Which hardware has died via oveclock?

[Ascen]

I did a bit of overclocking earlier including upping the voltages a bit - Following the colour guide the bios gave I kept it in 'safe', thinking this would indeed be a safe voltage.
Each time I changed the clock speed / multiplier I booted the system up and ran a test using pcmark, sometimes it passed,sometimes monitor went black and usb devices stopped working. I reboot and tweak the settings. I must have rebooted about 40 times.

The last time I tried though it got half way through pcmark and the computer simply died. The power LED was flashing on and off, holding the button down resulted in nothing. Had to turn it off from the switch at the back. Tried turning it back on and nothing at all...
I ended up switching it off via the switch, waiting for a minute for all the power (if any) to go, opened the case and tried powering on - a blue light flashes on the motherboard very briefly and nothing more. Pressing power on again does nothing, have to discharge it first to get it to do that blue light.


Since that blue light flashes, does that mean the PSU is okay but the motherboard has died? or CPU? ... or ... ?

[chaud]

Reset the BIOS.

[Perderder]

Need specs please.

[Ascen]

Just tried resetting the BIOS settings to default by moving the CMOS position, even tried removing the battery it's self for 10 seconds too, still the same.

Motherboard is an MSI 870-C45
AMD Phenom ii x4 B55 (originally x2, unlocked two extra cores)
500w coolermaster silent pro.

[SpaceDuck]

EDIT: before the below, leave the battery out and the PSU unplugged for 15 mins

sounds like your motherboard has fried. i believe the blue light, when flashing, indicates its powering on, and then becomes solid when successful. but in your case it just dies when trying to power on

if you have the manual it should say exactly what the flashes suggest, as i could be wrong :P

[Ascen]

Had the battery out since I made the last post, left the plug in though. After realizing that I unplugged it for 2 mins before putting the battery in. Still the same.

Also checked the manual, only mention of the blue LED is that if one blue LED is on the CPU is in 1 phase power mode, 4 blue LEDs mean the CPU is in 4 phase power mode.
After reading that could it be the CPU that is fried? Although I guess the power would remain on for longer and the motherboard would be beeping at me if that were the case?

[Naididae]

How much voltage did you set when it "died"? Just to have an idea if you went overboard.

[Ascen]

If I remember rightmy cpu voltage was approaching 1.5v.
After researching that a little more, having it that high is a little hit and miss, not sure why my bios screen showed it as 'safe' in that case.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Does the motherboard support an unlocked phenom ii processor?

[Ascen]

Yes.

10char.

[chaud]

That is a high voltage to use with that motherboard. If it was a better quality motherboard it would have been fine, but you bought a cheap MSI board!

[wildcardNS]

I'd contact your MoBo manufacturer because it sounds like you killed your VRMs, which shouldn't have happened if the bios said you were safe BUT you did have 2 extra cores unlocked. Do a visual inspection of the capacitors surrounding the socket (on this board, the black squares and silver cylinders between socket and I/O panel. Is there damage? Does it smell wierd?

If you're going to OC, get a board with a more robust VRM. That board has next to nothing. Contrary to what most people believe, MSI is not a bad brand for overclocking, you just have to understand the features you need. If you don't know what you're doing - don't do it.

Sounds like you pushed the VRMs too high without plugging in auxillary power.

[Milkshake86]

That is a high voltage to use with that motherboard. If it was a better quality motherboard it would have been fine, but you bought a cheap MSI board!

Not finding many people having issues pushing 1.5v+ through that board, still does not mean he wasn't one of the unlucky people.