I FRIED MY CPU!!!

[SlitheryDee]

I figured I could overclock my CPU (Athlon XP 2600 barton core) and squeeze a little more out of my system which is already severely bottlenecked by my processor since my gpu is a Geforce 6600 GT and I hve 1024 mb of kingston hyper X ram. I set my FSB at 200 and my clock multiplier at 10 and I thought that I could slowly increase my core voltage until my system ran without crashing. I was using 3dmark03 as my test because while windows ran fine I couldn't get 3dmark to finish. So I booted up, ran 3dmark and when it failed I restarted, upped the voltage by .025 and ran it again. At 1.950 volts the system crashed for good. A burnt odor was detectable in my room and I kinda suspected that ths was the end. So, a warning to would-be overclockers, if your situation matches mine in any respect remember NOT TO PUSH IT TOO FAR.

As for me, I've ordered a new (better) processor from newegg. I had to stick with an XP because I don't have the funds to seriously upgrade. It's not a total disaster but it sets back my plans to jump on the 64 bit bandwagon.

 

[Jeff7181]

Why in the world would you increase the voltage if it wasn't necessary? You didn't read ANYTHING before you started doing this did you?

 

[daniel49]

bummer I feel for you.
I have been reading about overclocking afraid I can't really see the value of an incremental increase as a tradeoff on length of life for my hardware.
But I understand some get great feelings of satisfaction from it. to each his own.
Hope tomorrows a better day
cheers

 

[MDE]

1.95V is insane for any Barton IMO, you were asking for it.

 

[CrackaLackaZe]

Wait, you upped the voltage to stop it from crashing? ohhh ok...-.-

 

[zakee00]

Originally posted by: MDE
1.95V is insane for any Barton IMO, you were asking for it.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I know I know...now. I read on a post here at anandtech that "2.0 volts was suitable to any overclockers needs". I felt that I was safe up to 2 volts. I was wrong. I gueass I shouldn't beleive everything I read. And for Jeff maybie increasing the voltage wasn't a smart solution but I thought that it would help my system run stably at higher clock speeds. Like I said I couldn't run 3dmark03. Once again I was wrong.

 

[CheesePoofs]

3dmard is designed to isolate the graphics card and use as little of the CPU as possible. Your graphics card probably had some driver glitches which caused the crashes. Its not a good cpu test, prime 95 is much better.

 

[Jeff7181]

Not maybe... increasing the voltage was a BAD idea. You don't just start increasing voltage until you've ruled out other possible causes for instability... and you definately don't go all the way to 1.95 volts.

See... this is why I've told people in the past NOT to say that 2.0 volts won't kill a processor. I have no doubt you read that here on these forums because I remember arguing with someone last year about it, and this is exactly what I said would happen.

*EDIT* At least you learned this with a ~$100 processor rather than a $250-300 Athlon-64.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Yes, 1.95 is too much. I've learned my lesson. Any ideas as to what the ACTUAL cause of my system instability was? I have an Albatron KX600 mb and a creative audigy gamer sound card, other than my ethernet card HD and liteon DVDRW I don't have anything else in my comp. Perhaps my motherboard isn't so overclocker-friendly?

 

[SemiBad]

1.95V for Barton?? Are you sure you are not runing a Celeron CPU. LOL
I rememberthe voltage I put 2.1V on my old Celeron 300 in order to OC to around 500Mhz. 5% more than default is the max that I would put on a CPU.

Hope you are getting the Mobile XP....... and pay attention to the default Voltage..

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
Yes, 1.95 is too much. I've learned my lesson. Any ideas as to what the ACTUAL cause of my system instability was? I have an Albatron KX600 mb and a creative audigy gamer sound card, other than my ethernet card HD and liteon DVDRW I don't have anything else in my comp. Perhaps my motherboard isn't so overclocker-friendly?

As someone else said... the video card is the most likely cause... if increasing CPU voltage didn't do anything for 3DMark stability, then the instability was most likely video card related.

