Motherboard problem

[Hacksaw_907]

I just bought a new computer from Tigerdirect, and set it up and managed to install everything. Everything was working fine, and the performance was okay. However, I read up in random forums that my processor can take some serious overclocking without overheating, so I decided to give it a shot.

I have an Intel E2180, and according to people, they have been getting speeds more than 3 Ghz on stock cooling and standard voltage. So I tried doing it by going into BIOS, and starting the FSB at 825 Mhz (the stock is 800) Now, it was running fine, but because I've seen people get 1200+ Mhz off of these processors, I decided to keep increasing it. Went up to 850, and it was still going fine. However, once I hit 875 and restarted, the computer said that the CPU was flashed, and requires a hard reboot to start up. So I did it, and that's when everything fell apart.

As soon as I restarted, everything in the computer turned on: the amber, green, and blue lights, and the fans. However, nothing came up on the monitor. I also discovered that the hard drive indicator light was a solid green, but the power indicator light was just blank. I tried removing the CMOS battery overnight and then replacing it, trying a lower voltage memory stick, and re-seating everything possible, including the processor. I've run into this problem before, and the CMOS battery method fixed it, but now it's just stuck. Any, and I mean ANY, information would really be appreciated. Here's my setup:

Intel C2D E2180 2.0Ghz 800 Mhz FSB LGA 775 CPU
XFX nforce 680i LT SLI mobo
Seagate 250 GB SATA hard drive
OCZ Platinum Rev 2 DDR2 Dual Channel 2048 MB
Ultra 750W SLI-certified power supply
2x XFX Geforce 8600 GT XXX Edition PCI-e Video Card

[Miker]

You just OC'ed it to much, go up 3-5FSB at a time, you might need to add some volts if it is unstable. There are people on here that can tell you in more detail what to do.

[cvasquez]

Yeap, becareful not to overheat too much.

['Amp!']

Here is the POTENTIAL problem you have run in to.

When you are increasing your FSB you need to make sure the CPU voltage is NOT set to Auto.

If it is set to Auto then the mobo will try to up the voltage as it sees fit. Problem is it can over compensate and apply too much voltage and pop your CPU.

If you did not change any other setting besides the FSB this MAY be the case. The only way to be sure is to beg a friend to borrow some pieces and test one at a time in your mobo to find out what failed.

[Sadasius]

Well I doubt you killed the CPU. Overheating would have throttled it down and by the sounds of it you did not mess with the voltage to zap it....Or did you?
Did you try unplugging the computer and removing the battery? Give that a try.

***EDIT*** Doh...Okay you got it first Gonz...lol We posted at the same time.

[cvasquez]

I guess he fried the mobo that is why he is not writing back. LOL!

[Hacksaw_907]

Well, I changed the voltage to 1.3V, and I remember specifically that I didn't leave it in Auto. And the reason why it's actually boggling my mind is because I've seen people post FSB's of up to 1280 Mhz from their processors on stock coolers. Do you actually have to pace it all the way in small increments in order to prevent the CPU from popping?

['Amp!']

What you should be doing is taking small increments in your FSB. say 10 - 15MHz at a time.

When you reach a point where your stability becomes flaky (lock up, freezes or prime95 failes) than you go back into your BIOS and try a slight voltage bump. Somewhere in the neighborhood or .0250 volts until your stability returns. You will run into diminshing returns once you get deep into the FSB. This means you will need A LOT of voltage for even a small bump in FSB. Try to find your balance point where you have good FSB and not TOO much extra voltage.

Intel has a paper somewhere listing their 65nm C2Ds as rated up to 1.55 volts.

[foxmobouser]

:jawdrop: Don't think OC the FSB by 75MHz is gonna fry anyting, STOP scaring ppl and even if it did then the hardware you had in the first place was not working as it should. As for the voltage on "auto" issue I OC 2xE2180 and 1x E2160 on this board to 3.2-3.0GHz out of the box and did not have any issue. A working XFX 680i LT SLI board updated with PO7 bios is a very smart board. The intel E21XX chips are very overclockable and can run more or less stock GHz---up to bout 3.3GHz on air cooling. As for the issue at hand I'm no expert but with the info you provided I'd be thinking "bios chip issue", something shorting out board (heatsink backplate or motherboard tray), video card not working or monitor connector not working. You have all 3 lights on in the mobo, from what I gathered and my own mobo thats a good thing indicating its working. The only times I've encountered no video was when the cards are bad, not plugged in well, monitor cabel loose or if RAM sticks not making a good connection. pce
CPU Freq. 3201.8
Cpu multiplier x9
Fsb memory Ratio Auto
Mem DDr 801
FSB QDR 1423

[Hacksaw_907]

Okay, so seeing how I may have fried my processor, I went out and bought a new one. An e4500 to be exact. Only problem, it still doesn't work. No pos, no display image, nothing. And I checked both of my video cards and memory to see if they were burnt out on another computer, and they work fine. Any other ideas? I'm stumped now.

