Whoopsie! Think I killed it!

[ChipDeath]

awww crap. I think I killed my 1700+ :frown:

Been running at 2.3Ghz for a couple of weeks (200x11.5). Temps were fine, but last night when I got home it was off (flatmate turned it off), and turning it on I get no POST, no beeps, nada. fans spin, and the little diagnostic Readout sits permanently on "C1" which apparently means a memory error, according to the manual, but I've tried 5 different sticks of DDR, singly and not, dual channel and not, and I get the same with all of them.

Also tried unplugging all IDE devices, and removing the RAID card that my HDDs are plugged into and still nothing.

Any ideas people? I've popped into work as I know we just got an order of PC parts in and there's a 1.6Ghz duron that I'm going to borrow to test, but if that doesn't work I'm not sure what else to try.

Anything else I should check?

XP1700+ T-Bred 'B', 11.5x200Mhz = 2300Mhz, 1.73Vcore
Last time I checked, temps were around 32C & 53C (full load)
2xCorsair 256Mb PC3200LL (in one channel)
1xCorsair XMS PC4000 (in the other).
Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro w/ VGA Silencer V3

tried various RAM sticks/Configurations;
Tried unplugging everything bar network card, gfx, CPU & RAM.
Removed HSF & Re-seated. No apparent sign of CPU damage.

I've heard of "Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome", if you pump more than 1.75V into them - is there something similar for t-breds?

Still, this could be a good excuse to finally get that XP-M I've been wanting to play with...

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[Scout]

What motherboard you using? Have you cleared the CMOS?

Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[o1die]

If you had a shutdown temp enabled in the bios, your cpu should still be good. Maybe your board died.

 

[RichPLS]

Hmmmm, maybe there is something your flatmate is not telling you???
least your living up to your screen name...

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[ChipDeath]

What motherboard you using?

oops. Forgot to list that fairly useful detail .

It's an Epox 8RDA+, Rev 1.1

Yup, I've cleared CMOS repeatedly.

But anyway, It's not the CPU - I got that duron home and shoved it in, with still no dice :frown: ...

I've brought the whole stupid thing into work so I can try out various components, but I guess it is starting to look like the motherboard now....

I just assumed it would be CPU because pretty much all the PCs with those symptoms that I've seen (no beeps at all) have been due to a crap CPU.

Flatmate said he got home, and the PC just had a blank screen & he turned it off. He's reasonably trustworthy, so I'll believe him ..

Time to go start swapping components...

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[ChipDeath]

least your living up to your screen name...

Yup.. Although if the CPU <i>is</i> dead, then it'll be #1. Pretty sure I've never killed one before.

That's going to be step #1. See if the puppy still works

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[ChipDeath]

Well, the CPU seems fine. I've dug up an old Socket A mobo lying around here at work (A spectacularly bad example of a KT266a mobo), but it happily posts with the CPU, the same 9800Pro, and one of the sticks of RAM I had previously tried. I won't bother trying to boot windows, since that's further than the other board gets, and I don't want it screwing with my motherboard drivers, or deactivating XP or something ..

I think now I'll go remove the mobo & try testing under the same conditions (since if it's screwed I'll need to remove it anyway....)..

OK. This poses a wonderful problem... It seems I need a new motherboard, but I don't want to reformat/re-install... but I don't really want to buy another socket A mobo now - I was thinking of building a completely new rig in a few months, so sinking more money into this one is undesirable really... Ah well, here's the choices as I see them:

1)Buy a new Epox 8RDA+, although it'll be a rev 2 board, all the drivers and suchlike should still be happy.

2)buy a More fully-featured Nforce2 board, with RAID and suchlike on board (e.g. Epox 8RDA6+ or Abit NF7-S). I run with Nvidia's Drivers (not Epox-flavoured) so it should hopefully be fairly happy with a minimum of tweaking. Problem here is that I already have a RAID0 array controlled by an ALi PCI RAID Card. what are the odds of an on-board controller working with the existing array?

3)Buy an A64 Motherboard & CPU .... problem I then have of course is it really needs a re-install... and that's just a pain. Plus it would of course cost a crapload more, and I really wanted to buy all the A64 bits at once really, rather than doing it piecemeal. Plus I'd have to go AGP, whereas PCI-E might have been my choice if I'd waited..

