QOTD: Did You Ever Fry Your PC by Overclocking?

[derek2006]

X1950XT. I overclocked using ATI tool. It always warned me that my voltage was over the recommended limit or whatever. But I set it at max voltage which was what I think was 1.45V. Ran for 6 months in my computer fine. Reflashed the bios with the settings so it would always run like that. Sold it to my bro for a 100$ bucks (I paid 300)and it lasted another 6 months until games where unplayable. We put it down to 350mhz so it would run games again as a temporary fix. But it only did so for another month.

 

[derek2006]

Also fried some patriot ram modules running them +.4Volts over spec for a year at 166mhz OC.

 

[Guest]

I've done it. It was an AMD Duron. I don't remember the specifics, but it was a chip from 1999. I eventually donated the processor to my E.E.T class so they can add it to their parts collection for display.

 

[SAL-e]

My first Intel based PC/AT computer. I was able to run the standard 80286-16MHz processor at 25MHz. It was only possible because I had access to big set of Motherboards, CPUs and Power Supplies to test and pick the best ones. I could not find a case that will accommodate the big black heatsink so it was running as my permanent test bench on the top of my desk. It was dramatic improvement in performance, but today OC has really small return on investment, so I don't overclock any more.

 

[vectorm12]

I did fry a Celeron 600MHz when I was trying to run nit at 1200MHz a really long time ago with the help of a peltiercooler that turned out to be faulty... Was a rather humoristic experience all in all, hit the button and all I got was some white smoke. I've also fried a couple of GPU cards Dualhead Matrox G400, Radeon 7500(?previous flagship to 8500). Still have my old Celeron 300A running at 502MHz for DOS.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I fried a computer at work back when I was working as a network engineer. I put the wrong settings on a CPU riser card and forgot to put the heatsink on, whoops!

I haven't fried my own PCs though, although I did ruin a couple of CPUs by getting water all around the pins due to in-proper sealant in a phase change system.

 

[whitefrog]

Yes, old 1.2GHz AMD Thunderbird AXIA. Those were the days......

 

[whitefrog]

OOh, and I fried my GeForce 2 Ultra while I was at it too.

 

[scimanal]

Barton 2500+ @ 4.0GHZ, at least the Bios reported that as it locked up, and subsequently fried the CPU. I tried to save it with upside down air can trick, but it had already melted itself to the water block. I had it running at 3.6 GHZ for some time effectively, and I was about to upgrade anyways, so I wasn't entirely surprised.

Never seen a motherboard die for any reason other than a shoddy capacitor. I have seen Video Cards die... Often in a slow non-glorious way of slowly increasing artifacts.

 

[mitch074]

I've always been rather conservative when it came to overclocking (I like a balanced, bargain system that is silent, not too power hungry but can go as fast as it can), so the only thing (apart from HDDs) I've ever fried was a 64 Mb SDRAM stick. Believe it or not, I had it secured in its lodging, both levers properly clipped on both sides, and when I turned the system on, I got sparks, white smoke etc.

Appears that I had plugged it backwards, but the safeties failed and the safety notches were useless. Luckily, I could have it RMA'ed and I "only" lost a DRAM slot on the mobo (which, being 430TX-based, wouldn't ever get more than 64 Mb of RAM anyway, because I believe a system's speed is rather dependant upon its L2 cache, so...).

 

[JDocs]

I haven't but I have a family member who burnt out a motherboard by putting memory into it without switching it off first. Does that count?

 

[Guest]

I think I have fried one of every thing. CPU oh ya, but they don't smell that bad due to good thermal pastes. Just wait until your power supply fan stops without you knowing it, while on a heavy gaming overclock! Now this is exciting, poof bang and small flames while you reach for the power cord and rip it from the socket!mmmmm love the smell of electronics first thing in the morning.
I love cooking and to prove it take on corrupted SD card, remove the chip from casing, place on top of a dvd. Put one popcorn kernel on top of chip and place into the microwave. Turn large microwave on high for 45 seconds, have video camera ready..start...ah pop beautiful sparks and one kernel that tastes..uh...fried.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

I burnt a cpu, 2 motherboards and graphics card once. But it wasn't entirely my fault.
It was back in 2001, and I had ordered a premodded abit board and a 'painted' athlon processor from oczstore (back then ocz only produced memory, and modded their way to the rest). After 4 months or so a the voltmod on the motherboard took its toll and fried the cpu and overvolted the graphics card. I thought a bios update a few days prior had gone wrong, so I took the chip out and wanted to flash it in another board - by replacing the chips when the systems were on. Usually works, but I didn't pay attention and put the chip in the wrong way, frying it and that board too.

