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Unlocked Cores on Phenom X2 550 Stable on Benchmarks But Not Games

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I have the weirdest problem -- I'm finally able to unlocked the two extra cores on my Phenom II X2, and it boots and runs fine, as far as I can tell. I can encode video much faster, it doesn't run that hot, and it's stable on Prime95 (for the couple of hours that I tested it).

Except that the minute I try and play a game, doesn't matter which one, the game crashes after about 10 seconds (or, for instance, in a game like Mirror's Edge, whenever I try to fire a weapon or jump over a box or something).

At first I thought it might be my drivers or video card, but couldn't track anything down, so I tried disabling those two extra cores, and everything's fine. :confused:

I know it's always a gamble when it comes to unlocking cores, but why would they only cause stability issues when playing games? What CPU functions are used then that aren't used on something like Prime95, for example?
 

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Overclocked? If so, what settings? If stock, bring up cpu-nb volts to ~ 1.27-1.3v.
 
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Nope, not overclocked -- running at the stock 3.1GHz @ 1.35 volts. Even tried clocking it down to 2.7 just to see -- same problem. :p Tried bringing up nb volts, but didn't bring them up to 1.3, I don't think -- will try that later today when I get home.
 

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but didn't bring them up to 1.3, I don't think -- will try that later today when I get home

Try that. Also something else to try, bring SB voltage values up a notch or 2 in bios setup. Maybe even try both ;)
 

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I would suggest trying to push the CPU voltage a little, maybe 1.4v.
 

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Download Intelburntest and stress your CPU with max memory and 4 threads for atleast 20 passes to see if its truly stable. Prime95 can be unreliable some times.

Thanks B! Need to add to your post; to test stability of cores set ram settings to standard to test IMC/CPU-NB set ram to max available or anything above 2GB.
 

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Thanks B! Need to add to your post; to test stability of cores set ram settings to standard to test IMC/CPU-NB set ram to max available or anything above 2GB.

I put MAX MEMORY :)

Download Intelburntest and stress your CPU with max memory and 4 threads for atleast 20 passes to see if its truly stable. Prime95 can be unreliable some times.
 
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I would suggest trying to push the CPU voltage a little, maybe 1.4v.

Actually tried 1.4v too -- no effect. I'll try a burn with IntelBurnTest -- I'm most worried if everything comes back just fine. :p The problem is obviously with the cores, but if no test will prove it, I'm going to be flabbergasted. Flabbergasted and vexed.
 
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All right, here's the thing. Tested it with all four cores, 1.42v core, 1.3nb-htt v, stable for 20 passes with IntelBurnTest on max memory settings.

...Still crashes after 10 seconds in Mirror's Edge (for example -- other games fair similarly). :p

Though, now I can get through most of 3DMark Vantage, though it still crashes on the second physics test.

Any more ideas? Anyone know why it would be rock solid on IntelBurnTest, but crash after 10 seconds of a 3D game?
 

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Have you tried a full format and reinstall of windows?
 
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All right, here's the thing. Tested it with all four cores, 1.42v core, 1.3nb-htt v, stable for 20 passes with IntelBurnTest on max memory settings.

...Still crashes after 10 seconds in Mirror's Edge (for example -- other games fair similarly). :p

Though, now I can get through most of 3DMark Vantage, though it still crashes on the second physics test.

Any more ideas? Anyone know why it would be rock solid on IntelBurnTest, but crash after 10 seconds of a 3D game?

could be your powersaving settings
 
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Bumped up the HT volts a bit, as well as the "plain" NB one. Also lowered HT speed to 8x.



No, and I won't be, either. :p



Cool'n'quiet? Had it turned off.


do you have the capacity to turn cores on and off individually
 

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Bumped up the HT volts a bit, as well as the "plain" NB one. Also lowered HT speed to 8x.

You are going to need a bump in cpu-nb. Either that or it's a power supply issue, try reverting video back to stock.
 
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either that or it's a power supply issue

+1.
Your power can handle the CPU tests but when under full load (with video) it fails, I'm thinking.
 
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What memory timings are you running?

I had a similar problem a few months ago with a 1055T, was stable for everything apart from games... I benched the crap out of it an never crashed, However as soon as i went into Rift/wow ect 10 mins i would crash out.

