Why might Vcore changes not stick?

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Wondering if anyone has seen this before.

I have been trying to fine tune my OC for a while now, but recently have become flustered at Orthos failures during stability testing.

Checking Speedfan or Intel Dekstop Utilities showed that no matter what Vcore I set in the BIOS, I was only getting 1.30 @ load.

Now there was a recent BIOS that Intel release that removed the ability to change Vcore (they claimed it was for Vista compatibility, but they just wanted you to buy a new board) but I have reverted to older BIOS before this restriction and I still am not able to adjust Vcore.

Now granted, I am able to get 3.2Ghz stable @ 1.3 which is pretty nice (and cool), but I am wondering if anyone has encountered this before.

I have cleared CMOS for 8hrs and still no luck.

Any help is appreciated.


Cheers,

Bryan

 

[tkpenalty]

Um... I'd immediately check the state of the onboard battery. My old PC had the same issue, half of the settings wouldnt stick for some odd reason and after the battery was replaced, the issue was resolved.

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Makes sense. I'll give it a shot in the morn. thanks!

 

[hat]

If it comes down to it, I believe there is a pin mod for more voltage.

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Tried new battery, still no love.

@hat,

I've already done the OC debug mod. Was there another mod you had heard of?

Regardless, I'm still at a loss as to why no metter the Vcore I set in BIOS, utilities will only show 1.30 under full load. Plus, I know is is actually set to 1.30 because my OCs are failing at anything over 3.2 no matter how high I set the voltage.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Just for the sake of the test....try clockgen and increase it from windows just to see if that does anything positive.

 

[slacker126]

your bios also might just be getting a mis-reading of the vcore after you change it. my old NF4 board (know you have an intel) would do that. the bios would read the vcore at what i set it at but nothing else in windows would confirm it. Everest Benchmarking and CPU-Z ended up being the only software i could get to show any of my voltage changes whether be vcore or vdimm. hope this helps, thanks

 

[Kasparz]

You just discovered nothing but Vdroop. This is Intel specification feature, because if board wouldn't have Vdroop, it can overvolt and kill your cpu between switching from load to idle.

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Well Tatty,

Clockgened up to 370Mhz o.k. but Orthos failed immediately.

This damn thing is stuck on default voltages. Could it be the processor setting the default volts to 1.30 because I think that is low for the board's default.

@slacker126,

I have seriously tried every soft that can read voltages. None report back anything other that 1.3 Vcore. Good idea though.

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

You just discovered nothing but Vdroop. This is Intel specification feature, because if board wouldn't have Vdroop, it can overvolt and kill your cpu between switching from load to idle.

I'm thinking Vdroop is a little more subtle than dropping from 1.50V to 1.3V. Besides, no matter what I set it to in the BIOS (1.425, 1.50, 1.28) it only reports 1.30 even from within the BIOS and in Windows.

On top of that, this board features "Enhanced Power Slope" which reduces Vdroop to <1%. (Under normal circumstances.)

 

[Tatty_Two]

Well Tatty,

Clockgened up to 370Mhz o.k. but Orthos failed immediately.

This damn thing is stuck on default voltages. Could it be the processor setting the default volts to 1.30 because I think that is low for the board's default.

@slacker126,

I have seriously tried every soft that can read voltages. None report back anything other that 1.3 Vcore. Good idea though.

Just as a matter of interest, will the BIOS allow you to undervolt/underclock? No it def sounds like a BIOS issue not a CPU issue to me.....do you get the exact 1.3V even if you set to auto as opposed to manual?

 

[Tatty_Two]

Just as a matter of interest, will the BIOS allow you to undervolt/underclock? No it def sounds like a BIOS issue not a CPU issue to me.....do you get the exact 1.3V even if you set to auto as opposed to manual?

Ohhhh and whats the actual make/manufacturer of your board?

 

[Dr. Spankenstein]

Just as a matter of interest, will the BIOS allow you to undervolt/underclock? No it def sounds like a BIOS issue not a CPU issue to me.....do you get the exact 1.3V even if you set to auto as opposed to manual?

Yes, I can underclock but for voltages, the selections are "Default, 1.28 and up in .025v increments. they make you overclock in percentages (from 0 to 50) the apply whether you want this percentage to be "Positive" or "Negative".

I'm just wondering is there is any way to reflash the "default"/recovery BIOS. Maybe that would reset things. I should be updating from floppy, but they have a utlity that lets you re-flash the BIOS with a simple .exe.

Thanks for the suggestions, all. But please keep them comming!

p.s. To answer your question, it's an actual Intel board. The "Bad Axe". This one was sent directly from Intel as a replacement for an earlier revision that didn't support Conroe chips.