Hello everyone...
So I got this new and shiny EVGA mobo, and been playing it with it for awhile.
However I have some issues currently... which I just copypasted from the support ticket.
So here it is:
 
Computer works fine when *not overclocked*.
i3 running at 133mhz BCLK.
I press the power button and it turns on as usual.

However, when overclocking to the highest *stable settings* (tested w/ 1 hour Linpack testing), when I press the power button, the PC being powered down, it turns on, then after 5secs it turns off again, then turns on automatically and it stays there.

Pressing the reset button makes the PC boot as usual.

Is this a BIOS bug?
How can I make this to boot at once, with my overclocked settings?
Previous mobos (Gigabyte P55M-UD2 / ECS H55H-M) didn't show this inusual behaviour, so I don't think my CPU is the issue here.
Gigabyte one booted at the same settings, ECS at lower ones (169 BCLK)
Current settings are 172 BCLK, multi at stock (24), Vcore at stock, VDIMM at 1,65, memory multiplier on auto, which selects 2:8.

Also, why the board won't boot if I select 2:8/2:10 memory multiplier, yet it works when I put it on auto and it selects 2:8 (for OC BCLK) or 2:10 (for stock BCLK)?
SPD is on AUTO on all cases.
 
So, any ideas?

d6d1@msn.com


Hello everyone...
So I got this new and shiny EVGA mobo, and been playing it with it for awhile.
However I have some issues currently... which I just copypasted from the support ticket.
So here it is:

Computer works fine when *not overclocked*.
i3 running at 133mhz BCLK.
I press the power button and it turns on as usual.

However, when overclocking to the highest *stable settings* (tested w/ 1 hour Linpack testing), when I press the power button, the PC being powered down, it turns on, then after 5secs it turns off again, then turns on automatically and it stays there.

Pressing the reset button makes the PC boot as usual.

Is this a BIOS bug?
How can I make this to boot at once, with my overclocked settings?
Previous mobos (Gigabyte P55M-UD2 / ECS H55H-M) didn't show this inusual behaviour, so I don't think my CPU is the issue here.
Gigabyte one booted at the same settings, ECS at lower ones (169 BCLK)
Current settings are 172 BCLK, multi at stock (24), Vcore at stock, VDIMM at 1,65, memory multiplier on auto, which selects 2:8.

Also, why the board won't boot if I select 2:8/2:10 memory multiplier, yet it works when I put it on auto and it selects 2:8 (for OC BCLK) or 2:10 (for stock BCLK)?
SPD is on AUTO on all cases.

So, any ideas?

Based on the info you gave here, I would suggest reading through one of the many OC'ing guides in these forums so you can get a basic understanding of OC'ing.  With a 172 Bclk and 24 multi, that's a 4.1GZ OC.  I doubt you can run that with stock Vcore voltage and VTT just for starters.  Also, your 1st four memory timings should be entered in bios manually. ie; 8,8,8,24 but use the specs that came with your memory.  Once your read through a guide, post all your bios info here so we can help you.  That should include all CPU features, voltage page, and memory page, and list out what you have all these items set to.

I think I've read enough guides in the years I've been overclocking, so I think I'll skip on that for now.
 
I define "stock Vcore" according to this:

 
I hope this is enough proof that I can run at stock Vcore @ 4.1Ghz:



Also, at your suggestion, I changed the AUTO timings to what the SPD says (it was running at those settings anyways when having on auto):


Made no difference, computer still turns off and on again when first turning on, and sometimes hanging at boot until I press reset once then it boots.
 
You say you want my BIOS voltage page?
(Voltage info is shown on the previous screenshots aswell)

 

 
 
So, any new ideas?
Ideally I would like for some EVGA BIOS engineer to reply to me why is that behaviour, just so I can understand the reason behind it, since previous motherboards from other manufacturers didn't do this.
But I realize I might not get such a thing so here I am I looking for other ideas.

So I found the option to disable this.
An EVGA... ehm, help guy (I'm not sure if he's really a tech..) said the magic words "double-boot" and using Google I found out more about this... issue.
 
Read a few threads, like
www-evga-com/forums/tm.aspx?m=223466
www-evga-com/forums/tm.aspx?m=45961
www-evga-com/forums/tm.aspx?m=162724
(replace the dashes for dots, in case you're wondering)

And found my "solution"
I disabled "Clockgen Switch Mode" and my computer finally powers up just once and boots fine.
 
I also got to work with manual memory multipliers.
 
So mark this as "solved".
(They should really document better those obscure BIOS settings, at least on the PDF manual...)

d6d1@msn.com


So I found the option to disable this.
An EVGA... ehm, help guy (I'm not sure if he's really a tech..) said the magic words "double-boot" and using Google I found out more about this... issue.

