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**profJim** · 09-01-2016, 07:44 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Welcome to the forum.

There is nothing to fix, your motherboard is performing normally because several bios settings are enabled.

From the v:2.0 motherboard user manual, on page 29:

CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ^(Note)

Enables or disables Intel CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) function, a CPU power-saving function in system
halt state. When enabled, the CPU core frequency and voltage will be reduced during system halt state
to decrease power consumption. (Default: Enabled)

C2/C2E State Support ^_(Note)

Allows you to determine whether to let the CPU enter C2/C2E mode in system halt state. When enabled,
the CPU core frequency and voltage will be reduced during system halt state to descrease power consumption.
(Default: Disabled)

CPU Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) ^_(Note)

Enables or disables Intel CPU Thermal Monitor (TM2) function, a CPU overheating protection function.
When enabled, the CPU core frequency and voltage will be reduced when the CPU is overheated.
(Default: Enabled)

CPU EIST Function ^(Note)

Enables or disables Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST). Depending on CPU loading, Intel
EIST technology can dynamically and effectively lower the CPU voltage and core frequency to decrease
average power consumption and heat production. (Default: Enabled)

(Note) This item is present only if you install a CPU that supports this feature. For more information about
Intel CPUs' unique features, please visit Intel's website.

My advice: Never disable CPU Thermal Monitor (TM2), it's there to automatically prevent your cpu from being damaged if the cpu is overheated.

**blacktruth** · 09-01-2016, 08:53 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Hello profJim, glad to be here. I was happy to see a reply that mentions some BIOS settings I could try. The only problem is, it's the first thing I tried. Those "four consecutive settings under Advanced BIOS setup" because I know they mess with frequencies and voltages. I disabled all of them (even the thermal protection as I have more than adequate cooling). Sadly, the problem persists. To be honest, I am really starting to worry that it is not fixable. Unless there's something I am missing here. :-(

**profJim** · 09-01-2016, 10:13 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Did you load Optimized Bios Defaults before you made any bios changes?
If the answer is no, load the Optimized Defaults and then make your bios changes.

After you completed your bios changes, did you use the Save Bios Settings and Exit Bios option?
There are two ways to do this in the bios; by PF key 10 or by selecting the Save & Exit Setup option in the left column of the main bios screen.
Whichever one you used, try using the other option.

After saving the settings, does your system immediately start to post after your system shuts down momentarily after changing the bios?

Why do you want to set the CPU Vcore much higher than the default value for your cpu?

We need detailed information about ALL OF THE HARDWARE in your system.

We can best help you after you create a detailed hardware list in the System Specs
portion of your forum profile at the bottom of the profile page or in your forum signature.
Be sure to include brand names and model numbers.
When you are done editing or creating your hardware list, save the settings.

If you do not provide a detailed list, you are wasting your time and ours.

**profJim** · 09-01-2016, 11:38 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

On rare occasions, a bios can act flaky and does not work correctly.

When this happens, a common fix is to:

turn off your system
unplug the power supply's A.C. cord from the wall outlet
press and hold the front panel power switch for 10 - 15 seconds
carefully jumper the two CLR_CMOS pins for 15 seconds*
if used, remove the jumper block from the CLR_CMOS pins
turn on your system and immediately enter the bios
load optimized bios defaults
save settings and exit
immediately go into the bios again and load one of your saved bios profiles

* sometimes you might need to jumper the CLR_CMOS pins for several minutes or possibly longer

One time my overclocked system rebooted suddenly and during POST my cpu speed showed the default speed. When I went into the bios I couldn't overclock my cpu by even 1 MHz. I performed the bios CMOS clearing procedure and I was then able to reload my stable, overclocked bios profile and everything was fine.

**blacktruth** · 09-01-2016, 01:01 PM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Hello again.

Thanks for the replies. The CMOS clearing procedure was informative. So here's what I did:

1) Shut down computer, remove power cable.
2) Press power button for 15 seconds. (The system tried to "boot" with the remaining charge in the caps, but...)
3) Shorted the CMOS clear jumpers for 10 minutes, with a jumper. Removed jumper.
4) Powered on the computer, immediately entered setup.
5) Loaded Optimized Defaults from the BIOS main page, then Save settings & Exit. System restarts without powering down. (system would only power down on restart if I touched clock/multiplier settings)
6) Enter BIOS again and change the settings I want. CPU Vcore from 1.150 to 1.250 and set all four options mentioned earlier on Advanced BIOS Features (EIST etc.) to Disabled. Save settings & Exit. System restarts without powering down.
7) Everything is set. In this state, if I enter BIOS to check Vcore in System Health section, I get a reading of 1.236 (there's an offset from actual value, sensor reports a lower value than actual). If I boot Windows or Linux I get a reading of 1.120. Vcore is obviously set at the default 1.150, not 1.250. The big question is why this is happening.

