Stressed out: Overclocking failed??

B

bit4bit

New Member
I've just had a weird problem with my PC.

Yesterday I was using it all day, (which is not unusual), and there was absolutely no problems with it...in fact I haven't had any serious problems with it for over a year. I went out in the evening, and when I came back, I turned on my PC, and the monitor was saying "No input signal". (I then checked all my monitor connections to the graphics card, and checked the cables...no problems with that)

The hard drive was making that noise that it first makes when booting up, but usually it is followed by the single beep on the motherboard to let me know it is booting up OK. In this case it just kept making that noise, with no motherboard beep, as if it was struggling to boot up properly. I tried pressing my power switch (which usually automatically shuts down the PC), and it did nothing, so I was forced to flick the main switch on the back of the PSU.

I then tried again and the same thing happened, so I decided to sleep on it.

This morning I powered it up, the hard drive made the 'booting noise', followed by the beep on the motherboard, and then on the monitor it had the 'American Megatrends' logo, and underneath it said:

"Overclocking failed!
Press F1 to enter set-up
Press F2 to load default values"

(Something similar to that anyway)

Not knowing what to do, scared of losing 2 years of important data, I just flicked the power switch, which actually turned it off this time. I was gonna get on another PC and log on to here, but I thought I'd try it one more time, and it actually booted up properly, this time!!

So, why, after changing absolutely no hardware OR software settings, was I getting these problems? And now why is it fine? For one thing I never even attempted to overclock it.

I thought it best to make a post anyway, because to be honest I'm scared of it happening again. All of my work from the past two years is on that hard-drive, and I DO NOT want to lose it. I'm even considering going out and spending £60 on an external HDD to back it up to, before I switch the system off again.

I would love some insight to this problem, Thanks alot.
 
i understand your dilemma. as conversation and not condoning overclocking i don't do it know more. I try to buy the best i can afford and stay with that. I have in the past overclocked and later had issues and forgot all the extreme changes i did. You can always replace to default and getting it back to normal.having a backup and not losing information is a must for important information. yes, get an external hd.

these overclockers are extremist ya know.
thats what they do. there players.
 
Well, thats the thing, I haven't even tried to overclock it.

I was thinking the most likely explanation to what happened was some voltage change across the processor. Perhaps this could trick the system into thinking it was being overclocked? I know that increasing the voltage across the processor is the first step to overclocking, as it gives you a more stable voltage signal, when you start to ramp up the frequencies.

A voltage spike directly from the power supply doesn't makes sense though as all power rails from PSU's are regulated, and additionally, my PC is plugged to the mains via a surge protector.

The BIOS battery is only being used when the system is un-powered, just to keep the clocks going. This couldn't significantly affect the processor voltages though could it?...even if it was faulty?
 
if i were you i would backup your data always if it's that important to you.

after that i would run some checks on the system (use something like pc check) and/or run some stress tests. This may wreck your system but that's better than to wreck it later and lose a lot of data.

you could change the bios battery and try if that's the problem costs nearly nothing and is easy to replace.

Anyways i would say your mobo or hd is dying out on you. And i surely wouldn't let this go untreated.
 
My system is down again now, the screen went black while I was using it, but the fans were still going, and power LED's still on. I clicked the power switch, and it turned straight off.

When I reboot, I have no motherboard beep again, and the screen says "no input signal", and then stays black, with orange LED. In fact it's alot like this recent thread:

http://www.computerforum.com/107782-computer-starts-but-stays-black-screen-help.html

I can't even run any checks at the moment, cause its just not booting up. I'm wary of running stress tests anyway. I'll need a CR2032 3V cell according to the mobo manual.

This is a lesson to me I spose, to back up my data. I'm gonna have to take out my hard drive, and use it in another PC to backup my data, then I'm gonna dismantle my PC bit by bit, clean it all out, re-glue the processor/heatsink, change mobo battery, re-assemble and try again.

I just hope it aint the HD :cool:
 
The problems you described could be a PSU issue. The power button not responding, the overclocking message, which could mean it had a voltage problem.

If you have a spare PSU laying around, try that.
 
Well I just managed to grab myself a battery before the shops closed, so I'm gonna start taking it apart.

