Overclock Issues with Q6600 on GA-EP45-UD3R

[Big Jim]

I’m fairly new at building computers and overclocking and I have only overclocked an AMD 4850e on a Biostar board just to see if I could do it. Now I have a Q6600 on my desktop in a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R board and I cannot overclock at all without errors (I cannot increase the FSB by even 5 without issues). I've tried using Easy Tune and using the bios. When I save the settings it doesn’t even boot up and the computer beeps repeatedly at first. Then it tries to boot up and I get an error that says the kernel is missing or corrupt. Everything boots fine if I go back to the bios and re-set everything to the original settings. If I change the voltage even without increasing the FSB, I still can’t boot up. I tried to change the RAM timing to 5-5-5-15 and could not boot up. It seems any slight change causes problems. Any help is appreciated.

Here is my system:

Case: Antec Sonata III with 500 watt PSU
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
CPU: Q6600 with G0 stepping
RAM: 4 GB G.Skill DDR2 1066 at 6-6-6-18
VGA: PNC 9600GT
HDD: Hitachi 500GB
Op Sys: Vista 64

[wazza300]

what bios version are you using? and do you know how to flash to the latest bios using q-flash? its best to use the latest bios

[Big Jim]

Last weekend I used the @bios software that Gigabyte recommends on their site, but I don't think I double checked to make sure it worked. I'll double check that when I get home tonight.

[wazza300]

its not recommended to use @bios as if it goes wrong you will need to rma the motherboard,flash with q-flash using a memory stick

[Big Jim]

I updated the bios and still have the same issue. I tried bumping it up to 2.5 in Easy Tune and got the blue screen immediately. Could I need more power than the 500W that came with my case?

[wazza300]

dont use easytune to overclock its not reliable enuff even blue screens with my board,always overclock by the bios,raise fsb ect read on how to overclock or scout around for similar posts to help you with an overclocking guide or ask someone who knows your board and chip better than i do.......and i ran my i7 setup with just a 300w psu so you should be fine on 500w

[Big Jim]

I tried that as well. I've mirrored setting that other people posted using the same mobo and cpu and I can never even get to my login. I'm going to go through the mobo manual one more time to make sure I'm not missing something and then I will assume I am the unlucky buyer of a cpu that won't overclock. It is pretty darn fast at 2.4 anyway. I really appreciate your help.

[Chike]

Read this post, follow steps 1 to 4, post your OC settings and we might be able to advise.

[Psycho101]

As chike says, please post your settings in a BIOS template. It's impossible to recommend anything without seeing exactly what you have set at the moment. It's important that your entered settings match exactly and to the letter what you have set in the BIOS, there is no margin for error, every setting is crucial.

For example, you may have neglected to load optimized defaults after flashing the BIOS (accessed from within the main BIOS menu). I would also recommend a re-flash with the latest BIOS using QFlash on a USB stick. I don't trust @BIOS as far as I can throw it. Flashing anything from within Windows is a gamble. It's even been known for there to be a part-successful flash, where code from two different BIOS revisions seems to be active on the same board, card etc.

[Big Jim]

Please see next post.