What used to overclock to 3.2 GHZ can do so no longer?

[noobstix]

I recently updated my graphics card from an hd3850 to a 9800GTX+. an obvious new strain on my system is power consumption and I only have a 500w PSU.
Before I updated my graphics card my core2duo e8200 was O/C'ed to 3.2 ghz but now when I try to change the fsb even 10 mhz, the system flashes the boot screen and restarts with stock clocks.
The first thing that came to mind was that my graphics card was sucking the power that the CPU used to have and therefore it canot be overclocked. With this in mind I tried overclocking my cpu without changing the voltage in any way. It still would not budge.
Is it my power that is limiting my cpu from overclocking?
Any help would be great!

My system specs are
e8200 @ stock
Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G
4 1GB sticks of OCZ platinum ram
500W OCZ PSU

 

[Onus]

How much voltage does your RAM need? When your system resets to stock, it also resets your RAM voltage back to the JEDEC standard 1.8V. It may not be stable at that voltage, particularly with four sticks.

 

[noobstix]

I'm pretty sure its set to +0.3 V so its 2.1 but il check

 

[Cyclops21]

I would try to put the old video card back in and see if it will overclock again.

 

[noobstix]

I did the equivalent of replacing the card as it can still run with only 1 6-pin plugged in and i recently did some cable management that would have been messed up..still no luck

 

[noobstix]

hmm... I did some more tests and while the overclocking utility is set to off I can still change the cpu voltage, ram voltage and ram frequency but as soon as i set the bios so that the FSB can be changed it doesnt work.... this is really confusing

 

[I]

If you have previously been overclocking to the lowest CPU voltage you could get to run stable, and now adding an upgraded video card makes the PSU output less stable, you will need to do the opposite of what you tried.

You tried to reduce CPU voltage thinking it was a lower strain on PSU but because PSU output is less stable you will have larger voltage fluctuations +- the target voltage. To keep the - part of the waveform high enough you will need to set a higher target voltage.

However, it may not be the CPU voltage that is too low now, you will have to experiment with each voltage.

Note that unless you have a lot of other parts in your system that are not in a typical system, a good 500W PSU should run that ok and OCZ PSU should be good enough that wattage isn't a factor so much as that you previously barely had stability. Similarly, everyone else also had to adjust various voltages a little differently based on system configuration.

There is another possiblity, that it is coincidence that your PSU or mobo was failing around the time you upgraded the video card. I have seen that happen lots of times, when a system is (even soft-off but still plugged into ac and supplying 5VSB so the PSU interior stays warm) powered off for awhile and cools down, then back on again, this thermal cycle can reveal a weakness that was soon to happen anyway.

Possibly there is instead some bios setting you have missed?

You should try the old video card again, not just "doing the equivalent" by unplugging a power connector, or if you no longer have the old card, try some other lower powered card, and since you switched from ATI to nVidia, even better to try a card with a different design and bios than that family of nVidia card. You might also check on a bios update for your motherboard.

One last thing is that possibly the system suffered ESD damage at some point during the video card installation process. To rule this out, do extensive stress & stability testing at stock speed, including memtest86+ for a few hours, to confirm that it is really 100% stable still at stock speed.

 

[amd_overclocker]

Have you updated your bios since the installation of the video card. because that would make a diffrence

 

[ir_efrem]

I have the same motherboard and had the same exact problem. I changed video cards and I could no longer overclock.

The answer is - switch to the F3a BIOS, now the fun begins; the BIOS is not available on Gigabytes website.. If you need a verified copy that wont brick your motherboard send me a msg with yur email address and I can mail you the one I managed to find.