ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

[prophetik]

good morning.

i recently put together a system using the following components.
GA-P55A-UD3 1156 motherboard (f4 bios)
i7-860 (with the CM Hiper cooling system)
2x2gb g.skill ddr3 1600 (red sticks)
total of 4 SATA hard drives
evga core 216 (standard version)
evga 7300 (three monitors + hdtv)
zalman 600w psu
dvd burner

i experienced extensive issues with constant rebooting before i was able to get into windows. after removing my core 216 (i originally thought it was related to issues with power consumption), i found the system to be somewhat more stable - for a short time. within ten minutes, my system would completely shut down for five seconds and then restart before ever reaching the desktop of windows 7.

after reading some info from another thread on these forums suggesting i disable advanced CPU features, i turned off C1E, EIST, the C3/6/7 thing, and set the memory to standard instead of turbo clocking. the memory still only reads at 1333, but that's a different issue. the system was still unstable, so i also turned off turbo mode. the system is now solid as a rock. i haven't tried plugging back in the core 216 yet, so 600w is vastly more than what's required by this system at current (the eXtreme psu calculator suggests 241 watts for my loadout with only the 7300 plugged in, add 80w for the core 216 and the 7300).

so, any reason why a computer wouldn't be able to handle turbo mode - at all! - with this loadout?

the psu's been tested (as in, i have used it in another machine before, and it was awesome). i ran prime95 on eight threads for an hour and it runs fine without the aforementioned features activated in the bios. both graphics cards have been used in a prior machine, as well as the dvd and hard disk drives. the cpu idles around 35C and maxes out at 46C or so.

i haven't tried re-enabling features yet - all i know is that my computer became stable when i shut off turbo mode. it actually ran for about ten minutes (after removing the 216) with turbo enabled, and the cpu got up to 3.4ghz on its own. pretty awesome, so i want to try and get it to run properly.

last thing - this is the second motherboard that was unstable with this current layout. i thought it was just a DOA motherboard, so i sent it back and got another one. i didn't try disabling features, though. didn't think to.

[wazza300]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

what cpu/ram and qpi voltages are you using?

[Ric]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

I have a very similar system,

P55A-UD4P
i7-860
2 x 2Gb Ripjaw DDR3
GTX260+
640Gb HDD
BluRay Burner
Corsair 850 psu

and im getting ramdom blue screens on bootup. Shutdown and start up again and its all good. I notice that the cpu is running at 2.93Ghz so I must have turbo mode on (i'm new to i7 boards and have not started to overclock this one).

BTW i run a watercooling rig on this machine and my CPU temps never get above 25C but the system temp is always around 51C. Plus I dont have any fans plugged in the m/b headers.

I will try and disable turbo mode and report back on the results.

Ric

[wazza300]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

its not turbo mode its voltages,if youd tel me what they are i could help you,cpu/ram/qpi voltages

[prophetik]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

i'm guessing at what you'll need here.

CPU Vcore: 1.13125v
QPI: 1.1v
PCH core: 1.05
CPU PLL: 1.8

DRAM: 1.5v
DRAM termination: .75

as i said, the ram is 1600, but it's only reporting in the bios as 1333. here's the timings: 6666.2mhz, 2:10 FSB:DRAM ratio, 9-9-9-24-1T. cpu-z's reading my ram as PC3-10700, which doesn't make much sense, it should be 12800.

right now (with most everything off), i'm running a multiplier of 21x, with the fsb at 133.2 or so.

so, work your magic. what's wrong with my computer?

edit: just wanted to point this out again. i haven't gotten a bsod yet on this system, which means it has to be related to power, not drivers or general component failure. just fyi, ric - our problems might be significantly different.

[wazza300]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

i'm guessing at what you'll need here.

