Northwood P4 dying?

[Elrein]

Hi all, just a quick question id like to throw out

I have a 2.8GHz Northwood P4 and as of late i have been getting hard drive skips (like the head is hitting the disk) and after a few skips it freezes my pc with a loud buzzing from the hard drive. So i thought it was my HD dying. I then found out that after improving the cooling to my CPU this would happen less frequently and as the temp dropped it wouldnt happen at all. But now i cant run my CPU @ the full 2.8 anymore even with the CPU Fan @ full speed. I should mention i only get this problem during Gaming (SWG/WOW) etc, i suffer no problems at the desktop carrying out daily stuff eg word and the internet.

The chip has been overclocked to 3.0GHz but that was for a very short time (2-3days max) as i couldnt keep it stable.

I am now at the stage of having to lower my P4 to 2.6GHz to keep it happy

Has anyone else had such a problem? and should i consider this terminal and start shopping for a new system. Im still on AGP and would consider and new system for PCI-E

Thanks.............

 

[Elrein]

Now u mention it i am getting those missing file errors @ boot up as well

Thanks for the update

 

[Elrein]

Good point.........

I hope it does hold out for a while longer @ 2.6 although im definetly needing more MHz in the near future

 

[Elrein]

Ok now im confused, i thought that since my CPU was on its way out i might as well juice it up again and see how she goes as if it pops ill have to upgrade sooner rather than later . So i brought it back up to the stock 2.8GHz and fed it 1.53 volts and ding dong it is now (for the last few hours playing SWG) rock solid stable as ever

Do these units usually require more voltage during a breakdown?

 

[Elrein]

ok now thats just wierd

Couldnt agree more
......................................................................................................
Ok just an update, seems my mobo was starting to undervolt my cpu for some reason and since ive started feeding it the 1.53 volts via the BIOS its been humming along @ 3026MHz all day with zero issues

I disabled PAT on my i875 board which was mabye the cause of my instability @ 3GHz and over

Happy times again