HELP is my processor dying?

Ok so the problem is with my computer in my sig...

Recently I have been noticing some instability with my overclocks and today I further investigated the problem but I am just clueless...

So today I was going to test my 3dmark tests at stock so i reset the bios...
this is on a dfi sli-dr

It goes into windows starts to boot up, then crashes and restarts...

I let it try again this time it boots up and gets into windows but nothing works and it crashes....

So i try to add a little voltage for some stability... and i went up to 1.500 on STOCK 11x200 and even though it gained more stability then before it still eventually hangs up and restarts...

But get this... I am running it now at 250x10 @ 1.63 vcore and I have more stability then I do at stock or even stock with boosted vcore, but even with stock and vcore at 1.63 i cannot get stability like i had before... (first it was prime stable at 2.6 now not only is it not prime stable at stock I get reboots if I don't put enough volts through her and even then prime etc are not stable...

What on earth would cause this? Is this winchester dying? is there some hidden bios feature that i need to make sure to go through....

I am very disheartned and very confused... HELP!

drewmister said:

Ok so the problem is with my computer in my sig...

Recently I have been noticing some instability with my overclocks and today I further investigated the problem but I am just clueless...

So today I was going to test my 3dmark tests at stock so i reset the bios...
this is on a dfi sli-dr

It goes into windows starts to boot up, then crashes and restarts...

I let it try again this time it boots up and gets into windows but nothing works and it crashes....

So i try to add a little voltage for some stability... and i went up to 1.500 on STOCK 11x200 and even though it gained more stability then before it still eventually hangs up and restarts...

But get this... I am running it now at 250x10 @ 1.63 vcore and I have more stability then I do at stock or even stock with boosted vcore, but even with stock and vcore at 1.63 i cannot get stability like i had before... (first it was prime stable at 2.6 now not only is it not prime stable at stock I get reboots if I don't put enough volts through her and even then prime etc are not stable...

What on earth would cause this? Is this winchester dying? is there some hidden bios feature that i need to make sure to go through....

I am very disheartned and very confused... HELP!

Click to expand...

Eck!! That sounds just like the symptoms that people reported with Pentium 4 Northwood chips. Those were reportedly fragile, possibly couldn't even do 1.55V without wasting away. Even worse, just an OC alone may cause those to waste away, too. I really hope that's not gonna be a trend with Athlon 64s.

That sounds just like the SNDS.

There is a similer thread here with some ideas.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=427515
Good luck withit.

I have thought it might just be a windows corruption, and have thought about reformatting, but I am worried that If i try that and set everything back to stock, it will just reboot during the reformat and reinstallation of windows... Besides why would more volts make an unstable windows more stable?

drewmister said:

.. Besides why would more volts make an unstable windows more stable?

Click to expand...

You are right to doubt it. The only reason would be if there was cpu instability and windows instability as well. Then extra voltage would help one, but not the other. This would not explain why the problem is worse at stock, so it's a very long shot. Sadly, with a DFI mobo there could be anyone of a hundred bios settings that could be a potential problem. Have you done any driver, bios or major software or hardware changes recently?

Been testing all morning... tested my gskill in memtest86... no errors... (is it odd that the computer can run memtest no errors with processor at stock.... but not be able to boot windows?)

Reset the cmos, not that it did anything... switched the dimms, tried using 1 dimm...

I tried to boot at 200x11 (stock) with instead of 1.35-1.4 stock... 1.55 and it still crashes.....

Right now it runs 250x10 @ 1.6 or so depending on what i try, and while not completely stable I haven't had many problems with the reboots like before... This is just bad news.... If it comes down to it i'll try a reformat, but that doesn't seem to make sense if I can run it with more volts...

recently updated to the nforce 6.7 drivers... let me try that...

