Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

[maxq]

Hi, Everyone.

I'm still quite new to OCing but through these forums, I was able to OC my intel e7400 to 3.5Ghz on a Gigabyte ga g31m-es2c (please see my sig for all other HW specs). Cpu & videocard temps are good both on idle and at load; passed about 15hrs prime95 FTT, about 4hrs OCCT & 2hrs each of furmark & OCCT video stress testing. Any applications I throw at it, it handles them fine & haven't had a single hiccup.

Problem is, whenever I game my rig randomly freezes (sometimes about 2mins or so into a game, others about 20mins-1hr), be it Warcraft-DOTA, NFS Shift or NBA 2K10. The problem is similar on all games, ie screen freezes, all input devices are unresponsive, the sound loops & I'm forced to hard reboot my rig. I'm using F8 bios, latest chipset & realtek HD audio drivers from gigabyte's support site. For the video card, I'm using 178.24 drivers as I've been advised to stay away from the latest (180 or 190 series) drivers as they only add more problems than they solve. I use Driversweeper whenever I uninstall/install HW drivers.

What could be wrong, guys? Something wrong with my OC? I hope someone could help me out. Got some screenies here to better identify the problem. Sorry for the long post. TIA!

my BIOS settings:

Robust Graphics Booster___________ [Auto]
CPU Clock Ratio ____________ [10] 
Fine Clock Ratio ____________[0.5]
CPU Host Clock Control_ [Enabled]
CPU Host Frequency (MHz)__________ [333] 
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz)_______ [100] <----tried up to 105
C.I.A. 2__________________________ [Disabled] <----unavailable
System Memory Multiplier (SPD)____ [2.00]
DRAM Timing Selectable_______ SPD __ [Manual]

Performance Enhance = [Standard]

CAS Latency Time________________ 6
Dram RAS# to CAS# Delay_________ 6
Dram RAS# Precharge Delay_______6
Precharge Delay (tRAS)__________ 18

<----following all on AUTO, start 
ACT to ACT Delay (tRRD)_________ 
Rank Write to READ Delay________ 
Write to Precharge Delay_________ 
Refresh to ACT Delay______________ 
Read to Precharge Delay__________
Static tRead Value_______________
Static tRead Phase Adjust________ [Auto]
end of 'all on AUTO'---->

System Voltage Control____ [Manual]
DDR2 OverVoltage Control__ [+0.1V] 
PCI-E OverVoltage Control_ [+0.1V] <----unavailable
FSB OverVoltage Control___ [+0.2V] <----tried [+0.1V] with DeOverVoltage @ [0.00V]
FSB DeOverVoltage Control___ [-0.05V] 
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control [+0.1V] <----unavailable

CPU Voltage Control_______ [1.30] <----1.28 on windows/idle, 1.26 on load

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]

Integrated Peripherals
Legacy USB Storage Detect___________________[Disabled]

[maxq]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

my memory timings:

[maxq]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

I've also placed a fan on my northbridge just for good measure. I'll try to post pictures of this and snapshots of my system temps and voltages later.

[maxq]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

BTW, here's what I did to my northbridge. Any one can help me out here please?

[profJim]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

Geforce 182.50 drivers work fine with my P35-DS3L setup.
Geforce 175.16 work fine with my N650SLI-DS4 system.
Both systems have 7600GT video cards.

See if you have any problems running Furmark benchmark/stress test.

[Mack27]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

Why don't you try upping the vCORE a bit higher and see what happens...

[maxq]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

@profJim: So you think it's a driver issue & not with my OC? I think I already tried 182.5 drivers but I was able to play games longer with my current drivers than that. As for earlier ones, I think I'll give that a go. Any comments on my memory timings? Nothing out of this world perhaps?

@Mack27: I already tried 1.325v but I still encounter the same problems. Went back to 1.3v as I may just be heating things up unnecessarily. Any other suggestions?

I'm beginning to think I have bad vcard. Oh my...

[profJim]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

FSB OverVoltage Control = +0.2 seems awfully high with 2x1GB of 800MHz running at 666MHz. Even though your system passes extended stability stress tests with your current settings, your system might still be stable with 0.0 or +0.1 volts. I've seen FSB DeOverVoltage Control with some other GB mobos, but I don't know what it does.

For your next screen-shot, include Memset, and be sure to click on the ">>" and SPD tabs. Also include the CoreTemp screen which will include the stock CPU VID information. If you have EasyTune 5 on your system, you can include the advanced tuning screen that includes cpu and memory speeds, along with some of the voltage settings for your system.