The reason I picked 1.250 volts is I wanted a significantly higher voltage so as to verify correct voltage change without having the waters muddied by sensor reading offsets etc, but also stay well within the specs of my processor. I plan to run the processor at about 1.200 V, if I manage to correctly change Vcore that is.

I have attached three pictures showing system information from my computer after I boot Windows (AIDA64). The last picture shows sensor readings after boot, with the default voltage instead of what I set in BIOS. EasyTune reports the same voltage value as AIDA64.

Any further help would be much appreciated.

**profJim** · 09-01-2016, 04:29 PM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Excellent job filling in your full PC Specs and your posted screenshots.

If you aren't familiar with vdroop and vdrop, do a web search using: vdroop vs vdrop
Basically vdrop is the slightly lower CPU Vcore voltage that you see in the bios PC Health section and vdroop is the even lower voltage that you see in monitoring programs, especially when your system is heavily loaded. Take a look at my screenshot and compare the ET6 CPU Vcore setting with my HWiNFO values for current, minimum and maximum CPU Vcore, especially in the lower left corner where I also included the voltages while running the very demanding LinX stress test.
As I recall, it was common to see vdroop = 0.06 or 0.07 volts lower than the CPU Vcore setting in the bios with Gigabyte P35 and P45 motherboards as well as their G-series motherboards. Load line calibration is an option to minimize vdroop on some higher end motherboard models.

If you are really into why vdroop is your friend, check out Anandtech's Overclocking Intel's New 45nm QX9650: The Rules Have Changed and read both pages in the Intel Processor Power Delivery Guidelines section. This article caused quite a web battle between those who "must have" LLC and those who avoid using LLC. FWIW, I don't like to use LLC, but to each his own. I couldn't find the LLC option in your motherboard user manual.

I double checked the available bios versions for all three of the G41M-Combo models and the FA and FB bios versions are only for your rev: 2.0 motherboard.

The only thing that I can think of is to boot with a minimal hardware setup where you use:

PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse
only one memory module, and possibly try using a single DDR2 module
boot drive only, no other hard drives
video card
cpu and if possible, try a different cpu, even something like my old E2140 super wimpy cpu that went from 1.60GHz to 3.20GHz and was stable.
possibly try using a different power supply

Trying a different psu is a long shot, but I've seen many strange system problems caused by a faulty or failing power supply.

You might need to closely inspect the cpu socket for one or more bent, broken or burnt pins that might be causing the problem.
Spotting defective socket pins is extremely difficult if you haven't done it before. If there is any question, take a close up macro photo without using a flash and post a link to one or more high resolution photos. Do a web search using bent cpu pin and look for examples of high quality photos.

If your cpu vcore is behaving "better" with your minimal hardware setup, then you should reconnect one item at a time and then verify that each newly added item hasn't caused the strange vcore problem.

If my screenshot is too difficult to read, copy and paste it into IrfanView or a similar image editing program and apply the Negative option to change the image back to its regular colors.

**blacktruth** · 09-02-2016, 03:35 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Hello!

Thanks for the suggestions. Quite some info there.

So what I tried is this:

I removed the motherboard and made a new simple test rig:

- Different PSU (450W)
- Single ATA 20GB Seagate drive with Win 7 SP1 64bit. No other hard disk or optical drives.
- USB keyboard and mouse (I do not have PS/2 versions handy)
- The same 2x4GB DDR3L memory
- I used the on board G41 graphics, did not install an external GPU so as to get that factor out of the way.

About the processor:

[email protected] (Wolfdale - 45nm) is my main CPU. In addition to this, I tried two more CPUs:
[email protected] (Allendale - 65nm)
[email protected] (Allendale - 65nm)

I did not touch the BIOS settings, the exact same settings were used except for the clock/multiplier.
(The four settings mentioned earlier were disabled.)

The results in short is that the E2200 and E2160 successfully change Vcore.
The results with a Vcore setting of 1.250V are summed up in the following table.
First column is what PC Health section in BIOS reports.
Second and third columns is what AIDA64/ET6 reports at idle/load.
The Vdroop difference becomes apparent from the two last columns.

