Did I fry my motherboard, CPU or both? O/C

[jacktesterson]

I have a MSI 770-G45 AM3 Motherboard running an AMD Athlon II 405e Triple Core Processor. It's using a Sapphire 6450 for Video, a Seasonic 350w 80+ Bronze power supply, 8GB of Pariot Memory (1.65v 1333 stuff), OCZ Agility 4 60GB SSD and a 250GB Maxtor Hard Drive. It was using a Corsair A70 cooler. (overkill) and a cheap Antec Case.

This is one of my "other" PC's that is used mostly by my wife for HTPC purposes in our bedroom with a LG 32" 1080p TV whenever I'm watching Sports on our big tv.


LONG STORY SHORT - It's a low voltage CPU, running at 2.3 GHz. I had the 4th core unlocked, making it something like a Phenom II B50 or something like that.


Anyways, on the weekend I was bored and decided to try to overclock it. Mind you it worked perfect for its purpose completely stock.

Stock Voltage was 1.19v - I read online these chips can reach 3.5 GHz quite easily, so I had it running on all 4 cores at 3.4GHz and was testing with Prime95 - using a voltage of 1.45v and the NB increased slightly - 1.3v I believe. Everything seemed stable. I kept the NB around 2000 MHZ and the memory clocked under 1333.

After about an hour of Prime, the computer just shut off completely - Now it's acting like its 100% dead - showing 0 signs of life. It won't turn on at all. I've tried clearing CMOS, removing the battery, and it just does nothing.

I'm thinking its one of the following:

1) Dead PSU
2) Dead Motherboard (What I'm thinking)
3) Dead CPU
4) Dead CPU + Motherboard


Of course the wife is now mad at me - I've never fried a system or component ever overclocking.

Any thoughts on what I should try to revive as is?

I will start by trying another Power supply in it...

Just sucks - I have no other AM3 systems to test anything with - so If it's not the PSU I'm thinking of just getting a cheap AM3 motherboard to try first.

 

[Kenmitch]

I will start by trying another Power supply in it...

I think you can try jump starting the power supply using a paperclip. Look for the single green wire and then jump to a black wire. If it fires up then I'd think motherboard issue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Your mistake, OP, is attempting to overclock on an MSI AMD motherboard. As far as power delivery goes, they appear to be one of the "major" mobo brands that consistently cheaps out on their power delivery circuitry. There is a list on the internet that I've seen for confirmed VRM failures, and nearly every entry is an MSI board. Your failure on an MSI board was not a coincidence.

Next time, get a Gigabyte or an ASrock, with 8+2 phases, if you want to OC.

Edit: Read this.
http://www.overclock.net/a/database-of-motherboard-vrm-failure-incidents

 

[UNhooked]

First check the PSU with paper clip. Next mobo. I do think it's the mobo as well. MSI mobo's are generally hit or miss.

 

[jacktesterson]

Haven't had time to test this yet.

I did order a Cheap Gigabyte AM3+ 760G Motherboard for $50 just in case - Will leave everything stock - Its not like it was needed, I basically caused this myself by being bored but didn't feel I was pushing it enough to blow a motherboard.

The 405e / 6450 is not power combo, but with the SSD its actually quite snappy and does the job as a Media Player quite well. Majority of households - This PC would serve them very well.


I'll just leave it stock next time.


As for MSI, kinda surprised. I've been using almost All MSI boards for the last 10 years. I think I had 1 Asus, 1 ECS and 1 ASRock board mixed in there - but majority has been MSI.

I had a P67A-G45 running a 2500k @ 4.5 GHz 24/7 for over 2 years without issue. I recently sold that system.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to test this weekend.

 

[rolli59]

MSI's US website even has warnings on some of their lesser boards not to do stress test with high power CPU's because of power design (VRM) issues.

 

[jacktesterson]

This was a 45w chip here I was overclocking haha.

Oh well. Will know more this weekend - no time right now.

 

[tweakboy]

Put everything stock in the BIOS.

When you turn on system do all fans spin ? including PSU ?

You just might need to dust bowl it, dust out GPU fan and CPU fan. Because 2 years it collected lots of dust.

If you turn on and PSU doesnt spin,, then your PSU is fried ,,, spend 80 bucks get a 400w, If you want to be future proof then 600w or more. gl

 

[jacktesterson]

So - Got a cheap ASRock Motherboard - It's a AM3+ board- verified the 405e is supported - Its the old school chipset with the Nvidia on board GPU - Got it brand new cheap - and since I'm using a 6450 I don't care about the features of the board in this PC. It has SATA, It has some USB ports, and it supports the CPU and takes my video card. Easy enough.

Installed last night finally.

Good News - PC now Turns on

Bad News - ASRock Boot Screen comes on and then Freezes solid - As far as it will go.

I've tried different sticks of Ram, I've unplugged hard drives, I've reseated the CPU... It turns on and Freezes on the ASRock Initial screen where it says "Press F2 or DEL to Enter Bios" but it doesn't move here.

Thinking I may have fried the AMD 405e CPU Too? A bored evening has turned into a pain in the a$$

 

[jacktesterson]

Well we can let this die..

I just picked up a Acer Mini Tower with a Athlon II x3 CPU with 4250 Onboard graphics for $130 off Kijiji (Craig's list like..). I'll throw the SSD in this PC and reinstall windows.

It came with 4GB of Ram, a DVD burner and Genuine Windows 7 ... Not bad for the price and what the PC is used for. The 4250 supports DXVA and will play Netflix fine too.

Will return the other board (bought local) and will part out what works in the other system.

 

[WTSherman]

I know the feeling, was having every form of trouble with my system before the recent move. It's all in order now, after replacing my video card and SSD.

It's most likely a RAM issue, I've never had a defective CPU but I understand if they go bad the computer just won't run. Otherwise I would be thinking PSU like the other guys said, nice to have spares for these parts, and RAM or anything else you might need to check.

Good to hear you have a running system at least.

 

[jacktesterson]

Well - Knowing me, I revisted this PC this weekend, even though it was already replaced with the cheap Acer above.

Turns out it both Sticks of Memory were also bad.

I replaced the Motherboard and Ram (both cheapest options I could find) and it's back up and running fine.

Best yet- I was able to Overclock the CPU this time with much better results using a ASRock board than the MSI board that fried.


The little Athlon II 405e x3 2.3GHz is now unlocked to a Phenom II B05 x4 @ 3.3 GHz, 100% Stable, with a mild bump in Voltage.

Thinking about adding a video card like a 5770 or something to allow some mild gaming on it.

Needs some Ram first though, right now its only running 2GB (1 stick) as that's all I had to test with... running Windows 8. Surprised 2GB actually seems to be fine for daily tasks.

 

[Xpage]

awesome to hear you got the board back running again. Finding issues in build can be frustrating, esp. when overclocking