1. It could be your PSU not pumping enough juice.
2. It could be a mainboard not delivering enough juice to the CPU or a sign of an impending failure.
3. Prescott a mainboard killer? Well, if it is a low quality mainboard with low quality capacitors and MOSFETs, it could die when you put a Prescott into it. I wouldn't say that the Prescott killed it, but because it was a shabby mainboard that was not built within spec.

#1 is possible, but unlikely, because the system had been working fine for more than one year. IF PSU had been degraded during that, #1 is possible. (with Northwood, voltages are within normal limits.)
By "mobo killer" I meant Prescott emits so much heat as to damage (probably) low quality parts around it. Prescott is a nice processor and I like it. I should have used a better mobo or a cooling fan which can cool down parts around the cpu. Actually my mobo is a cheap one (ECS 865PE-A.) Whatever the reason may be, if both systems run normally after my ordered new fan comes, I'll be happy.

1. It could be your PSU not pumping enough juice.
2. It could be a mainboard not delivering enough juice to the CPU or a sign of an impending failure.
3. Prescott a mainboard killer? Well, if it is a low quality mainboard with low quality capacitors and MOSFETs, it could die when you put a Prescott into it. I wouldn't say that the Prescott killed it, but because it was a shabby mainboard that was not built within spec.

#1 is possible, but unlikely, because the system had been working fine for more than one year. IF PSU had been degraded during that, #1 is possible. (with Northwood, voltages are within normal limits.)
By "mobo killer" I meant Prescott emits so much heat as to damage (probably) low quality parts around it. I should have used a better mobo or a cooling fan which can cool down parts around the cpu. Actually my mobo is a cheap one (ECS 865PE-A.) Whatever the reason may be, if both systems run normally with my ordered new fan, I'm happy.

Tetsuji, I would suspect the PSU first. I just had to replace a motherboard after the PSU lost voltage regulation on the +5 volt section. It caused the capacitors to bloat and leak. I work for a small computer builder/fixer/ISP, and through our experience at the shop, we find that when a computer is malfunctioning, provided the CPU cooler and case fans are clean and functional, the PSU is most often the cause. Also, MUCH thanks for the optimized SETI clients!

Regards, Daniel.

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1. It could be your PSU not pumping enough juice.
2. It could be a mainboard not delivering enough juice to the CPU or a sign of an impending failure.
3. Prescott a mainboard killer? Well, if it is a low quality mainboard with low quality capacitors and MOSFETs, it could die when you put a Prescott into it. I wouldn't say that the Prescott killed it, but because it was a shabby mainboard that was not built within spec.

#1 is possible, but unlikely, because the system had been working fine for more than one year. IF PSU had been degraded during that, #1 is possible. (with Northwood, voltages are within normal limits.)
By "mobo killer" I meant Prescott emits so much heat as to damage (probably) low quality parts around it. Prescott is a nice processor and I like it. I should have used a better mobo or a cooling fan which can cool down parts around the cpu. Actually my mobo is a cheap one (ECS 865PE-A.) Whatever the reason may be, if both systems run normally after my ordered new fan comes, I'll be happy.

Usually it's not the heat from the CPU that kills the mainboard. But rather the Prescott draws so much power that components (especially the MOSFETs) on the mainboard overheat. And the 865 / 875 series boards were originally built to support Northwoods which had low power requirements. If you look at the 925 /955 mainboards of late, you will see that most of them come with large heatsinks on the MOSFETs.

Those of you with 865 / 875 boards, I would recommend sticking on some MOSFET coolers to prolong the life of your board. My old Asus P4C800 Deluxe become such a victim last year after 11 months of 24/7 operation. Since that day, I have been sticking MOSFET coolers on al my mainboards.

Tetsuji, I would suspect the PSU first. I just had to replace a motherboard after the PSU lost voltage regulation on the +5 volt section. It caused the capacitors to bloat and leak. I work for a small computer builder/fixer/ISP, and through our experience at the shop, we find that when a computer is malfunctioning, provided the CPU cooler and case fans are clean and functional, the PSU is most often the cause. Also, MUCH thanks for the optimized SETI clients!

Regards, Daniel.

BINGO! PSU is my problem. I tried Prescott with 2 HDD and 1 cdrw drive unplugged and it boots normally. In my case PSU had been degrading and my problem happened just the end of the summer and confused me. Neither ECS mobo nor Prescott is responsible.

Thanks Daniel and Legacy to spot the cause of my problem!

Tetsuji, I would suspect the PSU first. I just had to replace a motherboard after the PSU lost voltage regulation on the +5 volt section. It caused the capacitors to bloat and leak. I work for a small computer builder/fixer/ISP, and through our experience at the shop, we find that when a computer is malfunctioning, provided the CPU cooler and case fans are clean and functional, the PSU is most often the cause. Also, MUCH thanks for the optimized SETI clients!

Regards, Daniel.

BINGO! PSU is my problem. I tried Prescott with 2 HDD and 1 cdrw drive unplugged and it boots normally. In my case PSU had been degrading and my problem happened just the end of the summer and confused me. Neither ECS mobo nor Prescott is responsible.

My new fan I ordered also cools down the components around the cpu, so I hope I won't have any further problems.

Thanks Daniel and Legacy to spot the cause of my problem!

