After a year cpu no longer stable?

[SilentAssassin]

My cousin has a Athlon XP 2500+ Barton that's unlocked. We had it running perfectly at 3200+ speeds at stock voltage. Now a few weeks ago it starts crashing so I rup prime95 and it no longer can pass it and errors within minutes. Even with 1.8vcore it still errors. So I lower it and it's not stable at 2.1ghz either. It has to run at 2.05Ghz now at 1.79vcore. Any idea why all the sudden it can't run at 3200+ speeds anymore?

 

[BlueWeasel]

(1) Have you tried removing the thermal paste and reapplying? Some thermal pastes can become ineffective after prolonged (ie, 12 months) usage?

(2) Has the ambient temperature increased just in the last few weeks (summer temperatures, AC broke, etc)?

(3) Any other hardware changed out or modified that could affect stability at the higher FSB speed?

 

[THUGSROOK]

clear bios and reflash

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
clear bios and reflash

 

[ShinSa]

Try cleaning the heatsink with a dust blower.

 

[sandorski]

Could also be caps on the motherboard packing it in.

 

[Megatomic]

^^^ All excellent ideas.

If your cousin hasn't increased the Vcore then the chip shouldn't have "aged" in a years time such that the 3200+ overclock is impossible. My chip's been at 3200+ for 15 months at default Vcore and shows no sign of giving up yet.

 

[loafbred]

1. Look for swollen and/or leaking capacitors.

2. Remove the heatsink, take the fan off it, and wash it with strong detergent. Like somebody else said, it probably needs new thermal paste, anyway. Make sure it's dry before reinstalling .

3. Clean everything else thoroughly, and make sure that the fan is working on the northbridge, if it uses one.

4. Check a molex connector with a multitester while it's under load. If it fluctuates a lot, or drops below ~15% spec on 12v or 5v, it might be the PSU.

5. Try some other memory that is know to be stable at 200 MHz at normal voltage.

6. If none of the above appears to be a problem, try removing and replacing everything, most importantly the ATX power supply connectors on the motherboard, as something might have some corrosion on connectors.

 

[edmundoab]

My XP2100+ used to be able to run at 211 x 11 stable at 1.750 Vcore
after a year. the OC didn't seem to hold anymore.

I'ts stable now at 205 x 11. I wonder if he is facing the same problem.
I clean my PC regularly too. Shouldn't be the heat factor.
I dunno.

 

[Megatomic]

Well, if the Vcore is elevated then the CPU can age more quickly. That's a fact and probably what happened to you edmundoab.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Well, if the Vcore is elevated then the CPU can age more quickly. That's a fact and probably what happened to you edmundoab.

Ya, especially at 7.5v.

 

[INGlewood78]

hmm wierd...im able to overclock my cpu MORE after the years. Before only could get up to 2.3 ghz, now I'm at 2.48gz...np at all. I think its been about 1-2yrs.

Bought my 1700+ T-bred for about 80 bucks. Not a bad investment at all huh

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Well, if the Vcore is elevated then the CPU can age more quickly. That's a fact and probably what happened to you edmundoab.

Ya, especially at 7.5v.

lol i meant 1.750, sorry..

 

[SilentAssassin]

Ok well heat isn't the problem. If anything temps are lower then ever so that's not it. Also I know it's not the PSU cause I just tried my PSU in his pc and it still has to be lowered to 2.05ghz to be stable. It's also not the ram either. As far as I can tell the chip just doesn't want to do anything above 2.05ghz anymore. It was always at default vcore too so I don't get it. And another thing is the bios was never changed since the original stable overclock to 3200+ speeds. It just suddenly started crashing one day.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: INGlewood78
hmm wierd...im able to overclock my cpu MORE after the years. Before only could get up to 2.3 ghz, now I'm at 2.48gz...np at all. I think its been about 1-2yrs.

Bought my 1700+ T-bred for about 80 bucks. Not a bad investment at all huh

Yeah m 1700 was the same way. I could get 2.4 with 1.725 when I sold it. I never tried highier as I was RAM limited at the time. I would have kept that thing forever but I got on a great deal for this A64.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

here's a curious thought, could it be a software problem causing the crash? and only shows itself if your system is running at the higher OC? my system crashes bf1942 Desert combat when running @ 12.5x139 (memory limited), but runs everything else I throw at it just fine (and I do a lot of video editing, as well as folding @ home so my temps are always around 55C during the summer). drop the fsb 1mhz and everything runs fine.