Ran memtest at 200, 250, and 275.... passed fine...

reset cmos... switched dimms tried both dimms by themselves....

uninstalled recent drivers..... temps don't seem to be a problem, but no stability without massive vcore... even then nowhere near what i want for stable...

will not run at stock 200x11... not with 1.35... not with 1.4 not with 1.45 not with 1.5 not with 1.55 at about 1.6 i can get into windows... but get this.... I am in windows now at 250x10 1.6 vcore and its still more stable.... Any ideas? It is looking like a complete take apart then put back together of this system... But thats a little extreme

What is so strange is that if the CPU were dying it would be less stable with more voltage as it would be less able to handle voltage. Slowing down and volting down an injured CPU makes sense. This doesn't sound like the CPU. While I confess it could be most anything, if I had to guess I would say the mobo, but that's just a guess.

you have a DFI...

Well I unassembled the whole thing then re-assembled
Took out all the cards then put back in and tried with just the video card hard drive mem and processor... same results...
took out the proc and reseated it... nope...

So it has been cleaned out and no change in results...

Right now i am at a friends house on his opty 150 CABGE i bought here on ocforums... and we tested if we could get much better oc on my gskills compared to his corsiar xms 3200... but nothing major...

And the gskills are working here completely fine at 300mhz ddr600 so I think I can rule them out...

Anyway I was planning to either try to run my proc in his board or his working proc in my board...

Should i be a little precautious about either? I figure i'll try my proc in his board first... i can replace an epox for a lot cheaper if my processor kills it then i can an opty 150 if my mobo kills it...

Temps didn't change much still 29-32 idle... and 40 load... except load is hard to reach anymore

my bios is the latest 6/23 from dfi, and i thought about flashing again just to check... but decided against it in case of crash during flash...

Oh and one more thing I tried to reformat... as I had mentioned I would earlier... and when I start booting up from my brand new xp64 disc... after resetting defaults i get a corruption file error and it cannot boot from the cd... so its not even stable enough to reformat so i am 99 percent certain it isn't the drive.

drewmister said:

Anyway I was planning to either try to run my proc in his board or his working proc in my board...

Should i be a little precautious about either? I figure i'll try my proc in his board first... i can replace an epox for a lot cheaper if my processor kills it then i can an opty 150 if my mobo kills it...

Click to expand...

It seems unlikely that anything will be killed by your CPU. Testing is a greatway to trouble shoot the problem. My money says it's not the CPU, but there is nothing like finding out for sure.

Rock on man, your real helpful, and always on with immediate responses... your my new favorite ocforum member ;-)

You have the powerstream with the adjustable rails and the green lights on the back? Check that there still all green. If you have one check rails with a dmm. Also check for blown caps.
Just a few thoughts,
Good luck

drewmister said:

Rock on man, your real helpful, and always on with immediate responses... your my new favorite ocforum member ;-)

Click to expand...

Thanks, Drewmister, but I'm afraid I haven't been much help. Kill_A._Byte has a couple of good ideas. All you can do is troubleshoot till you come up with the culprit. You'll get it, it just takes time.

BTW, the OCF servers have been rough tonight. I have had problems loading pages. (Good thing I haven't had any problems getting loaded.)

checked rails checked caps all seem to be in order... I think I will have time to switch the processors around today...

I would recomend switching a mobo first. You might not have one lieing around but I would highly recomend it. When you are dealing with a mobo and a CPU, it is most likly the mobo is the issue as it has WAY more parts to break. I've seen such a case before and it was infact the mobo.

yea thats the plan... I am putting my 3500+ in my friends epox... and if that doesn't work I can break it down to the cpu... if it does then I want to try his opteron in my dfi (heck i wanted to do this anyway lol).... I can only hope its not my mobo, cause thats worth more then my winchester is... funny considering i paid 275 back in march...

I wish i had parts laying around to switch and test, but i don't....

I am glad I do. But only have 1 CPU

I had a problem with reboots etc.Then windows erored out and wouldnt boot so i did a fresh reinstall and all the problems went away.And its been fine ever since