AMD Processors prone to easily dieing? Help!?

Hey everyone, Figured I'd see if I could get some opinions or help as to the AMD Cpu issues I've been having. Long time reader of the site, Just now registering so a quick Hi! My issue is last night I was using my computer and was checking some settings in my bios and I believed I accidentally changed the memory settings or multiplier "Still Not Sure" and I restarted and Nothing......I let it sit a while and tried again and I'm getting an error code beep "1 Solid Beep Pause 1 Solid Beep Pause Again & Again" After swapping out the CPU/Memory/Video card into another Motherboard, I get the same exact results.

My best guess is the Processor fried which I'm hoping isn't the case, but won't set be back to much to replace. The thing I find odd is my friend did the same exact thing on accident too and the same exact results occurred "AMD XP 2100+ Cpu". Are AMD's Cpu that touchy that they burn out if there running to fast even with a ton of Cooling for 2 secs?? I was under the impression that the Asus A7N8X Mobo has some sort of CPU Shutoff if it over heats? I guess I expected them to be a little bit more advanced then my Pentium 3 700Mhz Slot which I abused the heck out of Overclocking "Purposely" for 3 years yet still runs. Any how any help/guess would be appreciated! Thanks

Specs:

Asus A7N8X Rev 2.0 Mobo
AMD XP 2500+ Barton CPU/w Volcano 9 CoolMod "Heatsink/Fan"
1 Stick 512Meg PC3200
Maxtor 120Gig ATA133/7200RPM
ATI Radeon 9700 PRO
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Soundcard

In my experience, if you have good cooling, it's difficult to kill an amd chip right away with too much speed.

What are some safe temps for a AMD XP 2500+ Barton by any chance, Stock that is? I think it was running very low 100's......Usually 101/2 I believe or so. I still find it strange how Both Me & My Friend had the same exact problems

AMD CPUs are fine, Intel people talk about AMD instability but that is simply not the case.

We've all been there many times. Many times I simply unplugged everything, reset the CMOS, let everything cool down then booted again after a while.

You have to actually set the Autoshutdown in most BIOSes, it's not default with all of them.

It often happens that things are not seated correctly, so we end up taking everything off, and powering up with just the cpu/heatsink/1 stick of RAM, then go on from there...

Like he said. Clear the cmos (this fixes a lot of these 'oh crap it isn't posting' problems.) Make sure the heatsink is properly seated then try it barebones. (ram, vid, cpu)

Also, you mentioned beep codes...there is a beep code for no video card I believe, when its not seated correctly. But that probably isn't the case here.

I doubt you fried it with just the wrong settings. It probably would have just crashed a lot or not booted at all.

Maybe what you accidentally changed was the CPU voltage... that'll kill it right away. And no kind of autoshutdown will protect you from this one.

Also, the same thing will kill a Pentium just as well as an Athlon.

Maybe what you accidentally changed was the CPU voltage... that'll kill it right away. And no kind of autoshutdown will protect you from this one.

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Raising the Vcore will *not* "kill it right away" - if this was the case every overclocked AMD processor would be dead - raise it as high as you want, it is highly unlikely the chip will suddenly die, or even overheat to the point of damage, or lockup while at stock speed. Long term effects of a high Vcore can be a different story - but nothing will happen "right away".

That board is very prone to BIOS corruptions, to make sure that the BIOS is not the problem try a different processor, and different RAM in the board. Also try holding {INSERT} when you turn the computer on.

Most likely a CMOS clear with the power unplugged will fix things up for you.

I had a similar problem. I relaxed my memory timings and it wouldn't post. So I cleared CMOS but it still wouldn't turn on. BIOS corruption . I guess some timings just don't work with some types of memory.

Silent Buddha said:

I had a similar problem. I relaxed my memory timings and it wouldn't post. So I cleared CMOS but it still wouldn't turn on. BIOS corruption . I guess some timings just don't work with some types of memory.

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That still wouldn't explain why the components when put in another motherboard do the same - he's not using the same mobo anymore.

And - too high Vcore *will* kill the CPU instantly if it's high enough. I've seen it happen.

Well thanks everyone for replying so far, I'm almost positive that I didn't change the Vcore on accident because I was looking at my Memory Timings and such because something looked like it was "Changed". I have tried The CPU/Ram/Videocard in another Motherboard.....Actually the Asus A78NX Original "Non Rev 2.0" Same exact error code beep. Does anyone know what that beep means? 1 Solid Beep, Pause, 1 Solid Beep, Pause "Repeat".

Clearing the CMOS seemed like the perfect idea untill I got the same exact error beep on the other motherboard, but it's worth a shot. I'm going to test my stick of Ram in my friends computer in a little bit and see if that's the problem. My computer was in fact running 100% perfect up untill I was looking at the Memory settings in the Bios. The only thing I can think of is that I raised the System Frequency up or something resulting in running the CPU way faster then stock. I'll post back with an update

stamasd said:

And - too high Vcore *will* kill the CPU instantly if it's high enough. I've seen it happen.