Do invest in a good PSU. "El-cheapo" PSUs have been known to cause system instability and in worse cases, blow up, taking out the rest of your components with it.

Most of the problem in PC affidability come from mechanical moving part.
Medium quality electronics is about ten more durable that medium quality mechanics. But this is only statistics.
In these days where the cost go down, no burn-in control were done after production.
So sometime (everytime more often) happen to buy something that is already broken, also in electronic components.
Anyway, the first thing that normally become broken is the CPU fan, as it work everytime and often its axis is unbalanced (orizzontal and with only one support) in tower case.
The second one is the power supply fan.
A lot of VGA fan and NorthBridge often fail.
The second part less affidable is the HDD in motor mechanical part.
Expecially the 7200rpm that become very hot, without a dedicated fan, dry all the lubrification oil and change the shape (increse) of moving part, with a lot increse in broken frequency.
Optical drive very often become broken, for mechanic and also for laser led exaurition.
DDRam very ofter are broken at sell moment.
So buy only brand selected DDR and run 24h of www.memtest.org
MoBo and CPU are the most affidable part.
They suffer expecially powerOn-Off-On cicle as all electronic components.

So install a fan forcing fresh air in front botton of the case just against the HDDs, another one that carry out hot air on the top of the case.
Check often the VGA and PSU fan efficiency.
CPU and NorthBridge fan often are also monitored from MoBo BIOS (turn on the warn beeper).
Run everytime with every OS you run a MotherBoardMonitor to check voltage, fan speed and temperature.

In my 5 year of setiCrunching I changed for failure:
CPU fan
CDRom reader
PSU fan
PSU complete (become to derating the 12V to 12.8 and 13.5 V)
back case Fan

Keep all the time your CPU crunching BOINC packet :-))

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Do invest in a good PSU. "El-cheapo" PSUs have been known to cause system instability and in worse cases, blow up, taking out the rest of your components with it.

'Good Info!'

Hi All, When shopping for a 'Quality' PSU, look for something in the range of 400/450/500 Watt! More important then that, are the 'Specs' listed on the Box, or the side of the PSU!

Look for the 'Output' of your "+12 V"..., and just make sure it Lists a 'Min' of "15 Amps!" Any thing less than that, (i.e. 10-13 A.), "Shelve it, again!"

Plus, make sure that it has a '4' Connector P4, "+12 V" for the Connection on your M/B, (Intel Only)!=) Some PSU's I've seen, have 'said' that they're 'P4 Ready'..., but 'Do Not' have this Connector. It's always a good idea to Physically Remove the PSU from the Box, and do a 'Visual Check on it!'

Good Luck! =)

-daav- ";^)

as a side note, I have 3 HDD and 4 optical drives, 7 fan in the case, and a 350W only PSU, but are 350 real watt that can become 450W peak.
It source 16A on +12V, 35A on +5V and 28A on +3.3V
And incredibly measuring the current drawed from the PSU it was 98W max only, with Seti working, Optical driver spinning, ecc...
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Abit IS7 Bios 24, CeleronD2.66GHz FSBquad133MHz, 2xMatrix 8chip 16M84X-6 singleSided 512MB DDR400 CL2.5@double166MHz DualChannel128bit, PSU Premier DR-B350ATX 350W, ATI AiW8500DV 64MB, HDD Maxtor DiamondMax10 200GB 8MBcache, HDD Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9 120GB, HDD Quantum FireballPlusAS 30GB, DVDburner LG-4163B, CDburner Plextor 16x, DVDplayer Asus16x, CDplayer Asus52x, Controller EIDE Q-TEC 310D, SoundBlasterLive5.1, 4x temperature-speed 500-2500rpm control fan, 7 fan totally in the case, hand-made case acustic isolation, Nokia middleTower Case, NEC MultiSync FE950, DLink DSL-300

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BINGO! PSU is my problem. I tried Prescott with 2 HDD and 1 cdrw drive unplugged and it boots normally. In my case PSU had been degrading and my problem happened just the end of the summer and confused me. Neither ECS mobo nor Prescott is responsible.

Thanks Daniel and Legacy to spot the cause of my problem!

sequel....

I've got a new PSU tonight and the Prescott is working perfectly and more silently than before. Thanks all!!

Tomshardware did a test a while back with a P3, an early P4 (williamette, probably) and 2 Athlons (either early A64s or late XPs). They removed the heatsink on the chips while running a timedemo of some game.

The poor monitoring in the AMDs chipset caused both of the AMDs to literally fry, they measured temps as high as ~700C. The P3 crashed, but the chip survived and booted just fine after the HSF was put back on. The P4 continued to run, although very choppy due to the throttling, you would still be able to save data.

It was 2001, the CPU's were:

"an Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz, a Pentium III 1 GHz, an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz with the 'Thunderbird' core and an AthlonMP 1.2 GHz, which comes with the new 'Palomino' core"

Remember "new Palamino core" was new in 2001, the A64 was nearly 3 years away and the "late XPs" wouldn't be out for another year or so. In fact the XP heralded the introduction of the thermal shutdown aspect of the Athlon range.

So nowadays it doesnt matter what modern CPU you run, if the fan falls off your pc will shutdown without destroying the CPU, in fact at 100% useage you get less heat from the latest AMD64's than you do the equivalent Intel. :p

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