Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

[Andres Gonzalez Biront]

Hi!

I built this new system a month ago. I thought it was stable but I'm having strange issues, mostly at idle, but I think it's random. I'll just copy what I wrote on XtremeSystems.

I'm now having problems with my OC, and I started blaming the Motherboard.


To get my 3820 stable at 4625Mhz I've used 1.44V Load on LinX. I've also tested Prime95 with AVX, and it's good for at least 2 hours (I didn't test more).


It works perfectly as long as I don't let the PC idle for a long time, because it will freeze. It's randomly crashing, with no BSoD, just a system freeze. Also, I've noticed a very strange behavior, sometimes when it freezes my hole home network crash. I have a 8-port 1gbps switch and a 5-port 1gbps router with DD-WRT, 4 servers connected at 1gps (some of them with 2 NICs), a vCenter Server 5.1, 2 ESXi, 2 VMware Worstations 9, a lot of VMs. EVERYTHING STOPS WORKING while the PC is freezed. I have to power down my 3820 to recover networking operation on my LAN. You simply CAN'T PING TWO COMPUTERS ON THE SAME SWITCH when my i7 3820 crashes!!! It looks like it is storming the network. It's driving me nuts.


I have tested 4625Mhz at 1.475V just to be sure (1.44 is stable). But it failed.
I have lowered from 4625Mhz to 4500Mhz (36x multi, 125Mhz) and 1.44v (just to be sure). But it failed.
I have changed the RAM latency from C9 1T to C10 2T (it's memtest86 stable at C9 1T). But it failed.


It fails randomly, mostly on idle, or when... when I'm playing tetris


Never on heaven, prime, linx...


Any ideas? Suggestions?


The BIOS version is F12T, the latest BETA. The same problem was happening with the F12Q BIOS.

Edit:

Some additional information. Sleep is disabled, so it is not related to that. C1E and all the power-related features are Enabled, but they were disbled, I've enabled those features for testing. The behavior is the same, the system will randomly crash (once a day or two), mostly at idle or with low load.

[Vinster]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

Have you looked at the event viewer to see if anything was captured (or errors prior) from the crash. sometimes it will point to an issue and then hard crash prior to a BSOD being able to respond.

and have you tried running the system at stock speeds at all to see if the problem is replicated when no overclock was present?

I recently had an issue where my threads (1-8) would randomly "lose power", this was according to the event viewer system tab. this would cause a similar issue as you are describing... but the issue was only present when I overclocked, didn't happen when the CPU was at stock speeds. I could game, bench... all fine... do nothing or browse the web and boom... hard lock. in my case I had speedstep disabled, 3 years never an issue until recently.

Vin

[Andres Gonzalez Biront]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

Have you looked at the event viewer to see if anything was captured (or errors prior) from the crash. sometimes it will point to an issue and then hard crash prior to a BSOD being able to respond.

and have you tried running the system at stock speeds at all to see if the problem is replicated when no overclock was present?

I recently had an issue where my threads (1-8) would randomly "lose power", this was according to the event viewer system tab. this would cause a similar issue as you are describing... but the issue was only present when I overclocked, didn't happen when the CPU was at stock speeds. I could game, bench... all fine... do nothing or browse the web and boom... hard lock. in my case I had speedstep disabled, 3 years never an issue until recently.

Vin

There aren't any logs before the crash. Just some random service starting and stoping. How did you manage to solve it, anyway?

[Vinster]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

check all the logs... System, Application, Windows PowerShell, Hardware events... in my case re-enabling speedstep and setting my system state to C6E fixed my issue. but my issue was different than yours and completely different platforms.

Vin

[Andres Gonzalez Biront]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

I've solved it. I wanted to let you know, if someone get a similar error, it was the RAM. I was running 4x4GB DDR3-2000 9-10-10-30 1T, it was Memtest86 stable, so I thought it was good. But after lowering the clock to 1666Mhz the problem disappears.

Finally, I went back to 2000Mhz but with 10-11-11-30 1T timings. Now I don't have the lock ups anymore :)

[Vinster]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

Nice, glad to hear.

Vin

[ibach]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

How the hell have you made such a clock with i7 3820?! I have a lot of trouble going over 4300 with allmost exact hardware. The moment I raise BCLK over 101 I lose network and everything on gsata...
Please post BIOS settings in detail.

[Vinster]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

How the hell have you made such a clock with i7 3820?! I have a lot of trouble going over 4300 with allmost exact hardware. The moment I raise BCLK over 101 I lose network and everything on gsata...
Please post BIOS settings in detail.

don't play with memory, start with the multiplier. and an OC is not a guarantee, anything above stock is a bonus.

I recommend you start your own thread, include all the bios settings that you have currently set and the community can go from there and help.

Vin

[Andres Gonzalez Biront]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

How the hell have you made such a clock with i7 3820?! I have a lot of trouble going over 4300 with allmost exact hardware. The moment I raise BCLK over 101 I lose network and everything on gsata...
Please post BIOS settings in detail.

