How do you know if you have a bad CPU

[Dave65]

I was wondering what are the simptoms of a bad CPU?
I got this P3 coppermine and I am wondering if I am having problems with it..

[Grande Juan]

What's it doing or not doing that makes you suspect it's nogood?

[JaY_III]

does it have math errors or something?
or it it just crashing on you at stock speed?

[Dave65]

Crashing,the clock dont keep time,I changed the battery and it still doing it,in the calculator 2x2=8,stuff like that..

[Yodums]

Is it crashing upon stock speed - Answer that question that Jay said.

Because if it is it maybe a faulty chip(Probably faulty L2 Cache) and you maybe have to RMA it to Intel.

[batboy]

Generally, if you have a bad CPU you'll get nothing. No boot, no beeps, no nothing.

[JaY_III]

yeah, I'm sorry to say math errors are bad....
Now you gota find out why???
Is your computer overheating???
What are the temps????
Overclocked?
Whats your CPU(Vcore defual current) / Motherboard?

If you temps are in the 50's I would SHutdown right away and drop your FSB (dividers ect) to 66. Check your Vcore . ANd your Heatsink (fan ect) is it on correct? dont know how to get temps.
Enter your BIOS it should tell you SOMETHING thier (let it sit for a few min 1st)

How many Watts is that PSU? Your CPU may getting bad voltage, low amperage, watts or something like that..

How long has the problem been going on for?
What was the last thnig you did before this problem?

[Dave65]

This is just a stock P3 933 Gateway performance,not the one posted in my sig..

[jazztrumpet216]

That takes care of mobo brand and OC'd... I think you need to find a way to check your temps. It's very possible Gateway used some sub-par cooling solution on that thing like Dell did with mine. I suppose this could be a CPU problem, but since math co-processors are integrated on to CPUs these days, I doubt it. I suppose that could be a potential problem though, don't rule it out. Jay brings up a valid point, check your PSU. Swap the one from your AMD system into the P3 and see how it runs, if it's any better. Also, it might be worth going on Ebay and finding a cheapo Celeron 600 or something and seeing if it is indeed your processor. I did this with mine once, and it turned up I had a bad CPU. The Celey worked fine when my P3 didn't, I RMA'd the P3. Keep that suggestion in your back pocket in case anything else you've tried doesn't work. Also... I wouldn't recommend this unless you do have good cooling in there, but, if Gateway didn't totally lock you out of the BIOS (you might have to find those jumpers, though), try looking around in there for something to change your Vcore, your processor might need a little zip (but if Gateway used bad cooling like most branded computers do, I wouldn't do this). I'm just kinda throwing out random solutions, you should really provide us with some temp info if possible.