HI! I have a problem.. I've done some OCing with tutorials etc. with my old CPUs and they went fine and worked stable (Phenom || x6 1055T and 1090T). Now I got FX-8350 (2 weeks old, so practically new! And brand spankin' new mobo, MSI 990XA-GD55).
My problem is that I my CPU wont be stable at any clocks/volts.. Tried OCing with FSB only and multiplier only and with fsb/multiplier together.. not stable.. and even STOCK settings wont be stable in prime95...
PC freezes, gives BSOD and when it doesnt, prime95 crashes 2-3 cores at the same time only after 30sec-1min.. reasons being "IlLEGAL SUMOUT and smth about 0.5 not matching with 0.4..
all this between monday-wednesday morning..
AND NOW! (last night I gave up and went to cry myself to sleep)
My CPU core clock dropped to 1.4Ghz and it was jumping from 1.4ghz to 4ghz (which is the stock clocks) and volts jumping trough 0.9-1.3v... I dunno what to do..
Clear CMOS and try again at stock, do all tests (prime95, memtest).
If everything is OK, run AMD Overdrive and let it ramp up to see how long it stays stable. Remember the value where it crashes, reboot, disable AMD Overdrive, reboot, go into BIOS, check the BIOS version if you have the latest one, set the clock manually to the highest value that doesn't make the automatic voltage function ramp up the core voltage from the standard core voltage and that is 0.2 GHz or more under the value AMD Overdrive crashed at. Set the FSB for the memory, so that with the standard multiplier you get the exact spec of your memory without going over the spec of the FSB, adapt the multiplier of the CPU accordingly. Disable turbo and cool 'n quiet, reboot, does it work, if it doesn't, some part is broken, can be mobo, the CPU, the memory, or the PSU.
Don't worry about that, that's just the Cool 'n Quiet function pacing down the CPU when the power is not needed. It runs idle at low speeds, than ramps up when power is needed.
Clearing the CMOS will have reenabled Cool 'n Quiet. Cool 'n Quiet both undervolts the cores and decreases the CPU multiplier, which is why you need to disable it for overclocking because the CPU will not be stable at higher speed when the undervolting kicks in.
Edit: oops wrote an Asus mobo comment here but you have an MSI mobo, so deleted it again.
Ok, so as it turns out I did NOT turn of CnQ after CMOS reset.. that fixed the clock fluctuation ! now I just set the multiplier to x21.5 with FSB at stock (200) so clocks are 4.3Ghz.. Installed Amd Overdrive and will check what happens
AOD stability test ran 5min good and then came the illegal sumout.. upped voltage to 1.3013v in AOD and trying again! CPU-Z and HWmonitor showing volts at 1.376v oO
Speed dropped because of the automatic recovery function of your motherboard, but the fact that the error came after more than 5 minutes would point towards a memory error in my opinion, not an overclocking problem, the FX8350 would crash much quicker.
Can't you run a memory test routine of some kind for a few hours?
Overclocking the 8350 is honestly pretty straightforward from what I've done with it.
Here's a pretty simple process for you to follow.
Clear your bios, then disable cool and quiet, core boost, and any other junk like that. It's fine for the average user, but it's going to mess up your overclock. Disable anything that will affect the speed of your cpu.
To start, don't even touch your cpu at all. OC the shit out of your ram so it's as fast as it possibly can be. I'd suggest that for your ram you should shoot for 1866mhz at 1.6 volts. (if it's running at 1.5 to begin with)
Now that your speed is a little higher, your timings might not be as tight as you want, but a higher speed and higher clocks will honestly provide a better overclock on your cpu. Not sure how this works. I'm sure someone could explain it. I'm not that smart, though.
Okay, now that your ram is overclocked, start on your cpu. Bump your voltage up to 1.45v (yes, I know that's really high) and then increase your multiplier to 22.5 (i believe the default bus speed is 200.) You basically want to shoot for a 4.5ghz overclock here. Don't adjust anything else. Windows should boot easily, but you're gonna see really high temps, especially if you have okay-ish cooling. Windows should boot fine, etc etc. Run a stability test if you like. When you're done with that, start to step down the voltage until windows fails to boot. Get back in the bios and raise it back up until it's stable. That gives you your baseline, and you can go from there.
Before I fried my motherboard, I had my cpu clocked at 4.8ghz on just 1.3 volts, which is really good. Then my mobo fried, though :( I'm awaiting my replacement.
Honestly I'll just tell you something right now. Ignore the errors, and stress test your hardware with general use. Use whatever program pushes your hardware to the most limits, and that needs to be your stress test. If you experience problems then, then THAT means you can tweak. But all these little errors mean nothing. If your system runs at decent temps without BSODing and freezing, then chances are, it's stable for you.
flucting speeds on CPU Z can cost whenn you have older version of cpu Z 1.61 you need to install cpu-Z version 1.63.
version 1.61 does not recoginze the cpu correctly, my FX8350 had the same issues on cpu-Z 1.61... 1.4 to 4.2 ghz drop downs. named my cpu as Zambezi, i reinstalled the newest version, of cpu-Z 1.63.. now my cpu speed stays stable arround, 4.1/4.2 ghz.
wenn you get those bsods, i personaly think there is something wrong with the vrms on the mobo..
Yea, I will go down the voltages step by step untill I cant get trough windows load! But im curious why is HWMonitor and CPU-Z showing different volts (few 0.2 more than I set in bios) than CoreTemp and AOD xddd (showing all the time 1.2857v) oO