OSX Randomly hangs and gives me "Hold down to Restart"

[bibo_m16]

I've just installed OSX on my new rig. Here are the specs:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 950 @ 4.0GHZ
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev. 2
Graphics Card: MSI N460GTX Hawk
Memory: 6GB Mushkin Enhanced Redline Ridgeback @ 1600
Cooling: Noctua NH-D14
Power Supply: Corsair HX850W
OS Drive: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB
Data Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2250WM-LED 22-Inch
Operating System: Mac OSX 10.6.6/Windows 7 Professional 64bit

But the problem is, it's not stable. It hangs sometimes and also gives me "Hold down the power button to restart"

Any help would be appreciated.

Installed OSX using this guide: viewtopic.php?f=81&t=11221

 

[Blackstar]

My guess is the CPU volts and timings are off and it's kernel panicking under a certain load. Try setting the CPU to 3.8GHz or 3.6GHz and step the volts down a few steps at a time, run some benchmarks, see what's stable. If you still are having issues, you may have to start at stock levels and work your way up.

(Have the same mobo with a i7 920 and found 3.8 GHz is rock solid with 1600 RAM, while 4.0 or 4.2 just wasn't. It liked 19x multipliers, but not 20 or 21.)

Also check to make sure the RAM timings are set to manual, not automatic and volts are manually set to what it's expecting for your chips to eliminate the RAM as a potential issue.

Keep an eye on your temps to make sure you're not overheating and under load, the CPU cools fairly quickly to make sure it's not a heat issue.

Just take your time and be patient. You'll probably have to do a bit of tweaking and a fair amount of restarts to get it dialed in.

Good Luck.

 

[justr]

I've just installed OSX on my new rig. Here are the specs:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 950 @ 4.0GHZ
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev. 2
Graphics Card: MSI N460GTX Hawk
Memory: 6GB Mushkin Enhanced Redline Ridgeback @ 1600
Cooling: Noctua NH-D14
Power Supply: Corsair HX850W
OS Drive: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB
Data Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2250WM-LED 22-Inch
Operating System: Mac OSX 10.6.6/Windows 7 Professional 64bit

But the problem is, it's not stable. It hangs sometimes and also gives me "Hold down the power button to restart"

Any help would be appreciated.

Installed OSX using this guide: http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=11221

You can't just overclock to 4.0 and expect stable-- every chip is different, and it takes a lot of tweaking to find a stable, low-temp overclock. How did you get to 4.0? What steps/settings?

 

[bibo_m16]

I started from 3.2 to 3.8 to 4.0. It runs stable on Windows. The cpu core is running @ 1.35v (200x20). Memory running @ 1.65v 1600. QPI @ 1.35. Turbo is disabled plus c1-c3 is disabled.

 

[justr]

I started from 3.2 to 3.8 to 4.0. It runs stable on Windows. The cpu core is running @ 1.35v (200x20). Memory running @ 1.65v 1600. QPI @ 1.35. Turbo is disabled plus c1-c3 is disabled.

How did you get to those voltages and multis? Did you test the bclk, memory multi, and cpu multi by isolating each individually? Did you work up using multiple voltages, stability test until failure, then bump the appropriate voltage one notch, then test again?

If not, then I HIGHLY recommend you start here:
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/ ... -gulftown/

 

[justr]

Honestly, those voltages look like they could be higher than you need for 4.0.

For instance, I'm at VCore ~1.26 (need to check notes, but within .01), QPI/VTT ~1.29 (again, no higher, maybe .01 lower), and VDimm 1.66 and I'm stable at 4.0 w/ 12 GB ram (6 x 2 GB, which stresses the system like wild).

In addition to the above, did you do extensive stability testing when you first got the system-- before over clocking?

Have you run an overnight memtest to determine your memory/mem slots are all good at stock-- and at stable overclock settings?

Have you tried other multi x bclk settings (word is 19 and 21 and 23 work best)?

Are all the important ratios in the right place (mem/uncore, etc)?

I think the only way to do this successfully is t methodically narrow down the components and do a lot of testing. Once you're at 4.0 Ghz (33%+), you're entering above moderate overclock territory... even if it's just the edge.

 

[bibo_m16]

I did not do stock stability testing. I did run memtest for about 8 hrs.

How did you get to those voltages and multis? Did you test the bclk, memory multi, and cpu multi by isolating each individually? Did you work up using multiple voltages, stability test until failure, then bump the appropriate voltage one notch, then test again?

If not, then I HIGHLY recommend you start here:
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/ ... -gulftown/

I did all of those. When i was going for 4.0, I started with vcore of 1.28, but it would not boot up. So moved up 1 notch every time till i got it stable @ 1.35. i havent tried any other blk than 200 coz i wanted my mem @ 1600.

 

[Blackstar]

I also keep my bclk at 200, mem at 1600 (with 8x manually), timings and mem volts to stock and CPU multiplier to x 19 which gives a 3.8GHz speed. Since we have the same mobo, (Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev. 2 ) it's possible with 1600 ram you too may not be stable with a higher CPU multiplier than 19.

 

[justr]

I understand that you want your memory to run at 1600, but what's your ultimate goal? Top stable/cool speeds for certain apps?

If so, maybe it makes sense to try other combos, then enchmark/use your system... and you may find out that being able to boost some other speed (other than ram) or tighten ram timings gives you better performance. After all, many people have reported better overclocking with odd cpu multipliers.

Is your uncore 2x ram multiplier?

Your QPI/VTT seems high.

I'm not sure what the logic is of running ram at 1600 if you're going for overall system speed and you don't yet know what your system's potential is yet.

How about posting some pics of your bios settings.

 

[justr]

I have exactly the same problem running on stock speeds.

CPU : i7 920 D0
MB : X58A-UD3R rev2 FE
MEMORY : OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Intel i7 Triple Channel Rev.2 6GB Triple Channel Kit DDR3-kit
GPU : SAPPHIRE HD 5770 512MB

I'm running 64-bit...everything is just pristine but when I reboot I get the dreaded "Hold down to restart" once every 3 boots. The -v option seems to go through everytime though...

If you've done extensive testing in Win7 and using memtest (boot cd or usb) to rule out other issues, than I might guess it's a BIOS setting-- particularly something set to auto when it should be set manually. Before I overclocked my system at all, I rarely had the hold down the restart when I booted after having the system off for long periods of time.

I don't know what change fixed it, but the problem was fixed as I started switching BIOS settings from auto to manual. Auto settings, particularly with voltages and timings, tend to do screwy things that can make a system run not as stable and way too hot (voltages too high, for instance). So, I can't tell you what settings to do, but I do recommend reading through the overclocking guides-- EVEN if you don't plan on overclocking-- and start setting BIOS settings manually to the right speeds/voltages.