CPU Failures...how many of you have had them??

[RU482]

I always here about overclocking reducing the life of a CPU. Has anyone ever had a cpu fail soley due to overclocking? I mean, have you had an overclocked machine put together and not fiddled with it for an extended period of time, and then just had the CPU fail?

Personally, I've never heard of it and am very doubtful than anything outside of "operator error" (see fiddling with) or improper cooling would result in a CPU failure.

 

[THUGSROOK]

sorry but its a reality with P4 cpus.
too much voltage/heat will melt the pathways and create "resistance" once they solidify again.
your overclock will slowly get lower and lower til it wont run even at stock speeds.

with amd cpus i believe they just go "poof"

 

[Cerb]

More like *crackle pop fizz*

It is reality with any CPU, however, most CPUs end up outliving their expected life anyway, so I doubt it would hurt too much unless you really overdid it (like using 2v or so). Failure due to overclocking would usually come in the same form as other failure, so we really don't know...there's it not booting one day, which happens w/ stock CPUs sometimes, there's general instability, which happens anytime something runs too hot or too high voltage for too long. Maybe one day we can go to Radio Shack and get an electron microscope for $1000 (or buy it online for $100 :-D), but right now it ain't happening.

 

[techietam]

with amd cpus i believe they just go "poof"

One time was too busy installing a HSF and forgot to take off tape from
the thermal pad. Customer brought it back.... No more post.. XP 1800+

Today I took off my P4 HS to fix AS3, put back on.. after a few minutes
my CPU temp alarm went off... I realized that I forgot to plug in
the CPU fan But since it was Intel P4, it handled it like a brave man

 

[dkozloski]

Over a career working on computers as well as other military and industrial electronics that has lasted over forty years I have never had a CPU failure of any kind. I dropped an old Cyrix processor and broke a corner off of it but it still works to this day. I have straightened out bent pins, soldered back on broken pins, reatttached heat spreader plates, and cleaned off gobs of glue and heat paste. In all cases they worked again.

 

[Wolfsraider]

never

 

[RalfHutter]

Never, ever for me and I've always been an overclocker. I just never overdo it. No matter what, I don't overvolt.

 

Well, I just recently started overclocking, so I haven't had any failing cpu's (not yet, anyway). But since I'm being pretty cautious with my overclock, I believe I have the odds for a long lifetime on my side.

For example, my P4 Nortwood 1.8A is running 2.61 ghz @ 1.575 vcore. Shouldn't be too bad, from what I've read and heard.

 

[deerslayer]

None yet

Knock on wood!

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

None as a result of overclocking. But, I sold a 1G Athlon and HS/Fan in FST forum and the person said it did not work. I packed it really well. He sent it back in a box with NO padding whatsoever and the parts and cpu were clanking around inside. Needless to say, it didn't worl. I was pissed since the CPU of course had bent pins and chipped core.

 

[Regalk]

What Thugs said is true BUT only in so far as being an extreme o/clocker with respect to the new P4s - especially raising volts to beyond 1.65v. Otherwise its pretty hard killing a cpu even an AMD Athlon when properly installed. I have been doing this since Pentium 90 (@ 120) and later cel 300A (@ 464) and those cpus never died. Both of these vanilla cpus are still around and running at o/clocked speeds. SO I will say if you do a good job at it then 3 years will come and go without a problem - the only thing that may die is the fan or motherboard from age!

 

[eplebnista]

CPU Failures...how many of you have had them??

None here.

 

[Jeff7]

The only times that processors have died on me is a result of my own carelessness - forgetting to clip down the heatsink, or crushing the core.