Page 1 of 1

can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:10 pm
by dan
once i had a gigabyte ultradurable socket 775 with a wolfdale 3ghz cpu. gigabyte unlike msi lets you undervolt and underclock so i underclocked it to 1.8ghz and undervolted to around 0.9 volts.

my motherboard/cpu died not sure why. doesn't boot. i tried cmos clearing still doesn't work.

during the time i used it i did not allow it to overheat.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:57 pm
by quest_for_silence
Even if "There are more things in heaven and earth...", I would say no: undervolting the Vcore, or underclocking (either lowering the FSB, or the CPU ratio) can't fry a CPU.

But it's more likely the mobo to be faulty, than the CPU itself: even so, I would say it cannot be fried by either undervolting, or underclocking.
You need to try either another CPU on that Gigabyte, or the Wolfdale on another mobo: but maybe you'd better to go straight ahead with a brand-new combo.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:47 am
by dan
quest_for_silence wrote:Even if "There are more things in heaven and earth...", I would say no: undervolting the Vcore, or underclocking (either lowering the FSB, or the CPU ratio) can't fry a CPU.

But it's more likely the mobo to be faulty, than the CPU itself: even so, I would say it cannot be fried by either undervolting, or underclocking.
You need to try either another CPU on that Gigabyte, or the Wolfdale on another mobo: but maybe you'd better to go straight ahead with a brand-new combo.
yeah socket 775 that also supports 45nm and ddr2 is hard to find!

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:15 am
by quest_for_silence
dan wrote:yeah socket 775 that also supports 45nm and ddr2 is hard to find!


And you will gain some improvements too: to name a few, power consumption will be much lower, at idle/low loads, and you'll multiply your number crunching performance, even with an humble Pentium.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:18 pm
by dan
quest_for_silence wrote:
dan wrote:yeah socket 775 that also supports 45nm and ddr2 is hard to find!


And you will gain some improvements too: to name a few, power consumption will be much lower, at idle/low loads, and you'll multiply your number crunching performance, even with an humble Pentium.
i have 2 desktops both socket 775
one msi 65nm c2duo using it rn

other is gigabyte ultradurable w/45m wolfdale

that was for my brother but he moved out and now it doesn't work. no idea why.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:37 pm
by quest_for_silence
dan wrote:no idea why.


If you are experienced at building PC, use your own parts to troubleshoot both those CPU and mobo.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:53 am
by dan
quest_for_silence wrote:
dan wrote:no idea why.


If you are experienced at building PC, use your own parts to troubleshoot both those CPU and mobo.
intel chipset 975x isn't compatible with 45nm wolfdate, it is compatible with 65nm conroe ;(

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:42 pm
by quest_for_silence
dan wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:If you are experienced at building PC, use your own parts to troubleshoot both those CPU and mobo.
intel chipset 975x isn't compatible with 45nm wolfdate, it is compatible with 65nm conroe ;(


Set aside you could still test the mobo using your 65nm CPU but, about the 975X boards, the compatibility strictly depends of the manufacturer: just for example, ASUS 975X boards often can run 45nm CPUs, providing they sport the latest BIOS.
So it may worth to check the supported CPU list of your mobo on the relevant website.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:05 pm
by dan
quest_for_silence wrote:
dan wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:If you are experienced at building PC, use your own parts to troubleshoot both those CPU and mobo.
intel chipset 975x isn't compatible with 45nm wolfdate, it is compatible with 65nm conroe ;(


Set aside you could still test the mobo using your 65nm CPU but, about the 975X boards, the compatibility strictly depends of the manufacturer: just for example, ASUS 975X boards often can run 45nm CPUs, providing they sport the latest BIOS.
So it may worth to check the supported CPU list of your mobo on the relevant website.
hi thanks yes that's true but my msi 975x works fine w/65nm.

i'm unclear what would cause gigabyte ultradurable 775 with wolfdale support to one day not turn on when i press switch.

the older msi with 975x c2duo works fine and in fact i'm typing on it right now.

Re: can undervolting damage CPU?

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:12 pm
by quest_for_silence
dan wrote:hi thanks yes that's true but my msi 975x works fine w/65nm.

i'm unclear what would cause gigabyte ultradurable 775 with wolfdale support to one day not turn on when i press switch.

the older msi with 975x c2duo works fine and in fact i'm typing on it right now.

Sorry dan, I don' t understand you: I was talking just about testing the failing hardware.
Well, nothing more to add: happy easter and good luck.