Sudden Death of p4p800 SE?

Anybody have any problems with their p4c800e-d's just stop working? i wasn't overclocked very high, and certianly wasn't over volted. My comp locked up in windows xp (had been running stable for weeks at 235fsb), i reset and jumped into the bios, where it locked up again. I hit reset one last time, and it wouldn't post, or display anything after that. i reset the bios with the jumper, nothing. I removed the battery, and power cord for awhile. still nothing when i tried again. I RMA'd the board, but has anybody else had a similiar experience? (revision 2 with a water cooled prescott CPU on it)

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That quote is from another persons post about their p4c800 (obviously) and you know what? My p4p800 is doing something similar. I decided to open another thread because it is a little different.

I have a 3.2 prescott was running stable at 3.36 for a while, but that was a basic tweak. I was playing around the past 2 days with stuff and I ended up getting a stable system at 230 fsb with 2.5-4-4-5 timings and it was running fine. Then I decided I was going to change the timings a little more and see if I could achieve anything. I know tighter timings reduced fsb, but it was worth a shot. I tried running at 2.0-4-4-5 (only thing changed) and bam. The wierd **** started:
First trty at posting I got an error: Radeon x800 bad checksum, checking cdrom, not found - checking floppy, not found. And I was like wtf!? It couldnt even post to try to change the bios again. So I reset it with the jumper and pulled the battery to make sure it was reset and it did reset, it wouldnt post at all. It left me at a blank screen.

So I did what I normally do when something ****s up. Take everything apart and rebuild it. Did that, it posted. Yay. But it kept locking on post. I know everything was back to factory settings but it wouldnt do anything. It would sit at the ASUS p4p800SE screen saying hit DEL for setup. No drivers were loaded so I couldnt hit anything, and it would freeze there.

So I did the battery thing again, pulled it and let it sit for a while. I booted it up and it beeped at me and I thought "ok good, its working it knows the bios is reset and its warning me" (because its the same type of beep) but I look at the screen: "IDE Controller Failure system halted" and again wtf!?

So I restart the system and now it doesnt post at all. Back to step one. I tried unplugging the IDE connections and booting SATA but still nothing. Pulled everything out (ethernet, sound card etc) and booted bare minimum. Same thing.

It's still under warranty but I have to wait till tuesday to replace it. And I'm thinking of upgrading to a p4c800 deluxe if I do anything.

Anything else I can try? It was acting wierd like this last night but I managed to get it going again, then I played around and I got back to the same errors.

Have your tried flicking the PSU switch on and off.

Asus is not known for failure of this matter but there is a percentage of defective etc.

What would flicking the PSU switch have to do with anything?

I know, I bought ASUS because they are good boards and I've heard some positive reviews on them. Couldnt afford the p4c800 deluxe so I went with the "base model"

That 3.2E is what did it bro. Those CPUs are not compatable with the i865/i875 chipsets, unless you mainboard is FMB rev. 1.5/2.0, which in your case it probably is not. I had this same exact problem and it killed my motherboard as well. Best bet is to RMA and hope you get a newer revision board. I would tell most people not to OC the 3.2E, those things are hardcore on motherboards. They eat a ton of voltage and cause instability with older revision boards and even the newer ones. Not only that but they heat up the mosfets really bad. I thought they were going to be great to overclock with, but so far I hate them. Maybe a newer and better chipset or revision will come out that will have a much better support for these beastly cores.

I don't belive the motherboard would fry just by running a Presott and changing the memory latency.

Flicking on and off the PSU is a OC method incase it broke down before post or a real bad freeze.

What was the temps and voltage setting of the Prescott.

NoteUser said:

I don't belive the motherboard would fry just by running a Presott and changing the memory latency.

Flicking on and off the PSU is a OC method incase it broke down before post or a real bad freeze.

What was the temps and voltage setting of the Prescott.

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http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTY1LDE=

Please read. You will find this very interesting.

Temps hit a max of 60C (or so I saw) No more than 64 for sure. Votages got up to 1.4375V I believe. I didnt use it much I kept it on 1.4250 95% of the time, just tried upping it a little to see if thats where the instability was.

And about the 3.2E being the problem. I highly doubt it. I had 1004 bios (1006 is newest) and it ran 100% fine till today. Almost 2 months now and since I started tweaking it this happened. I hope that x800 bad checksum was just some sort of glitch and that the card is still okay... I wonder if any computer stores are open tomorrow....

Asus shared this:

P4C800-E Deluxe, P4C800 Deluxe , P4C800, P4P800 Deluxe, P4P800, P4P8X SE, P4S800D-E Deluxe, P4P800-VM, P4P800S-E Deluxe, P4S800D, P4P800S SE, P4R800-V Deluxe?P4R800-VM, P4S800, P4V800D, P4V800-X, P4S800-MX, P4P800S.

Above are our current boards that support Prescott.

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Taken from the link you shared. Clearly my p4p800 is fine. I want the p4c800 because its got the 875 chipset (if that even has ANY advantage over 865) plus its got more capabilities than the p4p.

I read that too, but I still wouldn't trust it. I've been hearing more and more of these "My motherboard died" posts around the net, and everyone of them is using a 3.2E or 3.4E Pentium 4. It seems like a trend, one that could be very expensive for retailers and mainboad manufacturers if it continues.

I'm thinking that when I get my new mobo tomorrow (hopefully) I'll just sink the mosfets rightaway as that could be a problem too right?

FyreDaug said:

I'm thinking that when I get my new mobo tomorrow (hopefully) I'll just sink the mosfets rightaway as that could be a problem too right?

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It could help. I think that these CPUs are sucking up major wattage and the power needed is just too much for some of these motherboards. They just were not built with the Prescott in mind.

When you overclock you are stressing the board alot more than any Northwood ever would, so the boards wind up fried because they just can't handle it. Even now some of these guys are claiming to have stable overclocks up to 3.9+, but how long will that last before their boards go kaput like me and many others?

I honestly don't think it is worth the risk at this point. I am hoping that some manufactureer will heed the call and produce a better mainboard for the Prescotts that can handle the voltage and will not burn out.

The retailer I always go to who has good recognition and everything kept saying that the p4c800 is a horrible board, theyve got almost 33% of them returned since they started carrying them. All with 3.2+ prescott. P4P800 have a much less return rate <10% and they say the 875 has no advantage over 865. I was questioning it, but I figured whatever, I'll save the 90 bucks and get the p4p800e D which I did. Firewire+sata raid+optical out is yummy. Havent touched bios yet, too busy modding the board for some wicked *** air cooling

DirtMerchant said:

I honestly don't think it is worth the risk at this point. I am hoping that some manufactureer will heed the call and produce a better mainboard for the Prescotts that can handle the voltage and will not burn out.

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Have you noticed some of the hybrid LGA775's w/i865/875P chipsets, like the Asus P5G800 or DFI 875P-T??? I haven't held the Asus in my hand, so I can't say for sure, but from the pic on Asus' site, it sure looks like they've got a lot more FETS than the 6 on my current P4P800's. And only $90 U$D @ ZZF.

One of these might be the WTG, and my Debit Card's getting itchy!

I'd hope, the LGA775 power circuitry is better suited to P4E's, than the S478's, which kludge-changed FMB/VRM specs mid-route to Presshott.

Strat

I agree. I am pretty certain these newer boards using the 875P with the 755 are definitely beefed up.

DirtMerchant said:

I agree. I am pretty certain these newer boards using the 875P with the 755 are definitely beefed up.

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And the Asus P5G800 1005 BIOS has the 14X unlock feature for 3.4 & 3.6! Not bad for $90 U$D!

*debit card starts itching even more*