X99A Godlike Gaming declines to overclock
X99A Godlike Gaming declines to overclock
Hey everyone,
I just got a 5930k as a gift and ended up joining the overclockers group. I bought the X99A Godlike Gaming from MSi because I really liked its features, and I'm working on a full custom hardline water cooling setup with it. I’m not a professional overclocker and haven’t much experience with XMP settings, so I decided to give the onboard OC genie a try.
Here are my specs:
- i7 5930K
- Corsair RM1000
- MSi X99a Godlike Gaming MB
- EVGA Reference GTX 980Ti
- 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 DDR4 @ 2400Mhz (running at 2133 when not overclocked), Quad channel
- 2 mechanical drives, one with Windows 10 for testing
- Prolimatech B81 CPU cooler for testing
Without the OC genie, everything runs smoothly and quickly. But once I enable it, the PC restarts to a point where Windows logo appears, then instead of saying "Starting Windows" or similar, it says "Preparing for Repair" (almost like that). After that, I get a blue screen and a recovery screen. It tells me my system needs repair and mentions a missing critical file. I’m confused—what’s the critical file? It keeps appearing as a new one every time I restart. I’ve seen things like HAL initialization, kernel files (krnl), some .exe and system files that I don’t recognize.
Fixing it was simple: unplug the power, turn off the OC genie, let it discharge, then restart. After that, everything works again.
Everyone warns against using the OC genie, and I haven’t experimented with XMP settings in the BIOS myself due to time constraints. But I’m curious. Other times when onboard OC failed, the PC would not start or cycle, but mine boots and then fails to load Windows.
I suspect a RAM issue—maybe my RAM isn’t up-clocking with the CPU, which could cause files to load incompletely or be missing. Or it could be something more serious.
By the way, I haven’t updated the BIOS yet, and I’m planning to do that soon. Most of the drivers I’ve installed (chipset, CPU) are recommended from a driver manager app, and they’ve worked perfectly for about nine builds so far. I don’t think this is related. I’ll try installing them from the USB drive that came with the motherboard when I have the chance.
Thanks for the long post, but I don’t think a TLDR will fully cover the problem...
I have a build that's quite similar, so perhaps I can assist. I agree you shouldn't try overclocking it first using the OC Genie.
Avoid touching anything else except the CPU voltage and frequency during the initial test.
Begin manually from BIOS, starting around 4.0ghz at stock voltage, and attempt to boot—likely it will BSOD at stock voltage.
If that fails, gradually increase the voltage in small steps until it boots, being careful not to exceed 1.3 volts.
I have a build that's quite similar, so perhaps I can assist. I agree you shouldn't try overclocking it first using the OC Genie.
Avoid touching anything else except the CPU voltage and frequency during the initial test.
Begin manually from BIOS, starting around 4.0ghz at stock voltage, and attempt to boot—likely it will BSOD at stock voltage.
If that fails, gradually increase the voltage in small steps until it boots, being careful not to exceed 1.3 volts.