Unfortunately my overclocking may have lead to some hardware damage. For those who have followed my escapades, recall I own 4 2gb mushkin DIMMS, and 4 1gb OCZ's. Both sets ran perfectly, very overclocked, but running within stated spec for vDIMM for EPP. I made a critical blunder, it would appear, when I decided to relax timings from 4-4-4-15 @ 1060Mhz or so, to 5-5-5-18 at 1200Hhz. Right now I don't recall where the divider was set, but in any case, it actually POSTed, but when XP initialled, the BSOD arrived, after which . . . there is no overclockability whatsoever in the OCZ's. They were very cool, for the brief time they ran at that frequency. vDIMM was as it had been, at its max EPP rated 2.4v (in the BIOS). So, I guessed one or more of the DIMMS took a hit. I tried using just 2 DIMMS, swapping pairs to try to isolate a bad DIMM. No joy--absolutely no overclocking whatsoever. Several CMOS resets in the process of trying to restore bootability.From here, I decided to do a wholesale swap out back to 2 of the Mushkin 2GB DIMMS, which had performed really well previously in a variety of overclocked configurations, even with all 8GB installed. To my amazement, the mushkins would not overclock, even slightly. In fact, the only config that I can now successful boot to XP is the lowest rated setting for the Mushkins: 5-5-5-18, 333 FSB. I tried changing FSB to 400, (had been sustained running at 438 with a STRAP of 266, and a DRAM FREQ of 1070 or so, no probleme), and no way Jose. So, for reasons not understood, it would appear something happened to my P5E, since the Mushkins had a HUGE range of overclockability, with all 4 DIMMS loaded, and never acted up in any way, and now the board will not overclock any pair from both sets of 4. As a side note, I decided to move 2 mushkins into DIMM SLOT B (instead of the default A pair), which I had done previously no problem, and the thing will not POST, even after a CMOS data clear. Those same Mushkins will boot in SLOT A config. And again, the Mushkins never gave even a hiccough and were removed a week or so ago when the OCZ's arrived. So it's pretty suspicious something's up with the mainboard. I did reflash the BIOS successfully, and again, reset CMOS with a complete battery removal, etc. I also tried just TWO OCZs and TWO mushkins, and again, no joy in ANY overclocking. Even the slightly tightened timings with mushkins to 4-4-4-10 won't boot. The OCZ's still work, but again, must be run at SETUP DEFAULT settings basically.Unfortunately I have no other mainboard to test the DIMMS in, but it's pretty suggestive of a mainboard issue since both memory sets failed to overclock at the same time. The 1200Mhz @ CAS 5 attempt was with the OCZs. I never discovered the top end of the mushkins, but had them at 1103 quite a while with no problems. Again, they are always VERY cool, and MemTest ran without errors. On the other hand, it would seem the memory would be the most vulnerable in this situation. Any guesses? Could be anything i'm sure, including PS issues maybe, tho I have a decent one. Or even a red herring of something unrelated. I don't if I can possibly obtain a warranty replacement, since it will boot at default settings. I kept all voltages with max spec, so not sure if I have a reasonable claim or not. Anyway, we're back to very sluggish memory performance, with latency of over 12ns in order to operate in Windows. Dang!If I end up with a new, and different, mainboard, I'm guessing I'll have to reinstall XP. Ugg, that means my cloned copy won't fly either. Unless, I bought another P5E of course, then I guess it would fly.

I assume when you reflashed the bios, all bios settings reverted to their original settings? You simply cannot type (or scroll?) "400" in the FSB box? When my P5K gets too sideways, the only way I can recover is to boot with only ONE stick installed. Doesn't seem to matter which. The 1st time that happened, I RMA's it. Now I just live with it (Not good when MWave starts to know you on a 1st name basis). Try that. If the board went south, you really DO have a warranty claim. 333 x 10? is that CPU's default FSB/multi? If so, you still have a functional "right" to run your DDR2-800 ram at 1:1 with a 400 Mhz FSB. If the mobo will not provide this normal function, RMA it. If they tell you they do not warranty O/C'd CPUs, tell 'em you are not looking for a CPU RMA (maybe later!). This is not about a crash at a 400Mhz FSB with an O.C'd CPU (You turned down your unlocked multi, right ? :) The mobo will simply not take that normal setting. It's broke.

