Overclocking with Maximus VII Gene: what causes BSOD 101 errors?

[Anusha]

Hi guys,

Finally I managed to get my 4790K stable at 4.6GHz with 1.26V. I only had to increase the Core Ratio and Vcore. Further I was able to increase the Uncore Ratio to 44x.

I was trying to see if I could get to 4.7GHz because it seems that I have more headroom left in voltages and cooling.

But regardless of whatever I tried, I could not get it to work at any setting.

Before trying 47x, I dropped Uncore Ratio to 35x and fixed Uncore voltage at 1.15V.

I tried all the Vcores from 1.26V to 1.34V, in steps of 0.01V.
I tried raising Input Voltage from 1.85V to 1.95V. Of course I couldn't try every combination.

I also tried Uncore Ratio settings at AUTO as well, but that didn't yield any benefits.

What funny is that it is BSOD 101 or CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT error that I get all the time. Until I increased the Vcore to around 1.28V, I got BSOD 124 or WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, which sounded like the Vcore was lacking at that time. But I cannot figure out what is causing 101's.

Some people say 101s come up because of lack of Input Voltage. Some say it is because I've hit the limit of the Core Clock. Some say it is because the Vcore is lacking.

Any thoughts? Could it be related to some specific setting in the motherboard? Like the System Agent, IO or Power Delivery setting? I'm using DDR3-2400 sticks but they are at their rated XMP values.

Specs are as follows

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @4.6GHz / 1.26V
CPU Cooler: Silverstone Heligon HE01
Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus VII Gene
RAM: 16GB A-DATA XPG V2 DDR3 2400 CL11
Video Card: Palit GTX670 JetStream @1150MHz/6800MHz
Case: Silverstone Raven RV-03B
PSU: Corsair HX650 Gold

[samual]

I get error 101 after 1.3v @ 4.8 GHz. 4.8 seems to be my max stable on DC. After alot of research (in my case) I think the problem is due to heat. But from what i've read 101 can be due to any problem from bad drivers, access heat, or low vcore. Sorry I have not found a fix for this error after a solid two weeks adjusting bios settings.

As a last resort I may delid my DC and see if that helps.

samual

[Anusha]

samual wrote:
I get error 101 after 1.3v @ 4.8 GHz. 4.8 seems to be my max stable on DC. After alot of research (in my case) I think the problem is due to heat. But from what i've read 101 can be due to any problem from bad drivers, access heat, or low vcore. Sorry I have not found a fix for this error after a solid two weeks adjusting bios settings.

As a last resort I may delid my DC and see if that helps.

samual

let me know if delidding helps.

[kkn]

try and up voltage a notch.
it may or may not help.

[Raja]

Clock watchdog is primarily Vcore and to an extent can be caused by too low VCCIO-A, VCCSA and VCCIO-D. Woud try setting VCCIO-A and D to 1.15V manually and then try VCCSA as well. If none of those help then the CPU is at clock limits. Haswell has steep brickwall limits for frequency scaling. Getting the next 100MHz when you reach that point either requires a massive increase in Vcore or a substantial drop in temps (at least 10~15C lower).

[Anusha]

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Clock watchdog is primarily Vcore and to an extent can be caused by too low VCCIO-A, VCCSA and VCCIO-D. Woud try setting VCCIO-A and D to 1.15V manually and then try VCCSA as well. If none of those help then the CPU is at clock limits. Haswell has steep brickwall limits for frequency scaling. Getting the next 100MHz when you reach that point either requires a massive increase in Vcore or a substantial drop in temps (at least 10~15C lower).

should i play with Input Voltage?

[Raja]

The auto values should be fine, though you can try a higher value if you wish.