I think I'm at present more attracted to option 1, as it's the cheapest and less hassle. (plus Epox makes fantastic overclocking boards anyhoo...) and I don't mind continuing to use the PCI RAID card, but it would be a little neater if I could use on-board...

Ah well. I'll think on it for a couple hours. Any thoughts welcome.

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[o1die]

Your epox board may still be under warranty. I would request an rma. You can use it as a spare board.

 

[ChipDeath]

1)I've had it for (IIRC) nearly 3 years now, so I'm fairly sure it's out of warranty :frown:
2)There's the matter of a rather large old Socket A HS epoxied to the northbridge ... I think they might take exception to that.....

I think I'll go for a replacement 8RDA+. They're pretty cheap now, although I can't find anywhere that has them in stock, so I'll have to wait a week I guess.

Still, at least with it dead I can finally get around to a couple of other mods I had planned, but hadn't yet bothered to do - namely to chop out excess wires from the PSU, and stick a better fan on my VGA silencer.

Thanks for the input though!

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[Rugger]

2)There's the matter of a rather large old Socket A HS epoxied to the northbridge... I think they might take exception to that.....

Ya think so?! Damn the luck!

ROFLMAO. NICE! :lol:

__________________________________________________
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[ChipDeath]

Couldn't achieve 200Mhz FSB without it. was stuck at 196. Been on there for well over a year now, so that wasn't what killed it.

I push all my components quite close to the edge... Sometimes one of them falls off :lol:

that mobo had a good innings I guess. Don't think I <i>ever</i> ran it at stock (only officially supported 166FSB).. slowest I ever had it running for any length of time was 175Mhz (memory... had a stick of PC2700 and a stick of PC2100, so couldn't go further really)

*shrug* $hit happens. At least the replacement will be a rev 2 so I'll not actually be stressing it too much @ 200FSB (but of course I should have a bit more FSB room anyway... )

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[Scout]

Hummm... looking over the news groups, that board seems to be somewhat prone to corrupted BIOS problems. Also, some have found the infamous leaky capacitor issues with this board of the vintage you have.

So I guess take a close look for bulging/leaking capacitors. I've never had to replace a BIOS chip so I'm not sure what to try there... I've heard about a "hot flash" procedure, but I don't know how that works.

Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[ChipDeath]

I guess it could be a corrupt BIOS or something.

I've heard of the hot flash - I think it's something along the lines of sticking a working BIOS chip in, and then removing it and putting the stuffed one in, while it's still switched on.

I thought about the caps, and none seem to be bulging or leaking... BUT all the caps have a little embossed cross on the top, and on a couple the cross seems to have almost "popped out", if you follow me. Kinda like those jars with a little recessed bit on the lid, that pops up when you open it so you know if it's properly sealed.

Well, I'll hopefully get the new board this week (Site says it'll have them in 1-3 days, so in theory I should have it Thurs or fri).

Currently having to use my lappy at home.. Fine for surfing & MP3s, but a bit crap for gaming really. (PIII-M 1.13Ghz, 384Mb RAM, Mobility Radeon).

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[Rugger]

I didn't think the HS killed it - just enjoyed the nonchalant way you threw out the fact that you had it epoxied on there. I'm still getting a chuckle out of that one! :lol:

I push all my components quite close to the edge... Sometimes one of them falls off

Can't make an omellete without breaking a few eggs...

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[ChipDeath]

It sounds like your v1.1 came with the older nForce2 right?

Yup. That's why I'm not <i>that</i> pissed off about it. If it was actually an ultra then I would've been running it within spec.

I was lucky to get a Ultra 400(C1) cuz I only bought it a year and half ago.

Yeah, I only missed by a few months I think. A friend asked me to build him a system the same as mine a couple of months after I built mine, and the 8RDA+ he got was an ultra. I was annoyed :frown: ... Cos he knows virtually nothing about PCs, so he really wasn't going to oc much at all. Was tempted to swap my mobo for his, but I'm an honest kinda guy & he'd paid the money for it...

At least it seems that my t-bred is ok. I think When I build the next rig I might use the 1700 in a noiseless HTPC or something - it happily does 2Ghz at 1.4V, so it's not a bad candidate.

Of course, I don't know for sure if any other components got killed yet, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess ..

