overclocking problem-pent 4 1.6a -system stalls even after unclocking?? help!

[Soopaced]

hi, ive had the same pentium 4 1.6a rig for a few years and have overclocked it on and off. I had it overclocked to 2133 mhz for about a week until my system crashed. I put the settings in my bios back to default but my system still crashed after a few hours of use. When it does crash and i try to immediately reboot, i sometimes get a message in the bios saying that my cpu is not running at the correct speed. I have cleared the cmos. Is my cpu damaged? i dont think my temps ever got higher then 40 degrees celcius. im still able to use it for a few hours with out any problems but once it crashes i need to leave it off for a few mintues before i can restart. im use to it always running rock solid 24/7, but is it time for an upgrade? im hoping its a seperate problem but let me know what you guys think. thanks a mil in advance

 

[stevty2889]

Well it doesn't sound like a heat issue. Did you adjust the vcore at all? What memory and power supply do you have? Have you run memtest? It's also possible that your hard drive data got corrupted while the system was overclocked. What motherboard are you using and does it have PCI/AGP locks? I have had 3 1.6a's and all 3 of them have run great at 2133mhz, on default v-core, one of the best overclocking chips around, so I think it's more likely that something else is wrong.

 

[Soopaced]

my power supply is 300 watt ernamax. i didnt change the vcore. i was using the asus p4s333. hmm, well i did switch to a new a 200 gb harddrive the same week so maybe i should reformat it. Are the locks on the pci and apg slot a setting you need to place. if so i did not do that. could that have damaged my video card and be the cause of my problem?? Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[stevty2889]

Well the enermax is a great PSU, so I wouldn't be worried about that. If your motherboard has PCI/AGP locks, it would be a setting in the bios. It wouldn't really damage your video card though, but could cause crashes when overclocked. Were you overclocked when you switched to the new hard drive? Usualy it's a bad idea to install windows while overclocked, increases the chance of it corrupting some files. Also is the new drive SATA? If so you would also need a SATA lock on the motherboard, as well as PCI/AGP. The SATA bus is very sensitive to overclocks.

 

[Soopaced]

i overclocked after i installed the new hd. its a uata. when it crashes and i immediatly reboot it sometimes doesnt load windows. when i reboot it again, it will enter the bios and have the message, during your last boot up your system hung due to improper frequency combination. does that mean its a cpu problem? this is still after i return speeds back to normal and cleared my cmos. i just attached my old harddrive to see if it hangs. if it doesnt then i know its a harddrive problem. Thank you for your replies!

 

[Soopaced]

i put a new a different hardderive and same result, im thinking my cpu is gone. gonna swap out some parts and see what happens. thanks

 

[stevty2889]

It is highly unlikely that it's the CPU..a bad cpu is a dead CPU, so it's much more likely that it's something else, a bad CPU won't allow you to boot up. I'd suspect the ram or motherboard to be the issue, or just a setting in the BIOS thats screwing things up.

 

[Soopaced]

hmm, thats a releif. well what im going to try later today is to put the motherboard back from jumperfree mode. maybe ill roll back to a different bios version too. once again thanks for all your helpful advice stevty2889...well see what happens