Possible Damage to e8400?

[driftwood07]

I tried a few times to overclock my e8400. The first times I used a 380*9 for 3.42Ghz and that worked fine without any voltage adjustments, going any higher than 380 fsb would not boot, so I tried upping the FSB and MCH and Vcore. I tried this several times and kept changing the values. I knew the stock voltage for the e8400 was about 1.20V and they are pretty safe up to 1.30 and I thought that would be plenty for 400*9 for 3.60Ghz (my goal). The problem was the pc would never even post, just flash the bios screen and restart. I finally just now realize when looking at my bios again that everytime I adjusted the Vcore I was using 2.XX since that the 2.40 range started at the top of the list on my bios and it went down from there, so I just scrolled down a bit to 2.25 , and up to 2.30 when the lower ones didnt work, only paying attention to the second 2 digits, not even thinking that the bios would support over 2V to the cpu. I am sorta paranoid now that I may have caused some damage to my chip seeing as how this is 1V over the safe zone. If the PC never posts can this really cause a problem? Or did it save itself by restarting. Thanks if anyone has any input.

 

[lopri]

What motherboard can give 2.40V for a CPU? I'd like to know.

 

[driftwood07]

the board is a GA-965P-DQ6 rev 3.3 with beta bios to support the e8400. That might be the reason for the crazy voltage options. After changing the Vcore to 1.25V the pc booted fine first time. I wasted I dont know how long adjusted everything on the board and resetting CMOS when the entire time I was using an outrageous voltage, I just hope since it wasnt being stressed whatsoever it wouldn't cause any tunneling damage in the transistors.

 

[lopri]

Have not used that board so I don't know the BIOS, but it's hard to imagine there is even an option for 2.40V for ANY CPU on current Intel motherboards. Are you sure that it's not +0.24V or even +240mV, something like that? If that's the case your CPU would be at somewhere between 1.40~1.45V.

Did you try clearing the CMOS? I think the reason you failed to boot @9x400 is probably memory being set too high. You may need to use a different divider in order to raise FSB.

 

[Idontcare]

That kind of voltage is pretty severe and has no doubt damaged your CPU in that it has accelerated the degradation mechanisms.

Whether this means your chip will now only live for 10 years or 5 years or 1 year can only be answered by Intel's datasheets on their internal accelerated lifetime tests.

(intentionally increasing voltage and/or temperatures for prolonged periods of time is one of the ways chip manufacturers accelerate aging effects on their chips for lifetime quality assurance)

 

[driftwood07]

yes i am sure it was not a +/- amount but a true voltage. i too am dumbfounded why there would be presets for over 2V, which is why i totally ignored the first digit when setting the voltages.

Originally posted by: Idontcare
That kind of voltage is pretty severe and has no doubt damaged your CPU in that it has accelerated the degradation mechanisms.

so even though the board didnt post and just looped between splash screen, off, splash screen off, you think that this has had an effect on the cpu?i know the +1V is an extreme amount over but with it not posting i dont know if this would have even been fully applied. thanks for the responses.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: driftwood07
yes i am sure it was not a +/- amount but a true voltage. i too am dumbfounded why there would be presets for over 2V, which is why i totally ignored the first digit when setting the voltages.

Originally posted by: Idontcare
That kind of voltage is pretty severe and has no doubt damaged your CPU in that it has accelerated the degradation mechanisms.

so even though the board didnt post and just looped between splash screen, off, splash screen off, you think that this has had an effect on the cpu?i know the +1V is an extreme amount over but with it not posting i dont know if this would have even been fully applied. thanks for the responses.

If you get stabbed by a knife does it matter how quickly or slowly the knife enters and exits your body?

But just like the knife analogy, getting stabbed in your finger is a whole different matter from getting stabbed in an artery.

So what no one can tell you is whether or not >2V for a few minutes of rebooting cycles decreased the lifespan of your chip by "a lot" or "merely just a little bit". (except the people who have access to Intel's internal accelerated lifetime testing)

 

[Miramonti]

I'm not sure enough is known to know exactly what the affect might be if it is still bootable and workable. High volts can be worse than high heat, but the exact effect that could result from a couple brief 1v overvolting's is anyone's guess, beyond an intel or other processor engineer. In fact you'll probably know more than most in due time. For example, perhaps it won't handle high heat or volts (even within normal acceptable limits) as well, perhaps it won't last as long, perhaps it simply won't be as stable in any active processor conditions...its anyone's guess imo, but feel free to update this thread with any observations over time.