Post overclock instability

[limabeanmage]

So I recently overclocked my computer (Q6600 2.4 -> 3.2Ghz), and everything has gone smoothly up to a point. Unfortunately, I have hit a peculiar error that isn't really a problem, but it's just odd. When starting my computer from a cold start, everything turns on and then immediately shuts off. After another second, it boots up again and works perfectly.

This should sound like a normal instability problem, in which case the first boot had settings that the computer didn't like and on the second boot it would have changed them to the default settings for stability. The issue is that nothing changes on the second boot. Every setting is exactly same, and after the second boot the computer runs happily, even goes through stress tests without errors.

Since the computer runs extremely smoothly after the second boot, with no changes to any bios setting, I cannot pin point a cause for this. Does anyone have ideas for this issue?




Specs and overclock:

Motherboard - GA P35-DS3L
Powersupply - Antec Earthwatts 500W
CPU - Q6600 3.2Ghz
GPU - Nvidia 8800GT
RAM - 4GB (4x1GB) G.Skill DDR2 800

 

[djcoolmasterx]

Try upping the core voltage to 1.35 to see if it makes a difference, it shouldn't cause any harm. Also, give 400x8 a go.

I experianced similar trouble with my old Asus P5K-E, it got progressively worse to the point I upgraded. I found swapping around the possition of the RAM sticks would help temporarily. I suspect you probably won't have as much trouble.

 

[limabeanmage]

I was under the impression that under this build the multiplier is locked, am I mistaken? Though I will try the voltage change.

 

[djcoolmasterx]

You can lower the multiplier, when people refer to locked and unlocked multipliers they mean that the multiplier can be raised above the stock setting. Some Q6600's are can be more stable with a lower multiplier and higher FSB.

 

[limabeanmage]

Alright, unfortunately resetting the core voltage didn't stop the cold boot reboot; on 1.35v or similar settings. But I did reset the multiplier to 8, and upped the FSB.

Seeing as how the voltage didn't really change much, do we have any other ideas?