Define X1 - Overclocking issue (Machine won't boot up correctly)

J

JimmyDazzler79

Bronze Level Poster
So i got the Define X1 delivered about 3 days ago. It worked fine the first day but ever since it fails to boot up 70% of the time unless i change the overclocking back to default.

I have phoned support and they told me to load the Bios profile for 'OC'. I did this and it will boot up fine the next run. But the run after that it will fail with 'Overclocking Failed' message. Press F1 to enter setup.

As i say the only way for me to get my machine to run everytime i boot is for me to have BIOS set to 'default'. That's great but its not what i paid for.

PS support talked me through the process yesterday and were great but it stills continues to cause issues.

Any additional help would be great.

A couple of screenshots can be screen here: https://postimg.org/gallery/1okgmfdga/

Thanks in advance
Graeme
 
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Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Personally given the cost of these things and the warranties involved I would RMA it for a fix. It shouldn't be down to you to fix an OC pre-set by PCS. However, if you go into the Advanced Mode and can find the CPU timings/voltages and post up a picture of that I can take a quick look and see if there is anything obvious.

How fast is the OC running?
 
J

JimmyDazzler79

Bronze Level Poster
Ok, so i have re-imported my settings that PC Specialist give me. They look like this: See link with images

https://postimg.org/gallery/29ts5ncrc/

My machine will prob boot up fine with these settings maybe once or twice. But the third time i will get 'Overclocking Fail, Press F1 for setup'

I will then need to reset the settings to 'Default' for my machine to boot up fine everytime.

Is there anything i can change in these settings?
Sorry i know very little about overclocking a system.

Thanks in advance
Graeme
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Change the CPU core voltage override to 1.35v. That's approx the safe voltage for 4.6Ghz, so it would appear you have been unlucky in the silicone lottery, just leave all the cores at 4.5 for now. Once done, install and run HWMonitor so that you can keep an eye on the temperatures. Go to absolute town running anything you can that's CPU intensive. Run 3DMark on Firestrike if you have it, run 3DMark11 on Skydiver, run Prime95 with small FFTs. As long as your temps don't go over 85DegC you're onto a winner.

If you find yourself approaching 90DegC then it's time to dial it back in. Put the voltage back down to 1.3v and drop the CPU to 4.4Ghz.

You should be absolutely fine in the Define though, it's got great cooling.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Wait a second, I just noticed your last picture. I'm almost positive that the DRAM voltage is wrong. It shouldn't be as high as 1.35v. To me it seems that they have set the voltage of the DRAM at 1.35 instead of the CPU voltage. DRAM shouldn't be over 1.25 for DDR4 without a serious overclock IMO.

I would also pull that down to 1.25 while adjusting the CPU voltage to 1.35v.

Hopefully that'll sort it out for you :)

Edit: Wait, you have 3000mhz memory don't you? That might be the reason for 1.35v. That should be automatically set though so I'm unsure why it's being set to 1.35v. I would try setting that to Auto rather than manually configuring it. You will be able to check the voltage that the DDR4 is running at via CPUz.
 
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Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
DRAM shouldn't be over 1.25 for DDR4 without a serious overclock IMO.
Click to expand...
The 8gb Savage sticks, which I assume is what they're using, seem to have 1.35v http://www.hyperxgaming.com/en/memory/savage-ddr4
It's not all that uncommon AFAIK.

PCS have said that the motherboard doesn't play nice with the RAM at 3000MHz. It could be worth removing the XMP profile and manually overclocking the CPU to see if that OC holds.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Oussebon said:
The 8gb Savage sticks, which I assume is what they're using, seem to have 1.35v http://www.hyperxgaming.com/en/memory/savage-ddr4
It's not all that uncommon AFAIK.

PCS have said that the motherboard doesn't play nice with the RAM at 3000MHz. It could be worth removing the XMP profile and manually overclocking the CPU to see if that OC holds.
Click to expand...

Yeah I edited my post when I noticed it was the 3GHz RAM, the faster stuff is generally 1.35v. It's strange that that isn't auto configured though, as you say it may be the RAM not playing nice. Is this the board/RAM combination that was pulled not so long ago then? That may be worth mentioning to PCS.
 
J

JimmyDazzler79

Bronze Level Poster
What are the benefits of over clocking this system, would it make a huge difference to gaming performance against using the default settings?
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
The CPU performance and faster RAM speeds can both have significant advantages in some games. And while the Define seems to be decent value at stock speeds, you've bought it as an overclocked PC and so it should function as such really.

It's worth getting to the bottom of the issue, as even if most of your games now happen to be ones that don't derive much benefit, if it turned out to be a hardware issue that was preventing the overclock from being stable you'd want that taken care of under the warranty.

My pre-OCed PC from PCS decided it didn't want to hold the OC. PCS eventually resolved it by replacing the CPU itself. That's a pretty rare situation and I doubt that will be the issue in your case, but I mention it just to show an example of where it was definitely cost-effective for me as the user to get it fixed under the warranty.

Is this the board/RAM combination that was pulled not so long ago then? That may be worth mentioning to PCS.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I believe it is one of the combos that's not allowed in the configurator any more. I read someone saying their Define had 2666MHz in it due to the change and they got a £5 refund (might have been Yardem I think?).
 
S

sierra117x

New member
Slightly alarming for me as mine is on the way and had already discussed this issue with them. I was told by PCS that a bios update by the MOBO manufacturer had fixed the issue and there was no need to change either the motherboard or the ram. Seems its not the case. I'll keep you updated to see if i have the same problem when my own arrives (i planned to leave a review). Hopefully its a one off but i suppose it gives your own argument a boost if its not a one off issue.
 
J

JimmyDazzler79

Bronze Level Poster
OK quick update.

CPU Voltage is set to 1.350

DRAM Voltage is set to 1.250

I have not had any boot issues so far. My question is what sort of performance impact will it have dropping the DRAM from 1.350 to 1.250?

I might try increasing to 1.300 to see if I have any boot issues
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
JimmyDazzler79 said:
OK quick update.

CPU Voltage is set to 1.350

DRAM Voltage is set to 1.250

I have not had any boot issues so far. My question is what sort of performance impact will it have dropping the DRAM from 1.350 to 1.250?

I might try increasing to 1.300 to see if I have any boot issues
Click to expand...

You should increase the DRAM back to 1.35. I edited the post to say that that RAM should actually be set at that level. It shouldn't cause any issues being set correctly.

The CPU voltage is what will be making the difference to the lack of crashes (hopefully). All you need to do now is double check that all your temperatures are OK under full load.
 
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