Is my CPU a dud?

i'm at a loss to explain why my cpu is OC'ing worse and worse

this was my first ever build and everything went swimmingly. i put it all together without a hitch, installed vista and had no trouble with it at all! (I KNOW )

So i decided to do some OC'ing and got it to 2.8 from 2.6 stock which i ws quite happy with for a first timer! tested it fully and it all worked out and temps got to 46'c full load on cpu from 35 idle, and mobo never went over 42 from 35 idle.

then i had to reinstall vista after trying to update catalyst drivers about 25 times and ended up corrupting them, so i set the OC back to default just incase, but when i tried to OC again i could only get up to 2.77ghz! after leaving it at 2.77 for awhile i decided to try and get a bit more out of my processor, but it failed and when i set it back to 2.77 it failed again after about 1h30m of orthos after failing after only minutes at anything higher!

i dont understand how this could be as i tested for over 12 hours @2.8 on my first clock but it steadily gets worse everytime ive tried to OC again!

is it my cpu or the mobo? i dont like my mobo at all to be honest as i cant seem change any voltages, i tried first time round when i had 2.8 but upon loading os the voltages stayed the same. i tried a few changes but it just wont budge. dont worry i didnt overdo it, i only went up to 1.39v from 1.34v stock and they apparently can go up to 1.8v.

ive got AMD optomiser installed along with every other available update.

i'm stumped! can anyone help?

my pc's in my sig!

You should list what you did and post your settings. If you overclock you should have the basics down to let people know what you did to narrow down the problem. But based on the info you gave it seems like you didnt test the ram itself to make sure that is not the problem. Try a ram test and see if your ram is crapping out. It could be your ram holding you back and not the CPU.

What does your 12V rail read?

hi!

i must admit ive worried about both your suggestions in the past!

flash: i lowered my htt to x3 and set my memory to 1:1 @200 fsb to overclock. like i said i worried about the mem but i havent got a floppy drive so cant use memtest, but i have used vista's built in memory test on the rescue disk to test it along with superpi 32M and i've not had a fault with either!

alabama: my 12v reads 11.99v, 11.49v (is this kind of fluctuation right?) at full load which is perilously close to the +-5% i know, but i studied it closely for over an hour and it never dropped lower. (wouldnt that just cause shutdowns though?)

i have a voltmeter which i know is more reliable but ive never checked it tbh and i'm not sure how to check it at load! last time i used it was 15 years ago!!!

thanks for the help!

if you still want to check the memory and have a really wicked testing/antivirus/antispyware/diagnostice and much more cd program get this and make it, you will need a windows xp cd though.

The Ultimate Boot Disk 4 Windows

as for your oc problems, do you have the latest bios? that might affect it.

funnily enough, now you mention it, its been ever since i updated the bois that i cant clock anymore!

it is the latest 0401 for the board and there wasnt a problem updating it

if you can find the old one, shouldn't be to hard, downgrade and see what happens.

Sounds like voltage is in range.

Voltages will jump around with software monitoring since it is using timing loops to determine the reading. These timing loops are affected by other programs running. That and the resolution is lame leaving big jumps from one reading to the next.
Sorry if this it over simplified but it others want to know then it may help them. To volt check with your VOM, set the meter range to 15 or the volt range that is higher than 12VDC. Connect the black lead to a bare metal part of the chassis. Carefully insert the Red probe into the socket of the yellow wire of one of the free 4 pin molex CDR connectors. If it clips on then that much better for hands off monitoring. Another option is to proble carefully into the top of the 4 or 8 pin 12V cpu plug. Just try not to short the probe against anything while poking around.

ahh, its all come back to me thanks!

but can u not figure why the cpu woe's? i just dont understand! is it a bit of a dud?

it is memory iterations in orthos that i'm getting errors (0.4 instead of 0.5).

i reaally wanted to try to hit 3.0ghz with a bit of voltage but now i'm back at stock!

does anyone also know why i cant raise the cpu voltage on my mobo? or why it doesnt take when i change it and boot up?!

did you ever try the MM on the 12 v to see what it was reading?


max of something I would guess to you last question

no i didnt to be honest but these readings were when at 2.8ghz and fully tested!

if its reading the same now then surely there would be no loss in power would there?

i dont mind admitting i'm a bit of a noob so anymore help would be muchly appreciated!

mrbobc said:

if its reading the same now then surely there would be no loss in power would there?

Click to expand...

is the readings are thru software there no true readings