>I assume when you reflashed the bios, all bios settings>reverted to their original settings? You simply cannot type>(or scroll?) "400" in the FSB box?Sam, I'm pretty familiar with the entire routine by now as you might imagine, considering where I've been in the past many weeks at doing this. I understand the basics of built-in auto resets with overclock failure, how to trigger the system to do this, and if this fails to use the CMOS data clear switch etc . . .>When my P5K gets too sideways, the only way I can recover is>to boot with only ONE stick installed. Doesn't seem to matter>which. The 1st time that happened, I RMA's it. Now I just live>with it (Not good when MWave starts to know you on a 1st name>basis). Try that. Recover what? Overclockability? I'm able to run the mushkins and OCZ's, but neither overclocks .... at all! I think for some reason the memory controller got damaged slightly. Just a very uneducated hunch, actually something someone else proposed. I had TRANSACTION BOOSTER enabled to +2 previously for months, now it won't boot with any level of transaction booster enabled. It is acting as if it is right on the edge of failure, even at default settings of 333/800Mhz 5-5-5-18. >If the board went south, you really DO have a warranty claim.>333 x 10? is that CPU's default FSB/multi? If so, you still>have a functional "right" to run your DDR2-800 ram at 1:1 with>a 400 Mhz FSB. If the mobo will not provide this normal>function, RMA it. >>If they tell you they do not warranty O/C'd CPUs, tell 'em you>are not looking for a CPU RMA (maybe later!). This is not>about a crash at a 400Mhz FSB with an O.C'd CPU (You turned>down your unlocked multi, right ? :) The mobo will simply not>take that normal setting. It's broke. I think yer right Sam. Would I have to contact ASUS at this point? The board is about 2.8months in service.I just I wished I knew what if anything did this, or if it was mostly happenstance. I kept vDIMM at rated 2.4v. It worked SOO well, was super cool, and well, was a surprising when it lost it's lust for performance :((I'll try the RMA route after I get back from vacation in a couple of weeks.QX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed

I've never seen that O/C lockout symptom. When I overshoot a ram O/C, the board just powers up, then silently stares me down. I sit and glare for all I'm worth. It sits, beepless. Who's gonna give? Well, me. Down I go and pull out 3 sticks-O-ram and repower to the bios reset screen. I reset, but find I have to let it go all the way into Windows. Very painful with only one gig on board. Shut down, reinstall the Dimms and I'm back on the road. My 4 Patriots will not boot at 3, but will hang at 4 up to ~ 1000. I still can't see a difference, it just seems to make my system more fragile. Prime is fine, but I run LOMAC a lot. That Russian Bear will take down a healthy horse. A maxed out system is no match for that challenged programming. Since I finally have the HP to run it without needing that "last gasp," it makes sense to not push it. Generally too, that might be the better deal. The reseller should be able to handle this up to one year. Even if it costs an extra buck, I always buy my mobos locally. It seems to always be the most fragile piece. Mine's getting tossed in the front seat and going back to Mwave at the 51 week mark. Maybe they will be up to V2 by then. My vCore setting in the bios is still totally unreliable. Maybe ram too(?), but I'm letting Otto handle all of that. After a bios update, the 1st thing I do is get up CPUZ Right quick and make sure Vcore didn't go crazy. I'm not sure where we can see actual ram volts.