1.250	BIOS	IDLE	LOAD
E2160	1.236	1.296	1.280
E2200	1.236	1.232	1.216
E5200	1.236	1.120	1.104

Apparently it has something to do with the CPU, motherboard, or combination of board/CPU.

Having the 65nm CPUs behave better is quite ironic, as the PCB reads "45nm CPU Optimized". :-/

After these results I tried two more things:

- The E5200 has the "C2/C2E State Support" BIOS setting available, the Allendale CPUs don't.
I tried changing from Disabled to Enabled with no luck. Both settings do not help.

- Memory. I removed the 2x4GB DDR3L memory and installed 2x2GB DDR2 memory.
It did not help either, the results are the exact same.

Sadly I do not have another 775 board handy with a Vcore adjustment to see how the E5200 behaves there.

I am quite baffled by this. Is there anything else I could try? Any suggestions welcome.

**profJim** · 09-02-2016, 05:15 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

The cpu compatibility chart for your motherboard includes both E5200 steppings, M0 and R0 so that is not an issue.

Carefully inspect the underside of your E5200 cpu to see if there is any dirt or debris that might be causing bad contact with any of the motherboard's cpu socket pins. Is there any excess cpu thermal grease on the E5200's pcb?

The E5200 has 2MB of L2 cache and I think that all of the E21xx processors only have 1MB of L2 cache. It's possible that there is a problem with some of the motherboard's cpu socket pins but that this defect doesn't affect either of your E2xxx processors. Cpu failures are rare, but it's possible that your E5200 is defective. Without another cpu or motherboard to test with, its hard to know where the problem is.

Is there a local PC recycle shop near you where you might be able to buy a used cpu or motherboard to test with?
Do any of your friends have a cpu and/or motherboard that they aren't using?

If I think of anything else that might help I'll let you know.

**blacktruth** · 09-03-2016, 12:43 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Hello again profJim. Again, thanks for taking the time to look around my problem.

I guess one of the last things to blame would be a socket pin or dirt on the cpu, but I don't think that is the cause.

I found the following reddit post that you might find interesting:

Reddit - Dive into anything

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/2oqb65/q6600_on_gigabyte_g41m_combo_mb_questions/

User "gainsdyslexiafromyou" apparently sets his voltage to 1.4 but when windows boots up it is 1.14 (I am guessing default).

This is exactly what drives me crazy, that apparently the voltage is properly set in the bios, if you check PC Health Status after setting voltage you can verify it is correctly set. But by the time Windows boots up, Vcore is back at default. When does the Vcore change and why?

I also wanted to ask you, what do you think is the best route to officially contact Gigabyte about this issue? Perhaps they can verify it is a known problem with certain CPUs on this board so I can stop searching, or even better, provide a solution (long shot).

Thanks again.

**profJim** · 09-03-2016, 02:18 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

You're welcome, glad to help out.

I don't think that any motherboard manufacturer will provide tech support for a ten year old product. Maybe some would provide limited support on a hardware setup from the most recent E.O.L (end of life) product generation. You can try contacting tech support but you are probably wasting your time.

It's my understanding that the G-series motherboards are best suited for a non-overclocked home theater setup. Your motherboard's cpu vcore voltages were fine with both of your lower end E2xxx processors but for some reason your E5200 cpu wouldn't let you use much higher cpu vcore voltage settings even though you weren't using an extremely high setting. A P35 or P45 motherboard would probably work fine, but many older motherboards start to get iffy after they are about six or seven years old.

**blacktruth** · 09-07-2016, 09:51 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Originally posted by blacktruth View Post

[email protected] (Wolfdale - 45nm)
[email protected] (Allendale - 65nm)
[email protected] (Allendale - 65nm)

1.250	BIOS	IDLE	LOAD
E2160	1.236	1.296	1.280
E2200	1.236	1.232	1.216
E5200	1.236	1.120	1.104

Apparently it has something to do with the CPU, motherboard, or combination of board/CPU.

Having the 65nm CPUs behave better is quite ironic, as the PCB reads "45nm CPU Optimized". :-/

Ho hum, a little follow up:

I checked the VID of the E2160 and E2200, apparently they are 1.325V and 1.265V respectively. Updated table follows:

1.250	BIOS	VID	IDLE	LOAD
E2160	1.236	1.325	1.296	1.280
E2200	1.236	1.265	1.232	1.216
E5200	1.236	1.150	1.120	1.104

So, apparently the board does not properly set the Vcore on ANY of the CPUs. (One of the reasons I am writing this is to not spread "false" information about the board being selective depending on CPU). The VID for the two Allendale chips are close to 1.250 which was what I set the board to, so I was fooled by that.

