Did my CPU go bad after overlocking?

[Azndude51]

I have an E4300 and Gigabyte 965P-DS3 Rev 3.3 mobo w/4GB OCZ Platinum DDR2800 RAM. I've been running it at 2.7Ghz (300 FSB) at stock voltage for a couple of years. Everything has been stable and I've had no problems. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from XP and soon after my computer wouldn't boot, no post or anything (I have no idea if Win7 has anything to do with it or if it's just a coincidence). After leaving my computer off for a while and then restarting again, it boots but I notice that the BIOS got rid of my overclock. Now, the computer won't post if there is any OC over 10-20 MHz over stock FSB. Does this mean my CPU went bad or something? Or could there be something wrong with the motherboard? What's a good way to troubleshoot this?

Thanks

 

[Gillbot]

Double check all your settings, perhaps something went awry while sitting. I'd set everything to stock settings (set to bios defaults) and run stability tests at stock speeds. That should help isolate the cause IF there is a faulty component.

If everything checks ok at stock speeds, go back and attempt an overclock slowly. Odds are though, something else has gotten weak or is failing. IMHO, most likely Ram, PSU or mobo as those are the most likely to fail. It's pretty rare for a CPU to fail and still POST or work at all.

 

[Azndude51]

I'll run CPU and RAM tests when I have the time. Is there a way to test the PSU? I'm not sure if it's the problem though since I have a Silverstone DA750 (750watt) and can still run my ATI HD5850 with no problems in games.

 

[Thor86]

You upgraded with OC settings?

Was your oc settings stable? You probably have a corrupt OS install due to unstable OC settings.

 

[aigomorla]

your board could be giving out.

In order how things typically die from my experience.

1. Ram <-- always the first to go POP.
2. Board <--- if your have a cheap board, look more closely on board.
3. GPU <--- these thing die more commonly then cpu's.
4. CPU Tied with PSU (if you got a quality PSU).

So in that order do this.
1. Test ram.
2. Run Prime to test Ram + CPU
3. Play games for serveral hours after your test cpu to test game performance.
4. If you have this problem, it means you have a small mushroom cloud over your computer, so there is no way to test this without another system.

 

[Azndude51]

You upgraded with OC settings?

Was your oc settings stable? You probably have a corrupt OS install due to unstable OC settings.

I was running it for about 2 years with no problems and I frequently stress my CPU with games, video encoding, etc.

 

[Azndude51]

your board could be giving out.

In order how things typically die from my experience.

1. Ram <-- always the first to go POP.
2. Board <--- if your have a cheap board, look more closely on board.
3. GPU <--- these thing die more commonly then cpu's.
4. CPU Tied with PSU (if you got a quality PSU).

So in that order do this.
1. Test ram.
2. Run Prime to test Ram + CPU
3. Play games for serveral hours after your test cpu to test game performance.
4. If you have this problem, it means you have a small mushroom cloud over your computer, so there is no way to test this without another system.

With the BIOS running default settings:
1. I'm running memtest86 right now, I'll leave it going for a few hours
2. I'll run Prime overnight when I'm done with memtest
3. I haven't played for several hours straight but my game performance is as expected. It's not really noticeably slower but slightly slower based on benchmarks since I don't have my overclock anymore. I haven't had any crashes or any problems in the games so far.
4. So you're saying that if 1-3 come up with no problems, there's nothing I can do unless i have another system to test with?

 

[baddog60]

Did you upgrade to the 64 bit version of Windows 7? Also, your video card is new. What other changes were recently made?

 

[aigomorla]

With the BIOS running default settings:

4. So you're saying that if 1-3 come up with no problems, there's nothing I can do unless i have another system to test with?

if 1-3 come with no problems, there is nothing you can do to test it without another system.

:\

Because you would need to test the cpu in another board, and test it with another PSU together.

 

[Azndude51]

Did you upgrade to the 64 bit version of Windows 7? Also, your video card is new. What other changes were recently made?

I was using the ATI 5850 with XP pro (32-bit) for a few weeks before going to Windows 7 64-bit Pro. When I upgraded to Win7 I also changed around my hard drives. I removed a 160GB where XP was installed and installed Win7 on my 400GB. Since I took out the 160GB, I put in a 1TB in its place. I also replaced an IDE DVD burner with a SATA one. Total I have 4 SATA drives (3 HD, 1 DVD).

 

[baddog60]

Your problems maybe related to the 64-bit OS. It sounds like your old drive may be sitting around still. Swap the OS drive out and then see if it affects your ability to overclock.

 

[Azndude51]

Thanks for the help and suggestions, everyone. However, it seems like the problem fixed itself. In my testing yesterday, I was only able to get the bus speed up to 225 before it would stop posting. Today, I was able to get it back up to 300 where it was before without changing any other settings in the computer or messing with the hardware. I'm running prime now to see if it's stable.