Having a streak of bad luck...

[CygnusX1]

The last two weeks have not been good...i have killed more hardware this past two weeks than i have in the last two years...Here are my obituaries...<BR><BR>FIC AD11 mobo, blew a capacitor 3 feet off the motherboard while installing/testing h2o kit...current status: waiting for return on RMA.<BR><BR>Duron 750: fried while testing h20 kit above...current status: dead oem, core chipped beyond belief...<BR><BR>ECS K7S5A mobo: piece of $hit, manufacturer defect wont boot. current status: returned, and upgraded for another AD11 from Directron.<BR><BR>Athlon XP 1700: killed trying to unlock... status: waiting to rma back to AMD.<BR><BR>the above was all done in one night...<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>KT3 Ultra ARU mobo: fried power supply fan header hooking up new enermax 350w ps w/ fan monitoring cable. make sure you check that the wiring is correct on the fan cable. the wires were not oin teh correct config causing the short on teh mobo...called enermax and gave them an earful...current status: mobo still functional, fan header shot. waiting for ad11 rma to swap out systems and rma the kt3 ultra... power supply still functional, will probably rma to enermax for a new one just to be safe...<BR><BR>hopefully that's all for now...

[Avid6eek]

Does the system boot when the CPU is not overclocked?<BR>

[Colin]

Holy man, CygnusX1 you shoudl buy a lottery ticket! Your luck has got to change some time! Your KT3 Ultra-ARU still works though I presume...<BR><BR>matty what type of cooling are you using? WHat's the temp? Hva eyou upped teh voltage yet? What MB do you have?

[CygnusX1]

yeah the kt3 still works, i contacted msi and it will take approx 2 weeks for the rma process..that just sux...will have to transfer my stuff to my back up, and reinstall again...unless i can get my hands on another hdd and just bring my main rig down for the time being untill i get the kt3 back...

[Colin]

2 weeks? That's not that bad I guess, lol when I RMA'ed my Asus P2-99 way back it took 4 months! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0"> <BR><BR>Is it just a burnt out fan header you have or is there damage to other parts of the MB as well? <BR><BR>Sorry aobut your system man. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0">

[CygnusX1]

as far as i can tell it is just the burnt header, with a hole next to it. the system has been stable, but i dont want to take any chances. I am going to rma the board & the power supply (due to the voltages shorting out everything)...will update as i am going to call tom from enermax right now...

[Colin]

matty, what happens when you overclock past 1.53 GHz? Does it crash randomly? Try raising the voltage to 1.85V, don't worry you're not gonna hurt your CPU. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>What type of memory do you have? Is it name brand stuff or generic?

[Colin]

I believe M-Tech based DRAM's are generic... <BR><BR>YOu have access to a whole store's inventory of AMD CPU's? That's pretty cool dude! In that case what I would do is, look for a CPU with the AGOIG stepping. AGOIA's are all but guarenteed 1.8 GHz+! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>As for voltage, I would up it to 1.85V, give your CPU full power and start to raise your FSB. IF you need to, raise your memory voltage from 3.3V to 3.5-3.6 if you can, it'll help you stabilize the memory at high speeds. <BR><BR>That's pretty much it.... Try for a 150 MHz FSB... See if that works. If not, then try slower.

[CygnusX1]

matty, what kind of power supply are you using? if yo want to overclock w/ the XP, you need a good quality (antec tru series, enermax, at least the 431W or pc power & cooling 400W or higher) check your 3.3 & 5v rails (motherboard monitor is the easiest to use IMHO) tp make sure you hve a constant supply no more than +/- 3-5% of the lines. With today's xp procs and mobos, generic power supplies are probably the #1 cause of instablilty. you want to make sure that you have atleast 230-250w combined on the 3.3 & 5v rails...<BR><BR>update to my enermax dliema...called my contact @ enremax to see if they will upgrade the egp 365 (350w) to the egp651 (550W) due to having to tear down my main comp, being without it for atleast 2 weeks, shipping costs for all the rma's, sob, sob, sob, etc, etc, etc...lets see what they do...i have faith in them, i have written a couple of reviews for them, and i would like to think i have a decent relationship with my contact...(/crosses fingers...)

[Colin]

matty, CygnusX1 is 100% right about the PSU's... I forgot totally about that! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>Hey CygnusX1, do you have a contact at Enermax? If so, ask him to see what he can do for you... Another thing you can tell them is you'll write a brief report on the state of Enermax's RMA service. <BR><BR>Man it'll be painful but we're here for you! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

[CygnusX1]

Colin, yeah, I have 2 contacts at enermax (maxpoint here in the states) i sent off the power supply today, so hopefully they will do right. i have beed seeing a drop in quality with enermax as of late. their us reseller list is dwindling, and in the forums i see more and more people switching to antec tru-power, and pc power&cooling power suplies...only time will tell...

[Colin]

In all honesty, I was never a big fan of Enermax PSU's. They produce some good value PSU's, but not good ones. <BR><BR>I'm using their 550W model my 5V rail would often drop down to 4.5-4.3V! This is with my system at stock speeds as well! I have quite a bit of stuff in my computer so I'm sure that doesn't help. Lucky for me, it doesn't really seem to affect system stability. <BR><BR>AthlonXP 2000+ <BR>Swiftech MC462A with stock Sanyo Denki 53 CFM Fan <BR>Abit KR7A-RAID <BR>1 GB PC2100 DDR RAM <BR>2x 80 GB Maxtor D740X <BR>12x Toshiba DVD-ROM <BR>16x10x40 Yamaha CD-RW <BR>MSI G4Ti4600-VTD <BR>ATi TV Wonder <BR>Realtek 10/100 NIC <BR>SB Live! Platinum 5.1 <BR><BR>I love PC Power & Cooling, but they're so damn expensive... Well here in Canada anyway! WHat do you think of Sparkle Power? I like them quite a bit myself. For my test system I'm using an Antec Tru-Power and it kicks ass.

[CygnusX1]

yeah i like the sparkle ps's..they're just too hard to find in the states...i am either going w/ the tru power 550, or the aluminum 520w topower w/ 3 fans...take a look at it <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.coolerguys.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=001&Product_Code=PS-T520A3&Category_Code=PS-HD">here</a> todd said they are great power supplies...

[Colin]

Sparkle is hard to find in the US eh? That's odd since they're easily available here in Canada... That aluminum PSU looks like an Enermax! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>matty, what type of hdd do you have? It sounds like your hard drive can't handle the higher fsb's. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0"> You might have to slow it down a little, try turning it down to DMA2 mode and see if that helps.

[zyklon69]

H2O really necessary?

[Colin]

<br><br><< <i>H2O really necessary? </i> >><br><br> In the quest of higher and higher overclocks, everything is an option! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"><BR><BR>Being serious here though lower temps does help stabilize CPU's at high speed so H2O does help out quite a bit! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">