Dangers of Overclocking

[Schnozzinkobenstein]

Simply put, can anything go wrong with a computer when overclocking besides losing data on the hard drive or overheating the cpu and gpu?

 

[VStrom]

How about frying your CPU, GPU, mobo, RAM etc. It's not always the heat...the voltage can kill as well. Usually your PC will shut down (if configured properly) if it gets too hot before causing any real damage but voltage will kill now.

 

[ribbon13]

If you do it step by step, stock voltage. You're computer will fail to post, and you'll get BSOD in windows LONG before any damage is done.

 

[Chesebert]

simply put, frequency scale linearly with power/heat and volt scales quadraticly with power/heat. Its amazing what people are putting into those 90nm chips the Ileak must be crazyly high. 90nm, especially SOI creats problems..lots of problems all those parasitic stuff that you don't need to worry about before are all coming back. I guess what I am trying to say it careful when you up those volts junction temp can be ALOT higher than what your bios is telling you.

have fun.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

What order would you recommend doing overclocking? Up the FSB until it won't post, and then increase voltage? What about ram timings/frequency? Also, what exactly happens when an attempted overclock "doesn't work"? Your computer refuses to boot... then what? How do you get it back to stock so that you can change things?

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
What order would you recommend doing overclocking? Up the FSB until it won't post, and then increase voltage? What about ram timings/frequency? Also, what exactly happens when an attempted overclock "doesn't work"? Your computer refuses to boot... then what? How do you get it back to stock so that you can change things?

If you go to high the comp will not boot or post. at that point you're going to have to reset the CMOS to get back to defaults, then up the voltage from there.

 

[cpacini]

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
What order would you recommend doing overclocking? Up the FSB until it won't post, and then increase voltage? What about ram timings/frequency? Also, what exactly happens when an attempted overclock "doesn't work"? Your computer refuses to boot... then what? How do you get it back to stock so that you can change things?

If you go to high the comp will not boot or post. at that point you're going to have to reset the CMOS to get back to defaults, then up the voltage from there.

Depending on your board, you can also hold down a key on the keyboard (usualy insert) when booting, and it will boot the machine in a "safe" mode at default settings.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: cpacini

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
What order would you recommend doing overclocking? Up the FSB until it won't post, and then increase voltage? What about ram timings/frequency? Also, what exactly happens when an attempted overclock "doesn't work"? Your computer refuses to boot... then what? How do you get it back to stock so that you can change things?

If you go to high the comp will not boot or post. at that point you're going to have to reset the CMOS to get back to defaults, then up the voltage from there.

Depending on your board, you can also hold down a key on the keyboard (usualy insert) when booting, and it will boot the machine in a "safe" mode at default settings.

DFI boards can also save up to 5 bios configurations for fast switching, helps a ton :thumbsup:

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: cpacini

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
What order would you recommend doing overclocking? Up the FSB until it won't post, and then increase voltage? What about ram timings/frequency? Also, what exactly happens when an attempted overclock "doesn't work"? Your computer refuses to boot... then what? How do you get it back to stock so that you can change things?

If you go to high the comp will not boot or post. at that point you're going to have to reset the CMOS to get back to defaults, then up the voltage from there.

Depending on your board, you can also hold down a key on the keyboard (usualy insert) when booting, and it will boot the machine in a "safe" mode at default settings.

DFI boards can also save up to 5 bios configurations for fast switching, helps a ton :thumbsup:

I love the Reloaded feature. It can be handy sometimes.

 

[biostud]

I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: biostud
I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

That is almost ALWAYS the case with overclocking too far.

Id reformat.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: biostud
I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

That is almost ALWAYS the case with overclocking too far.

Id reformat.

That would be really sweet if that's the case

 

[Ripper294]

On a high O/C it is also possiable to damage your memory also and you can get errors. its possiable that you corrupted some files on your harddrive run scan disk .

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: biostud
I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

That is almost ALWAYS the case with overclocking too far.

Id reformat.

That would be really sweet if that's the case

Almost certainly the case! A CPU usually works or it doesn't, if you fry it its dead, I've never seen one that sporatically causes errors due to damage from OC. What you describe is a corrupted windows install, should be fixed by a reinstall or a repair install of window. If the boot sector has been corrupted then if may require a full format and reinstall

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: biostud
I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

That is almost ALWAYS the case with overclocking too far.

Id reformat.

