Did I fry my CPU?

So recently (because I'm a dumb idiot) I decided to overclock my CPU just a slight bight, because I had it at 25 degrees idle and thought that overclocking it a bit probably wouldn't hurt.

Why I decided to overclock I don't know, because it wasn't even necessary. My computer is crazy fast as it is (was?).

So my problem is that I hardly don't know anything about voltage and stuff, but now when I've had time to reflect over my actions I kinda realized that I probably made a huge mistake when I edited the voltage to my CPU in the BIOS.

What I did was I highered the CPU voltage from the standard of something like 1.1125 to roughly 2.5000 or whatever it was. Only reason I pushed so much was because it didn't look like such a huge difference (considering the numbers). But I guess I was wrong, and put waaay too much voltage, and probably fried my cpu?

Well anyways back to the scene of the accident. I edited the voltage (to 2.5000 like I said), saved the settings and exited the BIOS. The computer restarted, and then immidiately shut down after about 2 seconds. Then it turned on again (by itself), then turned off again, and on again, and off and so on. It kept going on and off by itself like it was possesed, so I just turned it off myself so that it would stop.

Then I waited a few seconds and turned it on again. But no, same thing happened. It went nuts and started going on and off like before. I thought maybe it was because my PSU couldn't handle that much voltage, so I tried clearing my CMOS with the "CLR_CMOS" thingies that u have to touch with a screwdriver. But no, that didn't help either.

When I checked inside the case I saw that the cpu cooler only goes on for like a split of half a second, while the other fans go on for atleast about 1 second (I know it's not a lot more but the CPU fan hardly starts spinning at all, it only like nudges) before the computer shuts off.

Have I fried my CPU? Or is it something else?>.< (please tell me there's a way out of this)

THanks in advance.

2.5V is one heck of an overvolt. Chances are, the CPU is gone, perhaps the motherboard as well.

For the record - and bear in mind I own no Core 2 stuff - but were I going to overclock, for the time being I'd probably see what I could get at stock voltage, and maybe bump to 1.2V. Not much more. Doubling the voltage? Ouch.

So, is there a way to recover this? Not really, I'm afraid. I think most likely, your next step is to try to determine if the mobo is salvageable. I wouldn't hold out hope for the CPU.

:lol:



There should be a jumper that you have to move, then turn the computer on, then turn the computer off, then move the jumper back. Just touching it won't reset the CMOS, at least not in my experience (though I could be wrong).

2.5 volts is ... well that's a fuckton of electricity going through your chip. If you didn't hear any frying, popping, or anything other than fans you _may_ have a chance (I'm not holding my breath). But if you did successfully reset the CMOS doing it the way you did, you're probably fucked. And what arch said holds, too - your mobo is probably damaged.

Here's what I'd do. Try a few more times to reset the CMOS, and reference the manual for your motherboard. If you can't figure it out, remove the battery and that should do it.

If you're still no go, you're going to have to troubleshoot. Try your CPU in another motherboard (not the other way around or you risk frying two chips). If it works (it probs won't), then your motherboard is fucked. Also try out everything plugged into your motherboard in another computer - this means RAM, video card, hard drives, etc. (just to make sure).

If your cpu doesn't work in the other motherboard, your CPU is (obviously) fucked. You can, if you want, try another CPU in your motherboard - but I probably wouldn't. I'm try to return them for RMA. You might get a new one, but it's doubtful. Worth a shot, though.

I hope everything works out.

edit: and the next time you overclock, read up on your chip first. Then read again. Then read again. Then you're able to try something. And never up the voltage first - always the clock speed. Unless things have changed, the cliff notes of overclocking is thus:

1. speed increase
2. stress test
3. no errors? GOTO 1
4. Increase voltage (BY THE LOWEST AMOUNT POSSIBLE)
5. Stress test
6. No errors? GOTO 1

There are upper levels of voltage for chips, know those. Also note temperatures at peak load (during the stress test). You don't want your chip to go over a certain temp during peak - so you should either stop OCing or modify your cooling to go further.

There's some advanced topics of decreasing the voltage once you've burned it in, and it's been a long time since I OC'd anything. Last thing was a 3100+ Sempron I had back in college, it was 1.8 Ghz stock, I ran it for years at 2.55 Ghz with 1.55V. Fucker ran like a _champ_ and I still have it, though sitting in a basement for years may have killed it.

Thanks for ur input guys...

After I've had yet more time to reflect over what happened, I'm pretty fucking sure that I've fried either my CPU or Motherboard. Which sucks big balls, cuz I wasn't planning on upgrading my computer for atleast another year (as I could play all latest games at full graphix, including SC2 which I played at 1920x1200 and Ultra settings with more than playable framerate).

I'm so fvcking devastated. I know I should have known better than to do a 100% increase in voltage... It's just that I've had my computer for roughly 3 years now, and I never felt the need to OC my computer any more than I already had (I just had a slight OC on CPU with the "performance" stuff in the BIOS, as well as a moderate OC on my graphix card). So now when I finally decided to OC my computer a bit more I kinda did it with a braindead attitude..

Oh well.... If anything it was just about time to upgrade anyway (even though I didn't really need to). Guess I'll be upgrading now to atleast Intel i5 with some pretty kickass graphix card and RAM memory=)

Wow....Interesting.