Troubles with my Opteron system

[Sephious]

I've been logging some oddities about my computer lately, and thought I'd post a thread. One of the main things is that no matter what I do, the CPU will not go over 2.7GHz - not even 1HTT over, no matter what the voltage. I would think that at least going to stock volts (2.7GHz is 11 hours Prime stable at 1.375v) would yield some gains. It's not a memory issue. The memory is stable at higher speeds than it is running, and I've tried the lowest possible divider with no difference in stability.

Another oddity is that one morning at the known stable 2.7GHz, the computer would not boot. I turned it off and on many times, but it just wouldn't boot. I eventually cut the power from the power supply for about a minute, and then proceeded to turn it back on. The computer booted itself up, even when I had "Resume from power failure" (or whatever it's called) disabled. I tested this again, and the same thing happened. The computer booted after this.

That same day after a restart, I noticed my CMOS had reset without my intervention.

Also, my computer crashes while playing intensive games (Doom 3, COD2 are the only ones I've tested so far). It's not a video card clock issue, as it happens at stock speeds as well. It also fails to encode video (TMPGEnc gives me errors after a short period of time) and with Nero, I get splotches all over the video. For informational purposes, resetting the CPU to stock speeds and voltages, none of these problems remain. However, there's something fishy going on when it can Prime for 11 hours at 2.7GHz, yet crash in games and encoding. Oh, and I've tried upping the voltage at 2.7GHz with no difference.

If anyone knows what's going on, or has any ideas to contribute, I'd be very happy, as I don't know anyone else with an A64 system, so I can't troubleshoot by swapping out parts.

[Nano2k]

I would try another power supply. I had an Enermax Noistaker 475W and it wouldn't cut it. My opteron 144 that was running fine at 3ghz for a month started acting weird and crashing having me to lower the clocks. I bought a 480W Antec power supply and I'm stable a 3ghz again... Prime and all which never was stable before.

[Sephious]

I don't have any extra power supplies on hand at the moment (Other than a crappy one with 13A on the 12V rail). However, I might buy a FSP 600W in the future. It seems like a good deal. However, I would think that a 420W Powerstream could power my system fairly easily.

[Alex08]

how interesting, i had the same problem with my cpu, it wouldn't go any higher than 2.8ghz at any voltage. But I'm not sure what happend after that, it was from either swapping my memory or just clearing cmos. Now it's a 3ghz prime stable chip!

[Sephious]

I've already done both those

I changed my memory from OCZ Value VX to this Samsung OEM stuff, because this motherboard hates UTT memory. It wouldn't even run it at 200MHz 2T at any voltage.

[dinos22]

have you tested the motherboard over 270MHz HTT

[Sephious]

Yes. 270*10 yields the same results as 300*9. I don't think it goes much higher than 300 though.

[nloding]

In my experience working as a tech, whenever you either unplug the power supply from the outlet, or unplug the ATX connector from the mobo and then reconnect it and the system powers on, it is one of two things: a faulty PSU or a faulty mainboard. Usually I've found it to be a faulty PSU -- somehow the PSU is thinking those two pins were shorted and it powers on the system.

I would think about trying another PSU. I think that might be my issue, which I'm not happy with as I paid good money for mine (a Silverstone Zeus SLI 650W).

[Sephious]

Well, I never did unplug it, I just flicked the switch on the back from on to off, and vice versa. I think you're right though. After reading over all the problems I've listed, it seems like a motherboard or PSU issue. I've always suspected it being the motherboard, but only just now the PSU.

If I can get my hands on another PSU, I'll test it, but at the moment, there's nothing I can get at. My most powerful PSU other than this one has 14A on the 12V rail, and it's in another system. My only PSU not in a system is only 13A on the 12V.

EDIT: 2.6GHz (289*9) is stable from what I can tell. I'm thinking the motherboard is the more likely culprit, as the PSU worked just fine in my other system. I think I'll ask my buddy for a favor, and ask him to buy his PSU right now (he's buying an A64 system in the near future) so I can test it in my system. Before that though, I'll be taking off all the motherboard connectors, and reconnecting them a few times just to be sure.