what to do with spare (possibly bad) processor

[wdj]

I purchased a PC for my parents from a crummy vendor and it locked up at various points throughout the XP installation. To make a long story short, I didn't trust the company enough to ship the machine back without written confirmation of a refund, so I diagnosed the problem myself and narrowed it down to the processor. I replaced the processor, and the machine runs fine now.

I'm trying to think of what to do with the processor that I took out. It's an Athlon XP 1600 so it's fairly new and I hate to just chunk it. Here's what would happen in the original machine:

After sitting a while, it would run for about 15 minutes, and then lock up. After that first lock, it would run for about 4-5 minutes before locking up again. It was not locking at the same place every time, it was completely random. I thought the problem might be heat related, but the MB's system monitor showed normal temps after an hour of sitting.

Would it be a good idea to buy another MB and try this processor again? Is there any chance that 'underclocking' it might make it useable?

(sorry for the cross post...)

[caddmannq]

Did you ever try raising the vcore just 1/10th or two? Often that makes all the diff.

I'd unlock it, and try various clock speeds and vcores until I found a stable config. If I had the time to diddle around that is.

[nukes]

Was the heatsink etc seated properley when you first took the lid off. Someone once came to me with a system that had just arrived (TAG PC technology, it was) and the heatsink wasn't even on the chip, and a few of the cards werent even in properley. I found that appaling. Plus the fact they had locked out a lot of the settings and I had to break into the policy editior to set it back up.
Back to your point, by all means, try it in another board, but as caddmannq says, try raising the vcore if it doesn't work.

[dunbar]

seated and greased heatsink, CPU not cracked or crunched, CPU bridges are either clean as a whistle or heavily bridged, dirty contacts on the CPU (if socket CPU, clean Pins? If Slot A, clean connector contacts?), misaligned contacts, BIOS flash.....

As for normal system temps, numbers tell us a lot.... maybe post them?

[wdj]

Thanks for the replies, I'm really a software guy by trade so I don't do much hardware work. I'm pretty comfortable building & setting systems up, but I'm by no means an expert so I appreciate you guys taking your time out to help.

The heatsink looked good and the fan (volcano 5) worked, although they were a little skimpy on the thermal grease IMO...

Peripherals weren't an issue as I had pulled all of the OEM cards and put in a video card that I knew was good.

The CPU appeared to be in good shape with no evidence of physical damage. I did not check the condition of the pins but will do so.

I don't recall the exact temps but they were within the range that their tech support advisor suggested (I want to say 150f was where it ran)

I don't think the MOBO was the issue because it's working fine with a new processor (Duron 1.3 - don't laugh, it's for my parents...)

Here's where my novice-ness will show:

If I purchase a new board and give this a try, do I run a chance of ruining the board by putting a potentially bad CPU in it?

Any reccomendations on what board might be good for this? I'd guess that I want something highly stable/reliable so that I can be fairly confident that the board isn't the problem.

Is my 'underclocking' idea completely ludicrous?

[blackwatch]

i think the board will be fine...the cpu is the thing that usually fries. as long as the board is grounded it shouldnt be harmed. id just get a msi kt3 ultra...they are like $60 now and are reliable, fast, and have a lot of features. if the cpu is bad...it wont turn on, or post.

[Einsamherz]

I had problems with my XP 1600 too. I changed to an MSI board (after 2 failed Abit attempts)


I _love_ my MSI. It's been running well for a few months now. If you don't like messing with hardware much, MSI is pretty nice. It's got a software update feature that checks for all the (MSI) drivers you need and the BIOS upgrades through XP. It also has a software O/C program that will run your system up to a crash to determine maximum speed, then you can turn the "turbo" on and off from Windows.

Good luck!

[caddmannq]

Yeah...I have an MSI KT3 Ultra too, and it's been rock solid. Price was right too.

[Bruneau]

Try a new cpu.

It does sound like a heat problem. But, who knows.

Have you watched the temps?