That would be really sweet if that's the case

Almost certainly the case! A CPU usually works or it doesn't, if you fry it its dead, I've never seen one that sporatically causes errors due to damage from OC. What you describe is a corrupted windows install, should be fixed by a reinstall or a repair install of window. If the boot sector has been corrupted then if may require a full format and reinstall

So far I've tried to repair windows which resulted in a BSOD, and fail to boot from C:, but the I did a reformat and re-install and everything seems to work. So now I just need start o/c again

.......on the other hand I'll just try to see if I can download stuff without errors for some time

 

[Chesebert]

Originally posted by: biostud
I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

very possible and propable as the interconnect or via could be damaged due to electromigration with such high power output that they are never designed to handle nevermind the temperature. you are upping the volts to 1.55 which is 15% over stock and the poewr usage would probably be 40-50% greater becase of the v^2 relationship and the high leakage current for SOI. Your interconnect and vias would fail more quickly than the actual gates as they are littl more resiliant.

 

[Chesebert]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: biostud
I think I might have damaged my CPU due to o/c. Even running at stock speed now I sometimes get errors in files when downloading stuff. (My maximum was o/c 1.55V 2.7Ghz, not stable)
The frequency of errors increase as I o/c the CPU more. It could be that the o/c had damaged some windows files, but I doubt that's the problem.

So if I'm right in my conclusion o/c can damage the CPU permanently, but if anyone can prove me wrong I would be glad.

That is almost ALWAYS the case with overclocking too far.

Id reformat.

That would be really sweet if that's the case

Almost certainly the case! A CPU usually works or it doesn't, if you fry it its dead, I've never seen one that sporatically causes errors due to damage from OC. What you describe is a corrupted windows install, should be fixed by a reinstall or a repair install of window. If the boot sector has been corrupted then if may require a full format and reinstall

That is not correct as there are could be part of the execution unit or one or more of the execution units that's damaged so in OOO operation you could still get something that's ok but when the schedular goes out and assign the bad one you could be in troulbe. It could also depend on the interconnect width, weather it was level 1, 2 or 3 interconnect and the thickness of the via to connect the layers. So you could get a partially working chip.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Chesebert

very possible and propable as the interconnect or via could be damaged due to electromigration with such high power output that they are never designed to handle nevermind the temperature. you are upping the volts to 1.55 which is 15% over stock and the poewr usage would probably be 40-50% greater becase of the v^2 relationship and the high leakage current for SOI. Your interconnect and vias would fail more quickly than the actual gates as they are littl more resiliant.

the temperature was not that high (I'm on water), but it could ofcourse be higher on the actual die. Currently the re-install seems to have fixed the problem. I've downloaded lots of drivers etc, with no errors so far, so hopefully it was just a software error.

One thing is sure though 1.45v 2.6Ghz is absolute maximum for o/c this chip I'm willing to run.

 

[onn2000]

If your HDD is corrupted, then maybe you placed your SATAs on the wrong ports? Remember, ports 1 and 2 are generally not locked on nForce4 mobos, so place the HDD on ports 3 or 4. Besides, the nVidia controllers are better performers than the SiS ones, IIRC.

 

[Chesebert]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Chesebert

very possible and propable as the interconnect or via could be damaged due to electromigration with such high power output that they are never designed to handle nevermind the temperature. you are upping the volts to 1.55 which is 15% over stock and the poewr usage would probably be 40-50% greater becase of the v^2 relationship and the high leakage current for SOI. Your interconnect and vias would fail more quickly than the actual gates as they are littl more resiliant.

the temperature was not that high (I'm on water), but it could ofcourse be higher on the actual die. Currently the re-install seems to have fixed the problem. I've downloaded lots of drivers etc, with no errors so far, so hopefully it was just a software error.

One thing is sure though 1.45v 2.6Ghz is absolute maximum for o/c this chip I'm willing to run.

never said your temp was high..its voltage...you could push too much volt into a wire that's just micron thick and because of the way its fabed it could be thinner than spec and thus create more problem when you subject it to overvolt. SOI + nm fab is not pretty...alot or problems and I am amazed that the chip works as well as they do...only if you could just imaging the 30+ steps in fab process...LOL.

 

[Shimmishim]

it's possilbe to fry a cpu w/o "high" voltage.

i lost a opty 148 with 1.45 volts. scary stuff.

 

[biostud]

I'm back on 2.4Ghz @ 1.4V, so far so good. That's fine for me atm.