PC hardware failure

Lovejoy! · 6 Nov 2013 at 21:05

hi guys, pandering after your help once again!

unsure as to what is failing, although at a guess i'd say maybe the CPU?

basically, my pc had been noticeably running slower recently so i went into the BIOS and yes, the overclock had been lost and i was running at stock speeds.
so, reapplied the overclock and the voltages e.t.c (as set out in the 2500k overclock guidelines on this very forum) and restarted.

it failed to restart over and over and over.

the cpu fan was very hot to the touch so i let it cool substantially before trying again. this time it was a successful boot but windows e.t.c was very very sluggish. eventually everything ground to a halt and the PC turned itself off and began it's perpetual loop of failing to boot.

so! took the pc apart and applied some new thermal paste to the processor. rebooted and everything seemed dandy again, for a little longer than last time, but unfortunately it slowed to a crawl and turned itself off.

this is where i stand now. i'm GUESSING at a cpu failure, but obviously that's an educated stab in the dark.

any ideas guys?

my specs are:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
MSI (P67A-C45 (MS-7673))
8GB RAM
1TB (SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device)
AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
Windows 8.1

RJC · 6 Nov 2013 at 21:12

What are the cpu temps like, have you tried any ram testing, i.e. test with Mem test.

Lovejoy! · 6 Nov 2013 at 21:13

tbh, i think the cpu temps were very high when i went into the BIOS.

i can't boot the pc to memtest any way

Ethermaster · 6 Nov 2013 at 21:16

What are the temps like and what kinda load are you putting on the CPU? I know this may sound like a noob question but is the CPU fan reporting the RPM correctly?

Lovejoy! · 6 Nov 2013 at 21:19

this is all guesswork from me as i can't boot the pc to get actual stats:

temps were certainly high when i went into the bios to check on the overclock. quite silly of me to try to reapply it knowing the temps were high. but you live and learn.

with regards to the load, nothing really. i run elgato game capture software every now and again on my pc and it really showed that the pc was struggling when that was running. was fine when it wasn't. guess that might be a RAM issue perhaps?

the RPM i really can't say as i haven't checked.

Lovejoy! · 7 Nov 2013 at 10:21

bumpity bump

Lovejoy! · 8 Nov 2013 at 09:15

going to up this again as i'm desperate now

Idleman · 8 Nov 2013 at 10:36

Having you tried removing the Cmos battery? This will reset the bios to default and remove the OC, should allow you back into the system.

Lovejoy! · 8 Nov 2013 at 11:01

good point, well made. will try this later when i get the opportunity and report back.

Lovejoy! · 8 Nov 2013 at 21:52

ok, seems to be working again! it's stable anyway. are we suggesting just keeping away from the overclock from now on?

Idleman · 8 Nov 2013 at 23:26

Lovejoy! said:
ok, seems to be working again! it's stable anyway. are we suggesting just keeping away from the overclock from now on?

What cooler are you using?

Lovejoy! · 10 Nov 2013 at 00:06

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/products/cooling/cpu/freezer-7-64-pro.html

not safe enough to overclock on?

had a couple of blue screens tonight, after the pc has just locked up for a few seconds beforehand. haven't had that before. the error message passes way too quick for me to note what it is.

went into the bios and saw that the overclock was still set. have now taken it off.

Devrij · 10 Nov 2013 at 09:10

That cooler should be okay for overclocking as long as you keep it dust free. You may git a bit toasty at the top end though. What overclock did you set, voltages etc?

Lovejoy! · 10 Nov 2013 at 14:36

it was a 4.2ghz overclock with core voltage of 1.35v. memory at 1.65v.

Lovejoy! · 11 Nov 2013 at 16:16

do you think it might be worth overclocking but not up to 4.2ghz?

Devrij · 11 Nov 2013 at 17:10

1.35V seems a bit high for 4.2GHz. Is that from the BIOS or in windows?

Maybe go for 4GHz with 1.3V and see what your temps are like.

Lovejoy! · 11 Nov 2013 at 17:23

that's from the BIOS. i was just using the voltages as set out in the sandybridge overclocking guide on overclockers.

ok, i'll try that and report back.

Devrij · 11 Nov 2013 at 18:43

Have a look at your load line calibration setting too, as it can have a big effect on what voltage actually goes through your chip under load. Use cpu-z to check this. 1.35v is a nice safe bet, but if you can get your volts down and stay stable then your temps will really benefit. You may need more than 1.3v for 4Ghz, but I would be surprised. You may even get away with less. Do some tests and see how you get on.

Lovejoy! · 11 Nov 2013 at 23:05

it was not a fan of the 4ghz 1.3v overclock. got into the perpetual loop and again i had to fetch the cmos battery out.

hmm. thoughts?

llc was set to auto in my bios.

Devrij · 12 Nov 2013 at 07:28

Looks like your chip needs more volts than most maybe see how low you can go on 4Ghz. Start at 1.34 and go down until it fails testing.