PC will not boot after overclock... :(

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First off, sorry if this thread is in the wrong place.

My machine is the Advent Centurion CBE1401. The machine came factory overclocked at 3.40Ghz (AMD Phenom X2 550)

I decided to go into BIOS to see how much further I could take it whilst on stock voltage etc before it became unstable. I upped it one step at time, rebooted each time. Everything was fine until I got up to 4.0Ghz.. Saved, rebooted and this time I didn't get a beep like usual instead a blank screen. I then assumed on reverting the BIOS. As I could not find the jumper on the motherboard I just went ahead and and powered down the machine completely and removed the CMOS battery, I left it out for around 5-10minutes. I then placed it back in and powered up.. again no beep and the same blank screen.All the lights are powered on & even my router is registering the ethernet cable connected. I can even hear my HDD spinning Same with all fans.

Also, one thing I have noticed that is odd is that the GPU fan is spinning a lot! faster & I can actually hear it. The CPU is watercooled by the CoolIT Eco (Installed by manufacturer). I also checked the temperature on the last boot up which was below 30c. So logically, if anything has burned out I would atleast feel heat but I cannot nor can I smell anything alarming.

Also, I have asked a friend to come round today with a spare CMOS battery (I want to be sure) but I haven't got high hopes as I have read that I should still get a beep even without the battery in.


Note - I am posting from my laptop.

I taken both my RAM & GPU, HDD (Just disconnected) out from the machine and laid infront of me onto an anti-static mat. I booted the machine and still nothing.

Rather than telling me how much of an idiot I am, and believe me I know IT! It would be awesome if you could give me an explanation as to how this has occured.

Updates

I found the jumper, switched it over - Still nothing.

Went to my local computer shop to fetch up a new CMOS battery as I was hesitant to fix this - Still nothing.



Thank you for taking the time to read my post & I will appreciate any replies. I am also contemplating taking my machine to the local computer shop and asking them to see if they can work out the problem.. I'd do it myself but I don't have the equipment at hand to do it.

When I first received the machine I stupidly jumped straight up to 4.0Ghz without taking small steps to reach it. Again on stock voltage etc (Auto). To do this I was just changing the multiplier within BIOS. Only instead of becoming unusable it would actually bootup bootup onto my desktop but about 30 seconds into loading I would get the BSOD immediately & to fix it I simply reverted back to default BIOS settings. That is why I'm finding it baffling.

Thank you in advance.
 
System Specification

CPU: AMD Phenom 550 X2 Black-Edition (Factory Clocked @ 3.40Ghz)
GPU: ATI Radeon 5670 HD
RAM: 4GB DDR-2 @ 800Mhz
HDD: 1TB Western Digital SATA
Motherboard: Foxconn A7VMX-K
Chipset: AMD 780V
 
Ok you need to take steps here as this has actually happened to me.

1st - take the power cable out of the back of your power supply and then strip down your components leaving just the motherboard, CPU and the power connectors in.

2nd - take out your cmos battery and leave it for at least 2 minutes then put back in.

3rd - put power cable back in to the back of your PSU and then switch PC on and it should beep.

4th - put graphics card in and one stick of ram and see if it boots fine.

5th - each time it succesfully boots add in one additional stick of ram if applicable.
 
Last edited:
Watercooled?

So have you switched off the cpu fan header when you reset the BIOS, or is the system doing emergency shutdown as its thinking there is no CPU fan?

You actually blanked all your BIOS settings?
Can you go into the BIOS and reload the original OC profile with everything installed as usual and see what occurs?
 
Watercooled?

So have you switched off the cpu fan header when you reset the BIOS, or is the system doing emergency shutdown as its thinking there is no CPU fan?

You actually blanked all your BIOS settings?
Can you go into the BIOS and reload the original OC profile with everything installed as usual and see what occurs?

OP boots to blank screen so can't get into bios at all.
 
Indeed I can't. I already had the idea that It was most likely the motherboard that has died. I was just looking for other opinions & possibly a fix but it doesn't look that way.
 
can you get hold of another board to test your hardware in?

Leave the CMOS battery OUT and the Clear CMOS Header on Clear, then Power on the computer for a second, pull power back out, hit the power on button to release any power stored in the PSU, leave it for 10 mins, leave CMOS batt out, Clear CMOS jumper/header back to norm and see if it will boot.
 
Did you completely remove any power to the PC when removing CMOS battery?

Make sure power cable is unplugged, then remove CMOS battery and leave for a bit.

Do this will all devices, etc unplugged/removed.
 
Try pressing and holding INSERT button whilst powering up.

At least one of my older boards (Abit IP35) saw this as a "load defaults" prompt, not sure whether any newer boards do, though.
 
This board has a radeon HD3000 series onboard??

Leave graphics card out and just use one stick of ram, reboot.
Try each ram stick in each slot, 4 operations.

If you can get to bios then select default. and start over.

maybe you have stressed both the ram and the graphics card unless you have ensured,

a) the PCIe stayed close to 100MHz
b) the ram multiplier together with the bus clock did not exceed the ram specifications.

andy.
 
Does the board have diagnostics LED's ? They show where the board gets to before it stops, also try a different monitor connector on the graphics card. Also make sure you have selected the right input on your monitor (silly I know but worth checking)

If this doesn't work, likely mainboard, basically because if it's on 4ghz, and the board auto volts it could have tried to feed the CPU more power than it a) needed b) in doing so overloaded the power circuitry and broke it.

Always go up in steps and use manual voltages.
 
Just trying that now, just wating until 10minutes is up. As for a second machine, no. I'm planning on going to my local computer shop at some point to see how much they will charge for testing my components individually. Don't suppose any of you will know the average fee a computer tech/shop would charge?
 
Does the board have diagnostics LED's ? They show where the board gets to before it stops, also try a different monitor connector on the graphics card. Also make sure you have selected the right input on your monitor (silly I know but worth checking)

If this doesn't work, likely mainboard, basically because if it's on 4ghz, and the board auto volts it could have tried to feed the CPU more power than it a) needed b) in doing so overloaded the power circuitry and broke it.

Always go up in steps and use manual voltages.

No and I wish I had them. Ive checked the input also and it all seems fine. Ive tried all ports available. Such as HDMI to HDMI, DVI to DVI & VGA to VGA. Nothing at all.
 
Just trying that now, just wating until 10minutes is up. As for a second machine, no. I'm planning on going to my local computer shop at some point to see how much they will charge for testing my components individually. Don't suppose any of you will know the average fee a computer tech/shop would charge?

Would be cheaper to buy a new board to be honest most places charge £50-£70 an hour plus some places start the job at £50 then start charging you by the hour.
 
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