Lesson learned re. Nvidia nTune/Vista

Hi, I'm new to this forum and to overclocking.
I'm building a new system: ASUS P5N-E Sli, Core2 Duo 6600, 2GB 800MHz DDR2
RAM, Vista Ultimate, nVidia 7600GS 256mb (soon to be 8800GS, 320mb) Video,
SATA II drives.
I'm trying the various settings for CPU and memory speed/timing to get an
optimum setup.
This forum is a wealth of information, thanks!
One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like just
what I needed.
I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
fine tuned system in the morning.
What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the corrections
on restart, I thought.
Restart, no joy.
Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and never
recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough to
enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
I ran System Restore back to before nVidia's nTune install, and got my
system back.
I hope this helps someone else from running into this.

Is there any way to run nTune with Vista? Is there a similar utility around?
I also could not get coolbits to run under Vista as others have reported.
Any workaround?

Any suggestions welcomed, and thanks!

Jack R

'Jack R' wrote, in part:
| One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like
just
| what I needed.
| I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
| I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
| fine tuned system in the morning.
| What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the corrections
| on restart, I thought.
| Restart, no joy.
| Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
| Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and never
| recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
| conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough
to
| enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
_____

I am just beginning to overclock an Intel E4300 / EVGA 680i SLI system.
(See E4300 and 650i thread started 23MAR07).
The operating system is Windows XP Pro.

nTune does nothing at all for me. When automatic tuning is run, the message
'nTune must be run on nForce2 or higher' appears, and then application then
churns away doing nothing. This is even after making the two changes at the
end of this post. So what you see may not be a Vista problem.

Also, if I set the CPU voltage to [Automatic] in the BIOS, the voltage
actually set change with the amount of overclock, up to a limit of 1.4000
VDC.

*****

Found through a diligent search of the EVGA site (actually, it was a newly
posted FAQ) that the version of nTune that ships with the EVGA 680i SLI
should be uninstalled and replaced with a newer version from nVidia (9.53)
which will fix the BIOS settings changing behind your back problem
My BIOS settings on my 680i motherboards are being changed/reset on
some boots/restarts.

Question / Issue

My BIOS settings on my 680i motherboards are being changed/reset on
some boots/restarts.



Answer / Solution

In most cases people who have experienced this problem were using the
nTune software that came on the 680i driver installation CD. It is
recommended to uninstall this version of nTune via Add/Remove Programs in
the control panel. If you plan to use nTune please download the latest
version from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp




There is also a BIOS update (P27). P27 has the following fixes
a.. Quad-Core OC Improvements
b.. Additional support for 1333MHz CPU's
Also includes these updates from bios P20, P21, P23, P24, P25, and P26:

a.. Wireless PCI card fixes
b.. Vreg fan header default set to on
c.. Memory performance improvements
d.. Vista WHQL Certified
e.. USB Floppy improvements for RAID installs
f.. Correct CPU temp and voltage system monitor displays in BIOS
g.. Correct default CPU multiplier setting
h.. Fix "Code 50" hang received under certain VGA configurations
i.. Fix for SATA disk drives
j.. Improvements to memory stability and overclockability
k.. Disabled spread spectrum tables for improved overclockability
l.. Improve POST screen CPU speed reporting
m.. Improves X-Fi and internal audio functionality
n.. WHQL Certified BIOS
o.. Improvements to overclocking
p.. Enhancements for Quad-Core CPUs
q.. Adds ability to enable splash screen.
_____

Phil Weldon

"Jack R" wrote in message
...
| Hi, I'm new to this forum and to overclocking.
| I'm building a new system: ASUS P5N-E Sli, Core2 Duo 6600, 2GB 800MHz DDR2
| RAM, Vista Ultimate, nVidia 7600GS 256mb (soon to be 8800GS, 320mb) Video,
| SATA II drives.
| I'm trying the various settings for CPU and memory speed/timing to get an
| optimum setup.
| This forum is a wealth of information, thanks!
| One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like
just
| what I needed.
| I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
| I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
| fine tuned system in the morning.
| What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the corrections
| on restart, I thought.
| Restart, no joy.
| Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
| Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and never
| recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
| conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough
to
| enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
| I ran System Restore back to before nVidia's nTune install, and got my
| system back.
| I hope this helps someone else from running into this.
|
| Is there any way to run nTune with Vista? Is there a similar utility
around?
| I also could not get coolbits to run under Vista as others have reported.
| Any workaround?
|
| Any suggestions welcomed, and thanks!
|
| Jack R
|

Thanks Phil,
I'll stay away from nTune!

reading and learning

Jack R

"Phil Weldon" wrote in message
ink.net...
'Jack R' wrote, in part:
| One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like
just
| what I needed.
| I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
| I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
| fine tuned system in the morning.
| What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the
corrections
| on restart, I thought.
| Restart, no joy.
| Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
| Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and
never
| recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
| conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough
to
| enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
_____

I am just beginning to overclock an Intel E4300 / EVGA 680i SLI system.
(See E4300 and 650i thread started 23MAR07).
The operating system is Windows XP Pro.

nTune does nothing at all for me. When automatic tuning is run, the
message
'nTune must be run on nForce2 or higher' appears, and then application
then
churns away doing nothing. This is even after making the two changes at
the
end of this post. So what you see may not be a Vista problem.

