GA-X58-UD3R rev2 i7 950 CPU Overvoltage LED indications?

[evergreen25]

I am putting together a new system with the following specs:
GA-X58A-UD3R (2.0) - BIOS version FB
Intel i7 950
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 rev2 CPU cooler
Intel X25-M G2 80GB
G.SKILL Ripjaw 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - 8-8-8-24-2N
MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5/OC GeForce GTX 460 768MB
Antec Earthwatts 650 power supply
Antec P183 case

I initially tried using a Seasonic X650 Gold power supply, but it died and the Antec was all my local computer store had in stock - I didn't want to wait for a Newegg delivery several days from now as I need to get work done on this system.

I put it together and everything seems to be working fine - I have win7 x64 pro installed and haven't had any issues.

But... two of the CPU Overvoltage LEDs are lit up on the motherboard and I am concerned about that.
CPU_LED2 = yellow (level 2)
CPU_LED1 = green (level 1)

The CPU Vcore is 0.912 volts at idle which seems well within the specs, so I am not sure why the overvoltage leds are coming up. I am using all the stock timings from the CPU and loaded the XPD profile for the RAM. I've attached a screenshot from CPU-z if that's is of any use.

Can anyone tell me exactly what the CPU overvoltage LEDs mean and whether I need to be worried about them? The user manual is quite vague on this subject and I didn't turn anything up in a search of this forum.

I can replace the power supply if necessary, but am already on the second one and would rather not go through the hassle again. I am using the system for photo work mostly and don't plan to do any overclocking or serious gaming.

Happy to supply any additional information necessary to troubleshoot.

Thanks for any help!

[sin0822]

your fine, do you have DES on ?

[aquafina]

I think you get this indication because your CPU is using very low voltage! But nothing to worry about.
Btw nice chip, lowest idle vcore I saw for i7, what is the vcore reading in bios in voltages section? what is the batch of your CPU?

[Lsdmeasap]

Actually, it's probably your QPI/Vtt because you are using XMP.

Install Easytune and check the Tuner tab, advanced voltage I and you will see Target QPI/Vtt voltage and that will be the actual applied voltage.

[wazza300]

aqua his cpu is in power saving,thats why its low freq and voltage
every cpu does it if you have all c-states enabled or use windows power saving profiles





idle



load



^^ thats where to look in eastune for your voltages,look at the target values to see what the board is actually using

[sin0822]

this is my stock idle, but my chip seems to use very low voltages. Its needs tons of qpi but not that much vcore. But ive never heard of less voltage would cause those lights to come on.

[blizzaga4]

maybe the board is damaged or up for RMA...

[Lsdmeasap]

this is my stock idle, but my chip seems to use very low voltages. Its needs tons of qpi but not that much vcore. But ive never heard of less voltage would cause those lights to come on.

As I mentioned, QPI/Vtt voltage will cause the LED's to come on, for sure! Raise QPI/Vtt to 1.4 then 1.5 and you will see, it will get red :)

So that is why your LED's are on, nothing to worry about, just try to lower the QPI/Vtt if you don't want them on.

[evergreen25]

Lsdmeasap was right it was the QPI / Vtt voltage. I guess when I set the memory to use the XMP memory profile in the BIOS it automatically upped the QPI voltage - when I checked it in EasyTune it was showing 1.41 Volts - seems kind of bogus that the XMP would automatically kick that up beyond Intel's recommended max (which was somewhere just above 1.3 as I recall) without any warning.

When I brought the voltage down the LEDs on the motherboard did go out, but I got a BSOD in Win 7 a little while after since I hadn't changed anything on the memory settings. I went back into the BIOS and hit "Load Optimized Defaults" and the memory came up at 1066 MHz.

I checked the timings in CPU-z and Easytune to see what was recommended for the memory - strangely to me they differed (see screenshots below)Attachment 2892. I ended up going with the timings from CPU-z for 1333 MHz (9-9-9-1T). So far so good with the memory voltage at 1.5V. I ran Memtest for an hour and half and didn't get any errors, so hopefully it will be stable.

I am a little concerned the several hours of running at QPI of 1.41 volts might have done some long term damage - guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks for the help!

[evergreen25]

For some reason I couldn't attach this screenshot to my last post. Here are my current voltage settings:
Attachment 2893