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So that's why I can up my Vcore to 2.3 at stock speed with no ill effect? I have done that with three different processors, two Thoroughbreds, and a Palomino.

Heck - my Vcore high right now according to MBM 5 is 2.02 - average is 1.95, low is 1.92 - and I am running my chip daily at 2638 MHz - not at stock speed. A high Vcore will raise core temperature, lower CPU lifespan, and possibly cause long-term damage - but not "instant death", not unless the processor has serious integral weaknesses already - that are simply being made apparant by the Vcore hop.

There had to be something else wrong with the processor you watched die - because without a serious fault in the physical chip instant death should not occur.

Maybe you should ask around and see how high a Vcore people use when doing a burn-in, 2+ V is common.

And again, if raising the Vcore too high resulting in an instant death there would be a lot of "my processor suddenly died" threads - when overclocking most people overvolt - seeing as how you cannot run a high overclock stably with a low Vcore voltage.

These processors are rated to handle a maximum ~80 degrees celcius - a temperature that the processor will not reach at post - regardless of Vcore, and even cooling.

stamasd said:

And - too high Vcore *will* kill the CPU instantly if it's high enough. I've seen it happen.

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umm. Umm dood, wronGGG..~~~~

it would instantly kill the chip if there wasn't a HS attached, or half arse job done on the installation i.e.. one side touching and one side facing up to the sky HA HA HA.. or due to severe electrical irruption. Other than that, it's very hard to kill the chip. As long as you don't crack it, it'z okayy. Even cracking it takes it long time for the CPU to die... in some case, never dies, just the oc'ability goes down.

I own both Intel and AMD chips and you can't even count how many chips I played with.. I can't trace them coz too many... None of them were killed by instant death due to high/xtreme Vcore, but some were murdered by me coz I cracked few of em real bad.

oh yea.. i remember one time I was hammering my mobo(I donno why I did that) and killed it. uh oh.

Pikachu_Mommy said:

umm. Umm dood, wronGGG..~~~~

it would instantly kill the chip if there wasn't a HS attached, or half arse job done on the installation i.e.. one side touching and one side facing up to the sky HA HA HA.. or due to severe electrical irruption. Other than that, it's very hard to kill the chip. As long as you don't crack it, it'z okayy. Even cracking it takes it long time for the CPU to die... in some case, never dies, just the oc'ability goes down.

I own both Intel and AMD chips and you can't even count how many chips I played with.. I can't trace them coz too many... None of them were killed by instant death due to high/xtreme Vcore, but some were murdered by me coz I cracked few of em real bad.

oh yea.. i remember one time I was hammering my mobo(I donno why I did that) and killed it. uh oh.

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Okay then, I must have been dreaming. It didn't happen. Or rather, that CPU chose to die because it was touched by The Great Hand Of Instant Death In The Sky. The fact that it was overvolted at the time didn't have anything to do with it.

Perhaps it didn't - if the processor had serious flaws in the first place it may have been destined for the scrap heap anyways - overvolting would just speed up it's demise, and make any flaws worse.

I still maintain that instant death is rare, and not normal.

in some case, never dies, just the oc'ability goes down.

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That is a common occurance - after a fair amount of time at a high Vcore many chips need more and more Vcore to keep the same overclock stable, eventually "burnt-out" they need overvolting to run stock. Doesn't usually happen for a few years, or in rare cases, months.

felinusz said:

That is a common occurance - after a fair amount of time at a high Vcore many chips need more and more Vcore to keep the same overclock stable, eventually "burnt-out" they need overvolting to run stock. Doesn't usually happen for a few years, or in rare cases, months.

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nah my CPU lost overclocks due to cracked core. Cracked pretty badly.. and got a lot more sensitive to heat and overclocks. temp went up high even at low clocks. When I said "overclock went down" I meant it lost clocks tremendously.. as much as 400~ 700mhz.. even with that, it still failed and got worse. The one you are talking about is electromigration which hardly happens. Electromigration does not happen easily n quickly..

Good news, After Resetting the CMOS.....Thank You "c627627 & Everyone Else" for suggesting that it finally booted up properly. First try it didn't work so I Removed the Battery/Adjust the Jumper and tried it again which it worked out perfectly that time around. The reason the other Motherboard was doing the same thing is because it had the same exact issues. The bios settings for some reason were messed up and wouldn't go back to default which I still kind of find odd. Oh well, I guess you learn something new every day Lol. Was kind of dredding having to replace a AMD 2500+ Barton "Unlocked" with the new "Locked One's". Thanks Again everyone for your input

Splice the 12v line directly to the VCC inputs in your CPU and then tell me tat too much voltage can't instantly kill your CPU. 2.3 or 2.4 volts won't kill a cpu instantly if you've got a HSF on there (unless you are very unlucky), but that doesn't mean that high voltage can't instantly kill your cpu. You just have to go a "little" higher.

Just for your info twEEkerAreUs the beep pause beep pause in most motherboards usually means you have a bad ram stick or your you set things to aggressive that the ram is not able to handle. Like you said you changed something in the ram timing area and got the beeps. You probably just set the timings to tight or your FSB to high.