Why do my CPU's keep dieing on me?

B

brschmid

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
Messages
128
Ok, heres the situation. I upgraded to an A64 system in February.I originally built a 3500+ w/ a K8NS Ultra and 2x512mb of Plat. Rev 2's. it was perfect at 260x10 1.45vcore for 2 months, then out of no where the cpu died.
Ok fine bad luck, i then got a 3200+ Venice which worked for a few weeks then the memory controller died on me. I ran that processor all summer long at 270x10 1.45v on a DFI Ultra-D, ram on a divider. Then again out of no where the cpu died on me.
Ok, so now this brings me to my current situation. I bought 2x1GB Ballistix and a 3800X2, overclocked it to 240x10 1.35v, ram on 233 divider @ 280mhz. it was great again for 2 months, then the board died on me. it took my ram with it, and i thought the cpu was still good. I get a new Ultra-D 2.5 weeks ago, get it going again at same settings, it was 24 hour dual prime stable, i could run F@H, any stability program. Last weekend i got a request to help out an old F@H team for the weekend. I don't fold anymore other than stability testing, and i said sure. Well, it wouldn't work at all. so i started up prime. Prime would fail in minutes. So i backed it down to 235x10 1:1 and that worked for a few hours then that didn't work either. So i backed down to stock, F@H wouldn't even work at stock speeds. I memtested my ram at 250x8 for 25 hours and it was just fine, no errors. so i think my ram is still good. cpu is not though.
So then i buy the A8N32 because it is a mobo i have wanted for a while, and try to get it set up for the last 2 days, and still have the same issues as before, which means it wasn't mobo this time, or maybe it was and it killed my cpu too. Since the ram tests good on both boards, i don't think it is the ram.

any ideas as to what is killing my CPU's? is it just bad luck. could it be something i am doing wrong? My building process is the same as when i built my P4 3 years ago now. I rebuilt that thing just as much as i have my my A64 because of all the problems, but i rebuilt the P4 for various things like modding the case, rewiring, for the heck of it, to mod more, etc etc. never had an issue in 2.5 years.

help :confused:
 
a few things:

how are cpu temps?
what voltage are you giving your ram?
how are the rails on that psu?
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
a few things:

how are cpu temps?
what voltage are you giving your ram?
how are the rails on that psu?
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temps on cpus are always low, less than 45C, in most cases under 40C
voltage to ballistix, 2.8v. voltage to TCCD was 2.7. i did try some UTT with the 3200+ and that i went up to 3.5, but that was the only cpu i did that with.

the psu's i tried were a 485w Noisetaker, rails were rock solid on it for the past 8 months, i bought it when i went A64. Now i have a 1 month old OCZ Powerstream 520W that again rock solid rails, 3.34, 5.16, 12.20.
 
brschmid said:
temps on cpus are always low, less than 45C, in most cases under 40C
voltage to ballistix, 2.8v. voltage to TCCD was 2.7. i did try some UTT with the 3200+ and that i went up to 3.5, but that was the only cpu i did that with.

the psu's i tried were a 485w Noisetaker, rails were rock solid on it for the past 8 months, i bought it when i went A64. Now i have a 1 month old OCZ Powerstream 520W that again rock solid rails, 3.34, 5.16, 12.20.
Click to expand...
hmmm, that's all good. i'll wait for some more suggestions.. i'm not used to cpu's randomly dying like that
 
RadCliffeX said:
Can we assume that the computer is Grounded properly?
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i can only hope so, i am not sure how to test that?

i use a CyberPower 1500AVR as my UPS and there are no warnings from the software or on the unit itself. it is supposed to detect wiring faults. I used the P4 in the same apartment for 1 year before i upgraded to A64, i have been using the same outlet for the UPS plug
 
Bona Fide said:
You're cursed...I would suggest seeing a doctor. :)
Click to expand...

maybe a Priest as well to come and bless my apartment and my computers? maybe it is bad karma, maybe something i did in a previous life
:p

j/k please try to keep this serious. Honestly the last 7 months ahve been hell because nothing stays stable for more than 60 days :(
 
Bona Fide said:
Power supply. That's my best guess. Next best guess would be inadequate cooling.
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Enermax was stable the whole time, rails were measured with a DMM and never fluctuated.

OCZ is also very stable.

Cooling used was a Zalman 7000CU, and recently i changed to an XP90 which cools about 4C bette than the Zalman. my X2 before it died was peaking at 35C while running dual Prime.
 
Is there something we are all not thinking of here? I would love to get this thing working properly. i am getting a new cpu next week.
 
Bad karma, I've been clocking A64s since the 754 clawhammers and have never lost a board or CPU,guess I've been lucky.Only thing different I can think is if you were running unstable but OS should have crashed before anything else.Dont have a dog that could be pissing on your rig at night do ya! :D :D
 
Borgschulze said:
At least he didn't chip the core :rolleyes:
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hey! :p :cool:

brschmid, the only thing i can think of is that you were handling the chips and gave em some ESD that didn't kill, but harmed them, and they failed early. it's a stretch, esp for that many chips, but *shrug*
 
I've read someone that those DFI Lanpartys combined with a low v/core + high Vdimm burns out these processors. But I don't think it really applies in your situation. I read it was more like vcore of 1.4 or less with vdimm at 2.9+
 
thanks for all the replies. I am thinking it is just a string of bad luck.

