Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

[wakanya]

I'm building a new computer, but having hard time to make Dynamic Energy Saver program work. Whenever its Dynamic Voltage starts reducing CPU core voltage, computer crashes (BSOD) within few seconds. The BSOD error code is always different and seems random. Also, the system is unstable without CPU core voltage elevation. It boots up and works fine under default 1.25v, but 3D game freezes every 10 min or so (not BSOD, it just freezes). I figured it out changing core voltage 1.25v to 1.31v makes system stable, but it seems no over clock margin is available even with that voltage.

I'm happy with stock CPU speed, but I definitely want to have C4 energy saving. So could someone help me to find out how I can fix it, or where I should start trouble shooting? Most of the parts are purchased at the same time and testing option is limited. I suspect it could be defect CPU or motherboard, but I'm not expert of computer hardware, so any comments or trouble shoot suggestions are really appreciated.

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

Here is the summary of the system

Motherboard: GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R (F5 bios)
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz E0)
Memory: OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Graphics: Sapphire RADEON X1950Pro
HD: Samsung Spinpoint SATA 250GB (SP2504C) x 2 (ICH10R RAID 1), MAXTOR SATA STM3500630AS 500 GB
CD/DVD: Samsung PATA DVD-+RW
OS: Windows Vista SP1 64bit Ultimate
PSU: OCZ 750W

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

here is what I have done and observed

a) The minimum components set (CPU, Memory, Graphics Card and PSU) booted up without problem at the first time it got the power.
b) setup bios. enabled EIST, Cx option
c) Added 3 SATA HDs (Sumsang SP2504C x2), and MAXTOR 500GB
d) Build 250GB RAID 1 by BIOS ICH10R
e) Added DVD-+RW and Floppy Drive
f) Installed Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit, apply SP1 and patches
g) Installed GIGABYTE drivers

until this point, everything worked (or I just didn't see the problem).
Then some minor issue starts

h) Installed GIGABYTE tools

TimeReaper installation failed.

Overclock software installation failed.

Despite the application installation failure, Vista still run well and both failed application could be re-installed from CD-ROM.

The real problem began when I started playing 3D games.

i) 3D games were very unstable. Most games I played only last 10 min.

j) also find out Dynamic Power Saving crashes when it starts reducing CPU voltage.

I started trouble shooting. At this point, no CPU overclock was done. I checked CPU / body temperature. Both below 40C, so bad cooling is not causing it.

I had a hunch that core voltage is somewhat weak. It was set to default 1.25V. I elevated it to 1.32V. It seems 3D game is much much stable. Never failed again after voltage tinkering.

Then I pushed little hard. Tried to overclock the CPU, but no luck. More than few MHz overclock cannot start Windows Vista or freezes BIOS start-up screen (even CPU core frequency 340MHz fails).

Goes back to energy saver. I found out disabling C4 makes Dynamic Energy Saver works. But that is just disabling Dynamic Voltage, and it's not acceptable option.

What should I check next?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

First off, if you are not using the Gigabyte AHCI or RAID Controller please uninstall the driver from device manager (Only applicable if you manually installed it for no reason, or used express install on the CD)

Are you setting your own voltage at 1.25 when you mention that? If so, at stock, you should not at 1.25 manually set will be far less in windows. If at stock you should leave this and all other voltages in Auto (MCH And RAM Aside)

Please link me to your ram. Did you set ram voltages, Put performance enhance on standard, and set MCH to 1.2-1.3? These things are a norm for 2x2GB, what static tRead do you have set?

The only thing that needs to be enabled for DES to work is C1E and EIST, aside from that I could not say if the other Cx features would or should work with it.

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

Thank you for the quick response.

Yes. I used express install on the CD. I could see, "GIGABYTE GBB36X Controller" so this must be it. I'm not using that ports yet, so I'll uninstall it.

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

oops... deleting the driver causes "Windows Boot Manager Screen". It demands Windows Installation disk and repair the computer because it can't find

File: \Windows\System32\Drivers\jraid.sys
Status: 0xc000428
Info: Windows cannnot verify the digital signature for this device

"Continue" option displays normal "Select OS" screen. But it failed. I'll try to fix it.

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

About CPU voltage setting. It was automatically selected 1.25V at the first it started up. I remember it because all the other settings were "auto" but it was 1.25V. I wondered why, but I was new to 45nm technology and didn't think about it. And, I didn't change the value until I find out the 3D games were unstable.

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

I remember one more weird thing. The clock multiplier was set to 8.5x, not 9x even though it is E8400. I googled about it and found sort of information that "new CPU automatically changes frequency so don't worry about it. If you care, just set it 9x" somewhere. Is it also something wrong?

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

OK. I could fix the boot problem. It was bit confusing but I needed to feed ICH10R driver to the repair program again, even though it could access RAID drive. (I really don't understand why Microsoft still doesn't include ICH drivers :(

Anyway,

>Please link me to your ram. Did you set ram voltages, Put performance enhance on standard, and set MCH to 1.2-1.3? These things are a norm for 2x2GB, what static tRead do you have set?

The ram is here

I haven't set any RAM values manually. all the values are BIOS default now.
I'll set it up as you mentioned ans see what will happen.

[wakanya]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

I changed MCH to 1.3V and put performance enhance on standard. It seemed it did fix the problem. After I confirmed DES started working, I tried other memory, CPU voltage settings to see what really fixed the problem.

In short, performance enhance was the key. When it was set to standard, all the other voltages could be set 'auto', and seems working fine.

I could only test short period of time, but now everything start working and I feel I could finally reached the stable starting point for tinkering:)

Thank you, Lsdmeasap

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Help: Dynamic Energy Saver causes BSOD (EP45-UD3R)

JRaid, driver should not be needed at all unless you are using RAID on the purple controllers. You may need to do a clean install to fix that issue, as having that driver installed may cause you issues with your CD/DVD player later on

I remember one more weird thing. The clock multiplier was set to 8.5x, not 9x even though it is E8400. I googled about it and found sort of information that "new CPU automatically changes frequency so don't worry about it. If you care, just set it 9x" somewhere. Is it also something wrong?

This is becuase you have never loaded Optimized defaults. You HAVE to do this with any BIOS flash or system Build. So please do that now, load optimized and set ONLY your ram voltage and then save/apply/reboot BACK to the BIOS. You MUST boot back to the BIOS as you will need to set ALL your settings again, Including and do not forget your SATA/Disk settings including Hard Disk Boot Priority

After you do that then you can start your tinkering. MCH can likely come down to 1.22-1.24 or so.

Here is some stock optimal settings for ya to start working with >>>

MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: Auto or Fast
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................: 9
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:.0
CPU Frequency ...........................: 3.00


Clock Chip Control
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control..................: [Enabled]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 333Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........:Set to 100

C.I.A.2 .................................:[Disabled]


Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
CPU Clock Drive...........................: <<< 800
PCI Express Clock Drive.................: <<< 900
CPU Clock Skew (ps)....................: <<<
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...................: <<<


DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance...................: [STANDARD]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.).....: Disabled
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: [Auto]
System Memory Multiplier ..............: 3.20B
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: 1066Mhz
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: [Manual]

Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time........................5
tRCD .........................................5
tRP'...........................................5
tRAS..........................................15/18

Advanced Timing Control
tRRD...........................................3-4
tWTR..........................................3-5
tWR............................................4-6
tRFC...........................................52-62
tRTP...........................................3-5
Command Rate (CMD) ....................:2

Driving Strength Profiles
Driving Strength ............................800/1066 (Bench/Test both Last Set 1066 now )

Channel A
Static tRead Value.........................:6/7-10 333/B MCH - 8/9-12 400/D MCH
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:<<< Leave for all below as well
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:Auto
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:Auto
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps

Channel B
Static tRead Value.........................:6/7-10 333/B MCH - 8/9-12 400/D MCH
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:<<< Leave for all below as well
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:Auto
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:Auto
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps

Motherboard Voltage Control
Voltage Type.………... Manual
CPU
CPU Vcore….……….........................:1.25-1.36 (All up to your chip) Auto for stock

CPU Termination…..... 1.200V*.......: <<< 1.2-1.36 (1.2-1.28 likely plenty for overclocking) Set to Auto for Stock

CPU PLL…………………....1.500V*.......: << 1.5-1.58 for overclocking, set to Auto for stock

CPU Referen.…………....0.755V*.......: <<< .64% Of Vtt (Termination above) Auto Will set this correctly

CPU Reference2………,,0.800V*.......:<<< .67% Of Vtt (Termination above) Auto Will set this correctly

MCH/ICH
MCH Core…………….....1.100V...........: << 1.2-1.3 (1.22-1.26 likely good)
MCH Reference….…….0.800V...........; <<< Leave
MCH/DRAM Ref.…......0.900V...........: <<< Leave
ICH I/O……………….....1.550V............: <<< 1.5-1.6
ICH Core…………...……1.100V............: <<< 1.1x-1.2

DRAM
DRAM Voltage ……....1.800V............: 2.0-2.1 (Check your ram sticker if it says 2.1 do not exceed)
DRAM Termination .…0.900V............: <<< Leave
Channel A Reference 0.900V............: <<< Leave
Channel B Reference 0.900V............: <<< Leave

Advanced Settings
Limit CPUID Max. to 3.....................: [Disabled]
No-Execute Memory Protect............: [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)................: [Disabled]
C2/C2E State Support....................: [Disabled]
x C4/C4E State Support..................: [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2) ...........: [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function.........................: [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology................: [Disabled] Enabled if you use Vmware/Virtual PC

Integrated Peripherals
Legacy USB Storage Detect ..............[Disabled] *Note* Must be enabled to flash from USB