Please help with P55A-UD3

[Matthew]

Hello all,

I humbly request help setting up my computers BIOS.  This is what I bought and seem to have an odd problem with:
Motherboard: P55A-UD3
CPU: i5-760
Memory: 8GB Patriot - PGV34G2000ELK http://www.patriotmem.com/products/detailp.jsp?prodline=5&catid=61&prodgroupid=165&id=910&type=1
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8400GS
Power Supply: 700W Cooler Master
Windows 7, 64 bit

It seems to be running ok when I get into windows, but sometimes when I restart or cold boot the computer, it'll hang and I'll get a message that it hung because of overclocking.  I am not trying to overclock...at least I think I'm not!

Since the memory is 2000Mhz memory, I set the CPU to 14x200 and memory to 10x200. 

I ran memtest on the sticks for 10 loops, and they checked out with no errors.

Can anyone recommend some settings to make this thing stable? Should I reset the CMOS and start over? Thanks for any help!

Matthew

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

You seem to have set things ok as far as I can see although it might not be possible to run your memory at the full rated speed.

Try setting your Uncore to 20-22 as I suspect you have it on Auto still.

You will probably need to set your memory voltage to 1.66v and make sure that the QPI/Vtt is set to at least 1.16v but this is a setting that you will probably have to play around with. Anything up to about 1.35v should be fine.

If you are still having problems you might need to pull your speed back a little to get stability.

[Matthew]

Thank you for the welcome!

Ok, I went into the bios and did not see a place to modify the uncore? Another thing I forgot, sometimes I get a message that "BOOTMGR image corrupt. The system cannot boot." So I restart the computer and it boots fine, this has happened with two hard drives.

Could it be that the F11 bios is funky, I read on another forum that someone could not get this mother board to OC, not that I'm trying to; but once that person went back to F8, it was working? One other thing I did notice was the CPU temp...does it seem a bit high?

I took some shots of the settings, maybe someone can see something here that look wrong.

Thanks for the help.

[Matthew]

More...

[Matthew]

More shots...

[Dark Mantis]

Your CPU temperature does seem a little high for idle speed. Are you still using the stock cooler?

All your memory settings are still on Auto apart from the XMP. You will need to set all these manually if you are to make any headway.

[Matthew]

I am using the stock cooler.  I was thinking about picking up a cooler master 212. 

I will set the memory manually and see how that works.

Thanks for your help!

[Dark Mantis]

That should make a big difference to your temperatures, even though it's not top of the range, it will be a drastic improvement over the stock cooler.

AS I mentioned before you might not be able to reach the full rated speed but you should get closer. The other option is to tighten your timings instead as with that memory you should be able to run them fairly tight.

[Matthew]

Ok, I think I am stable here!

I lowered my FSB down to 160...that seemed to do the trick.  It lowered the CPU temp as well with the stock cooler.

After I get the cooler, I think I'll play with the settings to get as close to rated speed as possible.

Thanks for your help!

[Dark Mantis]

You are very welcome, just let us know how you get on with your upgrade when it comes.

[Matthew]

Looks like I spoke to soon 

Got another freeze this morning...at this point, I think it's either my video card or the mothorboard, but I tried the standard VGA driver and still got a feeze with that, so I guess I think it's the MB at this point.

I've used two different hard drives, two different sets of memory and still getting freezing.

I'm about to go get an ASUS....

[Lsdmeasap]

You need to set your own QPI/Vtt and memory voltage, the same would apply with any brand of motherboard, so no need to get an Asus 

Try 1.2-1.3 QPI, may need more.

And set your ram to 1.66V if it's rated for 1.65V

[Matthew]

Ok, so the CPU is the only component I did not install on this computer, I had the service dept. at Frys do it because I have not built a computer in so long.  Well I pull off the stock cooler off to put the cooler master on and what I find is not good...

The thermal compound was mostly on the edges of the cpu and copper pad on the cooler, it's as if the kid put too much on there and then rubbed the cooler around as he was installing it.

Oh man...

So I am installing the cooler master and we'll see how that goes.

I'll post back.

Thanks for the help so far!

[Matthew]

pictures:

[Dark Mantis]

No to be fair to the installer that is because the cooler comes with a pad of thermal paste already applied and it has just oozed out of the sides as it has settled in. I always think there is too much TIM on the coolers anyway. Dont forget when you buy your heatsink to make sure that you purchase some good quality thermal compound to go with it like Arctic Silver 5 or similar.