Just got hit by the 1x PCI bug

[hideinlight]

After one year my pc started to do this:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=522

500W Superchannel s500 power supply
Asus 8800GT (standard)
e6600 conroe (standard)
GA-965P-DS3 rev1

No matter what I try, I can't seem to fix the problem. According to the site:

Solutions that work :
a. * Disable "PEG Force X1".
b. * Set the NB Vcore to 1.45 v or below.
c. * Overclock or underclock the PCI Express reference clock (up to 15 MHz either way). More details here - PCI-E Reference Clock.


I already tried option c, but that didn't work.
The problem with option a and b is I simply don't have those options in my bios. That's why I'm posting here, hopefully someone knows how I can change those settings.

[UrBaN]

Go into the BIOS and push CTRL+F1 to enable the advanced options..

[Prime]

This is one scenario where checking your bios version and further revisions might be advised. Some bios updates have been known to fix this. but only do it if its actually listed as a fix in a newer bios

[hideinlight]

I did do ctrl + F1 to enable the advance features.
Settings for NB Vcore simply aint there. Nearest thing I could find is:
Normal cpu vcore 1.32500V
Isn't there some kind of overclocking program I can use to change that setting, what does it stand for anyways?

Here's my motherboard's bios versions
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Moth ... #anchor_os

I had F13, today I updated to F14beta just to see if it'll work, but nothing.

Strangely with F11 I see this:
1. Fix PCI-E overclock issue
2. Support Intel E6420 & E6320 CPU

Should I try downgrading?

[Prime]

Nope, i'd not recommend downgrading. i wonder if something on your board has blown?

[Prime]

you could ask for a replacement under warranty. its got another 2 years of warranty on it

[hideinlight]

Nope, i'd not recommend downgrading. i wonder if something on your board has blown?

Tried it anyways. Problem is I bought the motherboard secondhand so I don' have any warranty so I'll just have to fix it somehow.
Just don't get it why now all the sudden it's stuck at x1, didn't overclock pc or anything. Unfortunately I don't have a second pc to test my power supply and gahics card on.

[hideinlight]

Some good and bad news. Put the graphics card in another pc, nothing happened (he also has a 8800 but different make).
So I put it back into my pc, when I got home I ran CPU-Z and my PCI speed is back to 16x and I have no idea why.

The bad news:
My e6600 is running at 1.6Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz



And I can't seem to change it back no matter what I try.
I tried setting the multiplier to 9 and frequency at 266 in the BIOS. It still shows up like on top.

Another weird behaviour just popped up, can't renmeber changing the value of the PCI voltage, but it's at 1.5V now.


When I click the default button it goes to V0.179.
Just installed easytune today. Don't wanna touch anything before a break something. I have no idea what voltages is right and which are wrong.

[Vampyre_2099]

seems like it may have been a seating problem.

Maybe try take everything out (including cpu) and start building from ground up. not sure, but it might help

[justinufo]

Isnt it just your cpu idles at a lower clock to save energy :scratch:Im sure it runs at full speed when you play games or someting.

[Furion]

Isnt it just your cpu idles at a lower clock to save energy :scratch:Im sure it runs at full speed when you play games or someting.

there could be something here.

load up a benchmark program like prime 95 and see if your cpu speed rises when it runs. if it does then go to your bios and disable EIST or Speed Step.

unless you want the power saving feature on of course.

[Prime]

Isnt it just your cpu idles at a lower clock to save energy :scratch:Im sure it runs at full speed when you play games or someting.

there could be something here.

load up a benchmark program like prime 95 and see if your cpu speed rises when it runs. if it does then go to your bios and disable EIST or Speed Step.

unless you want the power saving feature on of course.

+1 on this

[R3D]

go into the bios and disable the C1E option. it lowers your multi for energy saving

[hideinlight]

Ok if I play a game like UT3 I see my cpu speed going back to 2.4GHz.
I tried disableing C1E in EasyTune and via bios, but it still does the same thing. Is cpu stepping a different setting?

Enabling C1E causes system instability and crashes for me.

[hideinlight]

Think I'm gonna leave things as is for now. I've upped FSB to 315 so I'm getting 2.835Ghz when I run a game, but it idles on 1.8Ghz. That's good enough for me. Feels good playing UT3 at a stable 90fps again instead of 20-30fps

[Furion]

go into the bios and disable the C1E option. it lowers your multi for energy saving

I feel a correction is in order here. C1E is a special Halt state which essentially switches off varying parts of the cpu in order to conserve energy. Its activated when the OS issues the HLT command which typically happens when the OS is in idle and doing almost nothing. Activating C1E can cause errors and crashes if the OS isnt fully compatible with it. the clock speed of a cpu remains the same whether C1E is on or not.

EIST stands for intel speed step technology and this is the one that dynamically changes your multiplier according to cpu load. it normally changes the multiplier within a range of 4x (but this depends on the cpu. some only change it by a value of 3x) One thing to note is that EIST feature will never take your multiplier higher than stock.

Think I'm gonna leave things as is for now. I've upped FSB to 315 so I'm getting 2.835Ghz when I run a game, but it idles on 1.8Ghz. That's good enough for me. Feels good playing UT3 at a stable 90fps again instead of 20-30fps

the feature you describe here is definately EIST. If your bios supports this feature (it has to since you can see its effects) then it most certainly can be switched off in the bios. You just need to find it thats all. Its normally under something like "advanced cpu configuration" or something along those lines.

Let us know how you do!

[hideinlight]

My PCI-e is stuck at x1 again...Just happened randomly again. Can't seem to get it fixed again, was purely luck luck last time. Did manage to find the speed stepping options finally under advanced bios though.

I need to figure out how to change the NB voltage or how to at least check the value. Don't know if it's power supply, graphics card or motherboard causing the problem. Even updated the bios of my 8800gt.