# Issues caused by overclocking?



## Meister88

I've had a custom built computer for about 2 years now with no problems whatsoever. I had a crucial c300 128gb SSD as an OS drive, with a few games and programs on it, and a WD Black 1TB HD as storage and for everything else. I also have an Asus Radeon HD6950 2GB Directcu II video card in there. Recently I decided to splurge because of upcoming video games coming out, and purchased a Samsung 830 256gb SSD to replace my OS drive, and to continue using my 128gb SSD for not as important games, and my 1TB for storage.

That was just some background info, what I have overclocked is my CPU, which has never been an issue. I just overclocked it through the motherboard's bios I believe. I have also overclocked my GPU. It's stock settings are slightly overclocked as it is, but with the dual giant fans I know you can push it quite a bit more. It's stock was at 810 GPU clock, 5000 Mhz Memory clock, and a voltage of 1.10. Before I had installed the new 256 SSD, and reinstalled Windows I was using Asus's GPU Tweak and was about to get my GPU clock to 950, Memory clock to 5400, and was using a voltage of 1.18.7. I had that set up for at least a year without a hitch, no freezing, no overheating, nothing.

Now that I've installed the new SSD as my OS drive, using my old SSD as an extra drive, and the 1TB as storage I set up my overclocking in GPU Tweak and everything has been going haywire. I set it to the same exact settings as I had before. When I'm on my desktop doing nothing but browsing, etc my graphics are fine. The only time it acted up was when I was trying to get my Window's experience score, and my display driver crashed and recovered. While it was crashing my entire screen was filled with dark, and light grey vertical lines for about 30 seconds before it went back to normal. I thought that was odd.

Now for the real odd part, since this is a fresh install I have a lot of games I need to redownload. At first, everything seemed fine until I noticed my download speed dropped from around 2mb/s to 200kb/s. It stayed like that, and never recovered. I finally gave up, and rebooted my cable modem, and the router. The speed recovered and I was back to 2mb/s for the rest of the night. The next day, I continue to download my games, and my speed was about right until later in the night. All of a sudden it dropped even lower to about 150kb/s. I wasn't doing anything differently than before, in fact I wasn't even working on my computer and had hardly any programs running. Now, for some odd reason I decided to pause the download, I opened my overclocking utility, and put my card back to default, voltage clock, everything. I resumed my download and it went back to 2mb/s. I paused it again, put my card back to overclocked settings. It went back to 150kb/s, it did this 4 times, and same results each time. This had dumbfounded me.

I let the game finish and decided to try to play some games for a few hours at the overclocked speed. First game I was standing still in the game, screen flashed to that grey stripes again for 20 seconds, and then I was back in the game. I played the game for about 40 more minutes without a hitch. I then tried another game for about an hour, no issues besides some lag. I then tried to play D3, everything was fine until about 20 minutes in and the grey stripes came back, but never disappeared. Then my computer froze, which I attributed to too much overclocking. I then tried running very briefly the same games at slightly overclocked stats, which GPU tweak has a game mode option which increased my GPU clock by 20, my Memory clock by 80, and my voltage by 10 (1.11). I didn't have much of a chance to test it, but everything ran fine and it didn't crash.

My computer stats:
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD 6core CPU Black Edition
Coolermaster V8 heatsink
Ripjaw 8GB DDR3 (2 4GB sticks)
ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Champion Edition 
Samsung 830 256 SSD (OS)
Crucial c300 128 SSD
WD Black 1TB HD
Asus DVD/CDrw drive
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified
CoolerMaster HAF32 Case with 4 giant fans, one in front, one on the side, one on the back, and one on top. The fans directions were all placed by Coolermaster when purchased.

Windows 7 64bit SP1, all updated. Using Catalyst 12.4 drivers, latest release.

Also to note, my GPU was running a bit hot after overclocking, reinstalling, and installing some games. Only while in game though, but after taking it out and cleaning the inside of my case, and air dusting everything including the card the temps went down a bit.

So to sum it all up, what's going on here? My only conclusion is that possibly my 750 PSU is not big enough to handle that extra SSD, plus the overclocking of my GPU. My internet is also connected through the motherboards port. Could this be a voltage issue? Or something else? I do not have access to a multimeter.

