A tricky issue

[puffkitty]

This may take some explaining, so bear with me. To start, here's what I'm running.

Motherboard- ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD
CPU- AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz
RAM- G.SKILL 4GB
HD- Samsung 300G sata
Video- NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
OS- Win XP Pro SP2 (I like XP)

So here's the story, I upgraded my motherboard and chipset last year. I opened up all 4 cores on my AMD black, got everything running, but kept having these odd problems. It took me about a week to nail it down. Core 0 is unstable. Yes, I'm sure it's 0. Opening the other 2 cores made my system run better, not worse. Yes, I checked the BIOS, and it's the only core I can't turn off. Yes, I could have returned the chip, but it's such a pain in the backside, I didn't. Instead, I got the AMD overdrive utility that was avalible at the time and just underclocked core 0. All the way down to 800Mhz. The norm is 3200Mhz for mine. I've never tried overclocking the other 3, never needed the power. The system ran great from then on. Until I formatted this past week and loaded on the new AMD overdrive.

Here's the problem. The new overdrive utility won't let me turn Core 0 down to 4x only 8x (1600 instead of 800) and that's not cutting it. How can I turn the Core down furthur? Is there another way? An old version of Overdrive? Another Utility? Any tips or tricks for this one?

Thanks so much for you time in considering this issue.

 

[johan851]

The best solution I can think of is to RMA the CPU. You could try to explain the issue to see if they'll cross-ship you a new one? It's just going to become a tougher and tougher problem because the CPU is defective.

 

[puffkitty]

The best solution I can think of is to RMA the CPU. You could try to explain the issue to see if they'll cross-ship you a new one? It's just going to become a tougher and tougher problem because the CPU is defective.

I've sent a query to AMD to see if that's possible, but as I've had the CPU for over a year now, I doubt they'll be willing to replace it. Still, one never knows.

I know I should have just returned it as soon as I found out, but I'd had enough computer related drama by that time and I just didn't want to go through more. Let me know if you want to hear that tale of woe. XD

 

[RGone]

Tales of woe not required. Good luck with AMD since their RMA'ing or you buy a cpu are about it for the long-term solution, today as it was a year ago.

 

[puffkitty]

Tales of woe not required. Good luck with AMD since their RMA'ing or you buy a cpu are about it for the long-term solution, today as it was a year ago.

Obviously that would be the best solution, however, I don't have the money to buy a new CPU right now. Maybe in a few months, I'll budget some in, but right now, I'm just looking for a way to underclock Core0. I'm not expecting this to be the optimal solution, but it's the best solution I have availible to me right now.

 

[RGone]

You will need older AOD if the new one does allow what the one you used previosly did allow.