The Dangers of Overclocking: Proven

[Onlooker]

I recently tried the pencil trick on my AMD Duron 1.2 Ghz. I was told that this was the way I should overclock my processor in the "Dangers of Overclocking" thread. I connected the L1 bridges with the pencil vertically, and then tried to boot. My computer booted up and then shut down as soon as it got to the beep code. I decided I didn't really want to overclock yet, so I erased the pencil from the processor to try and disconnect the bridges. I put the CPU back on the motherboard after I made sure that all the residu was gone. I am still having problems. The computer shuts down as soon as it gets to beep code, and I have to reset the PSU in order to get it to boot up at all. Please help! I dont know what do without my computer!

[golfcart]

What kind of beep code does it give?

[Onlooker]

Single beep.

[jmebonner]

Have you tried clearing the cmos?

[RedFury]

Usually a single beep code means that the speaker works! At least, that's the way it is with Award.

[Xtreeme]

"Usually a single beep code means that the speaker works! At least, that's the way it is with Award"

No it dont. It means post O.K. ram test passes everything else alright and booting system. Thats the typical one beep post! LOL.

"Please help! I dont know what do without my computer!"
Thats yer first mistake. Oclockers rule #1- never oclock a machine that you cant afford to replace-or do without. NEVER> or pay the consequences. Sounds like ya got a bum cpu now-heck durons are cheap. Set ya back $30 max to replace it. Cheap lesson-live and learn I say.

[Urban_Squrill]

I overclocked my brand spankin new2600+ and a7n8x deluxe. Screwed the bios. RMA'ed it beacuse of the shipping it sent me back 30 bucks(overnight).

[Bob The Great]

have you tried resetting the bios usuing the jumpers like was mentioned here? That might very well solve your problem.

[BadboyAl]

You need to reset the Bios. Anytime I have oc/'d a chip and it crashed after the cmos is booted it is due to the bios applying the o/c setting that you configured. Pull the cmos jumper on the mobo and aplpy defualt setting in the bios, then try a reboot. Sometimes you need to mess with the jumper and restart the comp a few times for it to kick in.

Your cmop wouldnt have started if you damaged the cpu. At least I dont think it would. You could have messed up a circuit route on the chip itself causing it to permanently malfunction.

Hey I guess that what you get when you have a 1.2 Duron Anyway, tell moms give you some spending money an get a real chip already. The stone age is over.... Just a joke-- SMILE...

[Onlooker]

That's why I decided to try to OC this CPU, because I'm getting a new one soon anyway, a 2200+. Well, i'll try to clear the CMOS, and see what happens. Thanks.

[Onlooker]

This didn't work. even after i cleared the cmos, i still cant get the computer to stay on long enough to even touch the bios settings.

[NDC]

I had a T-Bird 1Ghz (100) running at 1.4Ghz using that pencil trick. I had it running that way for a couple years without a single problem. Now I no longer OC my systems. I prefer to just buy a new processor or/and a new mainboard if by budget allows it.


The key to safely OC your system safely is the following in my opinion...

1. Keep the CPU temperature as low as possible. Can't keep it close to what the temps were at factory speed, then don't do it.

2. Keep the PCI bus as close to 33Mhz as possible. If you don't, not only will you cause instability and damage your PCI devices, you can also corrupt dat on your HDD as well as cause permenant damage to the surface.

3. Keep the AGP bus as close to 66Mhz as possible.

4. As for memory, you cannot damage them by overclocking. They will simply fail. That's why I find running memory heatsinks just a cosmetic thing...

Keep the guidelines above, and you can SAFELY OC your system....

[Darthgary]

Dont most motherboards lock the PCI and IDE Bus down at 33 Mhz?

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Darthgary
Dont most motherboards lock the PCI and IDE Bus down at 33 Mhz?

The new nForce do, the older VIA-based KT266 and KT333 do not. Not sure about the KT400... don't have one (or an nForce) yet.

[BadboyAl]

I'm alittle confused.

What causes the pci or agp bus to be o/c'd past the 33mhzs/66mhzs?

I thought there wasn't anyway to have the pci bus and/or agp bus to go beyond there natural limits?

How would these buses become overclocked?

[NDC]

When you raise the FSB, PCI and AGP bus overclocks as well...

[DemonKnight]

the AGP and PCI bus speed used to be determined by dividing the FSB. AGP was half the FSB and PCI was 1/4 the FSB so a 133 FSB was 66AGP and 33PCI so a 150FSB would give a 75 AGP (which I got windows to post with twice on a 1Ghz AXIA athlon once. crashed 5 minutes later (graphic artifacts were there from the get go however...)

[BadboyAl]

I have my pent 4 2.66 (533fsb) o/c to 2.80

I changed my front bus to 140mhz. This will potentially damage pci card, agp card and/or my hard drive?

That SUCKS!!

[jmichna]

Originally posted by BadboyAl
I have my pent 4 2.66 (533fsb) o/c to 2.80

I changed my front bus to 140mhz. This will potentially damage pci card, agp card and/or my hard drive?

That SUCKS!!

Hardly. Your normal fsb speed is 133mHz (your P4 is "quad pumped" to 533mHz e.g., 133 x 4 = 533).

Your PCI bus speed is your fsb/4. At 133mHz FSB, your PCI bus speed is 33mHz. At 140mHz FSB, your PCI bus is running at 140/4 = 35mHz. This is a very mild overclock. You are not going to damage any of your components running like this.

Many, many (Athlon) overclockers have been running their rigs at 175, 180 up to (and beyond) 200mHz on KT333 mobos, which are locked in at that 1/4 divisor at 133, and 1/5 divisor at 166 and above. I have run my EPoX 8K3A+ mobo for about a year at 182mHz (182/5=36.5mHz PCI bus); my daughter's 8K5A2+ has been run for months on end at 200mHz FSB (200/5=40mHz PCI bus speed).

My experience is that if you keep your PCI bus speed in the low 40s you will be okay. Better quality components seem to handle the increased bus speed better than others.

[edit]Note: I just re-read my post and noticed I originally neglected to mention the switch to a 1/5 divsor at 166 and higher bus speeds for the KT333 chipset. Corrections noted with italics.

[NDC]

This is my personal opinion and I think overclocking is just a phase many people go through when they first overclock. There are two types of overclockers. One is the type that overclocks to save money and expect to see a significant increase in performance (which you won't in most cases using air cooling). Then there is the OC enthusiast that just spends wads of money on liquid cooling, etc to OC and end up spending more money than to just a buy a faster processor. An enthusiast, I think it's worth the time, money and effort because they simply want to take the processor at its hoghest potential at any cost, even damage. When you realize the difference in performance when you overclock systems to gain a couple hundred Mhz. Most people running systems with clockspeeds of over 1.5Ghz, it just isn't worth the investment on better cooling system, time and effort and not to mention the risk of corrupting data and damaging hardware and so on. Now, if you had a 500Mhz system and overclocked it to 700+ Mhz, the whole story changes. But anything over a 1Ghz, the difference is only visible in benchmarks an you'll probably get a few FPS increase in games.


I just thought I'd share my personal opinion... Of course many of you will differ..