Thanks very much for readying my wall of text, and look forward to some opinions here. If any more information is needed, please let me know.


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## darcinator

Your psu is a very good one so that shouldn't be the culprit in my eyes. However, asus gpu tweak has been known to cause problems when overclocking. The solution to this fix is try using precision x from evga. I use that one my asus direct cu 670 and no problems! If that doesn't work let me know.


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## darcinator

Also what are the temps of CPU and gpu. And what is the overclock on the CPU and which model number is it. Fx 6100 or 1100t


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## Meister88

I would use precision x but it looks like it's only for Nvidia cards, I have a Radeon. The temps on my gpu are around 32-38 when on the desktop, when gaming it can go from 50-70ish. When I have the card overclocked, the temps usually stay around the 50 range, but when it's set to "game mode", which is a very small overclock and an auto fan control the fans hardly run, and while gaming the temps can go up into the 70's, while the fans are only at 19%. 
When I have my overclock setup going, I have the fans going at 40% speed once it hits 40 degrees, and about 70% if it hits 60 degrees but it usually never does. I'm not sure if I"m setting up my custom fan speeds correctly, or if i'm overdoing it. It just seems like when it's on auto, the fans should be moving more to keep the temp from getting so high/staying that high.
As far as CPU temps, I don't know how to read that. It's a 1100t 3.2 stock, and my mobo auto overclocked it to 3.7. I never had an issue with the CPU overclock, or my GPU overclock until I reinstalled windows and added that extra SSD.

I'm still quite confused about how overclocking my card is effecting my on-board network port. It also doesn't seem to be everytime, as I said earlier I tried it 4 times with the same results as far as my download speed. But today, so far at least it's not effecting the speed no matter if I'm overclocked or not.


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## darcinator

Those temps are okay but stay out of high 70s if you can! And as for oclocking software can't the catalyst do something? When I had an amd card that's how I oclocked.


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## Meister88

Yea there are a lot of overclocking software out there. I just need to find the right one I guess, but that still doesn't explain why settings that were perfectly fine before the new SSD are causing the grey screens, computer freezing, slowing down my network, etc.


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## greenbrucelee

is your new ssd updated with the latest firmware?

did you overclock the cpu with software? this should always be done in the BIOS. I have seen overclocking a cpu with software cause alsorts of problems from causing shorts on motherboards to rendering system completley useless.

I never overclock cards so I cant comment on that.


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## darcinator

No he oclocked his CPU from bios as I had the same option and it gave me the same overclock as him.


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## greenbrucelee

oh okay could be a firmware issue, I have seen this happen recently with ssds


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## Meister88

Yep, my SSD has the latest firmware as I'm using Samsung's Magician SSD software. It optimizes the SSD to last longer and preform better, and checks for the latest firmware.

I actually tried installing catalyst 12.4a as that was what I had on my computer before the upgrade, removed catalyst through program files, used driver sweeper in safe mode to remove everything ati and installed it. I then put my overclock back to where it was, and *so far* last night while gaming it went fine without a hitch, but I wasn't able to play D3 for very long which was the game that froze my computer. So fingers crossed, I'll have to test this a bit more but it may be fixed. As far as my network, it may have been a fluke that night as it seems now that it doesn't matter overclocked or not the download speed stays about the same. Still a bit low as far as I'm concerned though.

And yes, I overclocked through the CPU through the BIOS.


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## 6082012

Did you use the CPU multiplier or the bus frequency to overclock it? I've had better luck by raising the bus and backing off the RAM divider so it will still operate at or near stock frequency.


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## Meister88

It was actually some kind of option in the BIOS of the motherboard, it automatically overclocked it. Also to note, the network issue I mentioned in my first post was fixed, it was a dying router that was causing the speed decrease.

Now I've done some testing, and it appears this grey screen I'm seeing is called the "Grey Screen of Death" aka GSOD. Since I installed the latest drivers Catalyst 12.4a, and set my overclocking to it's settings I've had good luck with it's happened a few more times. It happened tonight while I was playing Tera, I was watching a cutscene and the GSOD appeared, and 20 seconds later it disappeared and the interesting thing is that the cutscene continued as if the game was paused. It did that about 3 times during that cutscene. During normal game play for the rest of the night it didn't do it again. Also, a few days back I installed Dead Island, upped all the settings and resumed my game from my last installation. It went to hell pretty much from there. I would get the GSOD, it would come back to the game frozen or running at like 2 fps, then it would GSOD again. It continued to do it and it was completely unplayable, and I had to manually close the game down. Other than those two times I haven't noticed it. It seems very random.

