe play with the memory frequency setting so that it is not auto and is what you want ? Also, while I am editing, I had an SSD that was slow to init. It was never found until i had the bios do extended memory testing. This gave the ssd enough time to finish it's init. What a kludge. If the reset to defaults, flash and forced memory frequency don't make the error go away, then try having the bios do diagnostics on startup. If the problem goes away then suspect one of your components, remove then one by one until you find the one causing the problem.

 

[ender330]

I think the problem is solved. When I booted up just now I didn't get any error and the computer didn't cut out. I think it was the memory frequency, I just had to set it to 1600. Thanks for the help!

 

[ender330]

Best answer selected by ender330.

 

[siluro8x8]

I am experiencing something similar on a recently purchased ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0 with a Phenom II X6. I do have some overclock done, but it's been perfectly stable albeit a bit hot (CPU can reach 58C on full load). What I don't get is - I only get this in the morning (and not every morning at that) after the PC has been off for hours. I restore the OC settings in BIOS and then it boots normally, but it does run somewhat hotter (47C for regular use instead of the usual 43C) until I reset it later in the day. Never encountered this before, anyone has ideas?