Is my Q6600 dying?

[xkm1948]

I got my Q6600 back in 2007. It used to OC well. I have been using it under 3.6GHz ever since I purchased it along with my ASUS MF.

Only recently, Blue Screen started to become frequently. At first I wondered whether it has something to do with my newly purchasd another 4GB set of GSKill mem.(Now I run 8GB) I lowered my mem speed as well as increasd NB voltage. The situation seems to become a little better.

Tonight I decided to upgrade my MF BIOS from 0505 to 1207. I really regreted of doing so. For now I am never able to stay at 3.6GHz stable.

I set the Vcore to around 1.38V, which used to be the sweet point for my Q6600 at 3.6, now constantly shows BSOD. I bring the voltage to 1.46V. It did help the system to stay alive, but all kinds of system errors pop up. Neither 1.46V nor 1.36V could get 3.6G run OCCT longer than 1 min!

The temperature is quite strange. From the OCCT readings before crash, core 1 temp was close to 80C, while CPU temp is around 65. I am not so sure whether this is related with BSOD or not.

So, is my Q6600 going to die soon, or it is just losing OC potential?


Oh, I miss that 3.6G. Please help me, thanks!!!!!


By the way, here is my rig:

Q6600 G0
ZALMAN CNPS 9700
ASUS MF
GSKill DDR2-1000 8GB
HIS 4870
Antec TP3-550W

[Mussels]

extra ram definately lowers the max OC of the northbridge.

Also, my Q6600 had to be lowered to 3.5Ghz... i think they do slowly lose the OC over time.

[xkm1948]

Yeah, it has been 3 years since I got this bad boy. Hmm, wondering about upgrade to a QX9650.

[xkm1948]

PS, how do you do 3.5G?

I tried 500*7, and it won't even come over BIOS!

[Mussels]

lowered the FSB a little. it doesnt HAVE to be a perfect rounded off FSB ya know

[xkm1948]

I guess OC will greatly reduce operational time of CPUs.

Do you think it worth to upgrade to a QX9650?

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by xkm1948

I guess OC will greatly reduce operational time of CPUs.

Do you think it worth to upgrade to a QX9650?

not really. they're stupidly expensive.

I went through that whole phase as well, then i thought: F it, i'll run it at stock til i figure out whats stopping my OC. ANd guess what... no games run any slower, that i can notice.

Give it a shot yourself, lower the clocks and see if you actually NOTICE a difference.

[aCid888*]

Originally Posted by xkm1948

Do you think it worth to upgrade to a QX9650?

No is the simple answer.

Far better off with a Q9550.

[xkm1948]

Originally Posted by Mussels

not really. they're stupidly expensive.

I went through that whole phase as well, then i thought: F it, i'll run it at stock til i figure out whats stopping my OC. ANd guess what... no games run any slower, that i can notice.

Give it a shot yourself, lower the clocks and see if you actually NOTICE a difference.

Yeah, save some energy for our planet earth as well.

Thanks, I gonna try later.

[lemonadesoda]

OC chipsets suffer worse than CPUs. A new mainboard could be all that you need. Cheapest solution too, no need for a new CPU yet.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by lemonadesoda

OC chipsets suffer worse than CPUs. A new mainboard could be all that you need. Cheapest solution too, no need for a new CPU yet.

i changed my mobo first thinking the same thing, but it made no difference. In my case it was definately the CPU that had weakened.

Something i thought long and hard on (all of 10 seconds) is that the solder they use under the heatspreaders slowly melts due to the high heat of an OC'd chip + gravity - give it a year of heavy OCing and it will slowly drip down (and i do mean slowly) making the OC/temps get worse and worse over a matter of years.

[lemonadesoda]

Originally Posted by Mussels

... the solder they use under the heatspreaders slowly melts due to the high heat of an OC'd chip + gravity - give it a year of heavy OCing and it will slowly drip down (and i do mean slowly) making the OC/temps get worse and worse over a matter of years.

Perhaps the concept is correct, but they dont use solder to attach the heatspreader.

It's more likely overvolting causes damage. We know it causes catastrophic damage in P4. In C2, high volts, high freq and lower die scale may result in current leakage and electron tunneling which over time (and esp. with heat) may damage the CPU.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by lemonadesoda

Perhaps the concept is correct, but they dont use solder to attach the heatspreader.

It's more likely overvolting causes damage. We know it causes catastrophic damage in P4. In C2, high volts, high freq and lower die scale may result in current leakage and electron tunneling which over time (and esp. with heat) may damage the CPU.

some chips do indeed use solder to attach the heatspreaders.

[lemonadesoda]

I dont think they use solder to "thermally attach" heatspreaders to the CPU die. If there ever was the use of solder, it is to "nail it down" at the edges to the CPU packaging... which was not your point

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by lemonadesoda

I dont think they use solder to "thermally attach" heatspreaders to the CPU die. If there ever was the use of solder, it is to "nail it down" at the edges to the CPU packaging... which was not your point

they actually do. I de-IHS'd a lot of my CPU's, and there was always reports of certain CPU's being soldered on. A quick google oughta find you results on it.

[francis511]

Can`t you just roll back to the old bios ?

[xkm1948]

Originally Posted by francis511

Can`t you just roll back to the old bios ?

I really don't think I can......

[mister_stu]

At first I wondered whether it has something to do with my newly purchased another 4GB set of GSKill mem.(Now I run 8GB)

that would be my first thought aswell because iv heard lots of stories about using all four memory slots lowering oc's
you could always test it by removing two sticks
if it is the memory more northbridge voltage should help

[frankie827]

i remember when i had 2gb of ram i could oc higher, but now with 4gb of ram, i can't oc as high.

[FR@NK]

Have you tried dropping the multi to 6 and seeing if your ram/FSB is stable? or yea like mister _stu suggested; remove the new set of ram and see if that effects your max OC or FSB. 80C+ on any of the cores might be too hot if you're shooting for 3.5+GHz....might need to clean out your CPU heatsink and reseat the CPU with new TIM.

Also could be different memory chips on your newer set of ram that dont like the same memory sub settings as the older pair. The updated BIOS you installed may of had an effect on the way the board sets some of the memory timings when set on "auto".

[erocker]

What are your voltages set at for your CPU and motherboard? Yes you can flash your board to an older bios if all else fails.

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by erocker

What are your voltages set at for your CPU and motherboard? Yes you can flash your board to an older bios if all else fails.

yeah ive had to do that for a few OC's really helps out.

[Lozan]

Wow, I didn't know having a highly clocked CPU can cause blue screens after a certain period of time.

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by Lozan

Wow, I didn't know having a highly clocked CPU can cause blue screens after a certain period of time.

yeah... it really depends on the cooling and the voltage. But when the G0's came out a bunch of them could do 3.6ghz on air... and people tried to get to that number using stupidly high voltage (like me at 1.52V) and after about 9 months of 24/7, the cpu degraded and was no longer stable at 3.6... instead at 3.57 then 3.5 .. now its steady on stock volts at 1.37v at 3ghz in a friend's rig.

[Dano 00TA]

Have you tried different ram or at least trying 1 stick at a time? I just posted a similar thread about my e8400 barely getting over stock speeds when it used to oc good and it turned out being a bad stick/sticks....swapped em out and now I get over 4ghz easy. Worth a shot anyway.