Athlon 1200 fried at 1.85 V/1440 MHz

[protagonist]

Looks like I just fried an Athlon at 1.85 V/1440 MHz on an ASUS A7V. Looking at the CPU database, this voltage is not particularly high at all, so it should not have happened. Am I wrong? Did I just get unlucky? The setting 1.85 for the core Voltage is actually the highest you can go on this board. This is strange too. The computer ran stable for about 10 minutes doing a Linux kernel compilation, and then just died.

The Arctic Chill cooler was mounted properly, as far as I can tell.

Regards, Frank

[KFB]

First, welcome to the forums.
I could be wrong, but I don't think you could have fried the chip with that voltage. The only chance is that the heatsink was not seated on the CPU die correctly and in that case it would have probably lasted the ten minutes like you said. But, if it was on there right then it might be something else. Did you smell an awful electrical smell? Most times when a chip burns up people report a bad smell.

I don't mean to jack your thread, I just want to share my story with you...

Personally, I have never actually "fried" a chip (only chipped a core) but I came very close to one time when I was a newbie. I unplugged every fan, even the CPU fan b/c I wanted the system (1.33GHz Athlon) to be quiet while I slept. (why i left it on is still a mystery to me - not exactly my brighest moment ever) It was in standby mode, so I figured it would be alright. well the dog must have bumped the desk or something because I woke up to a black screen that said somekind of error and the plastic fan on the heatsink was melting. The sticker on the CPU bottom was all burned up, but miraculously the CPU still worked.

So, anyway, I would be very surprised to find out your CPU is ruined. Just go back over everything meticulously and try to get her goin' again. I wish you the best of luck. :)

[protagonist]

Well, I was surprised too. It did smell a little funny actually, but only faintly so. Maybe the sink *wasn't* sitting properly on the die, although it looked perfectly straight and properly mounted.

Regards, Frank

[protagonist]

Another thing that was funny about my overclocking experience was that I was consistently unable to use any FSB > 120 MHz even if I set the multiplier really low, e.g. 133/8. I would have thought that 133 at least should be straighforward to do with this board and processor?!

Regards, Frank

[David]

It may not be the Mobo or CPU holding you back.
at 100Mhz your AGP will be at 66MHz and the PCI at 33MHz. If you can, change the AGP divider to 1/2 and the PCI to 1/4. That *should* help you get a 133MHz FSB.

[protagonist]

Originally posted by Kentucky Fried Bird
So, anyway, I would be very surprised to find out your CPU is ruined. Just go back over everything meticulously and try to get her goin' again. I wish you the best of luck. :)

You were right! I just bought the cheapest socket A processor (Duron 800 - 57 Euro) I could get my hands on, and it doesn't work either. So it's either the mobo, or the power supply, or something in between (when I try to switch on the computer, the CPU and South Bridge fans both do just about a couple of turns and then nothing, no beep, just nothing).

/Frank

[protagonist]

Using a bigger power supply (the one that shipped with the case was onle 230W), I was able to ascertain that the mobo is shorted out. The original power supply was simply not powerful enough to heat both the shorted chip on the mainboard (that was the funny smell) and to power the fans. I'll see what my dealer says as to providing warranty.

/Frank