Still, at least now all the parts have been dormant I've had a good excuse to do the other little mods I've been planning for a while. My Radeon's gonna be freakin' huge now I've Stuck an 80mm fan on the VGA silencer It'll probably be around as wide as yours! Good job I only have 1 PCI card I need to use...

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[ChipDeath]

nah, it's just a 9800Pro. Never done a card mod. I did flash the BIOS on this one to an XT, but got heaps of artifacts so flashed back.

Doesn't even OC particularly well... but Now It's got some better cooling, we'll see... Maybe I should try a Voltmod

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[endyen]

You are wasting too much folding time. Forget socket A.
Get a 9NDA3J and a 3200+.
I am using the same xp install that I put on my A7N8X ND board, moved to an NF7-S, and now have on a K8N-E Deluxe board. I have another copy that started on a via 133A board, that is now on a KT400 board. If you are staying with the same chipset maker, it's no big deal. Changing chipsets is harder.
Once you are set up, see if you can grab some decent looking caps off old dead boards at work. Then swap with the evil looking ones on your board. Then you wont have to worry about sparky and "me" for a while.

 

[ChipDeath]

So you think I'll be fine moving to nforce3? It's very tempting.

Costs over 3 times as much as just replacing the 8RDA+ though. The new 8RDA+ is £56 shipped, but a 9NDA3J and a winchester 3000+ still comes to £171 + shipping.

How sensitive is Dual channel with the Nforce3 chipsets? I had my 8RDA+ working fine with 2x256Mb in one channel and 1x512Mb in the other - would this be a possible problem? Plus that 2x256Mb is only PC3200, so might prove an obstacle to successful overclocking. (although it is corsair LL stuff, so with a voltage bump and slacker timings I doubt it'd be a problem). I guess I'll just have to get as well-read on memory chips as some of the rest of you guys (I've obviously picked up that samsung TCCD=Good, but beyond that....)

What's the stock A64 cooler like? I know I've seen lots of people saying it's fine for ocing up to 2.4Ghz or so, but how much noise does it make? I'm reluctant to fork out for a better one since I only bought a ThermalRight SI-97 a couple of weeks back, and that only fits socket A IIRC. maybe if I hacksaw the fins off the AMD stock cooler and epoxy my SI-97 onto the base? :lol:

I'll think on it. The site I've ordered the replacement 8RDA+ from still doesn't even have them in stock, so I have today to brood on it at least.

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[endyen]

The stock fan is the quietest, and best Amd fan since the 750s. You should be able to do 2.5 at <55c.
If my last 2 upgrades had been that cheep, I would have 4 A64s now.

 

[ChipDeath]

As I've said in the past it could be that your card came with a slight lower than default vVPU which could limit your VPU OCing somewhat.

I've been doing a bit of research, and you're right, but not by much ! Default V is supposed to be 1.7V(correct me if I'm wrong), but mine's 1.69, according the multimeter I was using.

I've ordered a couple of 10K VRs (so cheap I thought I might as well get a spare), and a multimeter (as I don't have one myself... Was using work's)

I've seen the pictures of your Voltmod - is there any reason you went for directly soldering to the leg of the chip, rather than the much easier & less risky looking points highlighted <A HREF="http://www.fastlanehw.com/reviews/74/9800P_vgpu copy.JPG" target="_new">here</A>?

Was it something to do with your card originally being an SE?

I'll take some pics when I get my camera back (a friend borrowed it a week ago or so...), so you can see how silly the card looks

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[ChipDeath]

When I fitted the silencer, I discovered an R360 core. All the more reason to be annoyed about the bad overclocking. :frown: ..

New rig for the weekend hopefully though - An A64 with a geforce2 ultra - after I blow my 9800pro up :lol: ...

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[ChipDeath]

And one more thing....

You known UserTitles?

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[ChipDeath]

<--- Blam!

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen

 

[endyen]

Being ancient aint all that great. I'm sick of being a posterboy period.
I really dont know why I want you to get the A64. Now all chances of getting, and staying ahead are shot. Oh well, greater good, and all that rot.

 

[ChipDeath]

Now all chances of getting, and staying ahead are shot.

nah, I'll not get the parts until tommorrow earliest (I'm not paying stupid money for shipping, and it looks like you'll overtake me in a day or so, so you'll get there... Staying ahead might be trickier, but it depends on how much better the A64 will be than the XP, and on whether I can get the old XP back up and running too..

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen