OC configured at 4.5 Ghz, system operating at 3.5 Ghz
OC configured at 4.5 Ghz, system operating at 3.5 Ghz
Asrock Z77 Extreme 3 Motherboard
Intel i7 3770-k (3.5Ghz) OC to 4.5
Hyper Evo 212 Air Cooler with two fans, Push/Pull with Tuniq Thermal Paste
16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Low Profile
Asus Strix 980 Ti OC Edition GPU
I recently achieved a stable overclock of my Intel i7 3770-k to 4.5 Ghz about a year ago. It performed well on the Hyper 212 Evo Air Cooler. Recently, my resource manager indicated the CPU was only running at 3.5 GHz, while just a few days prior it showed 4.48 GHz.
I decided to try unparking the cores, assuming this might have improved performance. I removed all cores and checked again—still no change. It seems none of them were parked.
Power Management settings on high performance are set to maximum saving, with BIOS showing 45 and temperatures around 30°C at idle, rising to about 65°C under load.
I’m unsure how to get the CPU back to its original speed. This is quite frustrating. Any suggestions would be really helpful.
Some motherboard BIOS features a safety mechanism that will restart the system with conservative or default configurations if the BIOS settings are incorrect. After multiple tries to boot under the correct settings, the system finally powers up using these backup options. I understand Gigabyte uses this approach, but I’m not sure about Asrock’s implementation.
I don’t want to repeat everything, but I might have to. Could this be typical behavior where the BIOS resets settings despite being configured?
BIOS usually loses settings only when the battery is weak, a strange power issue occurs, or you forget to save them. It can also be affected by software changes, though that’s rare. Something unusual happened recently after you noticed. I rearranged some fan wires and my computer stopped working entirely, then tried to restart on its own but shut down after ten seconds. Could this reset happen even if the BIOS settings remain unchanged?
Some motherboard BIOS features a safety mechanism that will restart the system with conservative or default configurations if the BIOS settings are incorrect. After multiple tries to boot under the correct settings, the system finally powers up using these backup options. I understand Gigabyte uses this approach, but I’m not sure about Asrock’s implementation.
Some motherboard BIOS systems include a safety feature that will restart the computer with conservative or default configurations if the BIOS settings are incorrect. After multiple tries to boot under the correct settings, the system finally powers on using these safe defaults. I’m aware Gigabyte uses this mechanism, but I’m not sure about Asrock’s implementation.
If simply rearranging the fan wires caused the shutdown, it indicates a physical problem that needs fixing before addressing any software issues. The 10-second shutdown is a clear sign to resolve the immediate hardware concern first.
Thanks for the response. I plan to reset my BIOS, verify everything matches expectations, and perform a clean overclock. I’m considering an H100i upgrade if this is the right path.
UPDATE: I restored my BIOS settings to defaults, saved them to a profile, and restarted. After running Prime95, it confirmed my CPU was active (around 3.8 GHz). The system crashed, which surprised me since I expected stability with default settings. I’m planning to report the crash and let it run for about ten minutes. Eventually, it recovered and the CPU temperature stabilized at around 4.5 GHz without any issues. Great job, Prime95! You’re the best support ever.