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Ever had faulty CPU launches?

Matmatty65

Matmatty65

Matmatty65

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Joined
27 Jul 2020
Posts
26
So basically you know like how you can have like faults/issues with GPU launches as an example. Rtx 20 series was artifacting , 5700xt driver issues/green screens. Have you ever seen anything like that on a CPU release? Or is their generally not a lot that can go wrong with CPU's.
 
Yes, many, many years ago Intel recalled their PIII 1,13GHZ chip as it was factory 'overlcocked' and not fit for purpose, they did it due to AMD's Athlon TBird beating them all over. :p
 
Back in 1994 the Pentium 60 and Pentium 66 had a floating point bug where the CPU would calculate long division incorrectly. These two CPUs were cancelled shortly after release and replaced with a Pentium 75 which didn't have the problem.

I believe the 386 had some bugs but that was before my time.
 
Many moons ago when OS and hardwares weren’t as synchronous as nowadays.

I remember the days where I had to manually configure serial and parallel bus allocation in bios and then making sure DOS or whatever windows version at the time used the same resources. It was often problematic when new CPU is launched and then software isn’t updated. Plug and play wasn’t really a thing back then. Everything more or less had to be manually configured and that was the real pain in the backside.

one thing to add is that computer back in those days are a lot simpler than nowadays.
 
All modern CPUs are faulty, it's just a question of how faulty. You can see for yourself by looking for errata; for instance the errata for Ryzen 1 includes some serious bugs. Mostly they can be worked around in software, or require circumstances that don't occur in normal use.
 
Yep the Pentium bug would probably not be a big deal today but in those early days (i was 11 in 93) many people didn't have pcs and ignorance was the majority so it was blown out of proportion. The 1.13Ghz Slot 1 PIII was a truly faulty cpu and Tom's hardware really went against the grain on that one and probably suffered for it for a bit, at the time i wrote off the P6 Architecture, who knew it would go on to save them from Netburst?:D
 
Wow was not aware of the 1.13GHz CPU problem - a friend in the US gave me one for free while I was out there that ran rock solid on my Gateway 2K machine (BX440 board IIRC). I'll see if I still have it.
 
Rroff said:
Wow was not aware of the 1.13GHz CPU problem - a friend in the US gave me one for free while I was out there that ran rock solid on my Gateway 2K machine (BX440 board IIRC). I'll see if I still have it.
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Sure it was a Slot 1 BX440 and not a newer Tualatin 1.13Ghz in a newer chipset board? I ask because officially the BX440 doesn't do 133Mhz as the AGP runs at 89Mhz so not 66Mhz default evem if it was onboard video it will likely be AGP based) and not every BX440 did 133 (my BH6 did 150Mhz but at 100Mhz AGP!, forgot what gpu might be a Geforce 256 that coped). So a big OEM using a 1.13 on an older 440BX which wouldn't officially support the cpu and fsb sounds suspect :D Would've thought they'd use the horrible i815 chipset for that.

Just reread your post, get that you yourself put the cpu :o
 
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Justintime said:
Sure it was a Slot 1 BX440 and not a newer Tualatin 1.13Ghz in a newer chipset board? I ask because officially the BX440 doesn't do 133Mhz as the AGP runs at 89Mhz so not 66Mhz default evem if it was onboard video it will likely be AGP based) and not every BX440 did 133 (my BH6 did 150Mhz but at 100Mhz AGP!, forgot what gpu might be a Geforce 256 that coped). So a big OEM using a 1.13 on an older 440BX which wouldn't officially support the cpu and fsb sounds suspect :D
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The CPU wasn't provided by the OEM - my Gateway 2K shipped with a 500MHz P3. Don't think Gateway ever sold that model with higher than 800MHz. I'm not 100% what motherboard was in it but I'm 99% sure it was a 440.

I already had a 1.5GHz P4 in my main setup by then which replaced the Gateway system.
 
Justintime said:
Aye reread your post and figured you put it in yourself :D its 4am :o
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When I was in the US a friend of mine who ran a computer store gave me some stuff from returns that would otherwise be thrown out that I used to upgrade older machines, etc. I'm guessing that is why it was in returns LOL. But it ran in my P3 which was used as a secondary machine by then absolutely fine.

EDIT: I've still got the old Gateway tower so gonna pull it out later see what is in there.
 
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Justintime said:
Really? i find todays hardware a walk in the park but I actually prefer the old days of jumpers and DIP switches etc.. when you set something it stayed that way without a software layer in between to go funny.
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Exactly. In the old days you know what those hardwares are doing. Setting jumpers did x etc. Nowadays there are so many BIOS settings it’s enough to make you want to smash it all when you can’t figure out why certain voltage just won’t stay the same etc.
 
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Justintime said:
Really? i find todays hardware a walk in the park but I actually prefer the old days of jumpers and DIP switches etc.. when you set something it stayed that way without a software layer in between to go funny.
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Yes really. Today's hardware maybe a walk in the park for the consumer, but the actual hardware used to be incredibly simple compared to today.

Early motherboards were homemade. People used to write the schematic, buy the chips, capacitors, resistors etc and solder them onto the board, then plug a TV into it and have fun.

It's physically impossible to build your own Ryzen motherboard today because they're too complicated.
 
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