Question Overheating, BIOS or faulty hardware?

[Ashckroft94]

Hello,

I have one really old PC which I just don't wanna let die.The original PC build is :
MB: m3a78 Asus am2+
CPU: AMD Phenom 9650 x4 2.3GHz Black Edition
GPU: ATI HD 4830 1GB (replaced)
HDD: WDC1001FALS-00y6A0
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB modules 1066MHZ DDR2)
PSU:500W

Recently I've replaced the original card due to malfunction.The new card is ATI 6870.I choose this one,because it's almost the same as the old one in terms of hardware compatibility.

With the old GPU I had random freezes (the screen turns green or black and fans start to work faster) from time to time that required simple restart.This was happening from the very first time I bought it,but rarely and thru the years I didn't find any reason for it.

With the new one everything was ok until last night when the screen started to freeze a bit and eventually the PC was unresponsive in one moment so I've restarted it and everything was back to normal.

The error I found on the dump file was :

BCCode: 101
BCP1: 0000000000000031
BCP2: 0000000000000000
BCP3: FFFFF88002FD4180
BCP4: 0000000000000003

For which I found one thread at Microsoft's forums ( https://social.technet.microsoft.co...bsod-problem-with-windows-7?forum=w7itproperf )

Today I've done a little stress test to monitor the temperatures of the CPU and upon reaching 48C it started to freeze a bit and bellow that it's pretty normal.

So far I'm thinking of few possible outcomes :

1.Not enough watts from the PSU?

2.CPU probably dying?

3.A bit of overheating ?

(Which I don't fell plausible since the max range for this at least for me is above 55-60C to the upper max 70C)

4.BIOS not working well?

(Bug check 101 is connected to "CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT" or "The specified processor is not processing interrupts. Typically, this occurs when the processor is non responsive or is deadlocked."

I kinda want to save this PC as long as possible despite that I can get a new one and any opinions on that are very welcome!

 

[Letten]

1 - I'm sure the PSU can deliver enough power
2 - I believe a CPU's life is binary, is either dead or alive
3 - Overheating it could be but it shouldn't be a problem when idle, anything below 80°C should be ok, and on higher temps it should throttle not die instantly

Check thermal paste and maybe flash a newer bios if you can?

 

[Ashckroft94]

1 - I'm sure the PSU can deliver enough power
2 - I believe a CPU's life is binary, is either dead or alive
3 - Overheating it could be but it shouldn't be a problem when idle, anything below 80°C should be ok, and on higher temps it should throttle not die instantly

Check thermal paste and maybe flash a newer bios if you can?

I have cleaned the old thermal paste and everything on the board.I'll run some tests with the new one.Gonna flash one BIOS for any case , but first I'm going to check if the paste and cleaning did the job.

 

[Ashckroft94]

1 - I'm sure the PSU can deliver enough power
2 - I believe a CPU's life is binary, is either dead or alive
3 - Overheating it could be but it shouldn't be a problem when idle, anything below 80°C should be ok, and on higher temps it should throttle not die instantly

Check thermal paste and maybe flash a newer bios if you can?

Ok so far I've :
1.changed the thermal paste - didn't work.
2.Checked the BIOS and sadly the version is up to date and I don't have what to upgrade since this one is the latest.

 

[Goildzy]

Did u refit ur ram or try one by one? Psu is enough! Ms error codes are jokes. From experience sounds like a lil ram problem. Like he said cpu either dead or alive...

Tip:

1. Disconnect all usb all hardware from motherboard leave psu in. Turn i/o psu off hold power button 15 secs and suck all power off the board

2. Reset cmos and or apply default settings and save.

3. use last ram slot away from your cpu or the 2nd ram slot from the start of the cpu to fit in 1 module of ram.

4. Refit cpu in socket refit cooler.

Now fire up on one module see if u survive cinebench for 2 runs. If you do switch the ram module for the other one and retun 2x cinebench on the multi thread bench ofcourse.

Whats the result of this test? Not scores lol but the stability in succeeding? Dont overclock anything. default settings, be nice if you put windows in performance mode on the bench. Not a pre though.