Need a new 775 CPU? Maybe?

[SurlyPlatypus]

Ok. Here is the deal. I've been running my E6600 for 3 years ish. Over clocked to 3.1 ghz. All of a sudden it wont boot, I was getting some intermittant reboots in games etc. very infrequent, but now I can't get the system to boot unless I have the BIOS set to it's default settings which throws my CPU and Memory setting back to factory default with the AUTO settings...

With the default settings I can get into windows and run ok, however I was in a game yesterday and it rebooted even at the default settings...

So is it time for a new CPU?

Is the MB going bad?

If I need a new CPU what is the biggest bang for the buck gaming 775 CPU now?

Thoughts?

[Bobsama]

Start testing components. If you have another DDR2 rig, check the RAM. If you have another LGA775 rig, try swapping CPU's and mobo's. If you have a spare PSU, try swapping those. Et cetera.

And if you need a new LGA775 CPU, perhaps a Pentium E6300? Stock is 2.8GHz and has VT-x support, just throw the FSB up to 333 and you should have an easy 3.5GHz. I've got to 4GHz on mine on air.

[SurlyPlatypus]

Yeah prolly time to pop out the components, its just wierd that it is doing this now after all this time. This system has been a rock star for a long time.

I've been thinking of going with a Quad Core, maybe it's time to go there, the E6300 looks like a gem of an overclocker though, would the performance be better than my current E6600 with the E6300?

What about a Q9550?

Damn, I didn't really want to go upgrading right now...

[RVWinkle]

Probably the motherboard. It's pretty hard to kill an Intel CPU.

[zsamz_]

odds are its the board or even memory
for sure not the cpu

[SurlyPlatypus]

No really!! Is there any way to test the MB without switching out he CPU and or RAM?

That would be super crappy. I would then have to upgrade the MB and probably go with new CPU etc. etc.

Good god, why would the MB go bad after only 2 years or so?

[Bobsama]

Yeah prolly time to pop out the components, its just wierd that it is doing this now after all this time. This system has been a rock star for a long time.

I've been thinking of going with a Quad Core, maybe it's time to go there, the E6300 looks like a gem of an overclocker though, would the performance be better than my current E6600 with the E6300?

What about a Q9550?

Damn, I didn't really want to go upgrading right now...

Almost across the board, the E6300-Wolfdale will beat your older E6600-Conroe. Except for in a few applications where L2 cache matters (2MB vs. 4MB), the revised Core 2 uArch in Wolfdale will give a 1-2% boost in addition to the clock speed differences. I don't know if your board will support it fully; my Abit IP35-E actually doesn't (Abit folded before they released for newer, lower-cost Wolfdales), but there's a beta BIOS that does support it, and is the BIOS that I'm using now.

A Q9550 should do a good bit better, too, but is ofc more expensive. As I said with my E6300 and a rather shoddy OCing board (FSB ~400 was the limit I found on both my E2140 and now the E6300) and decent cooling (Scythe Mugen-1), I got 4GHz and 50C idle temperatures at 1.44vcore.

Perhaps it's your best choice, perhaps it's not. It's $79 so it's hard to go TOO wrong for the price. Heck, maybe you can even RMA that E6600 with Intel and get another or perhaps a newer chip.

You can try Memtest86, but everything may check out if something is only unstable at an overclock. Either way, swapping components is the only sure-fire way to test, isolating one potential problem at a time.

[alpha0ne]

No really!! Is there any way to test the MB without switching out he CPU and or RAM?

That would be super crappy. I would then have to upgrade the MB and probably go with new CPU etc. etc.

Good god, why would the MB go bad after only 2 years or so?

Because QA is near non existent these days, I've had numerous mobo's die in less than a year though most of those were NV chipsets..............NEVER again

[Movieman]

X58 board, i7-980x, 6 gig of DDR3-1600, done..
Damn it's easy to spend other peoples money!

[zsamz_]

X58 board, i7-980x, 6 gig of DDR3-1600, done..
Damn it's easy to spend other peoples money!

its gonna be easier when you donate them to me

[Movieman]

its gonna be easier when you donate them to me

I will probably never have a 980x..
BUT I do have a W5677..

and what's your name again?
Do I know you?

[zsamz_]

I will probably never have a 980x..
BUT I do have a W5677..

and what's your name again?
Do I know you?

just gimme your adress i'll be there in 24 hours

[bt_medic04]

i know this might sound redundant, but whens the last time you cleaned out your computer? cleaned the heatsink and applied thermal paste? could potentially be a thermal issue as well. if not, i would start testing the ram

[SurlyPlatypus]

Well I ran Memtest 86.

On the first run it started running the test then rebooted.

It passed after rebooting.

I have no idea what that means.

The CPU Cooler and case is clean and I did take the side off my case just in case it was a heat issue, I don't think thats the issue.

I can consistantly get it to reboot by running Bad Company 2 and War Hammer which both start using the CPU and Graphics card heavily...

It could be the MB I suppose, the ASUS P5K was top of the line when I bought it...

Arggg... I'm now stuck deciding what to do next, just get a new CPU, then MB, then Memory in that order but staying on the 755 platform to save on costs or just decide it's time to upgrade wholesale and go with an i7 platform, the i7 route would be way more expensive...

[RVWinkle]

Seriously, it's not the CPU. You can literally take the heatsink off while it's running and it'll just throttle and shutdown.

[knopflerbruce]

If you have a multimeter it's easy to see if the PSU voltages are off, at least.

[bt_medic04]

Seriously, it's not the CPU. You can literally take the heatsink off while it's running and it'll just throttle and shutdown.

yup, thats why i think its a heat issue thats causing the shutdowns. if the thermal paste thats on there is the original stuff from 3-ish years ago, theres a good chance that it has dried up hence why i would put new TIM on if its been a while

are you monitoring temps right before shutdowns?

[alpha0ne]

Because QA is near non existent these days, I've had numerous mobo's die in less than a year though most of those were NV chipsets..............NEVER again

And regardng my comment re no QA these days....

I bought another LGA775 board (Intel chipset) earlier this week to replace an NV chipset board that had died and guess what..............DOA

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH