Do I have a defective PIII 700

[cloudchief]

I got a PIII 700 from Onvia last week, CB0 stepping. Wouldn't run @ 933 stable, I assumed because of heat, only ran it a short while and the cpu temp went up 20 degrees C. when I went from 700 to 900. this was with default heatsink, and default voltage. Today I tried putting some Artic Silver Thermal Paste on it to see if that might help, When I rebooted It would not post at 100 FSB only 66 0r 83. This is with a MSI Master slotket and an Asus P3B-F. I do suspect it to be defective and would like any opinions or suggestions.

 

[pm]

Did it run at 100MHz FSB (=700MHz) before you replaced the paste? Has it ever run at 700MHz?

Make sure that you didn't put very much paste on... too much is worse than none at all. You literally want a film of paste.

 

[cloudchief]

It ran for a week at 700 although a little hot. I was very sparing with the paste and the Intel original thermal tape was way more than what I put on. I also tried it on a second computer with a P3B-F also, got the same results.

 

[StanTheMan]

Was it overheat when you overclocked it?
If it was, probabbly the cpu is broken bcos of the heat.

 

[cloudchief]

Perhaps, however I did not run it very long at 933 and that was when I first got it. It then ran fine at 700 for a week now it will not post at 700 at all! It does however post at 466 and 582 (66 and 83 FSB).

 

[pm]

Hmm... well, I don't really know. In my experience a chip usually either works, or it doesn't. You very rarely can break a chip in such a way that it only "kinda works". In theory you could kill a chip such that it only runs much slower than it's supposed to, but this would involve prolonged use at high voltage and high temperature. The higher the voltage and the hotter the temperature, the shorter this "prolonged use" would need to be, but unless it's run horribly out of spec, it should be longer than a few weeks.

My bet would be something else is wrong. Memory... video card... etc... I don't know. When you moved it to the second motherboard, what components (other than the CPU) were common between the two systems?

Patrick Mahoney
IA64 Microprocessor Design Engineer
Intel Corp.

* Not speaking for Intel Corp. *

 

[VTBigBear]

if you cant fix it return it..
=)

 

[cloudchief]

Soundblasster Live, come to think of it I seem to remember something about the soundblaster live having compatiblity problems with the PIII. I will go pull the sound blaster out and see. If that is the case I wonder why it ran ok for a week?

 

[pm]

Yeah there are issues running the Coppermine processors with the shipped Live! drivers... get the latest drivers from the website. If that doesn't fix it, then that isn't the problem, and I don't have any other suggestions.

As far as VTBear's advice... I kinda agree except that RMA'ing a part is a pain and takes time. If that's not the problem then you've wasted your time and wasted the company's time and your computer still isn't working.

 

[cloudchief]

I have the latest drivers for the soundblaster installed and I can't see how that would make a difference, as it never even comes close to loading drivers, It just won't post at 700. Nothing NADA, ZERO. I have tried everyting I can think of including pulling the soundblaster to no avail, and I am convinced I have a defective chip. I had a bad gut feeling about this chip right from the start, so I guess I will call Onvia and see about RMAing it.