Sounds like a it could be a bios bug. Sometimes those advanced AMD settings won't clear when you clear CMOS.
I did not know that.
I'd flash the new bios again with the 1600 installed and see if you can get it to post again with the 3600. I've had weird stuff like this happen on a couple of different B450 boards and 3000 CPU's. If that fails I'd flash back to the bios you used previously and see if that posts with the 3600.
I had similar thoughts. Also, I ordered an MSI (I think) A320M-A PRO MAX board (it was only $55 + $4 ship), I was going to see if the 3600 that I pulled, POSTed in that board.
On a side note....I suspect your OC wows are related to that motherboard. In terms of current capacity that motherboard should handle a 3600 overclock without overheating issues but it's still has s pretty terrible VRM. I imagine efficiency, ripple, transient response, and v droop are god awful on that thing. Does it even have LLC? What is your actual v core voltage on SVI2 in HWI64 under heavy all core load with your OC settings?
I knew that the VRMs weren't the greatest, but they're not the worst, either. They do have heatsinks on them, and I agree, they should be "enough" for a mild 3600 OC.
4.2 Ghz at 1.35v (actual) is way worse than any of the 5 3600 and 2 3600x CPU''s I've owned. Those were almost all pretty early silicon too. 4 of 7 were launch CPU's. Only my 4.5 at 1.28v 3600 has been a 2020 CPU.
The heaviest AVX load i stability test for is real bench though. Maybe you are using a heavier AVX load which would explain the discrepancy.
I could boot Windows at 1.25V, I could run WCG (mostly integer / FPU DC load) at 1.28125V, but for full "PrimeGrid stability" (ask
@DrMrLordX , he tried it out too), I need 1.35V. (It's a HEAVILY-OPTIMIZED AVX2-HEAVY bunch of code. Pulls a lot more power than most things, especially if you're running 12 threads of it.)
That sucks hard if you nuked your CPU. Hopefully you can get an RMA sorted out if you did. I wish you good luck.
Like I said, I hope that it isn't actually fully-nuked, and maybe it will run on an A320 "MAX" board, just to test it.
The thing was, I was getting the white (VGA) LED lit, with any GPU installed. So that indicates that CPU's PCI-E x16 lanes were somehow screwed up. I did, after a few CMOS clears, get four beeps out of it. Which, AFAIK, is controlled by the CPU running the BIOS code, so that would mean that the CPU is actually somewhat functional, as far as the actual processing cores go.
I wonder which boards I could use, for a CPU with burned-out PCI-E x16 lanes, but working processor cores? If the chipset PCI-E lanes are still OK, then I could use a board that had a secondary PCI-E x16 (physical) slot, connected to the chipset PCI-E lanes, and plug the GPU into the secondary slot. Or possible, use a GPU riser, and use a chipset x1 slot, and mount the GPU vertically somehow with a brace.
Some possibilities, I guess.