Did I fry my CPU?

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Lardzor

Lardzor

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Jul 30, 2007
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This is my story of woe, but I'll try to keep it brief.

I had been overclocking my CPU (Core 2 Duo E6400) from 2.13 to 2.5Ghz for about 2 years. I just increased the FrontSide Bus speed, I didn't mess with voltages. If I went much over 2.5Ghz my computer was unstable.

Recently I got Far Cry 3 and noticed that my CPU was a bottleneck for the game. Knowing that my model of CPU is supposed to be a good for overclocking, I decided to do a little research and try my hand again to bump up my CPU's speed.

I found out that RAM speed increased with the FSB. I only intended on overclocking my CPU but RAM is tied to the FSB speed as well, and it turned out that my RAM was making my system unstable before. I changed the the memory bus ratio to it's lowest value so it would still be in spec when I raised the Front Side Bus speed.

I was able to get my FSB speed to 400Mhz with a CPU multiplier of 8X for an effective 3.2 Ghz, and again without changing any voltages.

I stress tested my new setup with Prime95 for a few hours with no errors, and I was feeling pleased with myself.

After over two days of flawless use and improved Far Cry 3 gaming, Windows had updates it wanted to install, and after installing them it wanted me to reboot my computer.

When the computer was booting up, it hung on detecting hardware devices. I powered off my computer and when I turned it back on, it failed to POST at all.

My computer would start to power up, but after a moment or two, it would turn itself off, and then back on again. It would repeat this cycle over and over.

I unplugged my computer, opened it, removed the button cell battery and reset the c-mos with a jumper.

Now the computer would turn on, and stay on with all the drives spinning up, and fans whirring away, but still would not POST. I just get a blank screen.

One by one, I swapped out the video card, system ram, monitor, and power supply with no difference.

I eventually took out the CPU and plugged it into another LGA-775 motherboard I have and it failed to POST also.

It sure seems like my CPU is fried, but it seems like such an odd way for it to die. Why would it fail after hours and hours of flawless use, and only after a cold reboot?

 
Solution
Scott_D_Bowen
2.933GHz is the sweet spot for overclocking the Core 2 Duo E6400/E6600.
- Sure, sometimes it'll do 3.00GHz but 3.2 is just begging to kill the chip.

EDIT: The power regulation on your motherboard probably gave out before the CPU did, so you may need to get a replacement motherboard as well as sourcing a replacement processor.

Maybe you can replace your mobo & CPU on the cheap?

It's only a 65nm part, the higher clocked Core processors started at 45nm.
- http://ark.intel.com/products/27249/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E6400-2M-Cache-2_13-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB
- It sounds like you got one that overclocks as well as most E6600's do, they're all the same die size so there's usually not that much between the two but yours...
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I woud reset the BIOS to its original settings. If it's just an overclock problem then re-setting the BIOS should fix the problem.
 
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Resetting my bios is what I meant when I said I reset the c-mos. I tried that and it failed.
 
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Have you tried switching the CPU with another one to see if it would work? It does sound like the CPU could be fried.

Check the capacitors on the motherboard to make sure you didn't fry them. You're looking for black charring or or bubbles on the surface of the capacitors. If they can't properly regulate the charge on the monitor then you're going have problems, such as frying the CPU.
 
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@rds1220:
I can't check my what my voltages were set to. They should have been default. I didn't change them when I overclocked and it has been working for yeast with those settings. The power supply on my computer is from Antec and it's a 650 watt power supply. Trying to figure this out, I swapped it with a power supply I had from COMP USA that's 500 watt.

@battlefieldhazard & Botnus:
Unfortunately I do not have a spare LGA-775 compatible CPU to test with.
I wish I did.

Regards,
Lardzor
 
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2.933GHz is the sweet spot for overclocking the Core 2 Duo E6400/E6600.
- Sure, sometimes it'll do 3.00GHz but 3.2 is just begging to kill the chip.

EDIT: The power regulation on your motherboard probably gave out before the CPU did, so you may need to get a replacement motherboard as well as sourcing a replacement processor.

Maybe you can replace your mobo & CPU on the cheap?

It's only a 65nm part, the higher clocked Core processors started at 45nm.
- http://ark.intel.com/products/27249/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E6400-2M-Cache-2_13-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB
- It sounds like you got one that overclocks as well as most E6600's do, they're all the same die size so there's usually not that much between the two but yours must've been a good one.



Personally I'd just use this as an excuse to upgrade to a Core i3/i5 with one of those sub $85 motherboards.
- TurboBoost 2.0 does the overclocking (and underclocking) for you now, far better than a human ever could.
 
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Solution
@ Scott_D_Bowen: Looks like you may be right, I was able to narrow the problem to the motherboard. I took the CPU, Video card, power supply, and RAM out of my computer and attached them all to a spare LGA-775 motherboard I have. It does POST without errors (other than no boot drive). The only thing that I'm using that's not from my computer is the motherboard.
That's a shame. I was using an MSI P45-NEO2 motherboard and I thought MSI made quality products.

@ payturr: I replaced the stock Intel heat-sink and fan when one of the plastic feet broke due to some miss-handling. I could have ordered replacement feet online, but it was just easier to buy a new heat-sink and fan at my local shop. I don't know the name of it, but it's bigger and looks more impressive than the stock one, and I've never had an issue with my temps. It is nice having thermal sensors built right on the CPU's these days.
 
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Parts fail, shouldn't necessarily be a mark against MSI. Able to get a warranty replacement? Glad you found the issue. I had almost the exact same same issue when OC'ing my 2500k recently... turned out to be a voltage issue. Gl!
 
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Well, I decided to swap motherboards with an old ASROCK hybrid board until I get a decent replacement. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) I get a BSOD STOP 0x0000007b shortly after the " Starting Windows" message. I'm guessing it's because I installed AHCI drivers for the Intel SATA controller on the now defunct motherboard.

It looks like you can do a repair/install with Windows 7, but only if you have booted into the OS already. I really dread reinstalling WIndows 7 since I have about 800GB of games I'll need to reinstall and re-tweak.

Oh well.
 
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My boot device is a SATA Hard drive. The SATA controller was from Intel but the motherboard I'm using now has a VIA controller for SATA. I don't know how to change the drivers without being in the windows OS.
 
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