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Cannot get to BIOS after failed overclock

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henry snider

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So I had been running my i5 2500k at 4.4 GHz at 1.35V for a week or so. Yesterday I tried to push it to 4.5GHz at 1.4V. It worked for a few minutes, then computer froze so I turned it off and turned it on, expecting to go back into BIOS and change the settings back.

Except now it won't even boot to BIOS. It turns on, fans spin, nothing happens. Resets itself eventually. I've tried using the CMOS jump, didn't work. I've tried taking out the mobo battery for 5 minutes. Didn't work. I tried Taking out the battery and doing the CMOS jump at the same time. Didn't work. I tried doing that with the video card out. Still didn't work. Also tried re-seating RAM. Tried leaving out mobo battery overnight.

Specs:
i5-2500k
Asus P8Z68-v LX
GTX 550 Ti
8 GB Crucial DDR3 Ram
500GB WD Green HDD

Did I just completely ruin my computer? Or is there something I can do here... boy this sucks.
 
You may have fried your CPU, try it with another CPU if you have one
 
I don't. I guess I need to buy a new motherboard and CPU. Funny, thought I was going to be able to spend my money on a new graphics card. I guess now I just get to replace faulty parts.
 
I think it'd be worth finding a cheap CPU to pop in there just to see if the motherboard is good. Could put out a [WTB] thread over in the Buy/Sell/Trade section. Someone might have a used Pentium or something. If not there, then perhaps eBay. Just hate to throw out a possibly good motherboard (or perhaps a dead motherboard and a good CPU).

Edit: My old Phenom X2/X6 system refused to boot for about a week when I first got it. I left it unplugged and, to my surprise, it fired up no problem about a week later. Running strong since.
 
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That mobo doesn't have VRM for such overvoltage.
 
BiggieShady said:
That mobo doesn't have VRM for such overvoltage.
Click to expand...

Its got the VRM, but it doesnt have any cooling for them.

EDIT: except i wouldnt touch 1.4v on that board s you were saying "for such overvoltage"
 
Yeah, something is fried, unfortunately. That's the risk one takes with overclocking.
 
OP, any magic smoke come out during any of these overclocking adventures?
 
no, nothing out of the ordinary other than computer freezing. I was told by a guy I know at a PC shop that I should flush the bios with USB drive but I can't find the bios to put on the drive.

Edit: Found the bios, about to try this.
 
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Nope, didn't work. Friend from the PC shop looked at it, seems to think mobo and cpu are fried. goody.
 
This is why you overclock only when you really are comfortable and know what you are doing.

#1 thing is knowing your hardware's capabilities.
 
Maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back... It is an intel, not AMD, has enough phases, but they are not heatsinked. That said, if it didnt happen when stressing it, I doubt its the VRMs that crapped out. it cna handle the voltage just sitting there.. but prolonged use........ heh...

can you get the shop to drop in another CPU?
 
Overclocking is dangerous and one should always be prepared for component failure. That's part of the thrill and the risk of doing it.

I confess that my PC was heading for failure due to a careless overclock by me, but I rescued it in time. I've got a 2700K that can actually hit 5.5GHz (when it was new at least and damned fast) but obviously required liquid cooling to keep temperatures under control. I then settled on an easy 4.7GHz air cooled. My mistake? I forgot to double check the voltage. I'd left it set to Auto in the BIOS and forgot to come back to it.

A few months later the PC began to be very unstable, blue screening a good once a day or even more. I finally realized to check the voltage and saw that the stupid BIOS had set it rather high, so it was slowly killing the CPU. Since then I've run it at stock clocks at the stock voltage and it runs fine.

I've been meaning to try overclocking it again, this time paying attention to the voltage, but have never got around to it. Part of that reason is that I wanted my CPU to last as I knew an upgrade wasn't gonna happen anytime soon with Intel's incremental performance jumps each generation.

So there you have it, even someone experienced with PCs can screw up sometimes so don't beat yourself up about it.
 
To be clear, its not the overclock, its the increase in voltage, and thus the extra heat generated and lost in the voltage generation and regulation hardware, and or the CPU. The unfortunate part is that if either the CPU or voltage regulation fail during this it usually kills both due to capacitive or a shorting condition.

The last CPU I killed like this was an Athlon A series I think, but I have seen a lot of CPU's killed and take the board with them when we had crappy caps, and people put their much hotter computer into a tiny desk oven and closed the door.
 
well, thats what happens when you buy a dirt cheap motherboard. I wouldnt of even considered overclocking on that thing. Sure it might have the feature in the bios but pushing a board like that is definitely a no go.

higher quality components with better durability that can stand overclocking cost money

If youre serious about overclocking try investing money into the 'pro' version of that motherboard. I had the exact same board and CPU and I was running my 2500k at 4.9Ghz in a matter of hours easy peasy lemon squeezy.


Hopefully you've learned your lesson.
 
LX...is that the one with 4 phase vrm?

Fyiw I know another guy who had the same board same cpu overclocked it and fried the vrms.....
 
its pretty hard to kill a cpu that quick 1.4V while being pretty dam high for a mear 4.5 should't have been enough to cause instant-death
what I think is going on here is that either the board or psu is done or the bios is corrupt known to happen with high overclock's on z68 boards ...
I would pull the cpu inspect the socket for badness and re-seat it and try it again
else I would definitely take the cpu to a shop or something and have it post tested before buying anything
and there is nothing wrong with the op's choice of board its more then adequate for a 4.4Ghz overclock
 
The CPU is probably still good. Find a board that will use it and install it. It will probably work.

Where are you located?
 
I had an older laptop that a friend fuck ed up with some 3rd party bios lock software,so long story short I had to locate the bios chip,or eeecm,or something chip that held a small charge,and I had to jump it by contacting two of its pins, maybe something like this could work for you,just a shot in the dark.good luck
 
jboydgolfer said:
I had an older laptop that a friend fuck ed up with some 3rd party bios lock software,so long story short I had to locate the bios chip,or eeecm,or something chip that held a small charge,and I had to jump it by contacting two of its pins, maybe something like this could work for you,just a shot in the dark.good luck
Click to expand...

Some friend,..............
 
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