Is this a dying CPU??

[Quizno]

ive never killed a CPU before...guess im lucky. but i think my first is here.

once i upgraded about 6 months ago, my parents got my old asus p5a-b and k6-2 500mhz. now, foolish me, i havent bothered to keep that PC maintained for some time(i thought at least my brother<the one who uses it most> would keep it in a clean environment). a week ago i decided it was time for a clean format and reinstall, cuz apparently it was crashing a little too frequent.

so i did an install of XP, went fine....but after a while it would start to have random lock-ups and errors. so i thought it was XP, and tried installing ME....then 98, all had the same results.

well...i decided to look in the BIOS, and what did i find? a CPU temp of 75C!!!! i turn it off, take the case off....and sure enough, there is about 2 pounds of dust in there. the HS/fan was barely operational.

after about an hour of use(especially if games are played) it would start to really lock up and freeze a lot...to the point you couldnt even boot it. if i turn it off for a half hour, it works fine for another hour....but then screws up again.

sooooo, ive tried all options(even tried lowering the FSB and multi, and fiddling with the voltage...to see if it work at lower speeds)....and my conclusion is it is a dead(or dying) cpu....am i right? or can it be saved?

[dozier768]

those puppies always run hot, have you ever looked for a hardware conflict or irq sharing. that will cause lockups left and right. aslo win xp has a problem with the acpi irq routing call and usually routs everthing through the same irq. atleast in my experience. check it out just an idea ,and welcome to our furums

[Quizno]

yeah...i checked for irq conflicts....i checked for pretty much everything, and since this stuff happens in 98 and ME, i cant say that it is an XP issue.

btw...ive been visiting these forums for a few years now. my old nick was biztyke....and i might have used smokey420, either way....im no newbie:)

im pretty sure its a dying cpu....not a big deal(gives me an opportunity to upgrade)....

[Tomas]

Originally posted by Quizno
ive never killed a CPU before...guess im lucky. but i think my first is here.

once i upgraded about 6 months ago, my parents got my old asus p5a-b and k6-2 500mhz. now, foolish me, i havent bothered to keep that PC maintained for some time(i thought at least my brother<the one who uses it most> would keep it in a clean environment). a week ago i decided it was time for a clean format and reinstall, cuz apparently it was crashing a little too frequent.

so i did an install of XP, went fine....but after a while it would start to have random lock-ups and errors. so i thought it was XP, and tried installing ME....then 98, all had the same results.

well...i decided to look in the BIOS, and what did i find? a CPU temp of 75C!!!! i turn it off, take the case off....and sure enough, there is about 2 pounds of dust in there. the HS/fan was barely operational.

after about an hour of use(especially if games are played) it would start to really lock up and freeze a lot...to the point you couldnt even boot it. if i turn it off for a half hour, it works fine for another hour....but then screws up again.

sooooo, ive tried all options(even tried lowering the FSB and multi, and fiddling with the voltage...to see if it work at lower speeds)....and my conclusion is it is a dead(or dying) cpu....am i right? or can it be saved?

Nah i dont think the cpu is dying. Its just running to hot so u gotta get a new heatsink. K6s should not be over 45c or it will get unstable. But if ur running it at this temp for much longer it will die for u soon.

[Tomas]

Originally posted by dozier768
those puppies always run hot, have you ever looked for a hardware conflict or irq sharing. that will cause lockups left and right. aslo win xp has a problem with the acpi irq routing call and usually routs everthing through the same irq. atleast in my experience. check it out just an idea ,and welcome to our furums

They shouldnt run on 75c thats just too HOT. 75c is dangerous even for an tbird. k6s should be kept under 45c

[Quizno]

i know 75C is too hot.....i never knew it was running that hot. immediately after i saw that temp, i turned it off....completely cleaned out the inside of the case, got all the dust out of there and reseated the HS with a working fan i had lying around and new thermal paste. after that temps were back down to the 40c it used to run at.

but even at much cooler temps, this is happenning. no matter what os, it starts to lockup after about an hour of use.

[jbslow]

I dont know if this will help but on my K62 when I installed windows with it overclocked I had some problems , if you haven't already try to put the cpu at default setting and do another reinstall.

[Quizno]

yeah...tried that. even set it to 50mhz below stock. still does it.....oh well, guess it gives him(and maybe me) an opportunity to upgrade:)