Oh dear - most impressive OC failure with side-effects

[Bismark]

Hi Folks

Having put this new machine through about 18 hours of continuous work (installs, updates, more installs, more updates, more data transfers, yet more updates, etc. etc.) a few weeks back (when the weather was rather hotter than now) with no issues whatsoever, I decided to finally make this machine my main work rig, having 'made do' with a rather poky (but reliable) little Dell Vostro 200 for the last 3 months while I tested the new rig and refurbished my old work rig.

After 4 hours of updates and transferring data, plus about 30 minutes of idling, the machine crashed with a BSOD (which gave the usual 're-boot and try CHKDSK' spiel). When I re-booted, the BIOS reported 'Overclock Failed' so I used the default settings and everything was well.

Having located the instructions on how to reset the OC profile on my ASUS P6T Deluxe on these forums, I restarted and set the OC Profile in the BIOS. All was well for about 10 minutes until the mouse pointer suddenly froze - followed by everything else. I had to use the front power button to turn off the machine. When I switched it on again, the monitor got no signal, and my Razer Lycosa keyboard and Diamondback 3G mouse failed to light up, even though the rest of the boot appeared to be as normal judging from the HDD activity and other 'vital signs'. I had to power off again, and then switch off the machine's PSU and power down the monitor completely and leave the machine for about 5 minutes before attempting another re-start - this time it finally worked, and the 'Overclock Failed' message appeared again.

The machine appears to work OK when at stock speed, but every time I load the OC profile the machine goes into the exact same 'coma' again .

Could the BIOS setttings have become corrupted at all?

Just to add to the fun, I will be away on holiday from early tomorrow until about early evening on Monday 28th (and so will not be able to play with the machine again until then - although I will have 'Net access while I am away so I can monitor these forums and my email, among other things).

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Bismark

We will look at the settings for the system and see if there is anything amiss that we can see

Can you confirm if you have tried reloading the system with Acronis as its possible that some software that has beeen installed is not liking the overclock?

Please can you when you get back email your event logs to systemsupport@scan.co.uk and we will look into these for you

In the meantime have a good holiday

Regards

Ben

[pipTheGeek]

I had to power off again, and then switch off the machine's PSU and power down the monitor completely and leave the machine for about 5 minutes before attempting another re-start - this time it finally worked, and the 'Overclock Failed' message appeared again.

This is standard behaviour for the Asus overclock protection. It will only reset to defaults after a complete power off.
This does just sound like you have pushed the overclock a little too far. What speeds are you trying to run it at? When you get back to the PC you ought to try just backing off the speeds a little.

[shteve]

This is standard behaviour for the Asus overclock protection. It will only reset to defaults after a complete power off.
This does just sound like you have pushed the overclock a little too far. What speeds are you trying to run it at? When you get back to the PC you ought to try just backing off the speeds a little.

But if it's a pre-OC'ed system from scan, the OC will be under warranty. I'm sure they'll sort it.

[Bismark]

Hi Ben

Finally, I'm back

Been very busy since I got back from holiday so no troubleshooting has been done - the machine has however been in full production usage (at stock CPU/bus speeds) for 10 days in a row without one single hitch, so I think we can safely say that a baseline has been established.

Everything appears to be fine apart from an annoying little case vibration I have yet to isolate (I will fix that when I next open up the case to clean the inside of the acrylic window) and the fact that the curved bezel has caused problems for your little 'SCAN' logo (the 'A' fell off and the 'C' is only attached by its bottom half - must glue it back on with an adhesive that will not affect the paintwork).

The difference in the machine between when it worked OC'd and when it (spectacularly) didn't was a few Windows defender database updates, a few Kaspersky Internet Security updates and the obligatory Vista updates; no new application software was installed between the two dates, and when the machine BSOD'd the second time it was running just the usual startup suspects - the drivers, etc. in the system tray were the same on both dates, and the same versions as well and Event Viewer (I was, ironically, searching for anything that would point me towards the cause of the first BSOD).

The applications loaded up by Windows Prefetch were the same between the working and non-working dates as well (Office 2003, Adobe InDesign CS4, Acrobat 9 Professional, Firefox, Thunderbird).

I was wondering if the problem was the new version of the NVIDIA drivers, but I checked and noticed that they had been installed on the machine the previous time I had used it and had been running for about 8 hours afterwards with no ill effects whatsoever.

You said you would like me to forward the Windows log files generated when the BSOD occurs - which exact files would you like? (a set of Event EVTX files exported from Event Viewer, for example?)

I will test the machine OC'd over the weekend and collect the Event files to send you on Monday if you let me know exactly what you are after.

Overall, still a very, very nice rig - if this is the worst 'issue' I have with it then it will be the most trouble-free custom-built rig I have ever had (of the previous two, the first suffered a major HDD controller failure and the second had a GPU cooler fan failure ).

[Bismark]

Hi Ben

Another update.

I think we can file this under 'intermittent fault'; I am operating the rig OC'd at the moment and have been for 3 days now and (tempting Fate big time here), things appear to be OK again.

CPU 57 degrees (according to SANDRA)
3 temp monitors on the Akasa are reporting temps around 26-27 degrees

The 'C' has nearly dropped off the front so I will soon have a S__N machine rather than the SC_N machine it is at the moment (the 'A' having dropped off the same evening as the machine gave me some OCing grief). Really must get that glue out and fix them

[Bismark]

Hello again Ben

Had another 'issue' earlier today - I had various symptoms (no monitor signal, no peripherals powering up) that my machine was failing to POST. I therefore got in touch with your tech support phone guys.

After about 40 minutes of 'sage advice', together with opening up the case, swapping memory modules around and checking that everything was seated, we appeared to have got the machine working properly, with the overclock running at the full 3.8 GHz.

Have been running memtest86 all afternoon and so far, no errors, so with a bit of luck the problems of the last few weeks should be solved (I suspect that the BSOD stuff of 3 weeks ago was related to this memory issue as well).

So for your phone support team (sorry that I cannot remember his name ), I believe that and are in order.

[Dr_Encore]

Hey Bismark,

Sorry if this is a bit late but i also have the P6T Deluxe and do get the overclocking errors when i overclock too high in the BIOS, use the TurboClock V overclocking utility and gradually push the options, im running same specs as you on air @ 3.8 Ghz, max 85 at prime 95, i think the P6T board is cautious when it comes to overclocking in the BIOS so i would always advise using the overclock utility in windows.

Hope i helped

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Bismark

Glad to hear our guys got you all up and running and send me your details to systemsupport@scan.co.uk and we will post a new Scan badge out to you

Let us know if you have any more issues

Regards

Ben