But, then, what do? This is the second reason I am writing this, for anyone that might find it interesting.

As I am extremely stubborn, I searched around for possible voltage modifications for the CPUs (I had done a BSEL mod back in the day with the E2160 and I thought I remembered there were also voltage pin mods). So, I was right! Of course such a prospect looks kind of messy especially after our earlier discussion about bent socket pins, etc. But I went ahead and did it.

So right now my [email protected] is running at 3.6GHz with a voltage of 1.325V nominal. Sensor values with OS running are 1.280V - 1.296V.

It was quite a process to get to this, which I kind of enjoyed. As doing a pin mod is a real hassle, I wanted to do it only once. So I needed to figure out at what voltage my E5200 ran best. Here, two programs proved handy: EasyTune6 and Memset.

What I did to check the CPU at higher frequencies was use these two programs. I booted up at a lower CPU frequency (lower BCLK) which allowed my computer to succesfully get into the OS with a voltage of 1.150V.

Then, using EasyTune6 I could set the target voltage I wanted to test and also the target frequency I wanted to test. However, there is a problem. The board has booted at a lower BCLK and the memory timings are tighter compared to what they should be at my target frequency, more relaxed. So before setting target frequency and voltage I had to run Memset to set the memory timings to the more relaxed values (I figured out the necessary relaxed values for a frequency by running Memset at that frequency, with a lower multiplier).

What followed were quite a few sessions of stability testing at various frequencies/voltages. I used OCCT and simultaneously FurMark to stress both CPU/GPU at the same time. I also did some benchmarking for each target frequency using PassMark PerformanceTest.

I decided to run the CPU at a Vcore of 1.325V. At that voltage, it passes OCCT/FurMark at 10.5*349=3.665GHz. Anything higher than that and the stability tests start failing. So I backed up to 10.5*343=3.602GHz. The E5200 passes stability tests even at Vcore=1.300V at this frequency.

About temperatures, the CPU peaks at 55-60 degrees Celsius with OCCT. My cooler is a CoolerMaster Hyper 212X. I also used IntelBurnTest (Linpack) and the processor peaked at 80 degrees at the Extreme setting, but remained stable. Maximum allowable temperature for the E5200 is 74 degrees but I presume my temperatures are safe since Linpack is an extremely stressing test and "normal" stress levels will be much more tolerable.

Benchmark results:

Comments:

CPU: 41% increase
2D Graphics: 45% increase
3D Graphics: The same speed, as the video card is not changed (nVidia 9600GT)
Memory: 42% speed increase plus capacity increase (4GB DDR2 vs 8GB DDR3L)

The board (and overall experiment) has proved a success. If I ignore the fact that it does not change Vcore, it has proved quite stable, at least compared to my previous AsRock board which maxed out at much lower settings (both using stock voltage). It was something like 3.0GHz for AsRock, 3.1GHz+ for Gigabyte. I got a 40%+ increase for my old system which had never been overclocked, pretty much breathed new life into it.

Any comments as to if I should pay attention to something or take care of something are welcome.

Cheers!

P.S. I am NOT a robot

**profJim** · 09-08-2016, 06:23 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

Nice!!

Higher end Gigabyte LGA775 motherboards often overvolt the Cpu Termination (aka VTT) and Cpu PLL bios settings with high overclocks when these settings are set to AUTO. I didn't see a Cpu PLL setting in your motherboard user manual. Higher Cpu Termination settings often help with system stability, but it's recommended that that VTT should be at least 0.05 volts lower than the Cpu Vcore setting. I don't know if ET6 displays the VTT voltage settings with your motherboard.

It would help others if you posted a screenshot that includes Memset and multiple Cpu-z screens for your 3.60GHz overclock.

I too have to prove that I'm not a robot each time I post in the forum.

**blacktruth** · 09-08-2016, 10:34 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

MemSet settings for [email protected]. Timings determined by the BIOS using SPD, with everything set to "Auto".

For some reason the program thinks it is DDR2 when it is 2x4GB of DDR3L (Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP)

**blacktruth** · 09-08-2016, 10:38 AM

Re: Gigabyte G41M-Combo Vcore BIOS setting does not work

CPU-Z for [email protected].