Also, if I set the CPU voltage to [Automatic] in the BIOS, the voltage
actually set change with the amount of overclock, up to a limit of 1.4000
VDC.

*****

Found through a diligent search of the EVGA site (actually, it was a newly
posted FAQ) that the version of nTune that ships with the EVGA 680i SLI
should be uninstalled and replaced with a newer version from nVidia (9.53)
which will fix the BIOS settings changing behind your back problem
My BIOS settings on my 680i motherboards are being changed/reset on
some boots/restarts.

Question / Issue

My BIOS settings on my 680i motherboards are being changed/reset on
some boots/restarts.



Answer / Solution

In most cases people who have experienced this problem were using the
nTune software that came on the 680i driver installation CD. It is
recommended to uninstall this version of nTune via Add/Remove Programs in
the control panel. If you plan to use nTune please download the latest
version from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp




There is also a BIOS update (P27). P27 has the following fixes
a.. Quad-Core OC Improvements
b.. Additional support for 1333MHz CPU's
Also includes these updates from bios P20, P21, P23, P24, P25, and P26:

a.. Wireless PCI card fixes
b.. Vreg fan header default set to on
c.. Memory performance improvements
d.. Vista WHQL Certified
e.. USB Floppy improvements for RAID installs
f.. Correct CPU temp and voltage system monitor displays in BIOS
g.. Correct default CPU multiplier setting
h.. Fix "Code 50" hang received under certain VGA configurations
i.. Fix for SATA disk drives
j.. Improvements to memory stability and overclockability
k.. Disabled spread spectrum tables for improved overclockability
l.. Improve POST screen CPU speed reporting
m.. Improves X-Fi and internal audio functionality
n.. WHQL Certified BIOS
o.. Improvements to overclocking
p.. Enhancements for Quad-Core CPUs
q.. Adds ability to enable splash screen.
_____

Phil Weldon

--stuff deleted--

"Jack R" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to overclocking.
I'm building a new system: ASUS P5N-E Sli, Core2 Duo 6600, 2GB 800MHz DDR2
RAM, Vista Ultimate, nVidia 7600GS 256mb (soon to be 8800GS, 320mb) Video,
SATA II drives.
I'm trying the various settings for CPU and memory speed/timing to get an
optimum setup.
This forum is a wealth of information, thanks!
One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like
just what I needed.
I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
fine tuned system in the morning.
What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the corrections
on restart, I thought.
Restart, no joy.
Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and never
recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough
to enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
I ran System Restore back to before nVidia's nTune install, and got my
system back.
I hope this helps someone else from running into this.

Is there any way to run nTune with Vista? Is there a similar utility
around? I also could not get coolbits to run under Vista as others have
reported. Any workaround?

Any suggestions welcomed, and thanks!

Jack R

From everything I have read about Phil W.s experience from nTune it kind of
reminds me of the Asus AI software where you can change OC settings in
Windows. I tried the Asus AI and finally uninstalled it and just made the
changes in bios the old fashioned way. I had much of the same experiences
with settings changing and lock-ups etc. As far as Vista is concerned, I
will have it installed sometime, but I have an extra XP Pro here and will
use it for now. I beta tested Vista throughout the entire pre-release phase
and really had some problems. Most of them were driver issues and a few
problems with some programs that I really need that I just couldn't get to
run. Audio/visual programs seemed most effected and they are just too
expensive to replace even if they would work under Vista. I am currently
awaiting delivery on a Core 2 Duo system I am building around an E6600 and
nVidia 680i Asus P5N-SLI. I will be using two 8800GTS under SLI. I will post
more as things get here.......


Ed

Ed, thanks for your reply. I was also on the Vista Beta, and had (have)
driver/compatibility issues.
I've had to build the new system in parallel via KVM switch with my main XP
box, so I can do everything I want.
The XP box isn't going away in the foreseeable future.
That sounds like a fantastic box you're building, thanks for sharing your
experiences.
I'm going with a single 8800 GTS, at least for now. If you could test with
single and then dual video cards to provide a performance comparison, it'd
be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Jack R

"Ed Medlin" wrote in message
et...

"Jack R" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to overclocking.
I'm building a new system: ASUS P5N-E Sli, Core2 Duo 6600, 2GB 800MHz
DDR2 RAM, Vista Ultimate, nVidia 7600GS 256mb (soon to be 8800GS, 320mb)
Video, SATA II drives.
I'm trying the various settings for CPU and memory speed/timing to get an
optimum setup.
This forum is a wealth of information, thanks!
One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like
just what I needed.
I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
fine tuned system in the morning.
What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the
corrections on restart, I thought.
Restart, no joy.
Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and
never recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough
to enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
I ran System Restore back to before nVidia's nTune install, and got my
system back.
I hope this helps someone else from running into this.

Is there any way to run nTune with Vista? Is there a similar utility
around? I also could not get coolbits to run under Vista as others have
reported. Any workaround?

