Multiple MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION BSoD: Worry or not?

Sovereign · Post by **Sovereign** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:35 am

I got a MCE yesterday during Supreme Commander. Never had one before. Processor is stock, RAM is at overclocked speeds (5/4 dividers FTW), but it is DDR500 memory at DDR500 so it is within spec.

I did some Googling and it looks like a MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION means a piece of hardware is dying. I suspect the CPU because it was overclocked. But it's not now, and it has adequate cooling (Scythe Ninja Plus)...

Today, I got three BSoD. I woke up and my computer had BSoDed overnight (no overclock, no folding). I went to the bathroom and came back, having reset it, BSoD! I was playing SupComm today (after 2400MHz OC, 240MHz RAM), BSoD...

Memtest has run for two hours and fifty minutes (as of this post) at stock processor and RAM speeds. I plan to let it run for eight hours. I will then test the RAM at its rated speed of DDR500. I had been running like this for a while, 2GHz CPU and 500MHz DRAM, because the K8N will take up to DDR600 without requiring CPU overclocking. I will use a 5/4 divider on the RAM and run memtest again. I seriously hope it's the memory and not the CPU, as I may have knocked the heatsink loose while cleaning and if that's the case I bet I killed the CPU because even at stock speeds if the HSF isn't seated correctly, the CPU will cook itself...

T-Shirt · Post by **T-Shirt** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:18 pm

Yup, too much time at high (O/C) speed and voltage(?) has probably permanently altered the silicon gates on the CPU.
It's not just heat but the force of the electrons that erode the gates, move atoms across sometimes a short, sometimes a new path.
Time for a new CPU (if all the other HW checks out)

Sovereign · Post by **Sovereign** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:03 pm

If the CPU is dead/dying, should things work at all? For example, I've had memtest running for the past four hours...no errors.

werty316 · Post by **werty316** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:48 pm

Run memtest and Prime95 or Orthos with everything at stocks speeds. You'll know by then if either your CPU or memory is toast.

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 12:55 am

99% of all machine check exceptions are CPU related. Unfortunately I believe its going to be your proc. I have run into quite a few of these at my work and they were all CPU related.

Sovereign · Post by **Sovereign** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 1:35 am

Interesting that now Prime ran fine in torture test mode on both cores for ten hours, plus six hours of Memtest produced no problems...