Very possible you have a VR failure on the motherboardThere are several possibilites in that area. In many cases a voltage regulator can still function but not be able to maintain a heavy current demand.Some models of x38 Asus boards are known for that and also known for Vdroop issues associated with such failures. The new x48 boards are redesigned in several areas to fix problems they found in their x38 layer design

I have also seen this to the point where I have removed power and the CMOS battery to truly let the board reset. Unplug, pull the battery, let it sit for ten minutes and retry...Just a thought,-PaulPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E8500 468X9.5 @ 4.45Asus Maximus Extreme2 gigs OCZ Reaper DDR3 @1400Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

>I have also seen this to the point where I have removed power>and the CMOS battery to truly let the board reset. Unplug,>pull the battery, let it sit for ten minutes and retry...>Just a thought,>-PaulPaul that is the procecure in the manual for the P5E. Again, it is booting an operating fine, just now only at FSB of 333, 800Mhz 1:1. I can still operate the processor at over 4GB, it's *just* the memory subsystem that won't do what it was doing, and as I say, with actually 4 different 2 DIMM pairs. If I didn't own so much DDR2 I might take this time to move to DDR3, but dang it is awefully pricey to get fast DDR3. Plus, I proved to myself DDR2 worked well when overclocked, but therein may be the frustration Nick is pointing to. My problem is I'm not sure what part of the overclocking hurt my mainboard, if indeed that is what happened, since as I say I ran everything pretty much within spec except for the FSB, and lord knows lotsa people seem to get away with increasing FSB to 438 or so no problem. I think what I may do is RMA this piece, sell the returned part to my bro who may be willing to do an upgrade (he's not into overclocking anything anyway), self him 4GB of mushkin, and me keep 4GB of mushkin and the 4gb of OCZ that worked so well, and pick up an X48 DDR2 and call it a day. The only dire outcome there would be frying another DDR2 mainboard from overclocking again. Just don't really know what suffered in this transaction.Does anyone know what happens to my XP install if I changed mainboards to an X48? Complete reinstall? Oy!

If you were bumping up the northbridge voltage to hit FSB, that is also another possibility

This just in: went out to make some breakfast, came back, BSOD. Settings: 333 FSB, auto strap, DRAM 800Mhz, cpu mult 10x. So, back to auto everything. I think this dude's goin' down fast . . .I will be away for about 2 weeks so maybe now's the time for an RMA try.Nick, you prolly don't want to recommend on this as I know how you feel about DDR2, but what would be your fav DDR2 X48 board? And, would I need to reinstall if I swapped out mainboards? QX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed

It's going, going, gone! Won't post or anything now, even with SETUP DEFAULT settings. Short life in the fast lane . . .RMA'ing the mainboard back to ASUS right now. Nick, I did increase NB voltage, not very much tho, as in 1.31. It always ran fine using AUTO with the NB voltage, tho, so who knows. And again, everything is very cool . . .Do you think X48 is more durable for overclocking, so to speak?

Im sure its a VR. Doesn't surprise me>Do you think X48 is more durable for overclockingyes and it includes the MCH READ DELAY voltage (tRD).. something else to get you in troble

>>>Im sure its a VR. Doesn't surprise me>>>>Do you think X48 is more durable for overclocking>>>yes and it includes the MCH READ DELAY voltage (tRD)..>something else to get you in trobleYep, I think yer right Nick.Once fooled, twice shamed. I can tell you one thing Nick, I really don't want to RMA mainboards every 2-3 months. So, with that, I'll try being a little more careful and not squeeze every last Mhz out of the next board. Thing I'll never know is, how long the thing would have flown had I not went for 5-5-5-15 at 1200Mhz with the OCZ's, after which, no ram worked, and the board eventually died.Nick, right now, which pair of mainboard/memory can you recommend for DDR-3 that will get me CALWIized with the least overclocking? Using the CALWI calculator, it appears everything may need some overclocking to get there. Is this still true Nick?QX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed

But keep in mind that in < 6 months, this entire dual channel platform will be obsolete. Hello X58!http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.php?id=19736&catid=2Embracing the latest tweak can get massively expensive in a real hurry.

LOLQX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed