sudden CPU death but WHY?

mikable

Senior member
Sep 23, 2000
303
0
0
So, I have a

Athlon XP 3000+ Barton, 333MHz <----------HAD! :(
Soyo KT400 dragon ultra
1 gig of pc3200 ram
Saphire 9800 pro 256
audigy 1
4 7200 rpm hd's
a dvd burner i
Enlight case and ps 340 watt

Running great for several weeks until yesterday. I was playing Sacred, a new diablo clone and all of a sudden the entire system just turns off. Like the power went out. Checked everything and waited 30 minutes tried to turn the system back on. Nothing, open it up, the power indicater on the mobo is on. Took out the CPU replaced it with an older Athlon xp powr on. Everything works..... Tried the other CPU again nothing! :frown:

Now nothing was overclocked and I have a Thermaltake Volcano 11+ heatsink lapped, with thermal grease, plus 3 case fans. Temps never went over 50c for the cpu or 65 for the case even under extreme UT2004 binges for hours at a time. What the heck gives? I've never had a CPU just die like that! Was it possibly a power surge, or maybe my PS isn't up to the task and it was starving the CPU till it died? What can I do to prevent this in the future? Lastly, this is a "retail" CPU, what are my chances of getting AMD to cough up another one?
 

Special1Sauce

Senior member
Jan 26, 2004
379
0
0
Did any other lights in your house go off? because it could have been a power surge through your earth ground on your Power Cable.
 

nick1985

Lifer
Dec 29, 2002
27,153
6
81
call AMD and tell them what happened.

that sucks though....:( sorry for your loss
 

mikable

Senior member
Sep 23, 2000
303
0
0
Yea, I'm gona call AMD on Monday and see what's up. Hopefully they'll get me a new one, I'm not holding my breath though.

Nope, I didn't notice any flickering lights, or other electrical wierdness when it happened. Just a sudden loss of power to the entire computer. fans, hd's, everything, like the plug was pulled.
 

alzan

Diamond Member
May 21, 2003
3,860
2
0
Ouchh! Sorry to hear about your CPU; but as was pointed out, retail CPU's have a longer warranty and AMD should replace it.

Looking through your specs, I think your PS is a little light on power. For your setup, I wouldn't have less than a 400W PSU. With minor differences, I have the same setup with a 430W PS.

Good luck

alzan
 

charloscarlies

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2004
1,288
0
0
Originally posted by: alzan
Ouchh! Sorry to hear about your CPU; but as was pointed out, retail CPU's have a longer warranty and AMD should replace it.

Looking through your specs, I think your PS is a little light on power. For your setup, I wouldn't have less than a 400W PSU. With minor differences, I have the same setup with a 430W PS.

Good luck

alzan

Yea 4 hard drives on that small of a power supply? Yikes!

Hopefully you can get it replaced under warranty though...good luck man.
 

amdskip

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
22,530
13
81
Use nothing but name brand p/s like antec, enermax, pc power and cooling, etc. Why risk 100's of dollars of equipment to a $20 power supply.
 

azkiwi

Senior member
Oct 1, 2000
812
0
71
oh, pish. I'm running a more stuff on less PS and have been, 24/7 for a year. I would like to see some analysis of how this would cause a CPU failure. A power spike is much more likely.
Bummer, but that's what warranties are for.
And think about some sort of line conditioner - like a UPS.
 

Viper96720

Diamond Member
Jul 15, 2002
4,390
0
0
Call AMD and see since you had a warranty. Not using the stock heatsink it comes with voids the warranty. Even though it may actually better than retail one.
 

Viper96720

Diamond Member
Jul 15, 2002
4,390
0
0
They got this all in bold on their warranty page

This Limited Warranty shall be null and void if the AMD microprocessor which is the subject of this Limited Warranty is used with any heatsink/fan other than the one provided herewith.

 

mikecel79

Platinum Member
Jan 15, 2002
2,858
1
81
Originally posted by: azkiwi
oh, pish. I'm running a more stuff on less PS and have been, 24/7 for a year. I would like to see some analysis of how this would cause a CPU failure. A power spike is much more likely.
Bummer, but that's what warranties are for.
And think about some sort of line conditioner - like a UPS.

Gotta agree with him. It seems a lot of people on here like to overestimate the amount of power they need from a PSU. I always point back at servers. Our file server is designed to run on a single 450W PSU and it has 2 PIII Xeons 900Mhz, 12 10k RPM SCSI Drives, 3 NICS, 2 RAID Controllers, 3GB RAM, CD-ROM, and an additional SCSI controller. A 340W PSU is more than he needs for that system.

 

Macro2

Diamond Member
May 20, 2000
4,874
0
0
They will probably ask you to return the CPU and the stock (cough)heatsink. Be prepared
 

sharq

Senior member
Mar 11, 2003
507
0
0
I believe that PSU is fine for his needs. Unless the PSU shorted out due to power surge, a 340watt enlight PSU is fine. Enlight is not a generic name, they're not as good as Antec or Enermax, but they make reliable products.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
you you tried underclocking your cpu? maybe whatever broke made it so it can power a 2400 but not a 3000+? dunno, i might be talking out of my ass, but i stillthink u should test the cpu in another comp. i've had more dead m/b then dead cpu.
 

mikable

Senior member
Sep 23, 2000
303
0
0
Got to be a bad CPU, because I tried it in another system and it does the same thing. Nothing, like it's not plugged in the wall with the bad cpu on the mobo. I do have the stock heatsink but proof of perchase Hmmmm. Will Newegg send out a copy of the invoice?