My Q6600 is dead???????

[onefatsac]

Hi All

I've have my Q6600 over clocked, running at 3.4GHz (x9 multiplier, 555Mhz if I remember right), and it has been very stable for over 7-8 months.
Just a couple of weeks back, I started experiencing random system restarts (after 20min), at boot up I'd see a error message saying "overclocking has failed"
I proceeded to clock down to 3.2Ghz (same mulitplier) and it was stable for a week, then it all started happening again, so I went down to 3Ghz...same problem started happening last night..back to stock speeds now.

As far as my system goes, I use an AsusP5E with a Hugh Asus Fan on the CPU, my Q6600 has never over heated, as it hardly breaks a sweat, 55º max on all cores is the highest its gone when running Prime95 for 16 hours, so I don't believe overheating is an issue here.

I've tried playing around with CPU voltage and RAM voltage but they don't seem to effect the stability. My OS is WinXP home, and its a fresh install, so I believe the OS is not corrupt. When I did run Prime95 after the first set of crashes, the forth core was failing after 15-20 minutes.

I've ran memtest86+ for about an hour, with no failures, I was going to try running individual stick for 12 hour runs, just to get a better idea.
I'm thinking that the honey-moon period is over and my CPU is burning out, if anyone has some insight I would greatly appreciate some input.

thanks

 

[englandr753]

So, is it safe to assume that its running fine at stock speeds? All cores functioning at stock settings?

 

[onefatsac]

HI Englandr753

Yes, it seems to run fine on stock speeds. Since the crashing, I've reset the bios back to factory defaults.
Mind you, I've only had it running on stock speeds for around 3 hours.

thanks

 

[englandr753]

I would run it through the ringer at stock settings for a while to prove it ok. If all seems good then try to bump it up a little at a time or just hold on to stock speeds and be thankful it works...

 

[onefatsac]

...will do, we'll see how well she holds up this weekend....fingers cross

 

[englandr753]

Best of luck! Let us know what happens...

 

[V3NOM]

wtf 9 multiplier and 555 fsb = 5 freakin GHz! SIF!

 

[iluvgillgill]

if iits 555 it could be the mobo has degraded.since such high fsb is killing the mobo everytime he turns it on.

 

[englandr753]

If it was that high, he said he wasnt sure. I dont think it would run that high anyway. Whatever he had it set to may have been too high and most likely is the problem...

 

[iluvgillgill]

new overclocker i guess from your analysis.

 

[americanbrian]

He probably meant 1555Mhz (/4 = 388Mhz quad)

This would give a CPU 3.48Ghz @ 9x multi.

So he is probably in the right ballpark.

Mine is @ 1523Mhz FSB (quad) for cpu@ 3.42GHz.

 

[iluvgillgill]

that makes more sense.LOL i wonder what he is dong now since he is not in te forum.

 

[tricecold]

I've been running q6600 at 3.6 stable for 2 or 3 months and just yesterday when i installed new water blocks for nb and sb for striker 2 formula now it doesn't even post. my guess is, extra paste somewhere stuck, also moved the video card to 2nd slot, maybe that causes some problem or worst case scenario is that i squeezed my lapped Q6600 with the block to much possibly broke a nano transistor 😛

at least you can post

 

[onefatsac]

Yea, am new to over clocking, only done a couple of machines.
I'm only going from memory with regards to the multiplier, but I'm pretty sure it was X9 @ 555...will confirm this.

I'll be running some long, long memtests this weekend to rule out RAM issues

 

[onefatsac]

well, my computer is now starting to crash after 20 minutes use at stock speeds. I've ran memtest on both my RAM sticks (individually) all day, with no errors.
I've checked my system log and saw an error related to a file called PfModNT, which after googling seems to have something to do with Creative sound cards (which I have), so I un-installed everything to do with Creative...to no effect.

I'm open to any other ideas here, I was going to try running at a different multiplier, but I doubt it will make any difference. As a side note, this all started happening around the time I started WaR closed beta, don't know if its related, some how doubt it.

Any suggestions?

 

[zeroyb]

I don't know what voltage you had on your CPU when it was running overclocked for 7~8 months "stable", but maybe it was too high back then. In that case, you probably fried the chip and/or reduced its life greatly.

 

[onefatsac]

I've taken it in for repairs, the guys at the shop reckon it "could" be the motherboard, guess we'll see.

 

[onefatsac]

After talking to the service department, they couldn't fault the computer. They're pointing at the OS, so I'll have to re-install I guess.
ONe thing I did noticed, I turned off the "restart after system failure", yet the computer always restarts...weird

 

[englandr753]

I was going to suggest reinstalling your OS to make sure its not something you installed causing the BSOD.

Let us know after you install and test if it works or not. If it doesnt you may want to toy with the idea of getting a new motherboard 1st. That can be obtained cheaper than a new cpu at that level. If it still doesnt work well then it would point to the cpu IMO...

Good luck with it!!

 

[onefatsac]

After some more testing, the guys at the shop think its the graphics card (XFX 8800GTS 512MB Alpha Dog XXX), which surprises me. I did play around with the drives, rolling back to older ones to check stability, but weird though. Guess we'll see after more testing.

 

[onefatsac]

Finally got my computer back, and it turns out to be the PSU. THis means its my 3rd one in least than 5 months. Dont think I'll be buying THermaltake Tough powers again

 

[one-shot]

So did you buy 3 Tough Powers? Or did you buy 3 different PSU's and that happened to be one of them. When a product stings me, I stay clear of it.