Now, how do I go about fixing this issue? Is it a driver issue, or an overclock issue? I'm open to suggestions, as long as it goes away as it's extremely disruptive of my gameplay and if I have to run at stock settings to stop it I will. I just don't understand why it never happened before, nothing has changed except adding a new SSD and reinstalling windows. Same drivers, same OC settings, same OC program, same games.

Help... please?


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## darcinator

Why not try to back of a few MHz on your mem and core clock? But before you do that look up the heaven benchmark and run that with tessellation extreme, 16x, and msaax8, essentially everything max except leave 3d disabled. Watch for artifacting, pixles that flash a weird color that means your memory is overclocked too high. If you freeze while doing the test, your hpu clock is too high. Tell me what you find out.


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## greenbrucelee

using an auto overclock setting then bumping up more manually can cause problems.

Overclocking should be done manually from the start if your wanting go past what the auto overclock features set. This is because the auto overclock uses settings that the manufacturer states as being safe. This can include voltage changes to certain things like the northbridge and southbridge aswell as the cpu and ram. Going past this auto overclocking setting without modifying what the auto overclock has done can cause issues.

The best way to overcome that is write down everything that the auto overclock has as it's settings then you know if you go past that auto setting what to increase if you are having issues.


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## Meister88

Well I ran the heaven benchmark, three times all the way through with all the settings as high as they go without the 3d option. I didn't see a single artifact or weird color, nothing. It didn't GSOD either. So I'm not sure what that means, other than my overclock is stable? Yet if it is, why am I getting these GSOD's, and slow fps, etc? Also, I believe when it "GSOD's", in the background Windows is probably saying my driver has crashed and recovered.

greenbrucelee- I think you may have misunderstood me. My CPU, I overclocked through the Bios that had an auto overclock option. I haven't touched that overclock since. It's my GPU that I overclocked myself, there was no auto overclock option. I did it a while back and found settings that worked, or well worked until now it seems.


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## greenbrucelee

oh ok my mistake.

If I were you I would unistall your graphics driver with driver sweeper and install the lates one to see if that helps.

Although you have a good psu check the voltages in the BIOS to see that they are within spec.


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## darcinator

What average fps did you get on the heaven benchmark and if you completed it then I would go with a driver update as mentioned above.


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## Meister88

As far as I know, I have the latest drivers. The latest for my cards is 12.4, and I have 12.4a (hotfix) for Diablo 3. There are 12.6 beta drivers out there, but those are beta. As far as my fps, it wasn't "awesome". At times it was as low as 15, mostly in the 20's and sometimes would jump into the 30's. 
I'm not sure how to check voltages in the BIOS, but I have Asus's PC Probe 2 which show's voltages and they seem to look fine to me.


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## greenbrucelee

dont trust asus pc probe.

go into the BIOS and find where it states the voltages for 3.3,12v and 5v sometimes its in a section called pc health or hardware monitor. If your BIOS does not have the voltages shown download CPUID hardware monitor and post a screenshot on here using the manage attachments button.


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## Meister88

Ok, went into BIOS and found the information.

3.3V - 3.360 V
5v - 5.059 V
12V - 12.158V


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## greenbrucelee

Your voltages look fine.

Try going back to stock on the graphics card and see what happens.

When overclocking a thorough stress test should be done to test your overclock wether it's gpu or cpu even if it is a slight increase and it should be done for several hours. Did you stress test when you overclocked the gpu?


