Overclocking failed.

[Alagix]

So my pc (which is quite old now, circa 2013/14 i think) has started to not boot correctly recently. Sometimes it wont make the bios ping on startup and take a few self resets to get going and today when it finally booted up it put up on screen that overclocking has failed.

Now I am not all that savvy when it comes to these things, so I didn't change any settings and loaded as normal. Anyone here able to give advice on how to get more mileage out of the computer? It was quite expensive when I got it, and when its running its perfect still. I only really play wow, csgo and run programs such as discord. So it isnt like its a workhorse, it is getting a wee bit long in the tooth though however I can't justify buying new pc or parts atm.

 

[Oussebon]

What's the full spec, copied from your PC Specialist account?

it will show if it was pre-overclocked or whatever.

If it was, it's possible reducing the frequency of the OC is necessary, or increasing the voltage to maintain the same OC.

 

[Alagix]

Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) - Special Offer!
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LK - Special Offer!
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - (Special Offer!)
1st Storage Drive
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW) (Special Offer)
2nd Storage Drive
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
4G Module
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Webcam
Creative Live! Cam Sync HD
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 10 working days


I upgraded the gcard at a later date but that shouldnt matter. I believe its pre-clocked to 4.10.

Edit: also the ram has been upgraded since i bought it, if that makes any difference.

 

[Oussebon]

That sounds a bit suspect.

if it was pre-overclocked by PC Specialist it would look like:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-3770k Quad Core (3.50GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V - Special Offer!

4.1GHz is the kind of OC you'd expect to get off that ghastly Asus AI Suite auto overclock software.
auto-overclocking has matured a lot since then and can be pretty decent these days, but for what you and I have it is best avoided.
It always overestimated the voltage by a lot, underestimated the frequency, fiddled with the BCLK, and wasn't very stable at all.

In your position I'd get rid of all the Asus bloatware off the PC, then reset the BIOS to default settings (making sure to then re-enable any XMP profile required for the RAM). You can take a backup of your BIOS settings first to restore later.

 

[Alagix]

Hum, i don't have any overclock software, never have. Ill search how to backup bios and go through all that anyway though. Cheers dude.

 

[Oussebon]

Where does the 4.1 number come from?

 

[Alagix]

When running games I've previously checked the performance in task manager - performance, and it goes up to 4.1. I do remember when I bought the pc that is was advertised as clocked to 4.1. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone for K version of CPU, wouldn't trust to it myself.

 

[Alagix]

Heres screen shot of it.

 

[Oussebon]

Seems weird they would only offer it as OCed to 4.1GHz.. considering the -k CPU boosts to 3.9GHz and 4.4-4.6 is pretty easy to achieve in most cases..

Though I guess it's a moot point as to how it got to that state (as long as you don't have any Asus AI suite software that will helpfully auto-mess-things-up). I'd try the CPU and stock speeds and voltages and see if that helps resolve the issue.

 

[Alagix]

Ok ill give that a go, cheers mate.