CPU Vcore: 1.13125v
QPI: 1.1v
PCH core: 1.05
CPU PLL: 1.8

DRAM: 1.5v
DRAM termination: .75

as i said, the ram is 1600, but it's only reporting in the bios as 1333. here's the timings: 6666.2mhz, 2:10 FSB:DRAM ratio, 9-9-9-24-1T. cpu-z's reading my ram as PC3-10700, which doesn't make much sense, it should be 12800.

right now (with most everything off), i'm running a multiplier of 21x, with the fsb at 133.2 or so.

so, work your magic. what's wrong with my computer?

you need to go into bios and raise your memory multiplier to give you 1600mhz,it might not go on 1600 exactly so youll have to lower it one unless you overclock the cpu,dont leave voltages on auto esp ram/cpu and qpi as it will overvolt and can cause crashes as much as not enough voltage,for cpu put it on normal voltage setting,qpi set to 1.25000 if stable try with 1.2000 and ram voltage set to what it says in the spec,set system performance enhance to standard

[prophetik]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

you need to go into bios and raise your memory multiplier to give you 1600mhz,it might not go on 1600 exactly so youll have to lower it one unless you overclock the cpu,dont leave voltages on auto esp ram/cpu and qpi as it will overvolt and can cause crashes as much as not enough voltage,for cpu put it on normal voltage setting,qpi set to 1.25000 if stable try with 1.2000 and ram voltage set to what it says in the spec,set system performance enhance to standard

what's normal for that cpu? also, should i do 1.25 first or 1.20 first for the qpi?

[wazza300]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

what's normal for that cpu? also, should i do 1.25 first or 1.20 first for the qpi?

normal as in theres a setting marked "normal" in cpu voltages set it to that,try with 1.250000 qpi first then try it,then try 1.20000

[prophetik]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

alright, i went through and used the settings you described. you were right - turbo mode is now enabled and doesn't crash my computer.

my processor doesn't scale, however, like i thought it would. i was under the impression that turbo mode would constantly adjust the speed of the processor, allowing it to run much faster when only one core was in use. mine sits at 22x (2.93ghz) without ever changing. ever - like, i tried to make it do something, and the most i'll see is a 2 or 3hz change.

did i miss something?

[wazza300]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

alright, i went through and used the settings you described. you were right - turbo mode is now enabled and doesn't crash my computer.

my processor doesn't scale, however, like i thought it would. i was under the impression that turbo mode would constantly adjust the speed of the processor, allowing it to run much faster when only one core was in use. mine sits at 22x (2.93ghz) without ever changing. ever - like, i tried to make it do something, and the most i'll see is a 2 or 3hz change.

did i miss something?

makesure everything is enabled in advanced cpu features,c1e eist and so on,also if you have win7 then enable balanced in power saving profiles and then you can disable c1e in bios if balanced is enabled

[Ric]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

its not turbo mode its voltages,if youd tel me what they are i could help you,cpu/ram/qpi voltages

All setting on AUTO, CPU Vcore = 1.18125V, QPI/Vtt = 1.100V, DRAM = 1.500V.

Change to CPU = Normal, QPI = 1.21V, DRAM = 1.6V (Manufact Spec)

Booted 3 time so far without any BSOD.

Thanks wazza for you help. now i need to read some guide about o/c CPU and RAM.

Ric

[wazza300]

Re: ga-p55a-ud3 continuous instability issues (turbo mode?)

All setting on AUTO, CPU Vcore = 1.18125V, QPI/Vtt = 1.100V, DRAM = 1.500V.

Change to CPU = Normal, QPI = 1.21V, DRAM = 1.6V (Manufact Spec)

Booted 3 time so far without any BSOD.

Thanks wazza for you help. now i need to read some guide about o/c CPU and RAM.

Ric

what speed are you running ram at?and whats it rated speed? you should be able to overclock to 3.8ghz on cpu normal setting,i dont know about qpi voltage as my boards different,i need 1.30000v qpi for 3.8,everything else enabled,just raise mem multiplier to get your ram speed higher,it wont overclock higher than its rated speed though.and raise your cpu blck to give you a higher cpu speed