Read a few threads, like


And found my "solution"
I disabled "Clockgen Switch Mode" and my computer finally powers up just once and boots fine.

I also got to work with manual memory multipliers.

So mark this as "solved".
(They should really document better those obscure BIOS settings, at least on the PDF manual...)

Hey, great news...   That's a pretty nice chip that by simply disabling Vdroop, you can get a 4.1GHZ OC with stock voltage.  I don't have that "double boot" thing, but have read the term mentioned in here now and then?  I'm going to do some searching myself just for the knowledge.
Funny, I just did a search on it, and it brought me right to a thread here in the EVGA forums from Dec. 2009 with a bios update for a specific P55 board that disables that or you can do it manually like you did.

Yep that's exactly how I found those threads too.
One of the first results when I searched double boot, lol!.

And, this is the 3rd i3 550 I have.
Last two ones could also hit 4Ghz, I don't recall exactly the FSB values (I always ran them at max multi)
All of them at the "auto" motherboard setting.
My first i3 CPU, an i3 530, was able to run at 170*22 aswell at stock voltage.
Made it to run @4,3Ghz by increasing Vcore to 1.3, but back then I had a nice Prolimatech cooler.

Now all this OCs are done on stock cooler..
I think most of the i3s can hit 166Mhz BCLK without issue, people just don't experiment enough with them.
I don't really think I got 4 veery nice CPUs. But the odds aren't impossible.

Also I just disabled Vdroop because I don't like Vcore fluctuating, I don't really know if it's needed to run at those frequencies, haha.
I started to disable Vdroop back when I had an E4400 and an ASUS P5K SE, to have a lower idle voltage.
Back then, SpeedStep wasn't as nice as it is now on this i3, so now I actually might end up enabling Vdroop again, because when using 173Mhz FSB the CPU hanged when wasn't 100% busy but was stable w/ Linpack, suggesting low voltage when SpeedStep starts working...
 
P.S.: I just realized the links I put on my previous post didn't show.
Forgot about the antispam thing, funny thing is, both threads were from this forums heh.
I'll edit the post to place the URls albeit in a masked way.

And on the stock cooler.  That's pretty darn good then.  As far as Vdroop. My saved bios profiles where I'm clocked over 4.0 GHZ, I don't use Vdroop either cause I don't care for such high voltage all the time when CPU isn't being tasked much.  Speedstep doesn't drop the voltage with the multi.  If it did, it sure would be nice.  Maybe that's just on the X58 boards, I don't know.  Well, I just bet your glad to get that annoying issue behind you...

Well,
 
That solution works for me too, but...
 
My BCLK drops few MHz and I can't achieve a high overclock.
 
Let me explain myself:
 
With that setting enabled I can get my full 4GHz overclock (200MHz BCLK x 20). If I disable the setting my speed becomes 3940MHz and a BCLK of 197! I know, only 3 MHz but that becomes 60MHz in my CPU speed.
 
I don't know what causes this, but I can live with double boot.
 
FYI I manually set my memory timings, and almost all the voltages and ran Intel Burn Test, Memtest and everything else recommended. I don't know what could it be.
 
My specs are on my signature or on my Modsrigs page.
 
Cheers!
 
EDIT!
 
After reading the suggested post I could see why this happens. I have a BCLK of 200 and to 200 and up is highly recommended to enable the clockgen switch. That gives precise adjustments. That's why I get a lower BCLK with the option disabled. Thanks anyway! :)

What I think is that without double-boot, the MB can't get an accurate sync and thus sets 197mhz FSB.
 
If you're concerned about that 60mhz loss, why not just set the BLCK higher?
i.e. 201.
And check what's the real value once it boots.
Could be that you dial 201 and it boots at 199x20.
202 might do the trick.
 
Or you can aswell use 190FSB x 21 multi and have 3990, or 4011mhz.
Just tweak the Vcore if needed.

Also you'll get the benefit of being able to use SpeedStep.
Just disable Turbo... because tuning for the highest OC with Turbo is something quite hard.

That's not a problem.
 
I do want my BCLK at 200 because I want my RAM to run at 1600MHz. I have to set the BCLK to 160 and increase the RAM ratio to still get 1600 but my CPU speed will be much lower.
 
Regarding speedstep. The option is greyed out but with RealTemp and another utility I use in Mac OSX (Hackintosh) I can see that SpeedStep is in fact enabled. I get my full x20 multiplier and slows down to x9 (1800MHz) when idle.
 
Also, the BIOS itself tells me to enable Clockgen switch to get BCLK past 200.
 
Like I said, I can live with that double boot.
 
I still appreciate your solution :)
 
Cheers!