BUT until that I was probably the only one in my area with 160GB harddrive, 2GB memory and a 1400mhz athlon. I don't think an athlon with that speed was even available in denmark at that time (may 2001).

Haven't fried anything since that. I started doing my mods myself afterwards, and everything worked out fine. Except an x800pro to xt mod, but that was reverted to usable levels with a bios flash

 

[dfusco]

I've burned up an Athlon XP 2400+ because I thought 65C was okay and didn't know ECS MoBos were shite.

 

[Guest]

geforce 5700le .. got a 60% oc and then the mosfet blew

 

[Guest]

Nope.

 

[Onus]

Not exactly, although a hungry Cyrix chip burned out the power circuits on a mobo that was supposed to be able to run it.
As to the value of overclocking, my current rig seemed rather sluggish recently, until I remembered I'd taken the OC off during some testing (Sacred 2 has a crash bug in it). I put it back on, and my system became notably snappier.

 

[spoondigity]

I can't remember baking anything by overclocking.

I agree with a previous poster that graphics cards seem to be easily damaged,even without overclocking. I have seen one myself and several other family member's gpus fail when the fans/heatsink channels were not kept clean and the cards seemingly overheated and failed after long use. If you ever see graphic artifacts on your screen, shut down your system immediately and check to make sure your gpu fan is clean because it can happen in seconds.

I have fried one system myself but it wasn't from overclocking. It was back before they had lights on the motherboard to show that the board had power. I thought I had unplugged my system but hadn't. I was screwing something in and the screwdriver touched something on the motherboard. I instantly smelled it and knew what I had done. Luckily only the MB died.

 

[dotaloc]

my overclocking has always been air-cooled and moderate in comparison to some, i'm sure...but i've never friend anything.

 

[spoondigity]

I do remember one time at a computer shop I worked at a friend who worked their fried a system by putting the CPU into the socket incorrectly. It was either back when you could put a CPU in the wrong way or he had a bent pin or something. I thought he told me he put it in 90 or 180 degrees off from the corner it was supposed to be lined up with. Anyways, I remember seeing the results and it was really ugly. I swear if memory servers me correctly it actually hairline cracked the chip itself but that could be a fish story.

 

[Glorian]

never a cpu, but a gpu on the other hand, fried my a 6600gt replaced it with a new one, then replaced that one with a 7800gt and fried that sucker too wasn't my fault that time fan went out, just have bad luck with gpu's.

 

[mavroxur]

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]could you be any bigger a fanbaby .. i eman fan boy .. get lsot with this BS , AMD processors cook NO easier than intels ganted you cant OC them as high but i have yet to have an OCe'd amd chip fri on me. god get lost you dang fan boy we dont need you (for teh record i'm ntoa fanboy i ahve both amd and intel based comps in my home .i jsut hate freaking fanboys that spew utter trash[/citation]


You are definately not a fanboy. By the way, learn to type. Your posts look like keyboard face-rolls.

 

[Tattysnuc]

I'm afraid I'm probably one of those statistically that are quoted as having more money than sense.

Bought extreme edition CPU's with the express purpose of overclocking them, and after years of playing with them I've finally come to the conclusion that their just a marketing gimmick

Never burnt out or damaged a component because I've been too careful with my voltages.

Next CPU I buy is one that is recommended as being a good overclocker. Just overclocked a C2Duo E7500 to 4.4ghz and it plops all over my QX9650

 

[Avenger762]

Yep, I fried the Northbridge on an old PCChips mobo while overclocking my slot 1 Celeron 233 to 433MHz. There was an awful stink in my workshop for about 4 days.

 

[uronacid]

Absolutely, I've fried 2 video cards and 1 CPU.