My Q9100 ES won't overclock anymore...help?

Well, got a Q9100 ES for my Asus W90. When I first installed it I could use ThrottleStop to up the multiplier to 11.5 which resulted in a 3ghz clock. Voltages were fine, temps were fine, it ran solid.

Then one day my W90 crashed due to bad GPU's...which are getting RMA'ed. Had to reset the system and upon Windows 7 restarting I opened ThrottleStop back open to go back to 3ghz and now I can't. Even if I go just .5x up on the multi - no matter what voltage - the system locks up and have to reboot.

Again, this happens even on a fresh reformat and install (OCZ Vertex 30GB). Happens with different versions of ThrottleStop.

Anyone know whats going on? At stock speeds the Q9100 ES works perfectly fine.

 

33 views and no responses?

 

There are so many unknown with ES CPUs you might well be on your own.

Have you contacted the ThrottleStop people to see if they might have an opinion?

Have you checked the BIOS level on your machine? A newer BIOS level (installed during repair) might lock out overclocking.

 

Nope, BIOS settings are the same...unfortunately the W90 BIOS is quite lacking in both features and options...very basic.

Other than that everything is the same.

I know ES CPU's can be dodgy sometimes...but its working fine now at stock speeds, so Im thinking that the CPU is fine because if it were not would it not cease to function?

I also know that it overclocks perfectly well. When the computer was overclocking properly before hand at 3ghz it now fails at the slightest overclocking...to any speed with any voltage.

Voltage is not extreme...I found that 1.250v at 3ghz (11.5x266) to be perfectly stable before...never had a problem getting to those speeds.

Now it doesnt work at all.

 

:sigh: have you contacted the throttlestop people or not?

 

1.250V to achieve just 3ghz seems rather high! My desktop chip does it at 1.0375 while it ought to be more power hungry. If i were you I would save up for a QX9300!

 

When you say the CPU is fine at default settings, does that mean it can pass some Prime95 Small FFTs and Blend testing as well as some LinX testing?

ThrottleStop has not changed. It is the exact same program before your computer crashed as it is after your computer crashed. The latest version of ThrottleStop still works fine to unlock my QX CPU and allows me to increase the multiplier and VID without crashing.

Can you explain that statement better. When that crash happened, maybe your CPU was damaged too. What exactly were you doing and what were the results and how did you determine it was the GPU? Do you have one GPU or two? Did they both go bad?

I would try doing some stress testing on all 4 cores at the default multiplier to make sure your CPU is still 100% OK. It doesn't make too much sense that the CPU is still 100% stable but can no longer be overclocked by raising the multiplier by even 0.5.

 

OK...I ran OCCT Linpack test and it passed after running for an hour this morning, nothing unusual what so ever. Heat was OK...voltages remained stable...CPU IS perfectly fine from what I can tell.

When I say the GPU's failed I mean the screen got all filled with pixel garbage and the system had to be reset. Again, it is going in for RMA...as it was doing this pretty regularly (its stopped doing it more recently however). As to which GPU? I dont about that. It has dual 4870 512MB. Im guessing this has something to do with the primary GPU as I would get garbled screen junk and random lockups with random screen junk when I wasnt even gaming/stressing the GPU. Temps are fine. I dont THINK this could effect the CPU...but I could be wrong...the CPU is stable at stock speeds...completely stable and error free...

Is it possible I could have a bad motherboard? I know that motherboards (from years of desktop experience) can be slightly damaged while remaining functional overall (like having a bad USB controller or a bad PCI slot etc...broken hardware, but it still works...just barely kinda thing)...so you think its possible that the motherboard could be screwy while being able to function rock solid at stock everything?

I havent made ANY changes to the system since it started messing up...I just dont understand any of this

 

Android, Have you tried going into the bios and resetting it to defaults? I believe its F1 then F9, might help, might not.

 

AndroidVageta: Your problem sounds very unusual that your CPU is 100% stable but the multiplier can't be overclocked by 0.5.

When you select Unlock Max FID/VID in ThrottleStop and then you click on the multiplier up arrow to increase it, does your laptop immediately lock up or does it continue to run but stress testing gives it errors?

Cygnus X-1: Can you increase your multiplier using ThrottleStop on your QX9300? This is the first time I've heard of a problem so it seems hardware related but I'm not sure what. Changing the multiplier doesn't change the memory frequency so that shouldn't be causing a problem.

You might want to try running each GPU individually if that's possible to see if that is somehow part of the problem.

 

The fact that the change occurred, immediately after a hardware related crash, points to this then being a hardware issue.

Your best bet is to see how it functions, once back from RMA.

 

OK...at like 1.25v I can get it to overclock in .5x intervals but it will ALWAYS fail...Like, even if I just go from 9.5x to 10x WITH high voltage (and Ive tried lower ones too), itll work, but only for a minute or so before locking up again...even when not stress testing...just normal usage...it always locks up/freezes/BSOD/messes up...

EDIT: Im thinking Im just going to RMA it for the video card issues and just see what happens then...they could have some kind of semi-related issue thats cause something else minor to be unstable etc...

 

Yes, But 3ghz is my stable limit.