That motherboard uses Via's KT600 chipset... Via's Socket A chipsets aren't really the first choice for overclockers... in fact, I don't think they're anybody's first choice for anything. They use dividers to keep the PCI/AGP buses as close to spec as possible rather than simply locking them at 33/66 MHz no matter what the FSB is... so your system might not be stable at 239 MHz FSB, but when you hit 240 MHz a new divider might take effect and bring the PCI and AGP bus back into spec and all of a sudden it's stable.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Actually I'm getting XP 3000. What's the big deal with the mobile XPs anyway?

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
Actually I'm getting XP 3000. What's the big deal with the mobile XPs anyway?

They're the creame of the crop. They're just like a regular Athlon XP, except AMD has tested them and they work reliably at the same clock speed at a lower voltage. So they use less voltage to get them to run cooler for laptops. It also seems to hold true that if it can operate at the same speed at a lower voltage, at the same voltage, it can operate at a higher speed.

 

[SlitheryDee]

so your system might not be stable at 239 MHz FSB, but when you hit 240 MHz a new divider might take effect and bring the PCI and AGP bus back into spec and all of a sudden it's stable.[/quote]

So you mean I might have been able to increase my FSB to ge a stable system? Barring video card issues, I mean.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
Actually I'm getting XP 3000. What's the big deal with the mobile XPs anyway?

They are hand picked XP's so they overclock better and can do so with not much added voltage overall compared to normal XP's

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
so your system might not be stable at 239 MHz FSB, but when you hit 240 MHz a new divider might take effect and bring the PCI and AGP bus back into spec and all of a sudden it's stable.

So you mean I might have been able to increase my FSB to ge a stable system? Barring video card issues, I mean.

In your case probably not since you were running at 200, which is a standard speed, and the divider used at that speed should put the PCI and AGP buses exactly at their specified speeds of 33 and 66 MHz respectively.

 

[SlitheryDee]

oh ok. Damn I gotta do more reseach when I plan on buying parts.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
oh ok. Damn I gotta do more reseach when I plan on buying parts.

It helps... and it helps to get many opinions since as you learned, trusting one person's opinion can result in a dead CPU.

 

[Steeplerot]

Do you KNOW it is the cpu? If you smelled burning it could very well be that via board. Check the mobo!
Those bartons are tough. 1.95 shouldn't just kill it if you have good cooling.
I ran my 2500+ at 1.95 on air but shut it down due to temps up around 75c.
Bartons are good for 85c if I recall.
If it is a dead mobo go for a Abit NF7-s Rev 2.0 or Shuttle AN35N Ultra the best socket A OC mobos IMO.
The shuttle board is dirt cheap too and if you have an audigy you dont need the fancy soundstorm audio on the NF7-s.

 

[Zebo]

Damn I gotta do more reseach

werd

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Steeplerot
Do you KNOW it is the cpu? If you smelled burning it could very well be that via board. Check the mobo!
Those bartons are tough. 1.95 shouldn't just kill it if you have good cooling.
I ran my 2500+ at 1.95 on air but shut it down due to temps up around 75c.
Bartons are good for 85c if I recall.
If it is a dead mobo go for a Abit NF7-s Rev 2.0 or Shuttle AN35N Ultra the best socket A OC mobos IMO.
The shuttle board is dirt cheap too and if you have an audigy you dont need the fancy soundstorm audio on the NF7-s.

yea could be a cap. you said smell right? caps smell nasty when they pop.

 

[SlitheryDee]

No I suppose I don't KNOW it's the cpu. What do I look for on my MB to verify that it's not the culprit? I've seen a cpu die in an overclocking attempt before. In that case a new processor fixed the problem. In my own case I'm seeing behavior thats similar to that one. Like whan I try to start my computer, the cpu fan twitches but doesn't spin. Dammit now I don't know if ive made the right decision in getting a new processor. Can anyone give me their opinion? I need to know how likely it is that I destroyed my cpu instead of my mb. Thanks

 

[SlitheryDee]

 

[ts3433]

Check what Zebo is referring to--burst or leaking capacitors (caps). They're those little cylindrical things all over the motherboard.