[Miker]

You might of changed something to much and blew something up, it is hard to tell. Just because someone else has the same mobo and CPU at you running at something crazy high doesn't mean it will work for you.

[Hacksaw_907]

Hm. Well, I don't think I changed anything too crazily high. This is what I did:

Changed Cpu-Memory Ratio to 'Linked'
Changed CPU voltage to 1.3V
Changed Mem. voltage to 2.1V
Changed the QDR setting to at most 875 Mhz.
Attempted to change the memory timer settings, but that reverted back to defaults after restarting the computer due to boot problems.

That's it. Is there anything there that could have done what you said?

[kneel]

Hi,

I have been having the same problem with the same motherboard off Tigerdirect. I did read about issues with the board's firmware and to get the latest p07 update from nvidia's website.

However, regarding this thread, I noticed no one pointed this out,
I keep trying to overclock mine and it reboots with no video and does nothing. Everytime I get to that point I have to reset the BIOS.

There is a tiny jumper on 2 of 3 pins to the left of the serial port header. It is jumpered on pins 2 and 3. Turn off your mobo and remove the power plug, remove that jumper and place it on pins 1-2 for a few seconds, then replace it back on pins 2-3. BAM. now it will boot for ya. I am sure you did not fry your mobo :) This is an extremely common problem.

So that means you (and I) are still doing somethign wrong when overclocking. I am able to only make SLIGhT changes to the FSB, nothing radical or it just boots dead like that. WHen I make changes in Windows in the nTune app, it bluescreens on me everytime I hit "Apply" or just immediately shuts down and restarts without the changes I just made.

Anyway your prob is just you can't get back into boot to change your BIOS so you have to reset it and start from scratch. It is not necessary to remove the battery. There is also instructions in the XFX manual on how to reset the CMOS back to default settings. I am finding myself doing that very often these past few days :)

I am not sure what firmware is in mine, how do I check? I downloaded the P07 update I am about to try that but I assumed it might have that version already.

[kneel]

whoops sorry i read in the post above you might have already gotten it to reboot again with defaults, nevermind then, :)

I checked my 680i LT BIOS in Everest and it was P05. So I downloaded the Nvidia p07 bios update from XFX's site and it worked fine, and when I tried overclocking now it actually works and doesn't boot into nothingness! So if you are still having that issue i recommend checking and/or updating the BIOS. Apparently a lot of these shipped with the older firmware even tho it had some problems.
I still can't get mine that high though, still playing with it. Hopefully i will find more tips on Google. When people say to "up" the FSB, is it the QDR FSB in the memory settings page in the bios? Or the "reference clock" Mhz in the advanced cpu settings or whatever its called

[kneel]

the P07 update did it for me and then I set voltage to 1.45, 1.4, 2.2, and 1.4, in the order they are listed in the bios.
memory settings 5-5-5-15 T2
turned of spread spectrum, C1E, and speedstep (PPM or EIST).
I changed the CPU multiplier to 10x,
then went into FSB settings which are default at 800MHz. I kept increasing slightly over and over and i have reached a stability point of 3.3GHz. I had it higher but it was starting to act a bit "squirrely". Anyway this is my first overclock so I am extremely pleased. It is the 680i LT and Intel E2180, 2GB OCZ Platinum dual channel RAM, 250GB HD, 750w power supply. I have a big-assed Masscool CPU heatsink/fan that rocks. Even when overclocked almost 60% to 3.4-3.4GHz, the cpu temp stayed at 30-40 celcius. When running prime95 it hit 56, when running othello it hit 62 :\ Is that too high?

[srpeters18]

Always a good idea to unlink the memory and run it at stock speeds until you get your CPU stable, then overclock the memory. If you can link it then, great, if not oh well.