I'll have a look and see if any caps have blown, but most probably I'd already have known from the pop and the smell...mmmmmm

Unfortunately, I haven't got a spare PSU, but I might take the one out of this PC if its got enough power.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

P.S. you reckon Vodka on some cloth is OK for cleaning heatsink paste off?
 
bit4bit said:
Well I just managed to grab myself a battery before the shops closed, so I'm gonna start taking it apart.

I'll have a look and see if any caps have blown, but most probably I'd already have known from the pop and the smell...mmmmmm

Unfortunately, I haven't got a spare PSU, but I might take the one out of this PC if its got enough power.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

P.S. you reckon Vodka on some cloth is OK for cleaning heatsink paste off?
Click to expand...

It would work... I just recommend Isopropyl rubbing alcohol...
 
I recommend denatured alcohol. Rubbing alcohol has 10% or more water in it. Denatured has less than 1%. Less water means less residue or film left on the CPU and fan.

You want both of them as clean as you can get them. Vodka has all kinds of impuritys in it, so it will not be as clean as it should be.
 
OK, I actually used vodka to clean of the heatsink paste, cos its all I had. :)

After cleaning out all the hardware, and changing the BIOS battery I'm still having the problem. Maybe the RAM? How can I test that? I don't have any spare sticks at my disposal. I have 2 512 sticks in my PC. If I test them individually, does it matter which of four slots I put it in?
 
bit4bit said:
OK, I actually used vodka to clean of the heatsink paste, cos its all I had. :)

After cleaning out all the hardware, and changing the BIOS battery I'm still having the problem. Maybe the RAM? How can I test that? I don't have any spare sticks at my disposal. I have 2 512 sticks in my PC. If I test them individually, does it matter which of four slots I put it in?
Click to expand...

No, it does not. Just make sure you put them in the yellow slot afterwards.
 
I tested the RAM, to see if one of these sticks had gone, and things still dont seem to be working.

I had two 512MB of RAM in the four slots.

one in the first slot, none in the second, one in the third slot, none in the fourth.

I took the stick out of the third slot, and tried booting with just the stick in the first, and still I'm gettin a blank screen (W orange standby light). I then swapped the sticks and tried again, and the same thing happened. I've now put them both back in as they were.

Think is as I've gone along, I've had different types of errors.

At first it said:

"Overclocking failed! press F1 to run set-up press F2 to load default values"

Pressing F2 loads the operating system, as normal, but some time later (usually about half an hour to an hour) the screen will just go blank again, while the fans and everything are still running. the power switch doesn't respond so I'm forced to click the main power switch on the PSU.

Also, one time when I did get into the operating system (Pressing F2), it cut off about 30 seconds after loading the desktop, and I got a blue screen saying:

"Bad pool caller"

There was then a whole page of writing underneath, but the error only flashed up for literaly 4-5 seconds, and then the screen went blank again.


So, I'm more-a-less back where I started:

+ When I boot up, the fans start going, then the DVD RW drive* starts making noises (as if its trying to read a disk). Periodically it just keep making this noise, about every 10 seconds.

+ The screen is black....no input signal at all, even though the graphics card is connected up properly, and I believe it to be in a good condition too.(When...IF, I get into windows, the desktop, and everthing is displayed as normal...even some small games work as normal, before it cuts off again)

+ There is no motherboard beep.

+ The HD activity LED on the front of the PC is un-lit all the while.


* Before I said it was my Hard-drive making noises, but now I realise that its the DVD drive. The LED on the front of it goes mad too, during the whole thing

If it's a bad DVD RW drive, how could this possibly cause such a problem? I've checked the cabling, and the power cable to the PSU is tightly fitted in as always, and the data cable to the MOBO is also tightly connected as always.

I thought it might be the boot sequence had somehow changed itself (?) to boot from the disk drive first, but I would still at least get the mobo and BIOS screens, and get the option to enter setup first, wouldn't I?

Any more suggestions with this new information? Thanks, I really appreciate the help.
 
Sounds like the motherboard IMO, but try a new CMOS battery... if the old one died it might keep displaying that same error, and try resetting it while you're at it.
 
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