I use an anti-static wrist band when i am building, and i build on a tile floor while barefoot.
 
damn, talk about precautions! haha, i often just throw a motherboard on my bed or something :p


i guess yeah.. just really bad luck :(
maybe you'll do better in the future? perhaps you should stick to retail.. and take advantage of warranties? hehe
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
damn, talk about precautions! haha, i often just throw a motherboard on my bed or something :p
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My Pentium 2 came home with me in my backpack from Ottawa this summer padded by clothes.... It works fine...
 
everything i have is retail :( my spending account at newegg and zzf is quite impressinve LOL

amd's RMA takes too much time so i will be selling the replacement they send me. anyone want a brand new 3800+ for 305.00 shipped? (i'm serious)
 
i think i'm just lucky with not killing my hardware. the newark was the only thing that i really made a boo-boo on.


i have that clawhammer. i think everyone's seen it. it works.

i've dropped a mobo (intel 440dx iirc) frop about 2-3 feet up onto a concrete floor, with the cpu (that had a big aluminum heatsink) in the slot. nothing out of the ordinary as i used it for the next year or so

i generally disregard all precautions for ESD, aside from when i'm touching other people's stuff or building something brand new. only two deaths from ESD, both sticks of ram

i've shorted out my antec true430, kept running, but melted the 5v and ground wire.. still works just fine, other than the 5v rail running a bit low

took off the heatspreader of some old corsair ram, pc2700, to find out what chips it was (turned out to be ch-6). broke off 4 of the little components along the top edge of the pcb.. still does ~235mhz at 2-2-2 with 3.2-3.3v this day... hell, it's in the computer i'm typing on :p

i could come up with some other things if you give me time :D
 
With the cpu...When you tested with a new mobo, was it totally no power? Like fans on mobo spin for a second?
 
centvalny said:
With the cpu...When you tested with a new mobo, was it totally no power? Like fans on mobo spin for a second?
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no it will boot up, it will just not run stable at stock speeds. the ram tests 25 hours good with memtest, and i have tested each stick individually.
 
What if this was all just terrible cold boot issues? As in the chips weren't actually dead.

My assrot motherboard seemed to be very dead to me the second day I had it. Pushed power and my fans spun up... and the fans spun up... but it never progressed to the next stage. It was the cold boot issue to the next level. Pulled cards and hardware then put it all back together to eventually get the warning "Your board has failed to boot repediately, press F2 to enter bios settings, press SPACE to save settings and continue" very useful data...
 
brschmid said:
no it will boot up, it will just not run stable at stock speeds. the ram tests 25 hours good with memtest, and i have tested each stick individually.
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Thats good, because I killed 2 cpus where both wont boot at all, means only fans and leds on for less than a second and nothing.
My suggestion is to start with a fresh window install and run your system normally w/out oc for a couple days and see if there any problem. Sometimes those prime and memtest give us headache......it should only be used in jedec memory labs :)
 
Oc'd hardware will eventually gave up...especially mobos and mostly its power regulator..
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
i've shorted out my antec true430, kept running, but melted the 5v and ground wire.. still works just fine, other than the 5v rail running a bit low
Click to expand...

LMAO...works just fine except......
:p

All this is down right strange. The odds of one person getting that many fault cpus in a row are astronomical. I can't think of anything constructive to say at this point that hasn't been suggested already. :confused:
 
centvalny said:
Thats good, because I killed 2 cpus where both wont boot at all, means only fans and leds on for less than a second and nothing.
My suggestion is to start with a fresh window install and run your system normally w/out oc for a couple days and see if there any problem. Sometimes those prime and memtest give us headache......it should only be used in jedec memory labs :)
Click to expand...

that would be fine, except i run F@H and that wont complete a wu at stock speed. it worked 2 weeks ago
 
SpoogeMonkey said:
LMAO...works just fine except......
:p

All this is down right strange. The odds of one person getting that many fault cpus in a row are astronomical. I can't think of anything constructive to say at this point that hasn't been suggested already. :confused:
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hehe, you wouldn't believe my luck this year :( I also had 2 HDD's die, and 2 DVD-roms :confused:
 
maybe u should have some one else order ur stuff might have better luck and I feel for ya man hope something works out for u
 
brschmid said:
hehe, you wouldn't believe my luck this year :( I also had 2 HDD's die, and 2 DVD-roms :confused:
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HAS to be something power related, but i dunno what, as it seems your psu's check out fine
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
HAS to be something power related, but i dunno what, as it seems your psu's check out fine
Click to expand...

i know :( this will be the first processor on the new PSU. so maybe my luck will change. i hope it will.

I didn't have this many issues with the P4, which i used for just as long as i have been with AMD. it is just crazy.

the First thing that happened to me i forgot to add earlier was i switched to A64, then my Antec True480 blew up on the 2nd !, thats when i bought the Enermax
 
actually i think that explains my situation perfectly :(

i guess i shouldn't be so afraid to raise vcore
 
brschmid said:
actually i think that explains my situation perfectly :(

i guess i shouldn't be so afraid to raise vcore
Click to expand...
but you used tccd for a while and didn't go over 2.9v?
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
but you used tccd for a while and didn't go over 2.9v?
Click to expand...

true, darn. almost explains me then :( hopefully it was bad power, and that PSU is gone now
 
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