I was even on the way to Rmaing the chip thinking there must be a problem with it since a test Sempron had none of the problems.

The solution was actually staring me in the face all along, I tested the ram in my i5 system, I didn't notice at first but the I5 was using different memory timings. As soon as i went back to the AMD and set the command rate to 2T the problems went away. It seems like AMD systems are unstable with ram settings that are too fast for the IMC to handle. The 1055 has never crashed since!
 
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do you have the capacity to turn cores on and off individually

Yep, have tried it with just core 3 disabled, and then with just core 4 disabled. No change.

If you have a spare hard drive, I would consider it

I'd honestly rather not bother if it's going to take that. :p I'll just sell this chip and get a true quad-core. :p

You are going to need a bump in cpu-nb. Either that or it's a power supply issue, try reverting video back to stock.

+1.
Your power can handle the CPU tests but when under full load (with video) it fails, I'm thinking.

That's an interesting point, but odd that it's happening to me with a power supply that's supposedly pretty good. I know people running quad-core AMD's and HD 5850's on crappy no-name 450w power supplies without a hitch at all.

However, I think there could be something to it, because it's the only thing being stressed more when I'm in a game. Could it be as simple as just using another PCI-E 6-pin plug on my power supply (I have two)?

What memory timings are you running?

I had a similar problem a few months ago with a 1055T, was stable for everything apart from games... I benched the crap out of it an never crashed, However as soon as i went into Rift/wow ect 10 mins i would crash out.

I was even on the way to Rmaing the chip thinking there must be a problem with it since a test Sempron had none of the problems.

The solution was actually staring me in the face all along, I tested the ram in my i5 system, I didn't notice at first but the I5 was using different memory timings. As soon as i went back to the AMD and set the command rate to 2T the problems went away. It seems like AMD systems are unstable with ram settings that are too fast for the IMC to handle. The 1055 has never crashed since!

The RAM is just at whatever stock settings it has. Could be something to this, too -- I have (admittedly) cheap RAM. :laugh: Might need to buy a better 4GB set for $30 or so and see what happens. Will try changing the settings on it to 2T first, and/or stepping it down some.

Also, thanks everyone for your brainstorming! :rockout:
 
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Yeah i think it's the same motherboard your using in the 1055 machine i was dealing with.

The motherboard for some reason decided that because the ram was rated at 1600mhz (corsair xms 1600 999-24 1.65v) it would use a faster timing mode. I didn't see it as the board did it automatically. It also wasn't changing the ram timings back to default when i stepped the ram down to 1333Mhz speed... so the problem persisted. I think it has something to do with the automatic core unlocker on the asus boards. Like i said setting it to 2T and then running the timings as written on the ram solved my problems. The ram is currenty running at 1600Mhz 999-24 2T without gaming fault.
 
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Yeah i think it's the same motherboard your using in the 1055 machine i was dealing with.

The motherboard for some reason decided that because the ram was rated at 1600mhz (corsair xms 1600 999-24 1.65v) it would use a faster timing mode. I didn't see it as the board did it automatically. It also wasn't changing the ram timings back to default when i stepped the ram down to 1333Mhz speed... so the problem persisted. I think it has something to do with the automatic core unlocker on the asus boards. Like i said setting it to 2T and then running the timings as written on the ram solved my problems. The ram is currenty running at 1600Mhz 999-24 2T without gaming fault.

Ah -- that makes sense. Will check the what the stock timings are supposed to be when I get home today. Hopefully that'll be it.
 

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Could it be as simple as just using another PCI-E 6-pin plug on my power supply (I have two)?

How many 12v rails? If more than single, it may or may not help.

@Iceni

Yeah, that makes sense when I think about it. Try his suggestion first before doing anything drastic.
 
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RAM timings didn't do it. :( Made sure to set it to stock values at 2T. Same thing.

It's only a single rail on the PS, but it's a damn big single rail. The PS wasn't cheap. Going to try and get my hands on another video card (something that dosen't need a 6-pin) to test out, but I'm telling you -- it's rock solid, even with the two cores overclocked to 3.7GHz at like 1.45 core volts.
 
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