You can run multiple instances of cpuz at one time, so a single "Print Scrn" image can include all of these displays. If you place all of the display windows next to each other, you can crop the unused portion of the screen so that the posted image will be smaller.

You should run HWmonitor or a similar program that displays voltages and temperatures on your system. If you then run an extended Furmark test in a medium sized window, you can then watch the temperatures and voltages to see if anything is out of line.

On my system, video card temperatures rise up to 70 - 75 degrees or higher when running Furmark. In full screen mode, temps go a bit higher. My normal video card temperature is 45 degrees.

I assume that you haven't overclocked your video card. Yes? No?
Can you borrow another video card to test with?
You might want to try the 18x.xx drivers to see if it helps.

Here is sample screen-shot with multiple information windows displayed.

[wazza300]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

@profJim: So you think it's a driver issue & not with my OC? I think I already tried 182.5 drivers but I was able to play games longer with my current drivers than that. As for earlier ones, I think I'll give that a go. Any comments on my memory timings? Nothing out of this world perhaps?

@Mack27: I already tried 1.325v but I still encounter the same problems. Went back to 1.3v as I may just be heating things up unnecessarily. Any other suggestions?

I'm beginning to think I have bad vcard. Oh my...

a good tip is to remove your gpu fan and heatsink and wipe off the cheap gunk the factory applies and put some mx2 or arctic silver paste on there it will lower temps a good 5-10c

[maxq]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

Video card cooling is already aftermarket, as the temps below attest. I also reduced FSB overvoltage to +0.1v. Here are the results of memset & my temps at idle and at load (5-10mins into prime95 & furmark). Is there anything wrong with my memory timings before I go testing other versions of video card drivers?

[maxq]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

oh..and I didn't OC my video card, BTW and I've got no other video card for testing

[drewis]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

My bet - driver issue. Run CCleaner + Driversweeper, remove any unneccesary drivers and crap.

Uninstall your graphics drivers
Install the newest driver package for your hardware.
Install DirectX 10 again (u can overwrite a previous setup no prob and does not hurt functionality)
Install NEWEST sound drivers from Gigabyte.
You shouldnt need this but - chipset drivers too.


make sure you reboot after every step.

You could also do a fresh install + update of your OS, if you cant test the vid card elsewhere or dont have another brand to test with..


GL and post back !

Edit: My next guess would be a bad GPU however I have yet to encounter one myself... same with cpu :D I think your OC is fine.

[herbals]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

Hi There. I was having similar problems to yourself.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ep45-ud3p-e7400-overclocking-stability-problem-37246/

My games wouldnt freeze, but just close randomly back to desktop. Some games wouldnt install and i would get errors of missing or corrupt files.

I pretty much narrowed the problem down to the FSB being too high, because i can run my memory well over 400mhz, even upto 500mhz.

But as soon as my CPU Host frequency went to 400mhz things went bad, I was stable in Prime95, Intel Burn Test and all that. I cranked my voltages right up and still had problems. But only in games or trying to install some games.

I have no problems when running 10.5x350 @ 3.675ghz
but 9 x 400 @ 3.6ghz gives me problems in games.

So even tho 9x400 has a lower clock speed it still ****s up, thats how i pretty much narrowed it down to the FSB.

Now I just run 10.5x333 with 400mhz memory, with almost stock volts. And have no problems.

Any1 have any suggestions?

Thanks

[profJim]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

@maxq

Looking at the cpu-z SPD, your memory is rated for 5-5-5-15 with 1.80 volts at 667MHz speeds. I doubt that this is related to your random freezes, it just means that your memory performance isn't optimal for your current setup.

I'm leaning towards a driver issue as drewis said. If your video card doesn't support dx10, your best bet might be do reinstall the latest dx9 version.

I still recommend running Furmark to test your video sub-system. You can run it in full screen or windowed mode. I suggest that you start with smaller sizes for 5 - 10 minutes and then increase the screen resolution and repeat your tests. Note, the default test is for 6000 ms or 60 seconds. Testing with Furmark might make your random freezes more "regular".

You might want to test with stock settings to see if you're still getting random freezes.

Which operating system are you running?

[profJim]

Re: Stable OC But Random Freeze In-Game/s, Please Help

@herbals

If you post your bios settings and a screen-shot (steps 2, 3, and 4 in this post) we can better help you with your failed 400MHz settings.