Don't raise the BCLK, use the multiplier. First of all set the CPU multiplier to 36X or less, to ensure you don't go beyond 4.5Ghz, then set the vCore accordingly (for 4.5Ghz depending on the quality of your chip it should be between 1.3 and 1.4V). When you change the strap to 1.25x, the BCLK for the CPU will be 125Mhz, so double check the memory, and leave it at 2000Mhz or less (you should try to hit 2333Mhz once the CPU is fully stable).

I'm now LinX stable at 2333Mhz 11-12-12-34 1T, 4500Mhz on the CPU. I just can't get it stable at 4625Mhz (my target was 4750Mhz), maybe I have a bad clocker.

Hope this helps:
This config was stable for two hours with Prime95 AVX, but not for LinX. I can't get LinX stable even with 1.472V, the BSoD I get is 0x09c, it should be the IMC/L3 having problems at that speed but I'm not sure how much voltage is safe. The VTT and VSA are now at 1.2V, maybe 1.25V or 1.3V will fix it, but I don't know if it's safe to run at those voltages.

[Vinster]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

ibach, please do yourself a favor and work your way up to these results with the information provided. if you just punch them in and they don't work you wont have any direction as to the cause or resolution to the issue.

Baby steps wins the race here.

Vin

[ibach]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

Thank you good people, I'll try ones again...
This is not my first time doing OC, but this particular board is stubborn as hell...

Oh, I see the problem...
In second screenshot you have TURBO POWER LIMIT 500W and
CORE CURRENT LIMIT 300A...

I simply cannot make the change of those values!!!
What ever I do in 3d BIOS the remain the same.
In M.I.T. I cannot change the value too. It says AUTO all the time!
Please help with what I'm missing in this BIOS.

Same in all versions from F10 to F12t...

[Andres Gonzalez Biront]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

Ibach, leave the Turbo configuration for the last part. First of all you must ensure you can work with 125Mhz on the BCLK, and you won't need Turbo multipliers for that.

Disable Turbo, save and restart. That should disable all the "features", so the power limit and current limit won't work at all. Set the Host Clock Frequency to 100.00Mhz, and then set the Gear Ratio to 1.25x. Before saving, check the RAM and set it to 13.33x, that should give you 1666Mhz.

Save and exit. Now you have 4500Mhz. Once you got this working you should start playing with Turbo multipliers, memory, timings, etc.

[ibach]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

True.
Works at 4500 :) 1.47 v (will try to lower it as possible though EDITED: stable at 1.4v might try lower...)
What about overvoltage and overcurent protection?
should I simply max it out or set it to minimum stable values?
And, again, how did you change TURBO POWER LIMIT?!

Hm... And I really have no clue about XMP settings of the memory...
Mine should work on 2133, but when BCLK set to 125 it only can boot and be stable on 2000 (16x 9/11/10/28 how do i set 10r 1t on this board?! hate gigabyte the BIOS i mean) with XMP disabled.
I also cannot save any of my settings in BIOS (F11 option does not seem to be present) so it is a pain setting all those things after clearing CMOS... EDIT: Got it, reflashed BIOS, it showed up in save and exit last 2 options, no F11 shortcut.

[Andres Gonzalez Biront]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

Great, I'm glad you found it.

Now, if you set Turbo Enabled, you should have the power limit enabled automatically at the same time. I set 500W, and 300A, to avoid throttling. But I'm almost sure that you can keep them in AUTO and it should work, at least for 4750Mhz. If you see any kind of throttling while at full load you should set those values to avoid it.

On the memory side, those timings seem to be Samsung based ICs. Anyway, they should work 2333Mhz without a problem. Remember that not every CPU can handle those clocks, but you could give it a try once you've found your max CPU clock. You'll need to use a higher VTT and IMC voltage, also.

Go to MIT - Advanced Memory Settings, and set the XMP to Profile1. It will set the XMP profile but the clocks of the memory will go to 2666Mhz, so select the 18.66x multiplier instead. On RAM Timing Selectable choose "Quick", it will use the timings you set on the first module to the rest. Then, on Channel A Timing Settings set 10-12-12-30 1T, and you should be good to go. If it's not stable, 10-13-13-30 will most likely do it, or play with the voltages.

I've only got this screenshot, it's old, but it should serve as a guide:



Please, post your results. I'm trying to hit 4625Mhz, but it's asking too much volts. Maybe it's a bad overclocker, or maybe you find something I'm missing.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Core i7 3820 Random Freeze

tried lowering cpu pll voltage to 1.65v? it might help you get stable with less cpu voltage

if its locking up at idle its either using too little voltage and you need to add more offset/dvid or level higher llc,for memory make sure you set dram voltage between 1.5-1.6v and maybe a touch of qpi/vtt,anywhere from 1.05v stock to 1.1v(max safe limit is 1.2v) but you shouldnt need that much