Any suggestions welcomed, and thanks!

Jack R

From everything I have read about Phil W.s experience from nTune it kind
of reminds me of the Asus AI software where you can change OC settings in
Windows. I tried the Asus AI and finally uninstalled it and just made the
changes in bios the old fashioned way. I had much of the same experiences
with settings changing and lock-ups etc. As far as Vista is concerned, I
will have it installed sometime, but I have an extra XP Pro here and will
use it for now. I beta tested Vista throughout the entire pre-release
phase and really had some problems. Most of them were driver issues and a
few problems with some programs that I really need that I just couldn't
get to run. Audio/visual programs seemed most effected and they are just
too expensive to replace even if they would work under Vista. I am
currently awaiting delivery on a Core 2 Duo system I am building around an
E6600 and nVidia 680i Asus P5N-SLI. I will be using two 8800GTS under SLI.
I will post more as things get here.......


Ed

"Jack R" wrote in message
...
Ed, thanks for your reply. I was also on the Vista Beta, and had (have)
driver/compatibility issues.
I've had to build the new system in parallel via KVM switch with my main
XP box, so I can do everything I want.
The XP box isn't going away in the foreseeable future.
That sounds like a fantastic box you're building, thanks for sharing your
experiences.
I'm going with a single 8800 GTS, at least for now. If you could test with
single and then dual video cards to provide a performance comparison, it'd
be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Jack R

Sure will.

Ed
"Ed Medlin" wrote in message
et...

"Jack R" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to overclocking.
I'm building a new system: ASUS P5N-E Sli, Core2 Duo 6600, 2GB 800MHz
DDR2 RAM, Vista Ultimate, nVidia 7600GS 256mb (soon to be 8800GS, 320mb)
Video, SATA II drives.
I'm trying the various settings for CPU and memory speed/timing to get
an optimum setup.
This forum is a wealth of information, thanks!
One experience to share, I found nVidea's nTune utility. It looked like
just what I needed.
I ran it, no problem reading the various measurements.
I then ran the full tune-up, to run 3+ hours. I went to bed, expecting a
fine tuned system in the morning.
What I found was a hung system. No prob, tune up will make the
corrections on restart, I thought.
Restart, no joy.
Reset the BIOS to a known stable setup I had saved. System started, but
Vista won't run. It goes through the green bar thing, goes black and
never recovers. I tried a dozen BIOS settings, getting slower and more
conservative each time. No luck, but I finally got it to run well enough
to enter Safe Mode. (Wheww!)
I ran System Restore back to before nVidia's nTune install, and got my
system back.
I hope this helps someone else from running into this.

Is there any way to run nTune with Vista? Is there a similar utility
around? I also could not get coolbits to run under Vista as others have
reported. Any workaround?

Any suggestions welcomed, and thanks!

Jack R

From everything I have read about Phil W.s experience from nTune it kind
of reminds me of the Asus AI software where you can change OC settings in
Windows. I tried the Asus AI and finally uninstalled it and just made the
changes in bios the old fashioned way. I had much of the same experiences
with settings changing and lock-ups etc. As far as Vista is concerned, I
will have it installed sometime, but I have an extra XP Pro here and will
use it for now. I beta tested Vista throughout the entire pre-release
phase and really had some problems. Most of them were driver issues and a
few problems with some programs that I really need that I just couldn't
get to run. Audio/visual programs seemed most effected and they are just
too expensive to replace even if they would work under Vista. I am
currently awaiting delivery on a Core 2 Duo system I am building around
an E6600 and nVidia 680i Asus P5N-SLI. I will be using two 8800GTS under
SLI. I will post more as things get here.......


Ed

Hello im new here as well
i bult a new pc late lee

6600e 2.4 1066fsb cooler AC Freezer 7 pro
4 gig of ram Geil Ram 800mhz
BFG 680i SLI Motherbord
800 w BFG psu
two 10000 RPM 16 meg cash hard drives
and sony 18X48X dvd righter
Case Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit
showing of Done

1st . MY n tune not work at all. trys to then Dies so not on PC
no more
2nd . weres this Bios up date 27 i went to the BFG web site no were
to be seen
3. i wont to over clock MY cpu and ram whats do i need to do. want to
get the CPU to run at say 2.9 and the ram at 900Mhz .
if you can be so kind what do i need to do any one ?

thansk C D Walton

i am running ntune and vista with no problems, i ran the utility and
it would hang but apon reboot it would pick right back up and start
again on the task. after it got everything to its optimum level it
stopped freezing now my cpu,ram, and video are all overclocked, im
running the m2n 32-sli deluxe asus mobo, amd x2 6000+ cpu 3gb corsair
ddr2 xtreme and a 8800gtx ko acs3 evga video card. ntune is a little
buggy but i have found its worth outweighs its problems.

err ru runing 32 Bit OS or 64 Bit as im runing 64 bit and if you look
at Nvidia web site its just 32bit not 64 may say i ton the main driver
pack but it not going to work on 64 bit what so ever.

yes im running the 32 bit of vista.