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## Meister88

Alright, I will try going to stock settings for a day or two. I don't get into gaming seriously until later in the night, so I'll try playing tonight, and if nothing happens, I'll try it for another day or two. I do have a question, I was using Asus's GPU Tweak to Overclock, should I just go to default settings, and remove the program all together for now? My thinking is I can always download it again, and people who don't overclock their cards, don't have programs like that. Can I trust my current drivers to properly regulate my fan speed and temps? I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly but when I have my OC settings, I manually set my fan speeds to 35% when it hits 42 degrees, and when it reaches 60 something degrees, my fan speeds go up to 50%, 75 degrees, it goes up to 70%, etc. With those settings when gaming my temps never go past the 50 to sometimes 60 range, and my fans are almost always at 35% when gaming. But when I went to default settings, and let GPU tweak auto adjust my fans, my temps would go up into the 70's and the highest I saw my fan speed reach is 18%. To me, that seems wrong. I have two giant fans that should be able to keep my card really cool, but it seems the auto settings don't feel that the fans should be going that fast even though the card is reaching hot levels. Who's right, my configuration or the auto settings? Also, if I removed the program, will my drivers adjust my GPU fans accordingly, depending on heat?

As far as overclocking, when I did. I know I didn't run any stresses for multiple hours, but I did stress test it, and went up slowly with the increases. The OC settings I have now, I've been using for 2 years with no issues with any game I've ever played on the highest settings. I think that's a decent stress test, yet now it's screwing up on me.


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## greenbrucelee

Fans in case should automatically be controlled by the BIOS, there are settings for this in the BIOS or if like me on my case each fan has it's own controller on the outside of the case that I can adjust (I use an antec 1200).

As for the graphics card, the sensors on the card should adjust the fans accordingly. I woudn't get rid of the asus gpu tweak but I wouldn't bother using asus pc probe to get accurate information on voltages and things.


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## Meister88

Yea, I wasn't worried about my case fans just the GPU fan. I did end up just uninstalling GPU Tweak, as there really was no need for it during this experiment, I can always reinstall it. I know that the graphics card has the sensors that should adjust the fans, but considering I have an Asus HD6950 2GB Directcu II, with two giant fans you would think that when hitting degrees of 50+ that the fans would work harder than 15%, when they work at 10% when not gaming and I typically have a 32 degree temp. 

I have tried gaming last night stock settings, no programs just the drivers with ati's ccc. As I was mentioning, the heat was a bit more than when I had manual fan speeds, but otherwise no GSOD's and I didn't really notice an FPS drop. I tried Dead Island for a few minutes, and there was no issues there with bumping all the settings up, it ran smoothly and didn't freak out like last time. Only issue I had was when driving a vehicle, the steering wheel and dash board was black, but some white particle/artifact looking things would show up on the wheel and dash, then disappear, then come back. I don't know if that was overheating, or just issues with the game/driver as it was only in that specific spot and I didn't notice any artifacts or anything in any of the other games.


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## greenbrucelee

It could just be the game and the card not fully compatible.

I recently bought mass effect 3 and when my character is stationary and then I make him turn around I get lines at the bottom of the screen. The card is not overheating (gtx 260) I believe its the driver that isn't fully synced to work with the game.

When you get things all over the screen and funny looking textures that's really when you should be thinking your card is damaged.

In my opinion your issue has been that overclock was just a bit too high for the card to cope with for long term usuage, it may be alright in short spells but not long term.

I have heard that some people have their cards overclocked but only when gaming so they set a profil with gpu tweak software that applies it when they want and then they can revert to normal when not gaming. I don't know if that's true but it certainly sounds to me like something you should consider doing if possible.


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## Meister88

Yea, I was thinking it was more of a driver related issue. I have heard issues with the 6950 that if the memory clock is overclocked for too long that it could cause potential permanent damage and cause GSOD's. I'm hoping that's not the case. At this point if I continue to have working games with no issues, the need to overclock isn't really there as it only adds a few fps as far as I can tell. As you said, maybe I over did it as I had my overclock settings on 24/7 when my computer was on. The profile idea is a good one, and GPU Tweak has that option, but since I only get the GSOD's while gaming, it wouldn't matter with the different profiles as I would still get it. 

I'm just hoping that was the issue, and that my gaming experience continues to be problem free. Knock on wood.


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## greenbrucelee

I hope you haven't done any damage.

Keep us update with how it goes.


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## Meister88

I will most definitely keep everyone updated. I'll be gaming for a few days when I can, and if I don't experience any issues then it may be solved. I guess only time will tell.


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