Phenom ii x4 955 changed overclock crisis ht link

[Draydince]

I was messing around with an old computer that had a athlon ii x3 450 in it. It was able to overclock to 3.5ghz with ease, and that's only as far as I bothered to try. I'm sure it could have got some more juice out of it, because there were zero instabilities at that speed but I didn't care to push it since I didn't plan on keeping that cpu in.

Well I was upgrading that computer to give to a friend so I bought a phenom ii x4 955 as a replacement for the sake of having an extra core, l3 cache, and supposed better ocing capabilities.

However, the most I could overclock it was by a measily 200mhz bringing the total speed to 3.4 (3.2 reference) without having system hangups.

I was looking up guides to improve oc stabilities, and everyone widely agreed that increasing the HT link to 2000mhz from Auto was the best start.

Just about everyone agreed to that, so I figure what the hell I'll give it a shot. I bumped the oc up to 3.5mhz and changed the HT link speed to 2000mhz.

Now the computer doesn't even boot. I'm freaking out. I should have left well enough alone, 3.4ghz is better than non functional.

Everything still turns on. The fans spin, but zero signal is displayed. I can't even get back into bios to revert the change. There are no error beeps either.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

The motherboard on that computer is a Biostar a780l3c

 

[Draydince]

Update: Took out the cmos, still doesn't boot. I'm hoping maybe I just didn't leave it out long enough so I'm trying it longer this time.

I also took out the ram/graphics card, and I've tried booting with onboard graphics instead of pci (Although I did have onboard disabled prior to this, so I'm not even sure if that's possible)

Fans spin, no signal at all. No beep codes.

Any input would still be greatly appreciated.

 

[delaro]

How to Reset the CMOS after a FUBAR Bios change.

http://www.manualguru.com/biostar/a780l3c/owners-manual/page-13/print

For Overclocking first Bump your RAM up to 1600mhz, if you have not done so already. Now Change the CPU/HT Reference Clock in CPU Tuning "Shift and + or -" Bump it until it becomes unstable. Hopefully you have a cooler better than the Stock or you will only get about a .3 O.C before it Overheats on you. This is about the most I remember from a Biostar board it has been a few years since I tinkered around with one.

 

[Draydince]

Thanks for your response. Got the bios reset and is now back up and running.

Unfortunately it's just the stock cooler. I just find it strange that on the athlon x3 450 I got 3.5ghz without a problem and probably could have gone further. this was with 1600mhz RAM as well, and the same applies for the 955

The phenom ii x4 955 could only get up to 3.4 before becoming unstable with the same settings the 450 had. The thing that makes me question the crashing is that I just recently applied brand new thermal grease and the max that the cpu temps are getting under load are about 46c, which is well within safe and doesn't seem like a crashing temp. also oddly enough when I run 3dmark, the test displays it as a 125 wat processor although in reality it's a 95w. I had to make absolute sure of that because the motherboard only supports 95w. I double checked cpuz and strangely it lists it has something like 96w tdp...

(By the way, you've definitely got best answer already locked in for you but I'm waiting on selecting it to leave this thread open for some more oc input)

 

[delaro]

You have a 95W 955 😛 Oww I've never had the pleasure of playing with one of those.

C2 ---> HDZ955FBGIBOX
C3 ---> HDZ955FBGMBOX "95W" Only sold in Asia

I however have built around many of the 125W versions and yes your Motherboard only supports the 95W version.

On the Overclock Check the VRM temps, if anything put a fan on it. That board doesn't have the best power delivery system.

CPU Shutoff 60℃/140℉ by Default and is adjustable but I wouldn't go higher than 70℃/158℉.


Some things to look at.

CPU/HT Reference Clock (MHz)
Options: 200 (Default) / 200~600

CPU Overvoltage "vcore voltage" Not sure what you have but 1.3V - 1.4V would probably be in the Ball Park. 1.425V Is the Max you want to do.

1. Bump up the HT reference and test until it becomes unstable
2. Bump your CPU Overvoltage up by .02 and test, If good then bump the HT reference up a bit and restest.
3. Watch temps, Rinse and repeat.

Sometimes undervolting will work as well, 1.25V would probably be as far as I would go I know Phenoms wont even boot at 1.21V..

 

[Draydince]

This is the exact model I have hdx955wfk4dgm

Basically this board has minimal overclocking options. Pretty much increase the cpu clock, and that's about it. No manual nb options or anything like that, and the max voltage it even lets you set is 1.3.

with leaving the voltage at 1.3 the max I was able to increase from the base 200 cpu was to 213, bringing it to 3.4ghz.

I am curious about what you mentioned about undervolting. I was always under the assumption that to overclock, the higher the oc you do the more volts you'd need to ad depending how far you go. Do you think undervolting by a bit would increase stability for a higher clock speed?

With this boards oc limitations, would you think 4ghz is even a possibility? I mean the guy I'm giving the computer to basically only plays league, so even at stock settings there wont be a problem. It doesn't "need" the oc at all but I'd like to give him the best experience from the get go since he's not too computer savvy.

 

[delaro]

Without the ability to adjust voltage your not going to get to much past 3.6ghz. Why undervolt? A goal with Overclocking is to find that sweet spot where you get the highest Overclock with the Lowest Voltage possible. Think of Overclocking as a Sin Wave You have two Axis to deal with raising and lowering Mutipliers "HT" and Voltage, depending on supporting hardware when you find a good overclock there is nearly always a lower voltage that will give you the same Overclock. CPU's in different Bins vary a good deal so results will only be the same over even close to the same with Chips of the Same Batch. Revision levels also play a huge factor in Undervolting and Overclocking, C2's on the Phenoms are not as good as C3's, not sure what was changed but the difference in Temps at max Overclock is noticeable. I have seen C3's hit 4.3ghz on Water but my C2 would only run stable at a max 3.995mhz. Your CPU is a OEM by the way and might be locked but I'm not 100% sure because I've never physically played around with one.

This is your Manual
http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=612#dl
You should have the option to Change Voltage, it would be greyed out on a Locked CPU to keep you around the 95W limit.

 

[Draydince]

I checked earlier and 1.3 was at the top of the list it let me choose. If I tried to higher, it would go all the way down to the zeros. I'll have to double check again when I'm at that computer, I'm on my personal computer right now. According to cpuz it is a c3 model