Unstable CPU overclock?

(Oops. just realised this went into Hardware section, meant to into overclocking, can someone move it please?)

I got my athlon Quad 620 @3.5Ghz with an FSB of 270 x 13 multiplier.

I ran Prime 95 for 6 hours, everything is fine, but as soon as i start to fold, after about 30-60 mins, the PC freezes and needs a hard reboot!

Any ideas?

Burrell

 

Sounds like a unstable CPU or a problem with folding@home

 

You are going to have to back off the overclock burrell.
Folding is harder on the machine and will find the tiniest fault even if it passes Prime 95.

 

That's kinda what i was thinking, i think i'll put it down to about 3.2 - 3.3 and see what happens then.

Thanks for your time.

Burrell

 

What you need to do is explore the limits of the CPU,this will take multiple attempts and failures before you get a feel for what's going on.

For example while you may be tempted to clock it back at this point and leave it you would still be unsure of the limit of the CPU and whether its a problem with something other than the CPU,what your aiming for is 4-5 overclock's that the computer won't run at,this isn't always possible but in an ideal situation it would look something like this.

E.g

Stable at 269,crashes after an hour at 270,crashes after 30 mins at 271,wont boot into windows at 272.

You know for sure then your maximum CPU over clock is 269 a well defined limit for general running,you would want to step it back a few FSB clocks for everyday use.

Once you have found the limit at those settings increase the voltage/upgrade the cooling ect. ect. and have another go to see of you can get it more stable.

 

Just to let you guys know, i lowered my OC to 3.3Ghz and all is well.

Thankyou for your help.

 

Wuss :-D

 

On the 26th March 2010 @ 14.45 GMT, The "beast" of an Athlon in my supercomputer hit 3.6Ghz, stable after surviving 10 hours of intense pumelling from F@H.

 

F@H is very fault intollerant. 1 bit out of skew and it crashes. While your OC may be fine for SuperPi or throwin' down the gauntlet in a 3dMark run.... F@H will tell you how stable it really is.